Step 34 - Bill Gates & The Ten Dark Years

This lesson shows the discrepancy between realities patterns and the Media Cognitive Bias, which shows us only the end result.

Biologically as creatures we are dependent on our senses to accept reality. We live by touch, smell, taste, audio and visual.

Unfortunately the world has become a place, where our senses are bombarded by thousands of stimuli every day by various channels of media. We believe that we are in control of our thoughts and actions, yet every piece we are wearing, we wear it, because in one way or another we have been successfully influence and succumbed to the merchandise we bought.

Today there are billboards everywhere. The number of websites went from 1991 from only one to over a billion. We don't have control over our brain, though we thing we do.

This leads to a culmination of problems we encounter, but for this lesson we will focus on the unrealistic time frames we set on ourselves and expect results for the good life.

Analyzing successful individuals, like

  • Bill Gates,
  • Pablo Picasso,
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
  • Ludwig van Beethoven,
  • Michael Jordan,
  • Coby Briant,
  • Sam Walton (and the list continues),

there is one obvious pattern, that is almost never mentioned through Mass Media:

Every one of those individuals passed through a process called the 10 dark years, where they factually disappeared from the map.

Bill Gates started his interest in computer when he was 12. Though from his 20 to his 30, he never took a day off. Not even one. This pattern of disappearing from the map for 10 years to study and develop has been a constant pattern in life for every successful individual.

Contrary to the factual reality, media bias teaches us the far opposite. Being presented solely with the results, while also omitting their causality, often leads us to the false conclusion that success can be achieved within unrealistic time frames. Even worse is, that most of us likely adopt a lottery-ticket-mindset, with which we believe that success requires just a good idea.

But in reality success requires a long-term strategy of committed focus and effort.

Part of the success of Alexander the Great has been attributed to the fact, that his mentor Aristotle taught him "how to live", because the Greeks believed that humans are not equipped with learning "how to live", from birth.

And unfortunately parents today haven't learned it either and thus aren't able to pass this knowledge to their kids. But the things we didn't learn young, we are doomed to learn at some point or never at all. Yet people haven't learn how to live, suffer through life.

Success takes time. A fence that is built up fast, falls down fast. Health wise, we can't just expect to exercise one day for 12 hours and expect the same result as exercising for 4 days, 3 hours each.

The discrepancy between reality and media cognitive bias might therefore result in anxiety, because we go through media and are bombarded with unrealistic time lines.

Are my expectations too high in the short term?

Starting a business is sometimes compared to a baby. The first year it is troubling you a lot. The second year it drives you crazy. But slowly and steady with the right amount of energy injection a kid will grow and start to take care of itself and after a while it will take care of you back.

The temptation to give up is the greatest, when we are close to succeed.

The only realistic time frames for individual goals are: 67 days, then 18 months, then 10 dark years.

Therefore we have to limit the time we watch news or YouTube. And we should start looking at the full story by reading biographies.

Give yourself some time to succeed.

Questions

  1. What is an example of something you have had an unrealistic time frame for health?

    I haven't yet worked on my health, because I hadn't had any health issues yet and also never needed diet, since I always thought of food as a necessity in the past, instead of something worth proactively acquiring.

  2. What is an example of something you have had an unrealistic time frame for wealth?

    Thought that I could be a millionaire until 31.12.2014. Didn't quite work out.

  3. What is an example of something you have had an unrealistic time frame for love and relationships?

    I have to pass here, since I never had to set any time frame for love and relationships in the past, due to my needs being met early on.

  4. What is an example of something you have had an unrealistic time frame for happiness?

    "Happiness" was also never a priority, due to its lack of specificity.

  5. What is a more realistic time frame for these goals?

    Wealth: Millionaire in 5 years. Happiness: 3 years. Love: 2 years. Health: 18 months of work out.