I spent this weekend—as part of my first vacation in three years*—literally watching trains go by every few hours.
We got back home late last night, but this morning, I watched a video from a fellow and he asked a question that hit me like one of those freight trains: “What if laziness is the habit of thinking about the cost of things or the effort rather than the outcomes?”
Friends, that question may have exposed the cancer that eats at the heart of forgotten America.
I learned this lesson the hard way. A few years ago, I caught myself doing the math on everything.
Should I write that tough essay for The O’Leary Review or talk about something “controversial” on the Brian D. O’Leary Show? Well, the research would take hours, and the blowback from our so-called “elites”—progressive or otherwise—is usually fierce.
Should I mentor that young entrepreneur struggling with his first venture? That means sacrificing my Saturday morning routine and some precious time with the children.
Should I call out the cultural Marxists destroying our institutions? If I did… think of the professional consequences.
I was calculating costs instead of counting victories.
The point is: Don’t do that.
This type of poisonous thinking spreads because our enemies have weaponized comfort against us. While we’re tallying the price of resistance, they’re seizing ground. While we’re wondering if it’s worth the effort, they’re rewriting the rules. While we’re measuring our energy expenditure, they’re measuring their territorial gains.
It is indeed a culture war.
The warrior saints understood what we’ve forgotten. St. Ignatius of Loyola prayed, “Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve. To give and not to count the cost.” That prayer built an empire of souls when Spanish steel could not.
As far as America is concerned, Washington didn’t calculate the cost of crossing the Delaware. He calculated the cost of not crossing it.
Ike didn’t weigh the effort of storming the beaches in Normandy. He weighed the consequences of letting evil triumph.
But here we sit, a nation of accountants where what we need are warriors—and not those just of the keyboard variety.
Ask: Have we traded the backbone that built America for the bookkeeping that’s burying it?
Maybe there is too much cost-benefit analysis going on out there. Maybe not. I am not sure.
If the worry about costs is so burdensome, though, the antidote is brutal simplicity: Dream about the outcomes and don’t worry about the inputs.
Ask not what it costs but what it produces. The question is not about whether you have the energy. It’s about whether you have the will.
As I’ve learned by building my businesses and raising five children, our enemies don’t count costs. They count conquests.
It’s time we did the same.
Ready to stop calculating and start conquering? Let’s talk strategy.
As always,
Brian
P.S. – *Our vacation was a last-minute affair. We decided to drive over 600 miles with less than 18-hours notice. One of the reasons I didn’t write last week. I’d like to say it is a reason, but it is an excuse.
But… I had a wonderful time with my family, and I wouldn’t have changed it.
