Michael J. Marx's Blog

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I deserve what I want. I am entitled to it. Really? Living the dream without entitlement means being free of the pressure of absolutely having to have it your way.

I don’t believe entitlement is germane only to the current generation of young adults. It is a natural phenomenon to want more.  As a college professor I often receive calls and emails from students complaining of having gotten a low grade.

“You gave me a ‘C’ on that last paper,” says Denise.

“Yes,” I reply. “What is your strategy...

If you are like most people, you have a fear of having too little money. “Don’t worry, be happy” does not resonate with you because you know all too well what it means to be short on cash when you need it the most. This fear sometimes leads to peniaphobia – the fear of poverty.

Of all the fears which ruin the freedom felt by living the dream, being broke would probably rank the highest on the list of downers. Can you truly live with the feeling of freedom and emancipation when your mind is wo...

Coming to the final chapter of one’s life without regrets is a strong desire most of us have. Living the dream means living NOW in such a way that looking back is free of regrets.

When I was in my 20’s living in Berlin, our pastor cited a recent study done in retirement homes across the city. Essentially the study wanted to know, “What would you have done differently?” The highest-ranking answer was, “I would have taken on more risk.” This impressed me since the participants were the generat...

“There ought to be a law against that,” I often find myself saying. People do things that harm, hurt, or hinder other people and I, for one, often feel that it’s my job to point this out.

Having such a judgmental attitude does not make me a lot of friends. If fact, no one wants to be around someone who is usually snide, sarcastic and snarky. (Snarky is my new favorite word). Living the dream means to be free to enjoy life without the oppression of having to heap weight and worry onto the shou...

Putting honey on the hand of a three-year-old for a photo op with a wild bear is perhaps the best example of stupidity I’ve ever heard.  My wife’s step brother and friend saw this happen. Fortunately, they could scare away the bear by making a lot of noise. Then mother looked at them and said., “You ruined my picture!” People get ideas about something and don’t think through the potential consequences. 

Stupidity is not the opposite of smart. It is behaving without common sense or judgement....

As I write this, Hurricane Irma is bearing down on my son and his family. Also, to the north and to the south of me are wildfires burning 1000s of acres. Why worry? Most of the things we worry about never happen. Of those things which DO happen, they are usually not as bad as we expect. The chances of something going terribly wrong are very small.

The living-the-dream mindset is free of worry. Sure, we want to be ready for eventualities. It is a sign of foolishness to know a storm is coming a...

Living the Dream means being able to think and enjoy life with undue noise and distractions. Most of us desire to retreat to a place of solitude and calm comfort when we think of the dream life. If noise surrounds us, we can’t really relax. Sure, there are times when you just want to party with friends. For the most part, however, we dream of having a place on the beach or in the mountains where the loudest noises are bugs, wind, and the grill cooking steaks.

Turn the music off. Try it for a...

When I teach a business class, I often begin by telling the students, “My name is Michael Marx, and I’ll be teaching you capitalism.” They always laugh. However, one Russian student commented to me about two weeks later, “Wow, you really are a capitalist!”

Karl Marx developed an economic theory that allows people to pursue their dream without the encumbrance of unfair capital gain. Unfortunately, this does not work in the composite because the human animal is driven by need for more. More stu...