The biggest lie we tell ourselves: Turkey is unstable

For those of you who don’t know, I live in Turkey, have for 20 years.

One of the things I hear most often, and have been hearing for every single one of those 20 years, is some version of “Turkey is unstable, long-term planning is not possible here.” It is most often used as an excuse for doing nothing.

And yet, the Republic of Turkey has been here for over 100 years. The Ottoman Empire was here for 500 years before that. Hell, if I hop in my car and drive for an hour, I can see ruins that are 2500 years old.

One of my clients is a Turkish life insurance company. Their entire business is to estimate the average age of death and, based on that information, give people (or, more probably, their families) money when they die. You win some, you lose some, but at the end of the day, if you plan it right, it nets out to some money in your pocket.

Don’t waste your time looking at the ground shifting beneath you. That’ll just cause you to feel dizzy. Look for something that is stable, and build your plan off that.

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