"Diego, what do you think of the situation in Venezuela?"

I know people who, despite being unhappy or disagreeing with Venezuela’s situation over the past decades, have worked tirelessly to start from scratch, build, and produce. And they’ve succeeded. They thrive.

When things haven’t gone well for them, they haven’t blamed the situation. Instead, they’ve assessed their resources and kept playing the game. Losing some hands, winning others, but staying consistent and knowing how to manage themselves—they’ve prospered.

I’ve seen them influence others with less perspective, encouraging them to respond to their surroundings in the same way.

At no point have I seen them focus on whether a change in government would help them more or less.

This isn’t complacency. This isn’t indifference. This is the real “struggle” to participate in: the cultural one.

There’s no greater act of “rebellion” or “resistance” than thriving when a “situation” or a crowd tells you it’s impossible, that X or Y must change first.

The government of Venezuela could change, and one thing wouldn’t: these people I speak of would keep playing the cards they have without waiting for anything from a “government” or “situation.”

The most interesting thing about these people is that many of them also say they want “things to change.” However, when they say this, they don’t seem to realize that they wouldn’t change because they’ve already been doing things right. They’ve spent years doing what would guarantee success and prosperity anywhere in the world.

Think about that person who stayed in Venezuela, didn’t leave, or returned to seize what they saw as a golden opportunity, regardless of the situation.

You’ll clearly see that for a country and its people to prosper, values and culture must change first. As a natural consequence of that, the government would change second.

That is the true power of a united mass under common principles.

Culture comes first, government comes second.