A lot of common opinions are total nonsense.
Ten years ago, I learned to reject the common narrative society jams down our throats. When my beliefs changed my life changed. I started to think differently. I found gaps in the internet that I could immerse myself in.
These are the weird opinions that stand out. Use them to avoid being normal, because normalcy is a nightmare.
Taking risks that fail is better than painful regrets
Society teaches us to limit risks.
The whole point of college is to de-risk your career to get a safe job. Yet jobs aren’t safe at all.
As the world moves more and more to remote work done from anywhere, with formal qualifications holding less merit than proof-of-work, many are in for a shock. All the growth in my life has come from taking risks.
The trick is to take smart risks. They come from placing small bets on multiple ideas so if one fails you get to keep the shirt on your back.
The people in my career that have suffered the worst depression are the ones who leave 90% of their potential on the table to avoid risk. They end up with painful regrets that they take to the grave with them. Sad.
Small risks every day have exponential returns.
Victim mentality blocks success
This one is controversial.
It’s true though. There are too many victims who want life to be fair. They want things to go their way and, when they don’t, it’s someone else’s fault. Someone oppressed them. Someone held them back.
I used to be that guy. I blamed the school system for not teaching me about money. I blamed my friends for taking drugs around me. I blamed bad bosses for my random firings.
But now I’m no longer the victim.
All the bad things that happened made me who I am. The oppression created the motivation. The setbacks became the opportunities.
If you’re living as a victim, stop.
No one, sadly, cares about victims. The people we admire are the ones who face adversity and then inspire everyone with their comeback. Be that person. It feels amazing and it’ll change your life.
It’s not hustle culture. It’s working for what you love.
Working a job and having a side hustle after hours is often called “hustle culture.” I have the opposite view.
When you love the work you’re doing it’s not hustling or overworking at all.
It’s love.
It’s the one thing you want to be doing and you’ll happily do it for hours on end with complete disregard for the time.
You can’t head in a new direction in life without working for it. The key isn’t to overwork. It’s to find work that doesn’t feel like work.
Money isn’t privilege. It’s a result of learning.
Soon as you make some decent money randoms call it privilege.
The word privilege is one thrown around by those who are jealous of what you worked your face off to achieve.
Making money is a measurement of learning. As you learn how to help more people, you get more money in return. Don’t resist the idea of making some extra money online just because a few envious critics are jealous.
No one is saying you need to become a millionaire. But if you want to make some money to help your family own a home and buy a Toyota mini-van then, I say, go for it.
Money buys time. Time is true wealth.
You can make a lot at a job. But you have zero time freedom.
There are plenty of 6 and 7-figure earners in jobs.
I don’t doubt you can live a good life while being an employee. What’s missed though is you only get financially rich. But you’ll always be time poor.
An employer tells you what to do and how to think.
You end up stuck in the PR and HR circus of thinking the ads, toilet paper rolls, or business consulting your employer sells really do change the world. When in reality most of it produces excess and pain for the environment.
Then there’s the corporate politics. You gotta play the game to earn the real coin. And it’s a nightmare. All the corporate games drain your energy. That’s why when you get home you want to plonk yourself on the couch and die for the night in front of Netflix.
Real freedom is a blank calendar with zero Zoom calls to fill up with whatever tasks you want.
Quiet people are the real bloody legends. Not the loud beasts.
Quiet people hear things others don’t.
In my last year working in corporate I became incredibly quiet. It was as if my mouth couldn’t move and my voice box had got removed. I became attracted to other quiet people.
We just sat there and listened. We heard things others didn’t, so we were able to provide insights people thought were amazing.
Loud beasts create a lot of drama. And peace and quiet in life is another form of wealth rarely spoken about.
Practice quietness. See if it rubs you a different way.
The more critics the greater the achievement
Critics are seen as a bad thing. Humans naturally don’t want to be disliked.
But the more critics you get the more change you’re creating. Critics aren’t so bad either. They show you your blind spots, and do it as an unpaid job!
If you haven’t got any critics yet you’re probably a long way from success. That’s okay. Acquire your first hater then have a cocktail party to celebrate.
Make decisions out of courage
The conventional way is to make fear-based decisions. Decisions made out of courage have a longer tail of fulfillment.
When I quit my job it felt like stabbing myself in the heart with a butcher’s knife. Throwing away a career that took a lifetime to build seems stupid. Speaking up online against a dumb boss I worked for seemed crazy too. Recruiters and career advisors will tell you that’s a bad idea.
Loudly talking about mental illness and eating disorders is taboo too. It supposedly shows signs of weakness. Isn’t true beauty, though, found in art full of cracks and blemishes?
Aren’t the real heroes the imperfect ones who answered the Bat call without ever intending to? I don’t know.
What I do know is the world is going through a courage epidemic. Too many people are afraid to act with courage, so they just follow the orders to the unhappy place of nowhere.
When your mind becomes free of limiting labels and boundaries, courage becomes the obvious choice.
Courage is a muscle. Opposite to what most people do — you have to use it to experience the good life. Try it.
