In 2015, I marched for Bernie and donated to his campaign. In 2019, after years of being a miserable democratic socialist who blamed everyone else for my sadness, I decided that I couldn’t stand being a miserable fuck anymore, and needed to start taking risks and aggressively started doing stuff to change my life. I started working multiple jobs. I had 3 I was juggling at one point. I funded my life with one of them, and with the additional jobs, I invested all of my dollars in Palantir. It was honestly fun. Yeah, I worked 70 hours a week usually and sometimes would go 60 days without a day off, but it was exhilarating. I was making changes and doing things. It was way better than being miserable and angry and making my entire identity about politics and my disdain for “the rich.” Those were hopeless times and I was glad to be doing something for myself. I was able to grow a portfolio of 4,000 Palantir shares at an 8 dollar cost basis between 2021-2023. 32,000 dollars from hardcore grinding. Between 2023-2025, that 32 grand grew to over 400 grand. In May 2024 I started rotating some of the profits into TSLA, along with purchasing with new income. I’ve learned so much about capitalism since 2019, how wealth is created, and the difference between makers and takers. I’ve been inspired by so many amazing builders and entrepreneurs on this platform. I’ve even interacted with many of them. Totally surreal. Today, I cheered in my car as it drove me home when I heard that Elon’s pay package was approved. I voted my 750 shares on it with a huge grin on my face. If Elon gets paid 1 trillion dollars, I will be a multimillionaire. After all I’ve been through and after everything I’ve done for myself over the last 10 years, I look at this post by Bernie and know I would’ve cheered it on in 2015, but today, I see it for what it actually is. Manipulative, depressing rhetoric intended to depress a base of voters and make them feel hopelessly dependent on him and his colleagues. None of them build anything or create value or give working class people like me the opportunity to peg my labor against their genius. They did nothing but make me miserable. I hope even one person can read this get pumped to start doing shit. There are ups and downs, but it’s yours. Nobody can take your grind away from you. Kick ass and build over years of time and watch what happens along the way. Don’t listen to sad miserable people like Bernie.