The world's most powerful philosophy

How to own your life

The world is too complex to comprehend in its entirety. As beings with limited cognitive capacity, we can only process a small sliver of all the information that’s presented to us. How do we choose what to focus on? Philosophy guides us.

Our philosophy is the set of spectacles through which we view the world. Philosophy allows us to sort information and make sense of our experience, thus it stands that the philosophy we select will dictate what we can achieve. I now humbly submit, for your studied consideration, what I consider to be the single most effective philosophy ever conceived of.

Radical responsibility

Radical responsibility asks that we accept full responsibility for everything that happens to us. Extenuating circumstances count for nothing, there is no blame to lay at another’s doorstep; we take full ownership of whatever happens to us. Here are five examples.

1. I failed the test because I didn’t study hard enough, not because the professor put in a trick question

2. I got into an accident because I wasn’t paying close attention and failed to drive defensively. I do not blame the other driver for swerving into my lane

3. I lost my job because I didn’t provide enough value to my company, it wasn’t because my boss is the devil’s own brother

4. I went bankrupt because I didn’t manage my finances well, not because sleazy financial salesmen tricked me into taking out loans I couldn’t afford

5. I am overweight because I haven’t started exercising and eating better, not because I was raised on Pop-Tarts and Coke for breakfast

Victimhood is an ugly word

I’m generalizing, but it seems that our society has a preoccupation with victimhood. We encourage people to view themselves as victims, and to blame their misfortunes and conflagrations on factors outside themselves.

• I was raised by shitty parents therefore I don’t know any better

• I’m the wrong color

• Nobody ever taught me how to work hard

• I don’t have any connections to get a job

• The system is corrupt therefore I cannot succeed

• My family couldn’t afford to send me to college

• I can’t get a promotion because my boss doesn’t respect me

You know, whatever the fuck it is. I could write a bunch more excuses examples but you get the point. There’s a script that goes something like this… I want to do ABC, but I can’t because of XYZ. Curse the unscrupulous gods!

No matter how legitimate the grievance appears to be, once you boil off the bullshit you’re still left with the fundamental error: when you blame your situation on an external factor, you give up your power.

What Frank says: I cannot get my finances in order because my credit card payments are too high. The credit card companies are too blame.

What Frank is really saying: I am powerless over my situation. I cannot change what’s happening. My own life is outside of my control.

When a person blames their circumstances on an external factor, they are saying that change is outside their control. If you blame your misfortunes on someone/something else, you give your power to that person/thing. I can assure you, this is not a mindset that will carry you to the pinnacles of success.

I have power

Radical responsibility is a philosophy of empowerment. By accepting responsibility for everything that happens to you, power comes forth. Bad things happen but I choose not to be a victim. I am an active participant in the game of life, and I accept responsibility for what has gone wrong. By accepting responsibility, I restore my power to enact change and create a better tomorrow. Life is not something that happens to me while I passively stare at the screen and bitch about the crappy programming. I choose to pick up the remote and change the channel.

How I implement this philosophy on a practical basis

Many aspects of my life leave something to be desired, but I don’t blame the world for not giving me what I want. Instead I do this… Every morning I wake up and ask: what is the worst thing in my life right now, and how can I fix it? At various times I have answered that question with,

• My relationships are suffering, I have to re-engage with my friends and family

• I’m drinking too much, I have to cut the hooch

• I’m spending too much money, I have to keep a better budget

• Even though I’m making a lot of money I hate my job and I can’t keep living like this. I have to find a new way to work

• I feel creatively stifled, I need to find a new outlet for my writing (hello Substack)

Right now I’m at a point where I feel OK about my health, relationships, financial situation, and all the other essentials. That leaves me free to focus on more existential problems. As I’ve written in earlier articles, the worst thing in my life at the moment is that I don’t know how to value a company. I’m buying oil and gold stocks recommended by people I trust, but I can’t independently value these equities and it’s driving me nuts. To fix this mess, I’ve enrolled in an Udemy course and I’m taking notes on how to do a DCF analysis.

It is my experience that if I continually fix the worst thing in my life, pulling up the bottom floor if you will, the growth to the upside takes care of itself. It’s like humans are built to race forward and we will do it automatically if we remove the anchors that slow us down.

All good things in moderation

Radical responsibility is my guiding principle and if it didn’t work I wouldn’t be writing about it. That being said, I want to share a personal example of one instance where this philosophy broke down, and what I learned from that experience…

Although I’m not a particularly social person, I still enjoy the company of my fellow man. When I moved to Asia, where I didn’t know anyone within the nearest 5,000 miles, I needed to manufacture a way to meet people. I gave this problem some attention and eventually a solution materialized: I would let society come to me.

I rented a 4 bedroom home and started running an Airbnb. I was good at it! Within a few months I was a superhost and had a long list of positive reviews and repeat customers. Managing a guest house drew on my natural skills of cleanliness, organization and good communication, combined with a great stamina for dealing with esoteric individuals and their varying levels of maturity. Everything was going according to plan, until Covid.

Within a few jarring weeks my guests left, all my future bookings were cancelled and the country I was living in closed the border. Not only did everyone in my house leave, everyone who I had met in the six months up to that point hopped a flight as well. Within a month I went from fully booked, to living alone in a 4 bedroom house on the opposite side of the planet from America. Once again I was friendless in Asia, except this time I had nothing to look forward to.

At that moment, radical responsibility briefly ceased to be a viable philosophy. I was making myself fucking miserable trying to accept responsibility for everything that was happening to me. Completely alone in a foreign country under lockdown, I was trying to shoulder a burden that was outside my control. You piece of shit, why don’t you have people in your life? Why aren’t you being social? What have you done wrong? How did you fuck this up? You’re responsible for everything that happens in your life huh, Mr. Socrates wannabe. Well if that’s true, you’re in a pile of shit right now and it’s all your fault.

The truth is, I didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes shit just happens. I call it the act of god clause. There are times in life where you can do everything right and still end up in the muck. In these situations I’ve learned that berating yourself is not helpful. The best thing I could do, and what I did, was let it go. I accepted that my situation was a battle I couldn’t win. That I had given it my absolute best, and as corny as it sounds, I reminded myself to love myself and to be proud of what I’d done.

As soon as I started to feel better I gathered the pieces of my shattered life and started to glue them back together. I adopted a dog, met some people and picked up where I’d left off with radical responsibility. After all, nobody forced me to move Asia where I didn’t know a soul… Full truth.

This is why we can’t have nice doorstops

I live by the philosophy of radical responsibility, while also recognizing that in the darkest moments there needs to be space for self-love and appreciation. Do your best, always, and be proud no matter what the outcome.