Fix the Roots, Not the Fruits
All progress is determined by who you are, and this cannot be changed by knowledge alone.
Do you want to improve your golf swing?
There is a book for that – Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons.
You want to get better at marketing?
There is also one – Influence by Robert Cialdini.
You want to understand how the flaws of urban planning reveal themselves under criminal pressure?
Look no further – A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh.
At first glance, with the amount of ever more niche books being written – not to mention video courses – it would seem that the solution you are after is out there somewhere, hidden in the pages of a forgotten 17th century manuscript.
Someone must have a method, a system, some sort of tangible way to get past the obstacle blocking your path.
With so much out there, something must be the missing piece… It has to be, right?
Well, let me ask you this.
If all that was missing was the correct piece of information, wouldn’t everyone eventually get to know it and, by consequence, achieve the rewards we are all after in this day and age?
Are wealth, health, and relationships such complicated topics that without an exact step-by-step manual of instructions we are bound to miss the mark every single time?
After all, those who wrote the books didn’t have the books before writing them.
While the correct methods and information are no doubt important, I believe we have lost touch with the truth. That is, as Naval Ravikant put it, not everything can be taught but everything can be learned.
The reason for this is rather simple. The important things to learn are not so much skills as they are character traits. What will truly move the needle forward, what makes someone wealthy not just rich, is who they are. Their patience, their kindness, their discipline, their bravery, and all of their other character traits. These are what truly make fleeting gains turn into permanent ones. They are the foundation needed if true progress is to happen.
Your Choice To Make
What is it to be courageous? Or kind? Or disciplined?
They are simple choices.
When the moment of truth arrives, when you are called to display any of the above, you either do or you don’t. You don’t need a book to tell you what the correct decision is, you often know it, however, as most tend to do, you ignore it.
It’s understandable, after all, they may be simple choices but they are very difficult ones too. The Spirit is strong but the flesh is weak.
We are led to believe that with enough new habits and information we can get to a point when, all of a sudden, we become different people, a point when we have transformed and the obstacles of the past are behind us. Yet, I don’t believe this to be exactly true.
You see, a kind person does not have it within themselves to act with malice.
No matter how tired, how unfairly life had been treating them, when the moment to display this kindness arrives, they have no other option but to take it.
If they pass by the homeless man who is genuinely asking for some money, they will give it. They may not do so right away, they may pass him by and ponder within themselves, they may try to justify why not to just keep walking, but they will have to go back to give.
In the rare cases when they do fail to act so, they regret it deeply and it stays with them.
They do all of this, not because they forced themselves to be kind, but due to a deeper shift.
We must understand that if the fruits we are getting are green and bitter, it is not toward them the effort should go but to the tree itself.
A Different Approach
With all that said, seemingly counterintuitively, I do believe there are some books that will help you, however, not the ones you think.
For our minds to change, for us to be able to make a permanent transformation in not only thoughts but actions, we have to be shifted from our current state. In other words, and for how much I dislike this word, our mindset has to shift.
The main way it will do so is through first-hand experiences, hence why it is so important to put yourself out there.
Secondly, and as a great compliment to it, are books with valuable messages behind their story.
These, whether they are fiction, historical, or biographies, are a much better tool when it comes to making a mental shift happen. You see, for how much someone would like to teach you bravery, it would be impossible for them to do so in a “school” format where you study and then pass the exam. You could grasp the concepts but you would never be able to fully understand them.
It has to become ingrained in you.
What these types of books won’t do is give these traits to you, that would be too good to be true. However, they will give a way for your mind to better understand why it matters that you adopt them.
When you read, for example, The Lord of the Rings, there is nothing explicitly teaching you bravery; however, you learn it on a fundamental level when you see Merry and Pippin, being the weakest of the army, rush first to battle.
It won’t give you a guide to loyalty, but you will see it fully when Sam refuses to leave Frodo, going into the water when he does not know how to swim.
It won’t give you a guide to integrity, but you see it in Faramir, who resists the temptation of the Ring and lets Frodo and Sam continue their journey unharmed.
They teach values through the only way we best learn: storytelling.
Even when you read the teachings of Jesus Christ, it is rarely shared in a direct way of “do good because you shouldn’t do bad.” It is through stories and parables, like the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son, examples that clearly show why these values matter.
No intelligent person would make a drastic change, a lasting one, if they don’t believe in the underlying reason behind it. A bitter man won’t turn kind because someone tells him he should. There must be more to it.
Without a full understanding of why the matter at hand matters, you will not keep the initial promises you made to yourself.
Our mind demands a purpose but we often skip through it thinking that excitement will suffice, however, as you know by now, that is never enough.
These books I’m suggesting to you won’t give you this, however, they will plant the seed needed for change. Compared to the initial example, they will shift your focus from trying to fix the fruits toward the tree itself.
It may seem like a subtle change when living through it, however, just like a subtle shift of the steering wheel, the longer you go the more noticeable the change is.
Practical Advice
Along with these, there is a real tangible benefit to the more practical information I told you to stay away from at the beginning of this letter.
You, like everyone else, are not free from having to master the details of whichever pursuit you have embarked on. We all have to research, learn, fail, and improve if we are to deliver work of value.
By all means, go through as many of these resources until you find the ones that align with the goal you are trying to attain.
As you do so, I urge you not to lose track of what is of true value. In the path toward more resources, whether they be money, fame, or glory, there will be many who have sacrificed their morals to get where they now stand.
They will urge you to take the shortcuts they have and, if you refuse, look at you as someone who simply doesn’t have what it takes to rise above.
Surround yourself with enough of these people and you will be led to believe that there is something wrong with you for not replicating their behavior.
A lie, repeated 1000 times, does not make it true.
What is at hand, is much more valuable than riches and material possessions. You and I are after these, however, let’s never forget that they are not the end goal.
Make them your master and you will end up becoming someone your younger self would be disgusted by, and rightly so.
Whatever levels you rise to, whichever riches you attain, know that there may come a time when you are called to give it all away for something greater. A time when your true values will be put into question and, a time when you will show who you truly are.
So, I ask you, who are you and who will you be?
-Goncalo Hoshi
Paths of Meaning
Love this insight. People criticize the practice of tithes and offerings, and there is certainly some warranted criticism of any religious institution that squanders donations. However there was a study that people who pay tithing in their religious practices are more giving overall, they donate more to external causes and charities than those who do not on average. This is because they’ve become giving people, it is now part of their character.
We focus on levers and results when we desire change. But like you said a more effective approach is to focus on become the kind of person who does whatever thing.
There’s a million ways to build a business and some advice May be useful but really your experience will be different from others and so becoming the kind of person that can build a business will ultimately lead to success more so than simply signing up for a course with some tips and tricks that may or may not apply to you.
Character yields results because it dictates action and direction.