Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, once said something that helps with managing our first impulsive desire:
”‘Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.”
This is a timeless truth about human nature and how we’re constantly pursuing our first desire.
Let’s say you’re scrolling through your social media feed and stumble across an ad for a shiny new gadget for your kitchen.
A Google search that contains the words “make money” and “writing” in a single sentence will quickly show you articles along the lines of “X Proven Ways” to monetize your writing.
Their advice is usually the same: Start blogging, get freelance writing clients, and use ChatGPT to write articles while you make money in your sleep. We get it. And none of that stuff works.
Look, many people who try to monetize their writing struggle.
This applies not just to “professional writers,” but to everyone who uses the written word to make a living: Marketers who write effective pitch emails to score a sale or VIP interview, designers who need to communicate their ideas effectively, entrepreneurs who are trying to make better sense of their business model.
Update January 2025: I‘m back to using AI because it’s SO MUCH better compared to when I wrote this piece first.
It’s interesting to see how I’ve used AI over the past two years. First, I liked it, but didn’t use it, then, it became better, and I started using it more.
Anyway, here’s my original article:
When Open AI introduced Chapt GPT on November 22, they blew up the economy… In a good way. Nowadays, AI writing has become a norm.
I can’t believe it’s almost two years with AI now.
Back in Q4 of 2022, the world was in the grip of inflation. People warned of hyperinflation.
We were heading towards the Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic of 100 years ago.1Source: Wikipedia
Then… AI came to the rescue.
The Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism has been around for more than 2300 years but is now more relevant than ever for investors. Those who want to build wealth in the stock market do well when they invest like a Stoic.
The core idea of Stoicism is simple: Focus on what you control and ignore everything else. But as investors, we tend to focus on the latter, which harms our future returns.
If you always focus on the factors you don’t control, like the state of the economy, inflation, or what the Fed does next, you will lose money. No one can predict macro factors or what the stock market does in the short term.
As investors, we should focus on what we control, and that’s a very limited area. Essentially, we only control our own decisions about what to invest in.
So, what would a Stoic invest in? Quality. As Seneca, one of the most famous Stoic philosophers, once said: