My neighbor Pete sees me walking down the street. He doesn’t give a f*ck and loves to slam on his brakes. The car behind him nearly rams his car up the ass. The techno music in the car is pumping.
He’s a 60-something man and a grandfather. He looks and acts like he’s 25. He walks over to me in a daze. This guy is on another planet.
“Yo Timbo, I was thinking about our noisy neighbor. Enough is enough. Do you think the judge will care if I show up to court in my lycra bike suit?”
We chatted for a while about it then the conversation did a 360.
“I’m too young to be a grandpa again in a few weeks. You know, I gotta screw loose, I tell ya. Just be warned.”
I realized I was sometimes similar to Pete.
“Many people have a screw loose Peter. You know what, I like those people the most. They tend to do extraordinary things and go where no other human would dare venture.”
What an epiphany.
We started talking about internet marketing for his business. Then the topic turned to Instagram. He wanted to market his food business.
“I’m not gonna be one of those pompous guys showing off how to make chocolate cakes while begging for likes. It’s not me, Timbo.”
I went home, sat in my thinking chair, and realized something: these people with a screw loose are the legends of society, and they don’t even know it.
I want to be more like Pete and have a screw loose, too.
The screw loose mindset is a beautiful way to live
People like Peter can put things in perspective.
They can take a noisy neighbor or a dog pooping on their lawn and not let it get out of hand. To quote Mark Manson, they have few f*cks to give.
It’s a beautiful way to live because it gives you perspective. On the day you die will you care about a minor inconvenience? Nope.
So why the F do you care right now?
You could say the screw loose life is a carefree way to live. But it’s more than that. It’s the understanding that being different is a superpower.
If you think and act like everyone then you’re a sheep. The news will program you. Politics will program you. Your job will program you. Not for your gain but for THEIRS.
Pete doesn’t care about strangers liking him or some shallow personal brand on Instagram. He has no desire for fame, riches, and a different girlfriend for every day of the week.
He feels out of place. He feels like an imposter. Yet he’s learned to live with it. He’s stopped trying to fight the feeling and embraced it.
What makes him different is what makes him beautiful.
There’s no brilliant person who’s all there in the head
To be extraordinary you likely have to be contrarian.
Respectfully disagreeing with the norm is how progress is made. It’s what #innovation really means.
Elon Musk is a d*ck. But he’s done big things and has a screw loose. If he just worshipped the mainstream media and pandered to politicians, he wouldn’t have achieved the things he’s done.
We won’t get to Mars by focusing on petty Earth problems.
We need a few people with a screw loose to lead a new movement. To make us a multi-planetary species. Now read that back.
It sounds bat sh*t crazy — because it is.
Name any person you admire and chances are they have a screw loose. — They’re contrarian. They rebel to some degree. They don’t listen to their boss or bow down to critics.
They act in spite of the unknown, in spite of being contrarian. Instead of running away from this reality, they move further and further toward it.
After enough tragedy you become immune to mediocrity
I’ve studied these screw loose types for about 5 years.
One thing they all seem to have in common is tragedy. Something bad happened that forced them to change their worldview.
Rather than turn to drugs, alcohol, or take their own life, they let the reprogramming happen.
They took the tragedy and made something of it.
Blogger Jon Morrow couldn’t move from the head down. He had medical bills to pay but at the same time couldn’t earn enough because of government restrictions. So a screw in his mind became loose.
He started working for blogs and entrepreneurs for free with one caveat: “One day I’ll ask you for a favor and you can’t say no.”
What a freaking wild thing to say!
One day he did ask for that favor. It helped him kickstart his writing career and online business. He’s now made $10M+ against all the odds.
People still think he’s nuts, and that’s why he’s extraordinary.
I aspire to be more like these screw loose types. The normies think these types are crazy and ignore them. But with an open mind you can learn a lot from screw loose types. And you might just become one of them.
I hope I can live up to the screw loose traits.
What this all means for you
Stop following the same boring paths as everyone else. Stop being so afraid of what people think or how you’re perceived. Stop apologizing for speaking your mind or showing up late.
All the time you waste trying to fit in could be spent being different.
And being different is more achievable than being a so-called genius who never seems to make a mistake.
All those people you think have their lives together are a hot mess behind the scenes. They’re so busy trying to fit in that they live a life designed by someone else, while playing the game with someone else’s rules.
The coolest humans in the world are the ones with a screw loose. Hunt them down. Learn from them. Become them.
