I just learned a tail tale Japanese schoolkids are told.

It is about three great Shoguns who ruled different parts of Japan in the 16th century.

Each of the three faces a caged bird, that would not want to entertain them with it’s sweet voice.

The first, Oda Nobunaga, would say: if the bird will not sing, I will kill it.

The second, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, would say: if the bird will not sing, I will try to make it sing

The third, Tokugawa Ieyasu, would say: if the bird will not sing, i will wait.

The third shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, was the unifier of the whole island Japan and his legacy lived on in the Edo period, maybe the most important period in the islands history.

What I take from this story is an amazingly accurate description of the Japanese mindset. If there is something you don’t like, wait. Eventually fate will turn to your advantage.

I imagine the same story for America and Europa.

Napoleon would have said: if the bird won’t sing, I will kill it.

Georg Washington would have said: if the bird won’t sing, I will make it sing.

Abraham Lincoln would have said: if the bird won’t sing, I will go to the theater.

No one would have waited for the fucking bird to sing. It is not in the culture. If you want something, work hard until you earn it, or else just take it. No risk, no fun/reward.

This difference is maybe one of the most important reasons why Japan as a country is economically paralyzed since about 15 years.

Japan has the highest saving rate on the planet, and they get NO interest at all. If they would put it under the mattress they would actually get more money as in the bank, as they don’t have to pay the banking fees. They are just sitting there and waiting for fate to turn.

Americans on the other side have almost a negative saving rate. They love to take a risk, as a big chance to fail comes with a chance to get really rich.

Economically speaking I think the real world makes it clear what model is more successful. In one TED lecture (I really cant find it anymore) I learned that US Venture Capital backed investments account only for 1 % of the county’s investments, but they are responsible  for 25% of the increase in output.

In the long term, taking risks pays. As much as the US economy might fluctuate, it chose the economical model, that pays the most. As long as you can wait for decades.

We can see that approach is the best because nature proved it to be right since millions of years. Mutation of genes cause in 99.99% of the cases the death of the individual, or are just useless. It is those 0.01% that prove to bring something useful, like eyes, or fingers.

Conclusion:

FAIL THE SHIT OUT OF LIFE, OR HUMANITY WILL GET NOWHERE!

This post is somehow related to the previous post “How to get people NOT to work”

Mr. Richard Wiseman wrote a book called “The Luck Factor” in which he examined what distinguishes very Lucky people from very Unlucky people.

He did an experiment where he asked Lucky & Unlucky people to tell him how many pictures there are in a newspaper he prepared.

• It took Unlucky people about 2 minutes to come up with an answer.
• It took Lucky people on average only a few seconds to come up with an answer.

Why? Mr. Wiseman implemented a message in the newspaper on the second page which read: “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” The letters were 2 inches high.

Unlucky people were to anxious to find the answer, so they ignored everything that did not look like a picture.

Lucky people were open to any new input.

Out of fun he placed an ad in the middle of the newspaper that read: “Stop counting. Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.” Again, the unlucky people missed the opportunity because they were still too busy looking for photographs.

The part that connects this post with How to get people NOT to work is the following quote from the telegraph.co.uk article:

In one experiment, people were asked to watch a moving dot in the centre of a computer screen. Without warning, large dots would occasionally be flashed at the edges of the screen. Nearly all participants noticed these large dots.

The experiment was then repeated with a second group of people, who were offered a large financial reward for accurately watching the centre dot, creating more anxiety. They became focused on the centre dot and more than a third of them missed the large dots when they appeared on the screen. The harder they looked, the less they saw.

Good explanation why money is not a good motivator. It creates anxiety to get that one thing done. It creates anxiety to fail on the one task, and reduces chance to spot other opportunities.

4 characteristics that create luck are:

1. Opportunities: actively look for them, or create them yourself
2. Imagine yourself being lucky all the time, make a vivid picture in your mind
3. Once you have convinced yourself that you are lucky → Listen to your intuition, it will guide you
4. Find the positive side of everything (even the unluckiest events)

Another post that supports the notion of think it and you will get it is about increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

If you want to find out more about the how to be lucky you can buy the book from amazon via this link: The Luck Factor

Sometimes even SKA is better to listen to, than the vocal interpretation of a cat being slaughtered. (Japanese Rock music)