Why I don't talk about politics or social issues

This video is for all of you who sometimes feel guilty or tone deaf perhaps about not posting about the big social and political issues, or if you're wondering why I don't post about those things. All right, so let me give you a bit of background here. In college, I was a good progressive. I was part of the Green Party, attended meetings, helped to evangelize the politics. Because why wouldn't a decent person be part of the Green Party? Look at the values. It's about making sure Mother Earth is healthy, making sure people are fed and that they have all that they need to have a thriving life. It's about peace. Why would anybody not be part of the Green Party? I thought in college and over the years, I have also taken part in various political campaigns, worked hard to try to get this politician elected or that issue passed or not passed. And as I look back all these years of intense effort, in some cases, I see how little difference I made. Because, by the way, most, of course, the Green Party has gotten nowhere in those days. As of when I started 10, no, 20 plus years ago, it's gotten nowhere. Right. And most of the campaigns that I worked for didn't, didn't win. So I made relatively little impact. And I thought about how all that effort and time that went into all those campaigns, if I had instead invested that time and energy into building my own skills, building my own audience instead of another politician's audience, instead of some campaign's audience or political party's audience, if I had built my own audience 20 plus years ago, starting then, if I had known, I would have, because today my audience would have been even bigger. My skills at communication and joyful productivity would have been even stronger. My professional skills would be better, and I would have a far greater influence today than I do now. I think I do have a little bit of influence now, which I'm grateful for. But I would have a much bigger. If I had invested all that time in political parties and campaigns and social issues and combating racism and all in social injustice and all poverty and all that stuff. If I put all that into my own professional life and my own professional, personal development, I will be far more effective today in my career, in my health, maybe in my relationship. I would have a bigger network and audience. And then I would be able to make a far bigger difference politically and socially as well. You know, with the occasional issues that I want to champion. So I just want to. There is, it's a conscious decision on my part not to post about politics, social issues, global events, etcetera I know that some of you probably think I'm callous, tone deaf, insensitive, and you can think whatever you want. Feel free to judge me as much as you want. You're welcome to it. Because I have my reasons. And it's not that I don't care. And this is important. Everyone you see who doesn't post about politics or social issues, it's not that they're selfish and they don't care, or that they are cowards. It's popular. I mean, there's in part the great risk of putting out one's political positions and losing business, losing friends, etc. Etc. But it's not necessarily out of cowardice or insensitivity or lack of care. There are Everybody has their own reasons. I'm not going to say what their reasons are, but I'll tell you what my reasons are. Okay, a couple reasons. One is that honestly, politics has gotten more and more confusing for me over the years. Like I said, I used to be a good, decent Green Party. Not just decent, passionate, heartfelt, good for the world Green Party person. And then over the years I became more of a Democrat. Worked on the John Kerry campaign and the Obama campaign and became a good progressive AOC type of progressive. But then over the years, as years continue and I continue learning more about the world and about what seems to be effective in the world, I've become more and more libertarian. And I'll be honest, I'm outing myself now in terms of my political positions a little bit. Just enough to make us all uncomfortable. I've become more and more libertarian because I notice how ineffective government is for the most part. Well, I think a lot of entrepreneurs have noticed that compared to our own ability to manage ourselves and how everything government related is so bloated and so much legalese, unnecessary bureaucracy, et cetera, et cetera. So I've become more and more libertarian, yes, swinging from far left to I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm far right, but I am certainly much more centrist than I used to be. But here's the thing. I know some of you are probably aghast horrified about what I just said, maybe. Whether you are horrified I was Green Party or horrified that I'm more libertarian nowadays. This is why I don't post about politics, because I'm effing confused. The more I've learned about it and you say, george, let me tell you what the truth is. Let me tell you what's right. You know, here's the reality is that I have smart friends, very, like, just very good at philosophy or they're good at relationships and they're good at business, or they're good at being good to the people around them. Smart, caring people around me who believe in completely opposite political issue political sides. And some of them believe completely differently than me. And like, how can you, being such a smart and caring and sensitive person and well read and well traveled and how can you believe that? You know? And the same thing that they would say to me, how can you believe that? See, it all depends on our news sources. Now I might call your news source fake news and you might call my news sources fake news. One person's truth. My truth is your propaganda and your truth is what I consider propaganda. Who's right? My point of view about this is that we'll never know unless we are literally on the ground experiencing those issues firsthand. Then we can talk about our personal experience, yet we can't talk about the second and third order consequences of. There are scholars on both sides, whether progressive or conservative, who are extremely smart, have studied on all these different things and can tell you why the other side is completely wrong. The reality is that I don't know. The more I learned, the more I have to say I don't know because I don't know. I don't want to divide people further. Now you might say, george, you just got to come out with your position and lose some clients, lose some fans and gain more, gain ones who believe in your politics. But I'm like, I don't know whether my position is correct or not. And I don't want to spend the time and the energy to go down those rabbit holes knowing that there are scholars on both sides who have already done that and they still disagree. And I have friends who have gone down rabbit holes on both sides and they greatly disagree. So it's. I think it's ridiculous. You know what? I'm going to spend time and energy on the things that I know make the most impact in my career, my health, my relationships, the skills that I have that help you directly the most, not your politics or not some social issue, whether it's racism, climate change, Ukraine, Whatever political or social issues, the more if I were to post about those things, here's what I know to be true. Whatever I post about that you consume will shift your mind in that direction. Today I have that influence over those of you who are watching this, just as you have influence over anybody who reads your social media posts, including your friends and your family. Okay, we influence each other in terms of what direction of thought and emotion to go into. So having thought about all this, I'm like, no, I would rather influence you, especially on this channel, to think more about your authentic business success, about your joyful productivity, about your healthy money, about your consistency of creating content that helps your audience, et cetera, et cetera. I want to keep hammering those ideas in, even in the midst. Right now, I'm recording this in the midst of a horrible war in Ukraine. I'm recording this, I think, at the second or third week of the Ukraine, Russia war. And I get it. Everyone wants to talk about it, everyone wants to read about it. Everyone wants to listen to podcasts about it. I do, too. It's very hypnotic. It's very. It wants to take all. It wants to suck up all the energy and airtime. I am rebelling against that and against Black Lives Matter, against climate change, against gerrymandering, against poverty, against. I'm rebelling against all the issues that I know if I were to post about it, I have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny impact. And yet I have to defend myself, justify my views. Sometimes I have to read enough to appear like I'm knowledgeable. It's effing ridiculous. Judge me however you want. I am not effing knowledgeable about any of it. Because the more I read, the more, especially if I'm willing to read both sides or thirds, all three or fourth or eight sides. The more. The more, like, I don't know, because I'm not the scientist. I'm not the on the ground person who actually did this research. So I don't know if that's science. How do. How the hell do I know if that science is accurate? Because the other side says that science is fake and this side, everything, right? So the only thing I know is that the. The earth is probably not flat because I have traveled around the world, right? And I've seen the curvature, you know, so it's like the only thing I know is that gravity exists. How about that? Because I can drop my phone and it falls right to the table right here. That's all I know. And. And I also know a lot about joyful productivity because I freaking practice it every day. I also know something about authentic. I practice it every single day. I have direct connection to that experience. I know something about healthy money because I practice it every day. And I've learned how to grow in those areas. I know the things that I talk about because of direct experience. And I can see the second and third order Benefits because I look at my clients and they apply things and they see the benefits and they see their own, you know, clients and their, their connections and their audience benefit. So I talk about the things that have direct experience in social, political, global issues. You think you know everything. You, you think you're strong in, in what you, you view because, because of your news sources, you're only reading, almost certainly you're only reading the side that makes you, that justifies your beliefs. Yeah. Now I know a little something about this indirect experience because my wife and I disagree extremely on various political positions. And I've decided, you know what? I want to stay married and happy. And none of these political social issues impact our lives directly. None of them. Almost none of them. And the ones that do, we talk a lot more about, obviously. So anyway, that's one reason why I don't post about it, because I don't believe that I am in a position to know the truth and share positions that might ultimately be wrong. Because like I said, the more I read about both sides, the more confused I am. Okay, number one, Number two is that I want to influence you to do the same in terms of focusing more on your personal success. Now, you might judge me and say, george, that's selfish. There's so much suffering in the world. Why are you focusing on personal success? Because here's why. Most of the people I see around me who are posting about politics and social issues and stuff like that, most of them I know, if they spent even half of the time thinking about political social issues and invested that in their own personal success, they would be happier, healthier, and they would have a bigger influence, which ironically would allow their social causes to be even more successful. That's my educated guess about why many of us are investing our time and energy wastefully. And why, why do we do it? Because it's so damn hypnotic. Because it's, it's, it's news, obviously. If it's all over the news and you consume the news, that's your mind share. Your mind share and your heart share is going all over the place, all over to, to things that you have tiny impact. Is why. Because the news sources are making money selling you ads. Okay, Number one. Number two is that, you know, the, the, it divides people. When people post about these things, they post from a. I know what I'm talking about. No, no one post was like, I'm supporting this side or that's that campaign or this social issue and say, I don't really know what the fuck I'm talking about, but I'm going to support this. I know no one says that everyone is an expert when they post about this issue or that issue or they seem so righteous. I am just, I am compassionate and you aren't. If you don't believe this or if you don't, you know, if you don't side on our side, you're not either compassionate or just or responsible or, you know, good for the world essentially. So instead of sowing division among my network, I want to sow unity. Unity. For if each of us took care of our mental health, each of us ignored. And I want to say the reason why we're so caught up in the news and social issues, like I said, because it's very hypnotic, it's everywhere. And also the other reason is that we feel like we need to say something otherwise we look insensitive, uncompassionate, tone deaf, callous, not with the times or not really know what's happening. And therefore, like I said, heartless person or tone deaf person. You know what? I'm just going to fucking say it. You can call George Kao tone deaf, callous, insensitive, heartless, uncompassionate, unjust. Call me that, all right? And let me be the model of a tone deaf social media influencer. I will put myself in the firing lines. Oh, I'm not posting about stuff because look at George. He's super fucking tone deaf and insensitive and uncallous, cusses in his videos and never posts about Black Lives Matter or climate change or Ukraine or whatever. Never post about that stuff. He must be a racist. He must be because he said he's libertarian. So he must be a white supremacist, racist, unwoke, insensitive, doesn't care except about greed and money. Call me that, please, please do. And let me be the model of someone like that because it's going to create cognitive dissonance in your mind. Go. Wait, that's not true. I know George. I watch his videos and he clearly is caring. He clearly cares about his audience and about his clients, about his fans. He clearly want, wants to help us make better lives and better world. So what? What's going on? I want to create that cognitive dissonance within you when you realize that maybe there is a different way. Maybe we don't have to all post about social things. Now I'm not saying that the person, you know, I have, I have definitely have friends and clients and colleagues who obviously are also smart, caring people who post about social issues and Everybody, everybody. You know, I say more power to them. If they want to do it, go for it. It's just that I want to just show a model a different way. I'm not saying my way is right or wrong. Let me ultimately say this. I'm not saying that what I'm doing is right or wrong, but I'm at least modeling a different way to say I'm going to be callous and insensitive and tone deaf and not post about those things. Ukraine war, you know, when it first started. Here I am posting about creating content and joyful productivity and all that stuff. I don't fucking care. You can call me whatever you want, judge me however you want to, unfollow me, unsubscribe whatever you want. It's all good. But I will be still be here being a model of what it means to, in my opinion, focus our energies, rebel against the media, rebel against social media, rebel against everyone else judging us and resenting, not resenting, judging us and calling us tone deaf, rebel against all that and post about the things that we have direct experience in and we believe is going to help our audience, our clients, our readers and viewers the most from our own experience. So I hope this is helpful, or at least this is entertaining and shows a different way of doing it. So thank you for watching. Like I said, I'm still confused about politics. I'm not saying libertarian or progressives, right? I don't know. Both are right in their own ways. I don't know. And please stop, don't educate me because you think you know. You don't. You know because you haven't read all the books in the world, have you? Have you read every article in the world? Then how do you know? Have you experienced the every single person's point of view? No, you haven't. So you don't know. And have you thought through 100 order of consequences? None of us have. So I'm very agnostic when it comes to politics. But like I said, I want us to focus, focus, focus on the things that we have a direct experience, improve the lives of ourselves, our friends, family, clients, colleagues and fans. And I think the world will be a much better place, in my opinion. All right, so thank you for watching and I wish you well, I really do. And I'll see you in the next video.