It always amazes me how I can hear something, even agree with what I hear, but not really understand it.
The first instance stands out very vividly. I already referred to Willie Esterhuyse who, in 1978 told us you cannot fight communism with guns and bombs. You fight it by changing the environment and culture that feeds it. In February 1990, when F W de Klerk announced the unconditional release of Mandela, I fully understood.
In 1994 I went to my lecturer and declared that I would like to do a doctorate on cashflow and share prices. Why? Because I think that is the all important factor. It took me about a decade to fully understand what I said!
But I am not alone! Suddenly people who openly doubted my story about the importance of cashflow in your personal finances come back to me and say: the penny has dropped. What if all my money is in shares when I retire and the same thing happens that happened in 2008? Then I am screwed. I will never be able to afford the retirement I want.
Part of the problem, I think, is that we are so caught up in our traditional way of thinking, that it is difficult to escape! Until something happens that move our position and perspective. You know how two people can look at the same thing and see different things? One sees only 1 tree. The other sees a row of trees. Depends on where you stand what you see! F W de Klerk moved my point of view. Working for a commission and starting fresh every month moved my position to really value passive cashflow. And the events since 2008 are moving us all to a different point of view.
But we have to be careful not to get so (emotionally) involved with the events itself, that we don’t see the changing picture with all its threats and opportunities!