Is It “Realistic” To Achieve Financial Independence?

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You bet it is!

And it’s time to declare your own Independence Day.

It’s a holiday week here in the U.S., and everyone is talking about “Independence Day”.

I am, too…but as usual, probably a little differently than everyone else.  

That’s right…instead of droning on about the fourth of July (although I might get to that a bit later) I want to talk about one of my favorite kung fu masters, and his famous movie coincidentally entitled, Independence Day.

So who is this kung fu master? Have you guessed? You may not immediately think “kung fu” when you hear his name, but this man is a kung fu MASTER and embodies true kung fu (remember, kung fu literally means “excellence in any skill achieved through hard work and practice”.)

If the movie title didn’t already give it away, I’ll tell you now…it’s Will Smith.

(And yes, I have a teeny-tiny celebrity crush on him…don’t tell Kung Fu Guy, LOL!)

Will Smith has amazing kung fu.

He’s got tremendous music kung fu, acting kung fu, and living kung fu…and apparently pretty darned good parenting kung fu, as Jackie Chan once said that Will Smith’s son and “Kung Fu Kid” co-star Jaden Smith’s dedication to martial arts puts that of his own son to shame.

(And Kung Fu Guy just read this and wants me to add that he also married a lady with awesome kung fu herself…Jada Pinkett Smith, of arguably the best modern-day kung fu movie, The Matrix, fame!).

Oh, and Will Smith is definitely financially independent…not to get all nosy into his life (sorry Will) but Forbes places his recent net worth at $215 million. Not too shabby!

So how does he do it? Is he just luckier than everybody else?

Well, as an African American, you could easily argue “no”, sadly, and he certainly wasn’t “born into money”—his mom worked for the Philadelphia School Board and his dad was a “refrigeration engineer”. They separated when he was 13 and later divorced, so he didn’t come from a “perfect family”, either.

Is he better educated than the rest of us?

Nope…he never went to college.

So what is it? Why is he a gazillionaire while so many of the rest of us struggle?

Well, when you ask him what he attributes his amazing success to, this is what he says (the embodiment of true kung fu):

“I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel, is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. When the other guy’s eating, I’m working…

The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on the treadmill together, right, there’s two things: either you’re gettin’ off first, or I’m gonna die. It’s really that simple.” – Will Smith, Kung Fu Master

And it really is that simple.

I’ve written about this time and again, but the luckiest among us work the hardest and practice the most.

Quoting my other favorite kung fu master, Bruce Lee,

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” — Bruce Lee

Word.

But is it “realistic” to be able to achieve financial independence?

Well, once again I agree with Will Smith on this one…

“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity. Why would you be realistic? What’s the point of being realistic? … It’s unrealistic to walk into a room and flip a switch and light comes on. That’s ‘unrealistic’. Fortunately Edison didn’t think so.

It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to bend a piece of metal, and fly people over an ocean in that metal. That’s ‘unrealistic’. But fortunately, the Wright Brothers and others didn’t believe that. And it just seems like such a ridiculous idea to me to embrace the idea that it’s not gonna happen, that it’s not real for that to happen, because as soon as you say that, now you’ve just made that real.” – Kung Fu Master Will Smith

YOU create your own reality.

It is absolutely possible, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to achieve financial independence.

(But like Will and Bruce and yours truly say, it’s not necessarily “easy”.)

But why settle for mediocrity?

Instead, get on out there and declare your OWN independence day…I promise you won’t regret it!

And if you want to hear Will in his own words (I highly recommend it), you can do so here:

To your financial success,

—Kung Fu Girl

P.S. Big thanks to FinerMinds for finding this awesome Will Smith YouTube clip!

Tagged as: Bruce Lee, financial independence, Independence Day, kung fu, Will Smith

About the Author:

Susan Fujii, aka kungfugirl, is an SEC Accredited Investor who believes that anyone can learn to be financially independent.

Susan has authored 199 posts on Kung Fu Finance, and you can connect with her on Google+.

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