This morning I was thinking about my efforts to expose more people to my PCB. I was thinking through ways to reach out to people, what I would say, how I would respond and organize them. Then my mind started going towards that thing so many people dream about: changing the world.
I remember early in my career, that was the response everyone, including myself, gave for their ambitions. What do you want to do? Change the world. Why do you want to go down this career path? To make an impact and change the world. What's the end goal you see for this project? To see the world changed.
I realized that's all bullshit. We have a lot of true global visionaries: the Gates and the Jobs, Musk, Bezos, Branson. The list goes on. But the list is incredibly exclusive. Although they have the personality type, intelligence, and correct connections to achieve that level of success, I'm betting that luck was the most prominent attribute they had.
There are seven and a half billion people on the planet. Most likely, there are thousands if not millions of people that have the same combination of personality type, intelligence, and connections as these visionaries. Not everyone can execute the same steps to achieve the same level of success. Otherwise, everyone would be that successful. If it was that certain, I could read a biography of someone I wanted to emulate who has my background and personality type, take the same steps they did, and end up in the same spot they are. Sounds great, let me do what Bezos does and become the wealthiest person alive. It doesn't work like that. These are very talented people, but luck has a lot to do with it too.
So then why would I place my happiness and image of success on luck? If my goal in any endeavor I do is to change the world, what happens when luck doesn't favor me, and I don't change the world? Do I go back and blame myself for not being lucky? Maybe it's my parent's fault for not tapping me with a lucky stick when I was a baby. It's silly. And I realize it's a vision that's outright poisonous.
I look back at some of my side projects. Right out of college, I launched multiple hobby projects that ended up with a small handful of users. Instead of embracing that audience, my co-founders and I focused on how to go global. We ultimately failed due to visions of grandeur. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I built another hobby project which became an internet darling and made it into the 5-digit Alexa global rankings. We had partners who wanted to integrate with us, buyers who wanted to acquire us. Again, my co-founders and I focused on changing the world though instead of realizing our reality. That project is now in massive decline, and it's been years since I've even looked at it because, in my opinion, we focused more on the future than the present.
You might be asking, but aren't your Beacons looking at the distant future? That may be true, but the Beacons I've established for myself are something that I can obtain 100% if I apply myself. There is no luck involved. If I execute step by step, I can get there. One of my Beacons isn't to become a billionaire. It's to be able to work remote for 1-3 months a year during summer. One of my Beacons is even to live a healthy life until my mid-60s. These are very attainable long term visions. Only my philanthropy goal is more of a stretch goal, but that's also attainable with a long term plan.
When you include luck in your calculations for your future success, you might as well go to a casino and try to find success there.
(Written 2019.05.11)
I remember early in my career, that was the response everyone, including myself, gave for their ambitions. What do you want to do? Change the world. Why do you want to go down this career path? To make an impact and change the world. What's the end goal you see for this project? To see the world changed.
I realized that's all bullshit. We have a lot of true global visionaries: the Gates and the Jobs, Musk, Bezos, Branson. The list goes on. But the list is incredibly exclusive. Although they have the personality type, intelligence, and correct connections to achieve that level of success, I'm betting that luck was the most prominent attribute they had.
There are seven and a half billion people on the planet. Most likely, there are thousands if not millions of people that have the same combination of personality type, intelligence, and connections as these visionaries. Not everyone can execute the same steps to achieve the same level of success. Otherwise, everyone would be that successful. If it was that certain, I could read a biography of someone I wanted to emulate who has my background and personality type, take the same steps they did, and end up in the same spot they are. Sounds great, let me do what Bezos does and become the wealthiest person alive. It doesn't work like that. These are very talented people, but luck has a lot to do with it too.
So then why would I place my happiness and image of success on luck? If my goal in any endeavor I do is to change the world, what happens when luck doesn't favor me, and I don't change the world? Do I go back and blame myself for not being lucky? Maybe it's my parent's fault for not tapping me with a lucky stick when I was a baby. It's silly. And I realize it's a vision that's outright poisonous.
I look back at some of my side projects. Right out of college, I launched multiple hobby projects that ended up with a small handful of users. Instead of embracing that audience, my co-founders and I focused on how to go global. We ultimately failed due to visions of grandeur. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I built another hobby project which became an internet darling and made it into the 5-digit Alexa global rankings. We had partners who wanted to integrate with us, buyers who wanted to acquire us. Again, my co-founders and I focused on changing the world though instead of realizing our reality. That project is now in massive decline, and it's been years since I've even looked at it because, in my opinion, we focused more on the future than the present.
You might be asking, but aren't your Beacons looking at the distant future? That may be true, but the Beacons I've established for myself are something that I can obtain 100% if I apply myself. There is no luck involved. If I execute step by step, I can get there. One of my Beacons isn't to become a billionaire. It's to be able to work remote for 1-3 months a year during summer. One of my Beacons is even to live a healthy life until my mid-60s. These are very attainable long term visions. Only my philanthropy goal is more of a stretch goal, but that's also attainable with a long term plan.
When you include luck in your calculations for your future success, you might as well go to a casino and try to find success there.
(Written 2019.05.11)
