One of the things that makes productive people so wildly optimistic in a rational way, in the current age is the realization that there simply are no gatekeepers anymore for most of human history. so few people have access to creating for most of human history, there was no way of communicating ideas. So you couldn't write a book because there's no such thing as books. You couldn't get on TV, there was no such thing as TV. Things evolved over time. And if you are wealthy enough and powerful enough, and you could claim to speak for someone above, you could have scrolls written.

At some point the printing press came about and again, if you could claim to speak on behalf of some spirit or some religion, you gained access, or if you were a king, you gained access to communicating your ideas, but everyone else was basically shut out. You had to To be a farmer, you had to be a hunter. That was it. Those were your career choices. So your productivity was, how many bear Do you want to catch today? And that was the extent of your option for being productive.

Things evolved a great deal with the enlightenment. And it got to the point where it broadened up the theory wasn't anyone could share ideas. After the Enlightenment that anyone could write books, anyone could have a say so anyone could run for office. As a practical matter, it was limited to a few of the elite. Yeah, anyone could write a book, but only a few thousand people did each year until just a couple of decades ago. Yeah, anyone can create computer programming.

But it just so happened that Bill Gates grew up in a place where he was one bus ride away from one of the few computers available to people outside of the university when he was growing up as a kid and CF. Washington. So it was accidents of birth, where you were born, that control of your destiny, who you knew where your parents went to college so that you could get into college and these were the gatekeepers. So it was no longer just about this represent a particular King or religion. But still 99% of the world was shut out of creating books, Craig software, creating new products, creating new services. That's gone now.

All those gatekeepers are gone, you can be just a kid, no connections, no power, no influence, no insider knowledge living in a small town in Canada and become wildly successful and famous if you're Justin Bieber and you just make music videos and put it on YouTube. And you can look at example after example in field after field, whether it's music, literature nonfiction writing, online courses, any instrument, the world is a different place. Because thanks to the internet, thanks to various companies like Amazon, like YouTube, like Facebook, as many problems as they have, and they do cause some problems. They also have created so many opportunities for anyone who's productive, to produce a new product, a new service and instantly market it to the whole world. To have an instant client basic customer base around the world that has never happened in the history of the world.

In the past, your customers were limited to people who live within five or 10 miles of you. That's the vast history of human beings on this earth. And then the last couple of years if you happen to be near a port, London, Hong Kong, New York City Well, then you could trade your products to people around the world. But still it was costly. You had to have an awful lot of other players sign off on you, you needed financial backing, you need distributors, you need other partners to make that work. None of that applies anymore.

And that's why productive people are so happy and excited to be living in this modern world. Because the gatekeepers are gone, the biggest gatekeeper now. yourself simply getting motivated to create things to produce to actually be productive. Because if you have a new product, a new service, a new blog, post, a new podcast, a new song, you create it, you put it out there, you get feedback. You get fans, after a while you get customers after that, while you Get a real business. And it's happening all over the world and it's happening in a more evenly distributed way.

Sure, it's still a lot better and easier if you grow up. United States or Western Europe don't want to suggest it's a completely level field. But these days, there are successful entrepreneurs, from virtually every country in the world succeeding, and they don't have to move to another continent and disrupt their whole family and they're like, they can stay where they are and be productive. That's what's so exciting. That's what's genuinely different. Now, does that mean the world's great for everyone?

No, and everyone is fantastic and wealthy. There's no inequality? No, doesn't mean that does mean if you're ambitious. If your desire is to be supremely productive, you're no longer locked out just because where you were born? what you look like, what your education level is. The gatekeepers have lost power.

And now the power is going to people who have the most initiative and the most focus and for productive people. That is pure, pure joy.