"Why You Must Reward Yourself First to Learn a New Skill."

Why You MUST Reward Yourself to Learn a New Skill
• 1. Me: “Mike” (my 15 year old kid) do you know why Communism failed in the powerful Soviet Union?”

• 2. Mike: “I want to win a scholarship, ace the SAT, and land “Hot-Girls”, so Who-Cares? So-What? And WIIFM
(What’s In It For Me?)”

• 3. Me: “And that’s exactly why understanding why the second most powerful military system in the world fell like that ton-of-bricks. Their example gets you what you want.”

• 4. Mike: “Now I’m interested, but Pop, no theory or philosophy, just easy-and-quick facts.”

• 5. Me: “If you don’t give yourself or others Rewards, you don’t get what you want. That’s it in a nutshell. Listen and remember one thing and you be a Super-Star in school & in your career. Yes or no?”

• 6. Mike: “You write me out of your will, so yes.”

• 7. Me: “The Soviet Union started in October, 1917, and ended 74 years later in late December, 1991. Don’t remember this because it will only make you a Brainiac.

• They won the war with Germany in 1945, but lost 20-million soldiers. They were responsible for another ten million deaths of their own citizens. The Soviets were a military dictatorship. More?”

• 8. Mike: “Not really, I still don’t see WIIFM?”

• 9. Me: “Punchline: they went BANKRUPT, couldn’t pay their bills, and had a trade deficit internationally. Whatever they manufactured was crapola, didn’t work & fell apart. No Content and no return customers.”

• 10. Mike: “How can an empire go bankrupt? Does a collection agency come and take over all the buildings, factories and government?”

• 11. Me: “The motto of the employees was: “We pretend to work, and the gov’t pretends to pay us with worthless
Money.” The game continued for 74 years. And ended with a whimper.”

• 12. Mike: “Pop, I get it, Reagan kept raising the ante to fight the U.S. And they blinked first. Like Vegas. So what’s in it to help me win my game in school and career?”

• 23. Me: “They trained the Russians to believe in a LIE. You work for the good of the MASSES. YOU don’t count, it’s all for the Common Good. Communism ignores you.

• Reality, scientific fact. You must motivate yourself to do an excellent job. How? Rewards. You must motivate other people to help you, they must look forward to a Reward. No reward, no effort.”

• 24. Mike: “What kind of reward, money”

• 25. Me: “It could be a SMILE, a pat on the shoulder, a promotion, a bonus. Maybe a paid-for vacation. Medical
Insurance, a pension. Get this please: DOPAMINE, the pleasure hormone must be produced in YOU and others.

• We must for feeling good about ourselves, and that’s pleasure, and avoiding pain. It could be the pain of loss of Ego, Pride, personal power. No Dopamine, no successful effort.”

• 26. Mike: “And they gave the people Vodka to numb them, not incentives. And they went broke. Maybe I see it now.”

• 27. Me: “Motivation-Cognition-Willpower (persistence & determination). “True-Grit. No quit.”

• Reward a good effort with a vacation, supper dinner, new car, whatever is your idea of pleasure and a reward.”

• 28. Mike: “Let me think about it. I’m Googling the Soviet Union and see what I can use to win my rewards.”

• See ya, and regards to Makhail S. Gorbachev, who surrendered the Soviet Union and buried Communism. Dead & buried, and it should have been sooner.

Copyright © 2013, Bernard Wechsler

P.S. 1. “The faster you learn, the more you EARN.”
2. “You SNOOZE, you lose.”
3. “It’s the ECONOMY, stupid.
4. “Dopamine is the rewarding hormone.”
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