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4/2/2017 Bruce Lee achieved all his life goals by his death at 32 by committing to one personality trait — Quartz

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CONFIDENCE MAN

Bruce Lee achieved all hislife goals by his death atage 32 because of onepersonality traitCharles Chu March 16, 2017

Bruce had vision. (Reuters/Aaron Tam)



In 1969, nobody expected a thin Asian man with a high pitched voice to becomeone of the most in uential characters of the 20th century.

Nobody knew, that is, except Bruce Lee.

That year, Bruce Lee wrote a letter to himself:

My De nite Chief Aim

I, Bruce Lee, will be the rst highest paid Oriental super star in the United States.In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best ofquality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame andfrom then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. Iwill live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee Jan. 1969

Four years later, he was dead.

But in those four years, Bruce achieved everything he said he would and more. At32 years of age, he had already changed the fate of lm and martial arts forever.

Bruce’s letter is over owing with con dence. But where did this con dence comefrom? We may never know the whole answer, but Bruce’s writings — collected inbooks like Letters of the Dragon and Striking Thoughts — give us a clue.

In particular, let’s take a look at a letter written by Bruce Lee over a decade beforehis death, when he was still a 21-year-old student at the University of Washington.



As you read, try to hold an image in your mind of letter from a typical 21-year-old…

* * *

Dear Pearl,

This letter is hard to understand. It contains my dreams and my ways ofthinking, as a whole, you can call it my way of life. It will be rather confusing asit is dif cult to write down exactly how I feel. Yet I want to write and let youknow about it. I’ll do my best to write it clearly and I hope that you, too, willkeep an open mind in this letter, and don’t arrive at any conclusions till you are

nished.

There are two ways of making a good living, one is the result of hard working,and the other, the result of the imagination (requires work, too, of course). It is afact that labor and thrift produce a competence, but fortune, in the sense ofwealth, is the reward of the man who can think of something that hasn’t beenthought of before. In every industry, in every profession, ideas are what Americais looking for. Ideas have made America what she is, and one good idea will makea man what he wants to be.

One part of my life is gung fu. This art in uences me greatly in the formation ofmy character and ideas. I practice gung fu as a physical culture, a form of mentaltraining, a method of self-defense, and a way of life. Gung fu is the best of allmartial art; yet the Chinese derivatives of judo and karate, which are only basicsof gung fu, are ourishing all over the US. This so happens because no one hasheard of this supreme art; also there are no competent instructors…I believe mylong years of practice back up my title to become the rst instructor of thismovement. There are yet long years ahead of me to polish my techniques andcharacter. My aim, therefore, is to establish a rst Gung Fu Institute that will



later spread out all over the US (I have set up a time limit of 10 to 15 years tocomplete the whole project). My reason in doing this is not the sole objective ofmaking money. The motives are many and among them are: I like to let theworld know about the greatness of this Chinese art; I enjoy teaching and helpingpeople; I like to have a well-to-do home for my family; I like to originatesomething; and the last but yet one of the important is because gung fu is part ofmyself.

I know my idea is right, and therefore the results would be satisfactory. I don’treally worry about the reward, but to set in motion the machinery to achieve it.My contribution will be the measure of my reward and success.

Before he passed away, some asked the late Dr Charles P. Steimetz, the electricalgenius, in his opinion “What branch of science would make the most progress inthe next twenty- ve years?” He paused and thought for several minutes then likea ash replied, “spiritual realization.” When a man comes to a conscious vitalrealization of those great spiritual forces within himself and begins to use thoseforces in science, in business and in life, his progress in the future will beunparalleled.

I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater thanfaith, greater than ambition, greater than con dence, greater thandetermination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomesmagnetized with this domination force which I hold in my hand.

When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripplesthat expand until they encompass the whole pool. This is exactly what willhappen when I give my ideas a de nite plan of action. Right now, I can projectmy thoughts into the future, I can see ahead of me. I dream (remember thatpractical dreamers never quit). I may now own nothing but a little place down inbasement, but once my imagination has got up to a full head of steam, I can seepainted on a canvas of my mind a picture of a ne, big ve or six story Gung Fu



Absolute confidence

Institute with branches all over the States. I am not easily discouraged, readilyvisualize myself as overcoming obstacles, winning out over setbacks, achieving“impossible” objectives.

Whether it is the God-head or not, I feel this great force, this unstopped power,this dynamic something within me. This feeling de es description, and [there is]no experience with which this feeling may be compared. It is something like astrong emotion mixed with faith, but a lot stronger.

All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to nd the true meaning in life — peace of mind. I know that the sum of all the possessions I mentioned does notnecessarily add up to peace of mind; however, it can be if I devote [my energy] toreal accomplishment of self rather than neurotic combat. In order to achieve thispeace of mind, the teaching of detachment of Taoism and Zen proved to bevaluable….

Probably, people will say I’m too conscious of success. Well, I am not. You see,my will to do springs from the knowledge that I CAN DO. I’m only being natural,for there is no fear or doubt inside my mind.

Pearl, success comes to those who become success-conscious. If you don’t aim atan object, how the heck on earth do you think you can get it?

Warm regards, Bruce

* * *

Wow. There’s a lot to highlight here, but here’s what stood out the most to me:



Reward through contribution

Intense purpose

The most important personality trait in Bruce’s arsenal was con dence. Bruce hadabsolute con dence in himself, free from all fear or doubt. This was not innate, butdeveloped through years of mental and physical training.

Becoming a millionaire is the side effect of helping a million people. Your salary orin uence is not an end in itself, but an (imperfect) measure of your contribution tothe world.

Bruce called it “spiritual force,” but I prefer the word “purpose.” A lot of peoplespend their whole lives chasing the “what” and then worry about the “why” later.Instead, study the “why” rst (Bruce, for instance, studied philosophy in college)and everything else becomes easy.

You always hear people say that your belief de nes the limits of your possibility,but talk is cheap. Bruce Lee is one of the few that lived his life walking the walk:

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it willspread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are onlyplateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

The above letter came from Letters of the Dragon, a collection of Bruce Lee’s letterslled with practical wisdom, philosophical musings, and beautiful sketches of martial

arts techniques. This post originally appeared at Better Humans.



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#BLESSED

Where to read the nitty-gritty details of WhiteHouse employees’personal financesZoë Schlanger April 01, 2017

Steve Bannon made between $1.4 and $2.5 million last year. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)



The White House released the nancial details of some of its employees last night,painting a picture of spectacular wealth held by the Trump administration’s topstaff.

At a press conference Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer describedthe employees as “very blessed and very successful.” And now anyone can now seejust how blessed they are; ProPublica posted disclosures for 63 employees on apublic Google Documents folder, accessible here. Searchable versions of them areavailable on Document Cloud. BuzzFeed also uploaded 50 disclosures to DocumentCloud.

You can request the nancial details of a total of 180 White House employeesthrough the White House’s website, although responses are not immediate.(Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence’s personal nancial details are notincluded in this disclosure).

Trump’s cabinet is likely the wealthiest in U.S. history—his rst 17 cabinet picksboasted a combined $9.5 billion in wealth at the time they were appointed, morethan the wealth of a third of American households combined.

The disclosures provide more granular data on White House staffers, including thatSteve Bannon was worth as much as $40 million when he became senior counselorto president Trump.

Tweaking these numbers. Bannon earned between $1.4M and$2.5M in the last year. $545K of that came from Mercerlinkedentities. twitter.com/rebeccaballhau…5:23 PM 31 Mar 2017

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And despite selling off hundreds of real estate assets, Jared Kushner and IvankaTrump still hold as much as $740 million worth of real estate and businessinvestments (read Kushner’s disclosure). Kellyanne Conway, a top advisor to thepresident, made $800,000 last year as the head of her consulting agency; herclients included the Tea Party Patriots and the National Ri e Association.

They’re full of curious personal details too. Sean Spicer held held investments inMcDonalds, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Exxon Mobil—and seems to have taken outfour mortgages in the rst 60 days of 2017. His wife is the spokesperson for anational beer distribution trade group.

ProPublica editors teamed up with journalists at the Associated Press and the NewYork Times on Friday night to wade through bureaucratic red tape to access thedocuments, ProPublica deputy managing editor Eric Umansky explained onTwitter.

The White House made the staffers’ nancial documents “available,” he said, but“they didn’t actually post them…they required a separate request for eachdisclosure.” Because the White House didn’t list the names that were available, “Itwas like playing transparency bingo,” he said.

So ProPublica editor Tracy Weber thought to call up editors at other outlets to poolefforts, he said. Minutes later, the New York Times and Associated Press were onboard, and the three outlets began requesting documents simultaneously,Umansky said.

Obama’s White House also made employee nances accessible by request; Theirnancial disclosures can be found here.