Empires are built from within, not from without. When the world is filled with danger and uncertainty, you shouldn’t be looking to that same world for rescue. You need to put your own house in order first.
Take the smallest possible sphere of influence you can manage, and begin there. Often, this simply means your own mind, body, and soul. Be healthy, be ready, and be disciplined. From there, you can move to things like your job, your (literal) house, or your family. If all that is in place, you can work on your community or the institutions important in your life.
But that means looking within, first, always. If you don’t have enough money, then look for ways to earn more and spend less, not ways to borrow or beg. If a particular kind of hurt befalls you, then look for ways to insulate yourself from that hurt, not for ways to attack the source.
We sometimes play offense when we should be playing defense. We try to score a point when we’re losing ten every day because our own house isn’t in order. The world is full of danger and doubt and always will be, but your life doesn’t have to be.
When your house is in order (and this is a relative term, as you’ll never be perfect or complete), the next step is not to endanger that order by going out on the offensive. You don’t build a position of power to attack from it; you build a position of power to benefit from it. So the next step is to use your vantage point to find like-minded souls. Look for others with houses in order whose values you share. Bond with them. Form families and clans. Grow love and fellowship together.
If you wish to raise children, this is how to do it. Even if you don’t plan on having any, this is how you form a connection that will surround your life with meaning and joy. It comes from this, and only this.
Start with making your house into one that you would bond with. Be someone worthy of that connection, and the connections will come. To thine own house, be true.
The Opportunity Machine 