“...because almost everything — all external expectations, all
pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in
the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. remembering that you
are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have
something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your
heart.”
I'm currently reading Steve Jobs' biography, you
know the Walter Issacson one. I KNOW, I’m a bit late on checking I out. I got
it for $60 at Baci Lounge in New Market because I felt disillusioned and yet
strangely inspired after yoga last night. I'm currently a couple of pages in.
Say what you may about him, he is most definitely one of the most
industrious people to have ever graced this earth. But where did his success
stem from?
A
self-taught man, his passion, tenacity and constant unbridled motivation to be
the best in the world stopped him at nothing to achieve that, which makes him
the best role model for other entrepreneurs in the digital age. Steve was a
firm believer that if you do what you love, the money, success and everything
else will follow. But in order to figure out what you want, you gotta connect
the dots and be brave enough to start - on your own. But first of all, you
need to be honest with yourself and establish what’s important to you whether
it be money, creativity, intelligence, knowledge etc. Sometimes in
life, I believe that you're gonna be given things that you don't want or
expect, but the only thing you can do is to make the best out of what you've
got. You’ve got to stay positive and despite everything else, just know that things will be ok. Everything
happens for a strange inexplicable reason that won’t be understood until you
look at things retrospectively. Successful people don’t wait for things to
happen, they don’t wait for perfection because with everything that that
happens you have to know that it’s what YOU make out of it. You can either be
depressed about your life or do something about it. There are only two times
that are important – now and too late. Happiness is a choice, its not a
destination, you can wait for happiness to come your way, because it won't, you
have to wake you every morning being happy, despite being wronged or having
made mistakes. If someone in your life is making you negative, don’t put up
with their bullshit, if you don’t like the job you’re in, look for ways to
improve, nothing is going to be handed to you. You should see everyday as an
opportunity. In business, being at the top is lonely, much like it is in life,
its not about everyone else and what they’re doing, its about what you’re doing
and how you're gonna get there, the people that come along for the ride will
always come and go - life is like a train. You’ve got a destination, going in
one direction and some people hop in the train and some people hop off the train
whilst others stay on forever and others never ever even get on, as much as you
want them to. You and your life, your motives ARE that moving train. There's
absolutely nothing wrong with being an asshole to getting what you want to
achieve - you only live once, make that life count - to you, not in the eyes of
others. If you lose them, it was meant to happen.
I’ve
learnt three things this year,
1) The faster you stop comparing yourself to others, the sooner you
become the person you're meant to be.
2) The faster you realize that you will be an asshole tomorrow, the
faster you realize that you need to stop procrastinating. Because you're not
going to miraculously do something you’re supposed to do tomorrow, if you don’t
do it today. Like Steve said, you’re already naked, why the fuck not start now?
3) But most importantly, listen to you head for the small decisions
and your heart for the big ones. You’ll never go wrong.
Most
of all, life should not be romanticized, it should be lived. For me, I always
felt like there was this eventual glorified moment in my life when great things
would happen and I would automatically become this amazing person with the life
and the characteristics I always thought I would have. But to get to that
point, I must go through the gritty bits, the teething stages, the frustration before
the "great" stuff happens. Like the old adage goes, “It’s not the
destination, but the journey that matters.”. I realized that the “great”
achievements are small blimps in life in comparison to the challenges in the
way that you must overcome it took to get to the singe "glorified"
moment. You will never experience or learn or grow if you stay in one place,
but in saying that you need to come to those life lessons on your own, in your
own time, like in business, life is not some. I believe that the universe puts
things in front of you that you may not want but are crucial in teaching you
something about yourself, because if we never had those experiences, we would
never know what the are made of, what you can become. Like Steve did, I'm too
going through that transitional stage of frustration, not knowing what to do,
being lost and scared that things may or may not fit in the right place,
allowing my fears to get to me, but in order to overcome those fears, I must
confront them instead of burying them, or else they’ll become a constant
problem throughout my life. In times like these, I realize I need to trust in
the universe that all good things will happen in due course. And when it does,
I'll be ready and willing to tackle it whole-heartedly. Behind every success,
there’s a story, so to my readers, when you reach your glorified moment, what
story are you going to tell?
