People are valuable because they are different. Everybody is unfathomably different from everyone else, yet society rarely harnesses that individuality.

During the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a race to be the most technologically advanced nation.

“The most valuable real estate in the world is the graveyard.

There lie millions of half-written books, ideas never launched, and talents never developed.

Malcom McLean was born into a farming family in North Carolina in 1914. During the Great Depression, he helped support his family by starting a small trucking company to move farmers’ goods. By 1940, his grit and resourcefulness had grown the business to thirty trucks.

Machines have mastered connecting the dots looking backward. They can sift through mountains of data and see patterns we’d miss. Competing with them here is a wasted effort.

The Rich also trade time for money, but at a higher hourly rate. They’ve built a rainy day fund, maybe six to twelve months of expenses saved. But their financial security still depends on their continued effort.

Let’s try a thought experiment. Travel back with me to 1999/2000. Everyone knew the internet would change everything, but nobody could predict how and who the winners would be.

Until 1970, every major currency in the world was backed by gold reserves. The post-war Bretton Woods system pegged the U.S. dollar to gold at $35 per ounce, while other currencies (pound, franc, yen, etc.) were pegged to the dollar within narrow bands.

The world came to an abrupt halt in 2020 with the outbreak of COVID-19.

Overnight, streets emptied, factories shut, and economies froze. Echoes of the Great Depression resurfaced, marked by mass unemployment, food insecurity, bankruptcies, and even rising social unrest.

My grandfather spent his entire career with Indian Railways, retiring happily as a Station Master. Railways were the high-tech sector of his time.