I have much reverence for Tesla – not the car company or the car (although I appreciate them) but instead the man they are named after – Nikola Tesla. In fact I have a picture of him (along with three other people) in my office.

Tesla is responsible for creating alternating current, the AC motor, a one way valve with no moving parts, the tesla coil, radio, and many many others.

Why do I mention him?

One of the things that he came up with was the concept of a remote-controlled vehicle. There are probably millions of nine year olds that have at least one remote-controlled vehicle in their toybox, leaking battery acid because it has been ignored in lieu of the newest thing. From racing drones, to little helicopters to RC cars to weaponized drones the size of your car remotely piloted by the air force – it’s a ubiquitous concept.

We get it, now

To understand the concept of a remote controlled drone you have to understand that the remote control sends out a radio signal which controls the drone. You have to understand that these signals can’t go through large bits of metal, that your frequency has to be different than someone else’s frequency lest you get interference. You get that it has a finite range.

You might even understand that there is going to be a little lag, and that you don’t fly your drone over a moving train because the train on the metal tracks generates interference and you just might lose your expensive drone.

But it wasn’t always like that.

When Tesla talked to others about his idea for a remote-controlled device they didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. They couldn’t envision it. They couldn’t because there are a lot of concepts to grasp to get the idea as a whole, like we just went through above. Tesla, immersed in electricity (sometimes literally), radio, and technology found it very easy to understand it because he already knew the supporting concepts.

Why do I tell you this? Because there are concepts that we encounter that you might not get immediately. Sometimes you have to explore and embrace the foundational concepts. In fact some of the most meaningful things in your life started out by first understanding the supporting concepts and building up to this very important thing in your life.

Enter Alchemy for Life™. Yeah, shameless plug. I realize that the concept of Alchemy and Alchemy for Life sits very comfortably in my heart and mind, because I understand all of the supporting concepts. Just like when you think of a remote-controlled drone, you get all the supporting concepts.

So I realized I have to keep that in mind when I talk to people about “having balance” and “Alchemy” that they may not get that life is made of Time, Energy and Resources, and those elements are spent of the five facts of life.

My experience has been that when people get the foundational concepts, one by one they really are amazed. The challenge is getting them there. Like anything complex but not complicated, you have to make sure people are understanding the basic foundational concepts first.

How you do the above makes all the difference in the world, but the fact that you do it is what sets you on the path.