Faith in infinite intelligence. I think this is a perspective, or a vantage point that drives most successful people. Now some of you will relate this to a belief in God or other higher power, which is fine. The point is that faith in something greater, an intelligence beyond your own is an essential ingredient behind human endeavor. There are many byproducts or results from consideration of infinite intelligence that you may not realize. As I was running this morning, I contemplated this thought and came up with the following.
1. Confidence – When you have faith in something infinite, that gives you confidence in your own journey. The belief that something infinite exists, gives you the confidence to know that all things are possible. In a sea of infinite possibility, you would certainly consider your journey as also limitless. This should give you the reassurance to try, to push forward, to take risks, to go for it.
2. Accepting Failure – Belief in the infinite gives you an entirely different perspective regarding failure. In a line of infinity, any one given failure seems to pale in comparison to the entire journey. Small bumps in the road seem hardly noticeable as you sojourn through space and time. Failure is perceived as a small mark of progression rather than any sort of set back.
The image attached to this blog is a view of the U.S. Stock Market for the last 100 years. The first big jump is in 1929, just before the crash that led to the Great Depression. Incidentally, this is the time that Warren Buffett was born. I was thinking about this faith in infinite intelligence concept in terms of stock market investment. If you believe in the infinite, then any investment that you make is considered valuable. Therefore there is no real secret to Warren Buffett’s fortune. He simply invested in companies that would survive for a long period of time and look at the results. $1 invested in and around 1930, in the S&P 500 would be worth about $6,000 today if you invested in average performance companies. If you invested in growth companies, you would be looking at a dollar being worth $27,000. So any investment plan, that followed just basic principles would have made anyone putting $100 in the market worth over 1 Million in their lifetime.
3. Long Term Investments – Which leads me to this point. Anyone who has faith in the infinite is making long term investments all the time. Investments in things that do not corrupt are more common in these people. Investments in education, family, community, and society are more common. I always find it interesting that the people that have decided to give their wealth away before they die (Carnegie, Gates) end up accumulating even more during this process. The law of return seems to follow those that have faith in the infinite. Now you can argue that some modern people like Gates tend to be more agnostic in their views, but I am not talking about a religious view here. I am talking about faith in the infinite, even if that means infinite possibility.
4. Humility – Humility is a really important characteristic in ways that I just cannot explain. With few exceptions, the memorable people of the world that have been attributed to some sort of long lasting benefit to human society were considered examples of humility. For some reason, this trait, above all others, bonds people together. A person who recognizes the infinite, realizes their place in the sea of possibility and does not over extend themselves. They have tremendous confidence, but not so much that it becomes over bearing. I would say that humility is not something that can be achieved, it is something that comes as a result of exercising faith in something greater than self.
There is more I am sure. I am pondering this idea more carefully this week. I think the concept of infinite intelligence is inspiring to build, to create, to grow. To seek to achieve for the purposes of experience and not for any temporary gain. The more faith we have in this infinite intelligence, the more we will exhibit the characteristics of success.
Guy Reams
