To realize the true essence

Some people, though far removed from common sense, have achieved success or are leading happy lives through their own unique way of living.

Conversely, many people, despite knowing what they learned in school and being well-versed in societal norms, find that these things don’t lead to happiness and end up struggling in their daily lives.

In short, the former group of people has realized the truths and essence of the world at an early stage. This is why their actions, based on these fundamental principles, may seem to run counter to others, yet lead to overwhelming results, a happy life, or the fulfillment of their desires.

So, what methods can we use to realize the essence of the world, something that isn’t taught in schools?

Two Sides of the Same Coin

On a different note, power stones have been gaining popularity recently in Japan. I too became interested and researched various stones. Each stone seems to have different effects, such as rutile stones, which are said to bring wealth, or morion, which is recommended for protection in HSP (Highly Sensitive People).

Among them, there is a stone called lapis lazuli, known as the “stone of trials.” It’s said that wearing this stone may bring about trials and hardships that would never occur under normal circumstances. However, its purpose is to help you realize the essence of things, and it is far from evil—rather, it is famous as a sacred stone.

Following an intense intuition, I purchased a large lapis lazuli and started wearing it as a bracelet.

A while later, just when I had nearly forgotten about it, I was struck by incredible hardships. People I would have preferred not to be involved with appeared. Although I had been living peacefully, I was deeply depressed by these events. But as I reflected on them, things started to connect, as if dots were being linked together.

In that moment, I had an epiphany. I finally understood a particular event after enduring these trials. And with that understanding, all the anger and resentment vanished. Why? Because I had gained the lesson that would allow me to avoid such things in the future. I realized that had I not learned this, I would have faced far greater misfortunes in the future. For example, experiencing the trial of losing $100 now would help me avoid losing $10000 in the future, which would essentially mean gaining $9900 in the long run.

We, who are not geniuses, often need to feel pain before we truly understand something. Living in comfort without ever experiencing hardship can make it difficult to grasp what true happiness is or who truly matters in our lives.

For instance, in peaceful times, we tend to value fun friends, wealthy friends, or friends who compliment us.

But when faced with something truly painful, we realize who our real friends are. If we can discern between shallow relationships and true friendships, we can ensure that, when the greatest trials in life come, only true friends remain by our side.

The importance of things shifts depending on our situation, but it’s hard to fundamentally understand something that hasn’t been experienced.

When you listen to successful people, you often hear that, before they succeeded, they went through extraordinary trials.

One famous example is Steve Jobs, who experienced the extreme hardship of being fired from the company he founded. However, he described it as “medicine that the patient needed,” and the lessons he gained from that failure led to his later success.

In Japan, there are also people who have experienced great success, only to face extreme setbacks, learn valuable lessons, and achieve even greater success abroad. Others have faced massive public backlash but then soared to incredible heights. There are those who were deceived in investment scams, sank into despair, but then devoted themselves to business and achieved tremendous success.

What all these individuals have in common is that they learned tremendous truths and lessons hidden behind their trials.

No matter how much we learn in school, we cannot differentiate ourselves by knowing the well-known lessons and truths. As a result, many people are mass-produced who follow the same path without questioning why they are competing in a crowded field.

Moreover, being taught the safe path in school, without taking risks, paradoxically increases the value of the lessons learned from taking those very risks.

Escape from the “Boiling Frog” State

There are those in the world who don’t want others to realize these truths. They hide them because they benefit from people remaining blind to them.

A clear example is how taxes are raised in ways that go unnoticed to avoid causing us too much pain. This is because people inevitably learn lessons from truly painful experiences and seek ways to avoid them in the future. However, if the pain is mild, we can endure it by complaining or gossiping to let off steam.

If inflation causes prices to rise, but wages also increase, do you really think it balances out? Many countries employ a progressive tax system. When wages rise, tax rates also rise. It’s not that the amount of tax increases proportionally—the tax rate itself increases. So there’s no way it balances out. Yet we tend to focus on the prices of supermarket food or convenience store lunches, allowing those who profit to skillfully divert our attention away from the true essence or truths.

Moreover, even if such knowledge is shared, without experiencing real pain, people are unlikely to take action. This is why being in a protected position can actually be extremely dangerous.

How a recession is perceived varies greatly between business owners or freelancers and salaried employees at large companies or civil servants. For business owners, it’s a matter of life and death, but for salaried employees and civil servants, it’s not that big of an issue.

However, those who have realized the truth know that the opposite is actually true.

When running a business, experiencing a decline in sales or a decrease in assets brings intense pain. This forces the individual to think and explore solutions. As a result, they may come up with business ideas suited to the new era or figure out how to reduce costs and survive. They might also realize how important it is to have built up internal reserves during better times.

Despite a recession, the overall amount of currency in circulation doesn’t change. While money may not flow into goods or stocks, it shifts towards safe assets like government bonds or gold. You can target those opportunities. Services that are unique to a recession also emerge. For example, the used goods market or affordable yet tasty food might actually grow during a downturn.

In fact, in the long run, a temporary recession often has more positive effects.

Stable salaried employees and civil servants may not lose their jobs during a recession, but its impact will slowly creep up on them. Rather than slashing salaries or bonuses all at once (which would prompt people to seek alternative solutions, like changing jobs), it’s done so gradually that they don’t notice.

Salaries don’t decrease, but they hardly rise, while inflation and tax hikes loom. If you took out a mortgage with a variable interest rate, the rate will rise gradually, almost imperceptibly.

Then, without taking any countermeasures, age will creep up, skills will decline, and by the time you can no longer live without the company, its attitude toward you will change. Younger employees may criticize middle-aged colleagues for not working hard, but this is not something to criticize. There’s no need for judgment.

There’s a clear difference between someone who can work but chooses not to, and someone who has lost both the ability and the will to work after years of comfort. Being transferred to a dead-end department or even fired at an older age is on a completely different level of danger compared to the downturns experienced by freelancers or small business owners.

That’s why, by the time this happens, employees find themselves unable to oppose the company’s demands—even if those demands contradict basic morals.

Many Japanese entrepreneurs point out that as long as you work hard and don’t choose an industry or business model that is destined to fail, leaving your company won’t mean you’re unable to make a living. Of course, there’s risk involved, but if the company’s treatment isn’t that great, there’s a good chance you’ll end up making more by changing industries.

However, this is only true because so many people avoid risk and failure, and tend to depend on their companies, making it a “blue ocean” for others. Conversely, if everyone flocks to that market, it will turn into a “red ocean,” so following the crowd and taking the safe path can actually be the riskiest route.

Even if you don’t want to start a business, as long as you’re always prepared to quit a job you dislike and switch to another company or a growing industry, you won’t fall into these traps as an employee.

Despite living in the same economy, there’s no way that only small businesses and freelancers will suffer. Thus, those who find themselves in secure positions should always question their situation. But, as I said earlier, humans often can’t change unless they experience real pain.

That being said, it’s important not to take irreparable risks under the guise of necessary pain. That would be reckless and lead to disaster.

One more thing to be mindful of is that, in the interconnected world of international relations, events in other countries inevitably affect us. We cannot afford to view them as someone else’s problem. Yet, we often find ourselves feeling oddly reassured, thinking, “At least our country isn’t like that,” when we see war, poverty, racial discrimination, or hunger abroad.

Turning Unexpected Misfortune into Good Fortune

However, risk isn’t something that can be overcome simply by recklessly charging into it. If you repeatedly take unnecessary risks and make avoidable mistakes, it becomes difficult to glean any true insight from them.

Instead, the most important lessons are hidden within failures that occur after carefully considering and taking the best possible course of action.

Especially when you fail frequently despite giving your best, it may indicate that you’re making a significant misjudgment somewhere.

There’s a possibility that your assumptions themselves are flawed, so you must challenge them. You need to focus on the facts occurring right in front of you, even more than research from the most prestigious universities.

Which do you think holds more truth: the facts happening before your eyes or what you’ve read in a book?

There are many people who, despite having attended university, fail to realize that the rules they studied have become outdated as the environment changes.

Additionally, education and income don’t always correlate. While obtaining degrees from top universities or qualifications like being a doctor can lead to high-paying jobs, universities ranking and income only correlate to a certain extent. Gathering highly educated individuals often means selecting for high IQ or hard work, and that’s why high earners tend to be those with higher ranking universities —it’s a difference in initial capability.

But in developing countries, for example, spreading education doesn’t necessarily lead to economic development. Rather, economic development happens first, followed by the rise of education in that country. Singapore didn’t develop due to the world’s highest education standards but rather by attracting foreign companies and wealthy individuals through low taxes and systems like casinos. Education developed afterward.

The knowledge that correlates with income isn’t academic knowledge but industry-specific knowledge. For those struggling with income, it’s more crucial to enter a well-paying industry or study your field deeply.

That said, this doesn’t mean academic knowledge is unnecessary. Discoveries in technology enrich our lives, but more than anything, learning itself is enjoyable.

I’m sure you also have interests or things you love. Instead of cramming in what you aren’t interested in for the sake of academic achievement, you’ll find joy in life by learning things you genuinely enjoy.

If you love biology, you can immerse yourself in studying your favorite fish, insects, or amphibians. If you’re fascinated by foreign cultures, learning about them won’t feel like a burden. People who pursue these interests often become professors at famous universities.

Returning to the main point,

Unexpected misfortune tells you that something you believe in is wrong or missing.

A particularly important perspective is to look at the bigger picture. For instance, even if you succeed in a capitalist economy, it won’t necessarily make you happy. When you win in a competition, there are always people who lose. Happiness is actually influenced by the overall sum of the collective well-being. In the end, if the system isn’t one where everyone can win to some extent, everyone will end up unhappy. Even if you’re flaunting wealth, if your success comes from exploiting others, their unhappiness will inevitably affect you.

Moreover, in the capitalist economy, the weak are exploited by the strong. Sometimes, it’s as simple as losing due to a lack of competence. The reason lies in overestimating your own abilities and underestimating the existence of unexpected strong competitors.

Often, the issue isn’t that everything is wrong, but that a crucial element is missing. In such cases, you shouldn’t abandon everything you’ve done so far. What’s needed is just a small change.

Also, the world isn’t made up of only economics. Surrounding yourself with things you love and are interested in, and having enough money, can bring more happiness than living a dull life as a rich person. But paradoxically, even if you are surrounded by what you love, you can’t live without any money at all.

Ultimately, even if all of humanity becomes happy, many other species will likely be driven to extinction. We can’t definitively say that the animals and plants we take for granted don’t play an unexpected and vital role.

In the end, balance and harmony are necessary. Sacrificing too much for yourself alone leads to failure.

Preventing Success on the Wrong Path

No matter how much you learn from mistakes and achieve success, sometimes you still make fundamental errors. That’s when you succeed in a place that wasn’t truly what you wanted.

To avoid this mistake, it’s crucial to pursue what you truly want to do.

This is actually very difficult.

Many people worry about how others will react and end up choosing safe, unremarkable paths instead of pursuing their true desires.

Being honest with yourself is extremely challenging because your true desires may conflict with the opinions of others, making it hard to be open about them.

Some people strive to make money, even though they’re not genuinely interested in it, and after many efforts, they achieve it only to find themselves left with an empty feeling and expensive furniture.

Conversely, some people desire financial success and a glamorous lifestyle but hold themselves back because pursuing wealth is seen as greedy.

In the end, we feel fear about truly pursuing what we want. We fear failure because failing at something we genuinely love is deeply disheartening.

Failing at something trivial doesn’t hurt as much. So, to protect ourselves, we avoid confronting our true essence.

To succeed in what you really want to do, mental strength is more important than ability or intelligence.

Confidence is incredibly crucial here. Humility does encourage effort and skill development. However, people who are humble but lack confidence often shy away from what they truly want to do. As a result, they end up succeeding in something they don’t even like.

Yet, when it comes to your true passion, your motivation surges beyond reason, making up for any lack of skill or intelligence. Of course, being the best in something involves talent, but as long as you can do what you love, that’s not the most important issue.

But to pursue what you truly want, you need courage. Without fear, there’s no need for courage. The stronger your aspiration, the more fear you’ll feel. So, in the end, you can’t avoid this feeling if you wish to proceed.

Don’t run away from what you truly want to do just because it sounds more noble to say you’re doing it for someone else. If you think about others, they too wish for your happiness. If that’s the case, then you need to start doing what makes you happy in order to spread that happiness. Those who have faced their fears and succeeded in doing what they love will be better equipped to make others happy. You can’t give others what you don’t have. There’s no escape.

What’s important is to stop overthinking and take a small step forward. Smart people who tend to overthink often struggle with this. They end up worrying too much about others and constantly giving them advice. But when others start to succeed, they may find themselves holding them back.

In the end, your courage will be tested, but there are some tips:

First, start alone without consulting anyone. This is to prevent others from dragging you down. The reason you haven’t started until now is likely due to your environment, which proves that you’ve been in such an environment. There’s no need to create your own dream killers.

Next, place yourself in an environment where people are genuinely pursuing what they want to do. While it ultimately comes down to whether you act or not, being around such people can inspire courage in you.

Finally, take your mental strength to a higher dimension. Raise your perspective and consider your role in the world, visualizing how the world can improve through your efforts. In other words, by conquering your fears and showing courage through action, you can inspire others to do the same, creating a chain reaction where many people are able to dedicate themselves to work they love, leading to overall improvement.

Summary

The truth will speak to you in extraordinary ways. If you can grasp it without missing the signs and understand the essence hidden beneath the surface of things, you can discover principles that apply to everything.

Often, this truth comes through painful experiences. It’s the pain that enables you to learn the truth. However, you shouldn’t seek out negative experiences unnecessarily. Along the path to success, if unexpected events arise, the overlooked aspects are hidden within them.

By gradually suffering in small, unnoticed ways, like the boiling frog, we become exploited without realizing it. And there are always those who seek to exploit.

But no matter how much truth you grasp, unless you take that first step toward what you truly want to do, you won’t be able to reap the fruits of your labor. In that moment, courage will be more important than intelligence.

Everything in this world is interconnected, and you can’t be happy in isolation. But by becoming happy yourself, you can share that with others. Making others happy will, in turn, bring happiness back to you.