I just finished a more than one month trip to America.

Always interesting to be back to make observations.

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, about 15 miles from Washington, D.C.

I visited that area again, and I got to tell you, it's absolutely amazing what unfettered

government spending, government welfare can do to an area.

If a government has an unlimited checkbook and spends and spends and spends. People who live in that area

will think they are rich. And perhaps they end up having a lot more money than they otherwise

would have had. That's a fact. But it's disgusting.

Because at the end of the day, all of us are driven, whether we admit it or not, in the one life that we have so far, we are driven to create, we are driven to make.

We are not only driven to take. If you live a life of only taking,

man, I sound really heated already to start the new year. What the hell? I am heated. But if you are

driven to only take, what are you? You're not the type of person that wants to listen to me.

I look up to the achievers.

My mentors have all been achievers.

Novel approaches to the markets.

Novel approaches to business.

Work hard, often, alone, inspired to make something great happen.

Now, there's no guarantee you will be the next Elon Musk, obviously, but you still strive. You still push.

When you go back to the Washington, D.C. area, you can feel it.

Millions of people on the dole, whether those people consider themselves rich or poor.

They are all on the dole. They are all taking.

They are all pretending.

...