Personal Agency

✨ Personal Agency: I Am in Charge of My Destiny

📖 I believe in personal agency—the power to steer my life and take ownership. It wasn’t always this way. One movie I saw, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gary Oldman), features the vampire admiring middle-class luxury in England after centuries at sea, at a time when kings and popes held all power. That moment reminds me that owning things, inventing things, and being free to choose is foundational to what I value.

📚 I recall An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith—commonly called The Wealth of Nations—first published 9 March 1776 (London, UK). In that book, Smith argues that the wealth of people and nations comes from free exchange, owning one’s labor, and the ability to profit from one's own inventions. I value that idea deeply.

⚒️ Back in old times, if you invented something—a better plow, say—you risked having it stolen by some noble or ruler. Your invention, your effort: gone. For centuries, creativity had no reward; invention didn’t pay. Then cities grew, laws changed, entrepreneurs could own property and their creations. That’s when freedom and innovation began to flourish. That’s why today when I buy a gallon of milk, I see something beautiful—each part of the chain, from farmer to grocer, gets value because we all choose to trade.

🌪️ Belief in agency also affects how people confront risk. I’ve watched how in “Tornado Alley,” communities where people feel they have little control—where people say, “If it’s my time, it’s my time”—there are fewer shelters, more unnecessary deaths. When you believe you can act, you build safe rooms, invest in preparedness, take charge. The opposite belief leads to inaction.

💰 Agency shows in how people treat money too. I see people gamble, try quick wins, waste resources when they believe luck controls everything. If instead they believe they can earn, train, build, learn—then they invest in education, skills, products. They build something real. That’s what I encourage. When you believe you control your destiny, you live differently.

📈 I recognize that not everyone is born with the same psychology. Some people are inventors. Others are organizers or networkers. No one can do everything alone, but we can partner with people whose strengths complement ours. Even if your psychological wiring isn't perfect today, you can develop agency: habits, mindset, actions.

🚀 So here’s what I want you to do: believe in your agency. Choose to act. Choose to improve, whether in work, health, invention, or character. When you improve your life, you improve mine too, because I live in this world with you. Agency is not just about self—it’s about community, society, progress.

Thank you very much for listening.
This is I, THE MAD SCIENTIST SUPREME — SCIENCE BEYOND THE FRINGE.


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🔑 References & Key Works

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith — first published 9 March 1776, London.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (film, 1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gary Oldman.



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🔍 Keywords for Visibility

personal agency, Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations 1776, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), innovation and ownership, free market history, belief in fate vs action, entrepreneurship psychology, taking control of life, economic freedom, Mad Scientist Supreme.