Happy New Year! A couple days ago I met up with my friend Jacob from Dallas. He is here in Thailand traveling on vacation. Four months ago we talked about meeting up here and I am very happy and grateful that our plans worked out. Last night Zach Jacob and I went to the famous full moon party on Haad Rin Beach. First of all Haad Rin Beach is such a beautiful beach. It is about a 1.5 km beach that is super wide and surrounded by mountains on both sides. I started thinking about the criteria which makes a beach great. Depth of sand, quality of sand, color of water, surrounding fauna...As I mentioned earlier I have barely drank or gone out at all on this trip so I was skeptical at first if this world famous Full moon party would be fun. Typically the party only occurs on the full moon, but they put on a special edition for the new year. Long story short it lived up to the hype and was really fun. There were so many different genres of music you can listen to in different areas and walk around the whole beach. It was almost like a small little city. There were over 5000 people for sure. I jumped a rope burning with fire and got burnt a little. There were various activities and things to do. Now that being said, I do not like partying much. Typically the type of people partying attracts are not the ones you want to be surrounded with for growth. To grow into a true respected man you have to distinguish yourself as distinct from the herd with immoveable values. In 2025 I really intend to cut out drinking and going out for the health and growth reasons. In 2024 I believe I was really good at this as well and want to keep it up as I continue to level up. Today I just finished reading my book The Black Tulip, by Alexandre Dumas, and it was fantastic. Zach also read a book by this author titled, The Count of Monte Cristo. In both of these books the idea of aristocracy is brought up a lot. This relates to the thoughts I just detailed about distinguishing yourself as a man with immovable values distinct from the masses. In medieval Europe, the aristocracy was a cornerstone of the feudal system, a hierarchical structure where land was the primary source of wealth and power. The various classes rarely mixed or intermarried, creating distinct identities and authorities. Fast forward a couple hundred years and the feudal system does not exist anymore in the west, for better or for worse. Now, important and interesting ideas can be taken from the concept of aristocracy and the feudal system. If you desire to make a respected empire out of you and your family, you must hold yourself to certain values and sacrifice certain things that others cannot or are not willing to do. In the modern sense, for example, that means separating yourself from modern party culture. Now when you do that you create a "class distinction" between two sets of people. You should be careful not to look down upon anyone as the feudal system did, but to create everyone with compassion and respect for where they are at. When you create a set of values that hopefully promotes a life of growth and respect, you inevitably create a distinction between who, where and what you will associate with. You never saw a Royal Monarch gambling at the local bar with the towns people right? Now, interestingly enough, the class system does exist in some places, meaning it is not an antiquated phenomenon. The caste system in India shares similarities with feudalism in that it is a hierarchical structure that historically divided society into rigid, hereditary groups. However, it is fundamentally different in its origins, basis, and persistence in the modern era. I recommend everyone to research the caste system of India since I do not want to expand on it too much here. We leave this beautiful island life for the peninsula of Phuket tomorrow for 5 more days. This is the final stretch here in the south of Thailand and with my travels with Zach. I hope to enjoy the last days together and to begin 2025 off with a bang. Here is to creating a noble, respected empire for my family and future family.
