Are you the Lord Of War riding into battle in glorious chainmail, thoroughly polished with sand and vinegar to ensure it gleams in the sun for all of your enemies, and allies, to see?
Is your plate-mail forged in the finest smiths in the City? Is your long sword of the best Frankish steel, it’s lethality in battle honoured by the thousands of hours you have practiced with it?
Do you ride on a battle-trained Destrier, standing a head above all other steeds yet responsive to the lightest steering-touch of your knee?
Who has the biggest impact on the battlefield – this Lord Of War, standing in all his finery and well trained in the art of killing?
Or the solder a few paces away, with a tattered boiled leather jerkin on his back and a heavily notched and rusted blade in his hand, who has repeatedly spent his weekends drinking and whoring while the other men ran sword drills in the training fields?
Tell The World Who You Are
Where you choose to invest your wealth will tell the world who you are. It tells the world whether they should respect you, fear you, or simply ignore you.
The fresh armour on the Lord Of War
When you invest in yourself, you give yourself the opportunity to have an impact on the battlefield. You allow yourself to matter. You allow yourself to be feared!
What Does “Too Expensive” Mean?
A gym membership may be “too expensive”. Organic meat may be “too expensive”. A set of nice-sounding gym headphones might be “too expensive”.
But what does “too expensive” really mean in a western world where you are probably well clothed, well fed and well entertained?
What does “too expensive” mean in a world where our mobile phones cost $1,000, where we own multiple pairs of jeans at $75 a pair, where women spend $200+ a month on various shades of brown powder and paint for their face.
Have you honestly broken down and looked at where you spend your money each month, and the warped sense of cost we have today?
Do you honestly, when you think deeply, still have a firm grasp on the concept of “value”, “need” and “want”?
The easy targets of course are tobacco and alcohol. We know they are expensive luxuries that we waste money on when we can’t afford it. But just for a second, think beyond the obvious vices:
- How many Starbucks lattés a month would you need to miss, in order to cover a gym membership?
- How much less data on your mobile phone contract would you need to consume to afford a coach trip to hike in the mountains next month?
- How many less Snickers and Mars candy bars would you need to buy at the supermarket to swap out the vegetables in your groceries for organic vegetables?
- How many different sweaters, dresses and pairs of jeans does one person really need to own? How many can you wear at once?
Investing Is A Lot Harder When You Have Less Capital
When you’re flush with cash and have a respectable middle-class income, it can be easy to forget the value in prioritising. Simple expenses in life stop being conscious decisions. Groceries from Wholefoods just arrive. An Equinox gym membership, tennis club membership and personal trainer are just what you do.
When we aren’t forced to prioritise our spending, we aren’t forced to honestly prioritise what is really important to us.
But when you live to a finite budget, necessities and luxuries need to become very clear. Needs and Wants need to be reassessed – simply because there isn’t enough room for everything in the budget.
The choices you make when faced with these constraints will tell the world who you want to be and how they should react to you.
You tell the world what is important to you. You tell the world if you are important, or not.
Invest In Yourself To Invest In Your Future
The Lord Of War who rides onto the battlefield with the very best training, equipment and destrier has decided to invest in himself and his future. He has decided to provide himself with the best opportunity for victory, the best opportunity to end this day with a large hoard of plunder, the best opportunity to be a leader of men.
Self investment is a long term investment, guaranteed to pay off.