Are You Ready To Be a Contrarian?
Perhaps you shouldn’t
It is better to go against the grain. Why? Because it’s less crowded, there’s more opportunity and it’s the only way to escape mediocrity.
When the masses flock to the beach, you go to the mountains. When everybody is selling, you buy. When everyone is panicking, you stay calm.
Despite the obvious advantages very few people can pull it off.
Why?
Because we are sheep.
Evolution has shaped us for conformity. Back in the Savannah, the price for being an independent thinker was death. Not many tribes accept contrarians and in the wild, it’s impossible to survive on your own.
But in today’s society, it is no longer required to be a sheep, in fact, it pays to be different and go where is less crowded.
The contrarian Edge
When everybody is selling — stocks, property, crypto — prices plummet and the good deals surface. Time to buy. It’s a no-brainer and yet, 99% do the opposite — buy high and sell low. The reasons for this are to be found in our psychology, our fears and our reptilian mind. Those who can tame their mind make a killing.
By being different you are positioning yourself in a unique spot and differentiating your brand from the noise. Nobody remembers Mr average, they remember the eccentric, the original, and the brave.
Companies spend millions trying to have an edge on the competition. By being different you can do the same. Seth Godin, the marketing expert, points out in his books that everybody remembers a purple cow, yet most cows are not purple.
Whether you are a freelancer, an entrepreneur, an investor or even an employee, you should make your mark by going against the grain. It will pay off big time.
Besides, you don’t have to fake it, you ARE already different, we all are, that’s the whole point of being human. Just embrace your natural ability to be YOU and prepare yourself for a lonely journey to the wonderful destination of validation.
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success
Bruce Feirstein
The challenges
You’ll find a few enemies when swimming against the current. Criticism, jealousy, and fear. People will try to convince you to be normal, to stop pretending, and to give yourself up to the consensus.
These are the enemies you’ll be facing.
The masses
People don’t like dealing with a contrarian, they rather see you joining their cult and follow their leader to the precipice.
When you act, think or see the world in a different way there is a backlash, they react dismissing your ideas as crazy, ridiculing you and making fun of the whole thing.
They take for granted they are doing the right thing and everything else is just stupid. But usually, the backlash is a reaction against their own insecurities. They are not 100% sure about their lives and you become a pesky reminder they might be wrong.
If you tell people that buying a house is not a good investment, they’ll have a visceral reaction and no amount of reasoning will change their minds.
What happens is, they don’t want to know anything that goes against their beliefs, even if they are wrong. They’ve built this narrative around their lives and will resist anything threatening to dismantle it.
When you are convinced about your argument, don’t explain yourself, just act on it, don’t even tell anyone. Don’t waste your time trying to convince people, focus all your energy on your goal. Eventually, you’ll be proven right and everybody will be on your side telling you they always knew you’d make it (yeah, right)
Almost everybody who made it in history was a contrarian. Follow your heart and don’t listen to the naysayers. You won’t escape mediocrity by doing what everybody else does.
Mind
This is the biggest culprit. You can deal with anything but when the enemy is within, it becomes a real challenge.
Fear, insecurity, shame, doubt. All this will come to haunt you when you are most vulnerable. You have to learn to deal with those hurdles coming from your ego. You are your worst enemy and when it comes to following your mission, your ego will derail you if you give it half a chance.
There are a number of techniques to avoid this, like writing down your goals, setting up deadlines, and automating the process so your ego doesn’t stand a chance to distract you.
Let’s say you want to run a marathon. Most likely, you’ll try to talk yourself out of it — today it’s cold, I’m tired, it’s not worth it. That little voice in your head will play every trick in the book to sabotage you. One way to stop it is by eliminating the need to make decisions. If you decide to run every single day no matter what, that’s it, no more negotiating with yourself. You are the person who runs every day, so every morning you put your trainers on and get out that door, rain or snow.
The combination of people calling you crazy and your own insecurities are a tough cookie to deal with. That’s why most people fail and don’t follow through.
You need to shield yourself against the negativity (internal and external) and then you’ll be able to give your dream a go. Even if you fail, at least you’ll be able to look yourself in the mirror and say: “At least I tried”
Settling down
Even revolutionaries eventually become dictators. The most progressive people can become reactionaries once they have achieved success.
That’s why it is important to keep asking yourself if you are resting in your laurels and settling for an easy life.
Comfort will kill your spirit so be on guard. Keep questioning everything including your own assumptions and try to stay alert from believing your own propaganda. If you are a true contrarian, you must be a contrarian to yourself too.
Ways in which I consider myself a contrarian
- Property is not a good investment
- College is a waste of time
- FIAT currency is dead
- Banks and the financial system are obsolete
- Most jobs are going to disappear
- Pension schemes are a scam
- Decentralization is better than centralization
- Linux is better than Windows
I could go on and on. You don’t have to agree with me, of course, that’s the whole point of being a contrarian. But I’m sure you have ideas and views nobody shares with you. Don’t push them down into oblivion. Don’t sacrifice yourself just to fit in. Don’t pretend you are a sheep.
Don’t domesticate your free spirit, cultivate it and let it run wild. There are already too many sheep in the world, be a wolf instead. Get out there and let the world know what you are made of.
You only live once. Are you going to waste it being a sheep?
I didn’t think so.
