Why Life Is Secretly Based On Luck

So Much Of Life Is Based On Luck The fact that you are a living, breathing, human being is such an amazing opportunity. I don’t care where you live or what situation you were born into. You’re alive and breathing and that’s something to be grateful for. If you're alive, be thankful because a lot of bullshit happens to people that is outside of their control. That doesn’t mean you can make excuses though. If you want to be successful, you have to make the best out of every situation. There are a lot of different things that you can control to make your life go a certain way, but so much of life is chance. If you look back at history, there are so many events that completely changed the human race. If you look at all the deaths from wars, famine, disease, the fact that we have made it this far is incredible. There are so many wars and tragedies that could have completely wiped out humanity. I was just reading a book about World War II, specifically about Pearl Harbor, and I found out a few things that happened that most people don’t know. The first thing a lot of people don’t know is that the Japanese Admiral didn’t actually want to bomb Pearl Harbor without formally declaring war. The Japanese were actually in the middle of negotiations with the Americans. Admiral Yamamoto sent a telegram one or two hours before the attack, but the Japanese translator at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC was too slow translating it. By the time he was bringing it to the White House, the Japanese had already dropped the bombs, and set off a war that completely changed the world. World War II completely displaced countries, changed relationships, and led to over 200 Million casualties, all because of one guy’s mistake. If that telegram had made it’s way to the White House on time, then Pearl Harbor would have been on high alert, and would have been more prepared for the attack. It was such a big shock that the Navy lost almost all of its fleet, except for a few aircraft carriers that left a few hours earlier. Most people don’t realize how much the initial attack affected the whole island of Hawaii. People were so on edge, they thought the Japanese were coming to invade the islands. Everyone was on high alert, and the military basically shot at anything that moved. They also started shooting at every single plane in the sky, because they were so worried it was a second attack. Well, there was two Americans that had gone flying before the attack on a reconnaissance mission, and were shot down by their own anti-aircraft as they were returning. The Navy accidentally shot their own pilots. There’s nothing friendly about friendly fire, but everyone was on high alert, so you can’t blame anyone. The moral of the story is, always be on high alert and make sure you are accurate before you take action. The anti-aircraft gunners saw the planes coming and started shooting because they thought they were Japanese planes. In psychology there’s a concept called the confirmation bias, which says, once you're sure of something, you start ignoring all other facts. People do it all the time. We all know somebody who's delusional. They think they're smart, but everybody in the room knows they're an idiot, or they think they’re on the right track, but in reality, they’re making all the wrong choices. That's what happened to the guys in the radar room from Pearl Harbor, when all the Japanese planes were coming. One of the guys saw something on his radar and was like, we got a lot of planes coming in. And whoever was the officer in charge thought it was their own guys coming back or that it was weather, anything other than an attack. That's a good metaphor for life too. You gotta pay attention to what you're doing. This Japanese guy that didn't translate the telegraph, theoretically, you could say this guy played a part in 200 million people dying. That’s so many people when you think about it. Just think of that number, because back then, the world didn't have seven billion people. The population back then was under two billion people, so that means one out of every eight people died because of the war. Every single person had a friend, family, loved one that died, lost. My grandma just turned 100, and she still thinks about World War II every day. She lost her brother in the war, my great-uncle got shot in the stomach on the Russian front. He was in the cavalry. They still had a cavalry in World War II. That's another thing, these generals in both World Wars had a lot of confirmation bias. In World War I and World War II, there were still generals that said that airplanes are not going to be big players in the war, and that cavalry is more powerful than machine guns. Look at trench warfare, right? In World War I the French generals would send their men running straight at the Germans, either on horseback or on foot. The Germans had machine guns, for the first time, and would mow down the French in masses. The French couldn’t even retreat because of the piles of bodies. It was a really bad tactic, but the generals chose to ignore it. What if the French Leaders took a step back, and said “Wait, this isn’t working too well for us” and changed their strategy? Now here’s an even crazier story. This is probably the craziest history story I know, because this changed everything in our lives. This is basically the cause of World War I, and led to World War II. World War II started the nuclear age, which was the beginning of the cold war with Russia, which more or less caused the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and even has affected current U.S. and Russian relations. All these events basically stem from one single guy’s actions. So before World War I, you had Germany and you had the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. This was in 1914, right? Germany wasn't yet a huge country back then. The Austrian-Hungarian empire’s leader had a nephew, Franz Ferdinand, who was the crown prince. Once the leader died, the crown prince would become the head of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, which was the longest-running empire in history. The Empire lasted four centuries, all the way from 1500’s. So he takes a train to visit his troops, and he decides to go visit Austrian-Hungarian soldiers in the hospital that had been injured. At the same time, there’s a group of terrorists called the Black Hand who hated the Austrian-Hungarian prince and empire. One of the terrorists’ name was Gavrilo Princip, and he was planning on assassinating Franz Ferdinand. So Princip is going to assassinate him as he’s going to the hospital. So Franz Ferdinand is going to the hospital, and he has a little parade. But this Princip guy has a grenade and he's standing in the parade crowd, and the car goes by and he throws the grenade but it misses the car. It bounces off the back of the car and rolls into the crowd and blows up. It hurts some people in the crowd, but not the crown prince. So the chauffeur drives off fast to get away. They go back to a hotel, and the crown prince goes, “You know what? I'm not afraid of terrorists. I came here to go look at my men that are injured in the hospital. Take me to my men.” So they get back in the car and they drive to the hospital. At the same time, this guy who had thrown the grenade and missed is all depressed because his goal in life was that he wanted to assassinate this guy. So he didn't fulfill his goal so he's sad. Believe it or not, what does he do after trying to assassinate someone? He goes and gets a sandwich. So he's sitting at a cafe downtown and he's eating a sandwich. At the same time, Franz Ferdinand is going to visit his troops in the hospital, but his driver gets lost because there's a fork in the road. One goes to the hospital and one goes downtown. The chauffeur's accidentally drives downtown, and they realize they're lost. So the chauffeur does a three-point turn. It turns out they turn the car right in front of the sandwich shop. So Princip is sitting there eating a sandwich when all of a sudden, a car backs in front of him with the guy he's trying to assassinate in it. He pulls out his gun, shoots him in the back of the head and so begins World War I. They called it “The Shot Heard Around the World.” As soon as he is assassinated, all the countries in the world start making treaties. France, Russia, and England now have to defend each other against Austria and Germany. It started a war which overall killed 75 million people. It’s crazy how one small mistake, like taking the wrong road, completely changed the course of the world. There are a lot of things you can do to make your life go the way you want it to, but sometimes there are things you just can’t control. History is very interesting. One of the smartest guys around and one of the top investors in the world said he believes nothing is new. This is a multi-billionaire we’re talking about. He says that you should study history because then you can predict the future, and that's how he makes so much money. He said everything just rolls in cycles. It’s all cyclical, and if you know of past events and can compare them to the current situation, you can predict the outcomes. You need to have perspective. Some people can’t grasp the concept of perspective though. There are a lot of scientists that think that time isn't real, and that our brains are too slow to comprehend things, so our brain has to use time, right? So the next time you read history, just imagine that there's no time and everything is happening at once. So literally, right now as you’re reading this, Franz Ferdinand is being shot. World War I is happening now. It makes the pages of history come alive. It's fascinating. I just started doing this a month ago, and I've always loved history, but this has completely changed my view on learning from history. You need to be able to see everything at once, and see what has happened in the past and go “alright, this is going to happen again, this is what happened previously, so here is how I’m going to react to it.” So many people don’t like history because it feels detached, but the greatest thinkers and leaders who ever lived studied history, so either they just really enjoyed learning about the past, or, they found value in what they read and figured out how to relate to it. Reading is one of the best ways to learn and become successful. If you look at the wealthiest and smartest people in the world, they all are constantly reading. Warren Buffet, second-richest man in the world, reads. Bill Gates, when he goes on vacation, he says he brings just 20 to 40 books, and that's all he reads for two weeks. Catches up on his reading. If you go to Bill Gates' blog, it's about books. Yet, reading has become a lost art. So the good news is, because no one else reads, you can have a huge competitive advantage. Both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates were asked if they could have one superpower, what would it be? They both said they would want to be the fastest reader in the world. So a lot of people think that reading isn’t important. Those people are stupid, but be careful who you read because you become like them. Even Adolf Hitler read like crazy. He studied Frederick the Great, who was the first powerful German guy. Believe it or not, guess who Stalin read about? Stalin's mentor was Ivan the Terrible. You know Ivan the Terrible was a ruthless guy, and Stalin became one of the most ruthless rulers ever. The world’s problems are hard, you gotta learn history if you want to be able to solve them. Another great lesson you can learn from history is about courage and confidence. Everyone has fears, but every single successful person has faced their fears, and then gone on to conquer them. Look at Alexander the Great. He personally marched tens of thousands of miles to expand his vision. One of the greatest quotes about courage comes from Alexander the Great; “Through every generation of the human race, there has been a constant war, a war of fear. Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free and those conquered by it are made to suffer until they have the courage to defeat it or death takes them.” See, bravery doesn’t mean that you’re not afraid, it means that even though you are afraid, you have the courage to face your fears, and conquer them. You gotta be bold. You can't be weak-willed. People give up too early, they start a business and it fails the first time, and they’re like “Tai, I don’t know what to do, I’m too scared to do this again.” I’m like, you’ll be fine motherfucker, you have to not be scared to fail. It's like they're playing chess and can only move one piece. Think to the next move. There's always another move in chess. I've been reading Civil War history. These guys got their legs sawed off when they got shot, and then they were up and at 'em the next day. Like, this guy got his leg sawed off with no anesthetic and he’s back fighting a few days later. So many people nowadays fall apart at any little obstacle to life. I wish I could go back in a time machine, take all the people who had strength, fortitude, character, and bring them in the modern world, and build companies with them. It's hard to find good people in this world because people have become so weak-willed and so soft with no perspective or courage. Where is the emotional fortitude? Where is the power? Where is your faith? Where is the courage that you have deep down to suppress fear? Everybody has fear but you have to face it to grow. Most people are forgotten once they die because they never do anything worth remembering. My grandma once told me, the purpose of life is to be remembered. To be great enough that people remember you. My grandma's an atheist, so she doesn't believe in the afterlife, but she says leaving behind a legacy that people remember is the closest thing to life after death. The difference between people who are remembered and everyone else stems from the same thing; an intellectual mindset. Read something, learn how to focus, take inspiration from one of the greats, and do something that people will remember. What legacy will you leave behind? Stay Strong, Tai [Manage Email Alerts]( | [Unsubscribe From All]( | [Unsubscribe From Tai's Emails Only]( You have received this email to {EMAIL} because you are a registered [Tailopez.com]( subscriber. 8581 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite #703 West Hollywood, CA USA