Warren Buffet, one of the world’s richest men, was recently quoted as saying: “When everyone is greedy, you should be fearful.   And, when everyone is fearful, you should be greedy.”   Most people will have heard of Warren Buffet – in the same way that everyone immediately recognises names like Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela.

Why?   Because none of them is normal – they stand apart from normal people.   Their exploits in their chosen field or fields puts them head and shoulders above the average person.   They use their minds differently from normal people who, research tells us, really don’t use their minds at all.  

Buffet’s quote hints at how you and I, anyone with a mind to, can become abnormally successful – he suggests that we should do the opposite to what everyone else is doing.   By definition, all the sheep, doing the same thing, are ‘normal people’.   And, remember, decades of research both sides of the Atlantic estimate that the normal person uses about 1% of their mental capability.   Gurdy.Net explains how, as a result, normal people’s minds control them – not the other way around.   Normal people are, as a result, stark raving mad – their out of control.

Buffet’s quote was called to mind in the context of what has variously been described as the ‘credit crunch’, ‘the collapse of the global financial system’, ‘global financial meltdown’ – the end of life as we know it, for those journalists with an eye for a good story – bad news, good story!   I’d like to give you a few more quotes – or a couple more examples – in relation to what’s happened in world markets recently.  

The BBC’s international website, for four days in a row told us that “investors are fearful the financial crisis will prompt a global recession”.   Does anyone out there think that statement is bizarre?   Surely their own fear, if not causing, is fuelling a global recession.   According to a senior US investment strategist, “This is pure panic – that’s all it is”. And a leading Japanese stockbrokers, Shinko Securities said that “investors are gripped by fear”.

Users of the Gurdy Online Personal Development Seminars know what fear is – it is a useless thought.   In the context of the ‘global financial meltdown’, people are fearful that they will lose money – so they off-load their investments, to prove themselves right – the exact opposite to what one of the world’s richest men suggests!   Many years ago, the author, Susan Jeffers suggested that you ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.   But, what only a small number of exceptionally successful people realise is that there is no fear.   Just like lack of self-confidence, worry, doubt, nervousness – the list is endless – fear is a trick of the mind.

Don’t get me wrong.   I am not for one moment suggesting that we don’t have to deal with issues – small, large and global – regularly.   But the issues are not the challenge – the challenge is ‘how will we act in the face of those challenges?’ If you’re normal, using only 1% of your mental capability, you’re in no position to act – you’re not all there.   You will react – you’ll be fearful along with all the other normal morons.   And, when they’re greedy, you’ll go along with that as well.   You’ll follow the crowd, like sheep, thinking that it’s the right thing to do – everyone’s doing it!

And, of course, that’s what started the global financial crisis in the first place.   All the normal idiots were greedy at the same time.   Bankers saw other bankers buying so-called securitised sub-prime debt.   Bankers all over the world started doing it – so, using normal logic, it must be the right thing to do.

Anyone who’s read my CV will know that I was a banker.   In those days, when my bank considered buying another bank’s book of mortgages, we did what we called ‘due diligence’ – in other words we examined what we were buying from every angle to make sure that we knew what, in fact, we were getting.

But with sub-prime securities – the banks who were selling the securities weren’t even sure what they were selling – the buyers hadn’t got a clue.  But it promised a good return and everyone was doing it – everyone got greedy together.   In discussing this with a few of my banker clients recently, I compared the manner in which banks bought sub-prime debt to a Mercedes Main Dealer buying a container load of second-hand cars – without knowing what make they were, whether they worked or not – without even knowing if they’d an engine and four wheels!   But, when the Mercedes dealer bought one – the BMW dealer wanted one to – everyone wanted one. Is this madness or what?   Well paid, intelligent sheep – or, as it turns out, lemmings – all running together over the cliff.

In rounding this article off, let me quote the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet.   His advice to world markets is “Calm down”.   Now, this is not the same as the way you say ‘calm down’ to a hyperactive child.   This sounds to me as a piece of genuine, timely and, perhaps, abnormal advice.   Again, Gurdy members know the value of a calm mind.   And, if you stop to reflect on this for a moment, you might realise that you do too.

Which is the best form of action?   Action based on fear and panic or action driven by a calm, clear mind.  

In today’s world, where the reactions of panicked, fearful, mad, normal people, set off global chain reactions – from Wall Street, to Tokyo, to Frankfurt, to London and back to Wall Street again – a little calm would go a long way.   Why not calm down – to borrow from Warren Buffet, when everyone else is panicking, you should be calm.   You should be Gurdy.