The Liberating Benefits of Becoming A Contrarian Thinker

Have you noticed sometimes that everything seems to work out for you? That just everything goes and everything is happening and you find a parking space and you find that investment you want to do, you find that customers. And sometimes, goodness, nothing seems to work out.

Last week was a high contrast week. In the one hand I met loads of people who have been telling me why it's not possible to have what they want. They were people in academia, in business, mothers, foreigners, Dutch, latinos, young, old, etc. All of them related to me in detail why it is not possible to have `that`. They were completely certain that it was impossible what they crave. Is that really so?

​In the other hand I experienced tremendous abundance. I got the ease of service, parking spaces, flowing traffic, new customers, new prospects, completing projects, trust from my children and much more.​

How come! Well, this is not magic or luck. This is something that is available for everyone - for you - if you dare to be subversive and revolutionary, in other words contrarian!
Being contrarian is not easy. We are programmed to follow the crowd: be good girls/boys. Do what we are told. Risk being criticized. Risk being alone.

If  you would like to be rainmaker and enjoy the success of Warren Buffet, Ellon Musk, Brendon Burchard and many others, you will love today's episode.

You know last Thursday, yes in the middle of the week, at midday, I took my bag and I went to the city center of this beautiful city, Amsterdam. And I went to the movies, to one of the trendiest places now here in Amsterdam: brand-new, very popular, very hip, very full in the weekend, not on Thursday. My friend and I enjoyed beautiful food from all over the world, enjoyed over drinks, enjoyed our cake and tea. We flew away in time and space with this wonderful movie from Japan. How come? Because it was Thursday.

You see we have this wonderful possibility to be in the hip place and being served like Queens because there were very few people there at that point. That makes a huge difference when you are taking decisions; to go with the crowd: go on Saturday, go in the summer, when everybody goes to the same place, to act like everybody, buying the same kind of stocks, to act as everybody, going 9-to-5 to work, take your children to the same swimming pool.

When we think in a contrarian way, we put ourselves above and beyond the crowd, above and beyond the trends. We really rise like eagles. And yes, at some point it will feel lovely, but I can tell you there you will find other eagles and these ones are having a lot of fun.

What is the difference? Well, the crowd is always a spectator. The people who just follow what is expected to do, they switch on the television, they watch the sports of their country you know, American football, soccer or whatever you watch in your country. They are in the wrong side of television. They see how others are scoring the goals, how others are writing history, how others are having fun. They are passive spectators of the game of life.

Slightly more conscious people, read the newspaper. These people react. They read the analysis of others and take decisions on what `they` say. So then they invest on these stocks and then they buy the house here and then they do that, because of reaction of what is going on and what the experts say. Still they are the crowd as they don´t yet think for themselves.

Above that, and really above that, above the clouds are these eagles I'm telling you about. And this, I want you to become. These are the people who think in a contrarian way. Now don't take me wrong, contrarian doesn't mean to do everything against what everybody is saying or doing. If it's cold and you don't wear a sweater because everyone is doing so, that's not contrarian. That's just being silly. Contrarian also doesn't mean just trying to be brilliant by being brilliant, trying to impress somebody. No, it doesn't mean that. Contrarian thinking is to start thinking in your own terms, in your own mental order.

So to be a contrarian, you need to start thinking, actually thinking, not just repeating copy paste what the media is telling you, what the books are telling you, what your teachers are telling you, but really start thinking, internalizing what is going on and asking different questions. Really take life, see life with a glasses of Leonardo Da Vinci, the glasses of curiosity. Ask different questions. I love the question of Da Vinci, why is the sky blue? It is not a silly question. It is a very complex question: a question of chemistry, a question of physics, a question that I cannot explain and a question that awakens my curiosity.

How does a toaster work? How does the Internet work? How does the financial system work? How can I think this decision in another way? If you have the eyes of curiosity, if you put on the hat of curiosity, you will ask different questions and you'll get better answers. It's not that you will get opposite answers to them, but you will get answers that you will be able to stand for, you'll get answers that will be different from what the mob is saying.

So how can you practically do it? How can you think differently?

The first way you can think differently is by having information they do not have. How can you have information they do not have? By reading, reading, reading, reading. Get out of Internet and go to the library, get yourself some books, old books and start learning the ancient wisdom and start reading the classics so that you start thinking in a different way.

Read things that the rest of the people are not reading, and educate yourself because the more you read, the more capable you will be able to understand what is happening and to express your thinking about it. And when you are able to understand and to express, your actions are going to follow and they will be contrarian.

What else is what you can do? Not just information that you will receive. Not just what you are going to read, but how you are going to think about it, with which eyes, with which rational you are going to see that data. 

Two ways of analyzing data in a different is to extend the time frame of analysis. I think of motherhood, my children, 3 and 5. It is just very easy to say hey, you misbehave I spank you, you misbehave I shout at you, but I like to take the view of the long-term. I want to build a relationship with these humans so that they trust me, so that they trust themselves. So that when they are 30 and 40 and 50 and 60, they are agents of change and they believe in themselves. In which way would you change your today actions when you take a view of years, a view of lifetime? Apply it to your job. Will I be proud of this job in 10, 20 years to come? Different time frame.

The other way you can think differently is by choosing different variables. Exercise, I go to exercise to lose weight, you will not go to the gym anymore because you will lose motivation. Instead, take a different variable. I go to the gym feel great and energized today and enthusiastic, because if I feel enthusiastic I will do a great job that will have great impact in the future. Then you stand up and go to the gym.

Different metrics to the decisions that you are analyzing. Different metrics that will lead you to different outcomes. See these contrarian decisions like quitting your job, like dropping out of school, like divorcing, like marrying, like, like having a child, like not having a child, like changing continent. All these really non-mob decisions, decisions that are really based on your own thinking, decisions that really come your own grounding as person, from your own alignment of what is the most creative, the most compassionate and the most courageous, are really contrarian. Because they come out from you, they come out from you. They are truly authentic.

So decide today to live in complete abundance. Let go of the mob and going where everybody else is doing with the fear of missing out, enjoy the joy of missing out, enjoy the stillness of flying like an eagle. 

If you like this video, please do like it, give it a thumbs up and of course subscribe to the channel. And if you like this video, please share it, share it with their friends particularly those who are struggling, just following the crowd. And by all means, come over to my blog so that you share with us how you are changing the world, how you're going to start flying like an eagle, how you are starting to think and act in a contrarian, in an authentic way. And as always, I say goodbye reminding you to be all in.