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The Secret. What Would Jung, Aristotle, Jesus Or Moses Say?

I used to debate with my former girlfriend, a woman much more socially and finally successful than me, about the business principals to success. Though she did it, like me, the old fashioned way, made a plan and worked the plan and increased organizational skills along the way, she still believes there is some mystique and "laws of attraction" to it. Of course she is a Beverly Hills attorney, I, a cartoonist and e-tailer. Since the times of EST and other "thought mills", California has been a haven for slick re-packaged ancient scrolls disguised as "NEW"-AGE. She partly buys into it. I don't buy into it at all. Let me rephrase that. I do buy into it. I just happen to know it is nothing new except more slickly packaged and worded more for the proletariat.

I guess you could say I am better at Internet marketing than she is, but that is only because that is what I studied when I went back to school. There is little doubt she could pick it up in no time if she had the spare time to learn it, or the interest.

My ex-mate has life head and heals above me, and I admire her for it. I admire he character and the way she works. Though I have learned to multi-task, she can multi-task ten things at once and do them all perfectly. She built a huge Beverly Hills law practice starting from a park bench, with English as a second language, and has more clients than with which she knows what to do. I on the other hand have some nifty Internet cartoon stores from my Londons Times Cartoons. Respectable? Well yes, and know. I make a good living, but a lot of my peers, doctors, lawyers and such, still consider me a Waylon Jennings almost grown-up cowboy. In other words, we don't share the golf course at the country club.

My ex and I are alike in so many ways and not alike in others. When I was young, I was quite the "car person"; loved fast cars and even raced them at the track. But today, I'm happy at age 53 with my four cylinder Saturn and she's happy trading in her new Mercedes for another one every year.

Her debate is one I hear often. "You don't think big. You need to learn to think big. I think it's an Arkansas thing!" That makes me laugh. I want to say, "Yeah, tell it to Sam Walton."

I don't really get much into New Age philosophy. Let me rephrase that. i do and I don't. I get into it from the biblical point of view, because, that is really all it is; ancient text rewritten ever so gently and packaged beautifully. And if we don't watch out, some "guru aka false profit" is getting rich as I write this. I prefer to read the same material free from ancient scriptures. Yes, its a harder read, but its the same thing.

I don't believe in gurus. The "real guru" is in all of us. Dr. Vinton Cerf, the Father Of the Internet and founder of tcp-ip while a sophomore at Stanford, long before he became a PHD, leveled the playing field to knock down the "so called gurus or captains of business"; so that all information would be available to everyone. If we utilize the Internet correctly and absorb all the good information on it, who needs gurus, who needs new age, who needs to spend an extra dime for any of that? I surely don't.

Life is what it is. I can't debate with her about income. If I want to make more, I will promote my business more, go to law school, or both. A good lawyer, historically, makes a better income than a good cartoonist and e-tailer. But I don't like law. Grew up with plenty of lawyers in my family and though they made a great living, very few of them enjoyed it. In fact several quit and one never even practiced after daddy paid for law school. So it goes.

So everyone is telling me to "live the dream" and "sell the dream". I don't want to be sold those things. I feel like I'm in a conversation with Elmer Gantry when that occasionally happens. I'd rather talk about the weather.

But I have an ally. He's long gone now but his words live on in his writings; Carl Jung that is. Many people do not understand Jung's message and that's okay. I think it was because he was so interested in the spiritual and metaphysical side of things. So am I. But he, like I, am also interested in living in the now, enjoying the now, appreciating the struggle. For if not to appreciate the struggle, once the dream "happens", what's next? I don't want to keep living for "new dreams". I want to enjoy the ones I am living and gradually evolve into other ways of life, if they look health and positive for me.

Jung warns us that once we have achieved our dreams, we may not necessarily be 100% happy; in fact, he adds that we can almost count on that. That does not mean not to pursue happiness. It is part of our personal and national Constitution. It is just to realize that reality. We will always have problems and issues, no matter what.

Happiness is an elusive bird. Our formal education teaches us a good job and steady income is the end-all-be-all for happiness. But that is now old-school. The nature of our economy is so different than when our parents were being educated. They were taught to work hard and make a lot of money, (or marry it). That is a big mistake these days, due to the nature of our economy. Money truly has an ebb and flow and who is rich one day might not be the next. One has to create their own happiness and money is just one small part of it. How much is enough? That is up to you to decide, not someone else.

I worked in corporate America for two decades chasing the almighty dollar. I made a lot of them. I can assure you they did not buy me happiness, and, in retrospect, because I hated what I was doing for a living.

My dream is to do just what I love to do, and the money will come. Will it come immediately? I don't think so. Bill Gates money took years to compile as did Warren Buffet. The captains of industry stories are filled with failures and missteps before living the dream.

I go with the person or company who is trying to provide me with the best product or service, not the wealthiest. They can be here today, gone tomorrow in today's economy. Look at Enron, MCI, even Gateway to a certain degree (just bought out by a much smaller company). Go with your heart, like-minded people. And you'll have a much better time, and probably make a much larger income.

No two people are alike. One person's dream may be to travel the world while another might be to build a wildlife refugee.

A lot of our former education is good. Especially the basic principles. But let's remember, times have changed. When I worked in real estate, we were sent to guru workshops on "sales tactics and manipulation". They were based on the world being "not so savvy". The world is a lot more savvy now and manipulation and tactics insult most's intelligence.

Even though I am living my reality, I am also living my dream, not somebody else's. I have my own hours and I work at my own pace, which is twice as hard as any boss ever asked out of me. The difference is I love what I do. So my reality is a dream in many ways.

"To thine own self be true", Shakespeare said. It was a short sentence but a most memorable one, and memorable for a good reason. If we learn nothing else about life, that statement describes life. If we are not who we really are, we are the walking-dead, striving to be someone else. It is not a fun way to live, though way too many buy into it.

Paupers and kings are both happy if they are true to themselves. Both are miserable if not.