MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom (84 page)

Scientists are working on ways to use 3-D printers to create custom organs and other body parts for you when you need them, eliminating the need for dangerous, expensive donor transplants. Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, says, “In theory, anything that is grown inside the body can be grown outside the body.” Dr. Atala has already created fully functioning human bladders in the lab and completed the transplants.
In the last 15 years, none of the tissues made from stem cells has ever been rejected by the body.
He and others are already working on more complex organs, like hearts, kidneys, and livers. So someday, if a heart attack or virus damages your heart valves, your doctors
will be able to order you up some new ones. Or maybe they’ll just grow you a new heart from a few of your skin cells!

If you have means, some of these miraculous cures are available already. There’s something called “extracellular matrix,” or ECM, made of cells from a pig’s bladder. When you apply it to injured human tissue, the matrix coaxes our own stem cells to regrow muscles, tendons, even bone. It’s been used already to regrow fingertips! This extraordinary substance exists right now. It’s not available to everyone yet, but it will be soon.

The concept behind regenerative therapies is simple: our body already knows how to regrow its parts; we just have to learn how to turn on the stem cells that already live inside us. We already know that when we lose our baby teeth, another set grows in. But did you realize that, according to Dr. Stephen Badylak from the University of Pittsburgh, if a newborn loses a finger, another one can grow in its place up to the age of two? We lose that ability as we grow older, so the question is: How do we stimulate it?
Salamanders grow back their tails—why not human limbs or spinal cords?
When we figure out how to harness the full power of stem cells, the medical and cosmetic applications are limitless.

Ray Kurzweil says that if we’re going to take advantage of these medical breakthroughs and extend our lives, we’d better start taking care of ourselves right now. The idea is to live long enough for the technology to catch up. If you’re a millennial, you might experience it. If you’re a baby boomer, it’s time to get on the elliptical machine and start eating right. Ray has even teamed up with a medical doctor to write a book titled
Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever,
with strategies to optimize your health and keep yourself alive long enough to tap into the technology that will further extend your lifespan.

His immediate goal is to stick around long enough to see the day when computers become smarter than humans. That day is coming soon.

COMPUTERS “R” US

What takes us hours to absorb, computers can already do in seconds. But by 2020, says Ray, a $1,000 computer will have the full capacity of a human mind. By 2030, it will be able to process the knowledge of all human minds
combined.

By then, we won’t be able to recognize the difference between human and artificial intelligence, he says, but we won’t have anything to fear. Why? Because computers will have become a part of us, making us smarter, more powerful, healthier, and happier. Don’t think that can happen? How do you feel when you don’t have your smartphone nearby? A little lost? It’s because
that technology and all that connectivity have already become parts of our lives.
The smartphone has become an “outboard brain”—it’s our portable memory center, storing so much of our personal information as to be indispensable. And we’ll be moving from mobile phones, to wearables, to implantables over the next 20 years.

So think a little further ahead. Imagine a world where you won’t have to read this book—you can just upload its content into your brain. (And I suspect that by now you are wishing the future was here already. Especially with this monster-sized book!) Or imagine a world where you can upload your mind, your thoughts, and your personality to the cloud to be preserved forever? That’s roughly the time when Ray Kurzweil and other great thinkers and futurists believe that humans and machines will merge. This epic moment is called “the Singularity” (aka “the Rapture for nerds”). When will it happen—if it does? Ray predicts the Singularity will be here by 2045.

Those who have a “why” to live, can bear with almost any “how.”

—VICTOR FRANKL

If technology solves the problems that make our resources scarce, will we be safer, freer, happier? You bet. Scarcity brings out the survival instincts in human beings; it activates that deep part of the reptilian brain that makes you believe
it’s
you
or
me.
That fight-or-flight mechanism can help us survive, but it often can bring out the worst side of people in a “civilized” society. The brain we have is two million years old. It hasn’t evolved that much. So aggression and war will always be a big challenge. But with less scarcity, perhaps there’s less of a trigger to spark violence.

There’s statistical evidence to show that more access to technology can make people happier. The World Values Survey has shown that from 1981 to 2007, happiness rose in 45 of the 52 countries studied. And what was going on during those years? That’s right. The digital revolution. The
technology wave was spreading across the globe—or what the report calls “the transition from industrial to knowledge societies.” Social scientists have interpreted this index to mean that “economic development, democratization, and rising social tolerance have increased the extent to which people perceive that they have free choice, which in turn has led to higher levels of happiness around the world.” The same survey said that more money doesn’t make people happier. Some of the happiest people came from the poorest countries; citizens of the Philippines consider themselves happier than people in the United States.
Happiness has more to do with values than with GDP.

We all know that subsistence labor robs us of our most precious commodity: time. Remember when I mentioned that not too long ago most Americans were farmers, and spent 80% of their time digging in the ground for food; now we spend about 7% of every day earning money for food? With more technology, there’s more time on our hands, and that means there’s more opportunity to learn, to grow, to connect with others, and to give—all pursuits that fulfill us as human beings.

But there’s also a dark side to the gift of time.

Artificial intelligence and robotic devices are going to be taking on more and more of the tasks humans now perform. A study by Oxford University found that 47% of the current US labor market is at risk of being mechanized in the future. In essence, Oxford’s experts are saying that half of all workers might one day be replaced by robots! That means society will have to reboot to create meaningful work for everybody, and we are all going to have to step up to learn new skills. It’s going to be a difficult transition, no question about it.

But what happens in the future if work itself disappears, and computers do all the labor and most of the thinking? When all there is for us to do is ride around in self-driving vehicles and wait for drones to deliver the groceries? When there’s nothing to push back against to give us strength? That’s an interesting question.

More than a decade ago, I discussed this question with Ray Kurzweil, and he told me the story about a
Twilight Zone
episode that he’d seen as a child. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember
The Twilight Zone,
but it was a very interesting series, and the shows always had a creepy twist at the
end. In this episode, a guy who loves to gamble dies and wakes up with a friendly “guide” in a white suit at his side. This guide, this angel, who’s more like a butler, takes him to a luxurious casino—which is this gambler’s idea of heaven. He’s ushered into an amazing suite, and he opens the closet to find it overflowing with incredible suits and fancy shoes. They all fit him perfectly. His guide opens a drawer, and it’s stuffed with cash, more than he’s ever seen before. So the gambler gets dressed, goes downstairs to the gaming tables, and everybody knows his name. Everybody smiles at him. He’s surrounded by gorgeous women. It’s his ultimate fantasy! He plays blackjack, and hits 21 the first time. He wins. This is great! He rakes in the chips. The next time: 21. Next time: 21. Ten times in a row. It’s extraordinary! He turns around and plays craps, and he wins, wins, wins. He has huge piles of chips. All he has to do is ask for drinks, steaks, women, and they appear. Everything he’s ever wanted, he gets. He goes to sleep that night . . . we’ll just say, not alone, and very happy.

This goes on day after day after day. After a few months, he’s playing at the blackjack table, and the dealer says, “Blackjack!”

The gambler screams, “Of course it’s blackjack!”

The dealer says, “Twenty-one! You win!”

“Of course! I always win! I’m sick of this! I win every time, no matter what happens!” He looks at his guide in the white suit and asks to speak to the head angel.

When the head angel appears, the man unleashes a tirade: “I’m so bored
I’m going out of my mind! You know what? There must be some mistake. I’m not that good a person. I’m in the wrong place. I don’t deserve to be in heaven!”

And the angel’s smile suddenly curdles as he says, “What makes you think you’re in heaven . . . ?”

So what happens when we get everything we want with little effort? After a while, it would be like hell, wouldn’t it? Then we’d have a new problem:
Where will we find meaning in a world of abundance?
So maybe in the future, your problem won’t be scarcity. And the solution won’t just be an abundance of material things. As Peter Diamandis says, “Abundance isn’t about providing everyone on the planet with a life of luxury—rather, it’s about providing all with a life of possibility.”

So in our final chapters together, let’s look at the core of what is going to give your life lasting meaning. Something that can give you joy whether you’re facing enormous challenges or extraordinary opportunities; a source of strength in difficult economic times or abundant ones. Let’s uncover the ultimate wealth of fulfillment and meaning. Let’s learn to tap into the wealth of passion.

CHAPTER 7.2

THE WEALTH OF PASSION

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

—BENJAMIN DISRAELI

We’ve come a long way together, haven’t we? It’s been an incredible adventure, and I’m honored and grateful that you’ve chosen to make this journey with me.

By now you’ve navigated the money myths that block your way to financial freedom; climbed the mountain of successful saving and investing on the way to achieving your financial dreams; and learned new ways to safely glide to a secure future where you can work only because you want to work, not because you have to work.

You’ve met some remarkable financial geniuses and incredible human beings, such as Ray Dalio, Paul Tudor Jones, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Carl Icahn, David Swensen, Jack Bogle, Charles Schwab, and dozens of others to help guide you on your path. I’m hoping you’ll return to the 7 Simple Steps you’ve learned in this book again and again throughout your life, to keep yourself on target. Also, I’m providing an action list at the end of this section to help you track and sustain your progress. In addition, you’ll find a simple reminder system built into our app to keep you on target. Use these as a way to insure that you remain committed to the simple principles that will secure your freedom. Picking up this book and reviewing it in the future might be a useful way to remind yourself that you are not a creature of circumstance but a creator of your life. Remember, knowledge is not power—action is! Execution trumps knowledge every day of the week!

For me, this journey has been the culmination of decades of learning and teaching, and this book is truly a labor of love. It is my heartfelt gift to you. My hope is that you do so well that you can also pass on this gift to others.
Because the greatest gift of life is to live it for something that outlasts it: a legacy that continues to grow beyond our years.

And as we begin to complete this journey together, I want to make sure that I don’t leave you without reminding you of what this all has really been about.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

—DALAI LAMA XIV

It has been my great privilege to work with people from every walk of life: leaders in politics, finance, entertainment, and sports, but also in the religious and spiritual world. I’ve worked in the Middle East, where I brought young Israelis and Palestinians together in a leadership program in the West Bank. At first they expressed a seething hatred for one another—but within a week, they’d become great friends (and in nine years have continued to work on various peace projects in support of one another).

As a result, the Dalai Lama came to visit our Sun Valley home and later invited me to an interfaith peace conference in San Francisco in 2006. It took place during a week in April when three great religious faiths observed one of their high holidays: Easter for Christians, Passover for Jews, and, for Muslims, Mawlid an-Nabi, the birthday of Muhammed. The timing was significant, as the conference aimed to promote compassion and better understanding among all the great religions.

The Dalai Lama, draped in deep red and saffron robes, greeted me in the ballroom of the Mark Hopkins Hotel with a warm embrace and a belly laugh. He radiated warmth and joy—like a walking, breathing embodiment of the “art of happiness” he teaches. There were about 1,000 people attending the conference, but I had the honor of sitting in an intimate meeting he hosted with about 25 of the world’s top theologians and spiritual leaders: Hindus, Buddhists, Episcopalians, Native Americans, Catholics, Jews, Sunnis, and Shiites—the list went on.