Investing: What It Takes To Win!!

Investing, Defeating Jihad

What It Takes To Win!!

By: Brendan Magee




In his book, "Defeating Jihad", Dr. Sebastiona Gorka makes no bones about it. We are at war with Radical Islamic Terrorism. In America we value freedom, and Dr. Gorka states that freedom is not the natural state of affairs. "There will always be those who believe they have the right to take your freedom to serve their greater ideological cause." History, he says, backs this up with the rise of Nazi Germany as well as communist Soviet Union which he and his family had to endure in Post World War II Hungary.

Gorka states that our new enemy, Radical Islam, is using Islam and Allah as the justification for mass murder. No peaceful coexistence is possible in their view. The infidel must be killed or submit. The Nazis invoked the Fuhrer. The jihadists invoke the name of Allah to enslave/destroy the nonbeliever.

9/11 occurred more than 15 years ago and we are still at war with Radical Islam. Dr. Gorka points out that the United States defeated Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in five years, but today we face an enemy we have been fighting for over a decade with no end in sight.

Gorka quotes the book The Art of War, which states "know your enemy if you wish to win." Unfortunately there is another quote from the book that isn't as well read. Sun Tsu's recipe for ultimate victory is to first know yourself. What do I represent? What am I prepared to risk blood and treasure for? If you have not answered these questions, you should not be going to war at all, Gorka states. As Americans living in a post-9/11 world, we have yet to adequately answer these questions and as a result the war on terror seems to drag on without any end in sight.


So what does this have to do with investing? For God's sake all you might want to do is save enough to live your golden years in comfort right? You're not going to be spilling any blood or treasure. You're just planning on working as hard as you can to provide for your family and your financial security. No one is going to be firing an AK-47 at you and you certainly aren't going to be fighting ISIS any time soon, right?

Consider for a moment that like the war on terror, unless you know yourself and answer certain questions sooner than later, investing is going to drag on with no end in sight. You won't truly know if you are winning or losing. You won't know anything other than you have to keep on keeping on because, "For sure this isn't what victory looks or feels like."

You might not be spending blood and treasure, but you will certainly be spending time, effort, money, and passion in an attempt to build financial security for yourself and your family. None of those things comes in unlimited supply. You will also have enemies to deal with. Like Americans with freedom, you have something people would like to take from you, your money. Some you won't even be able to recognize as your enemy because they are so good at deception.

Unless you know yourself, you won't be able to protect yourself from your weaknesses. You won't know the weaknesses you can handle vs the ones you can't handle. You won't know where you need help and where you don't.

So what is the question you need to ask and answer? The question is, "What is your true purpose for money, that which is more important than money itself? I do not recommend that you answer this question on your own, but if you are going to go down that path, if the answer you come up with is anything that can be accomplished with money, you haven't answered the question properly.

In 1950 as America began to face the growing threat of communism and the Soviet Union, Paul Nitze of the State Department laid out for President Truman a reexamination of the country's strategic plans to win the Cold War. First and foremost, Nitze concisely laid out the true purpose of The United States of America, "To assure the integrity and vitality of our free society, which is founded on the dignity and worth of the individual." Money alone could never buy that and if that weren't important enough the United States would not have truly understood why the country was going to the lengths it was going in order to defeat the Soviet Union.

So your task is to answer the question, "What is your true purpose for money, that which is more important than money itself?' In answering that question you will answer, "What is it that you represent?" What are the values you cherish the most? What are the ones that you would never give up on? What are your weaknesses and how are you going to manage them?  Why are you spending so much time, energy, and money? Are you willing to pay the price? If you have not answered these questions, do not invest one more penny until you have.

Speaking from experience, once you do, you will never be the same again!

Brendan Magee is the founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.