After observing the world for about 15 years, here is my conclusion; the greatest problem of mankind is that, the young lack wisdom, and the old lack strength. When we’re young, we have zeal, physical strength, and an open mind to dare life and break grounds. Unfortunately, most people lack wisdom when they are young, so those capacities which come with youth are often wasted. When people grow old, they acquire wisdom about life but there they are, age 60, 65 or even 75, they are weak, have more fears and closed not adventurous.
Here is what you can wish for, the combination of wisdom and strength which essentially means that if as a young person you seek wisdom, your life will be far better than that of most people.
- Success is whatever it means to you
Today when people say, “I want to be successful”, they often mean that they want to be millionaires. Money is so significant to success that a teenager commented on one of our videos a few days ago that he wanted to become a billionaire. C’mon, guys, nobody should ever start life by dreaming to become a billionaire.
What exactly does being a billionaire mean to a 16-year-old? How much money does he think a billion dollars contain and what in the world does he think he needs such money for? Or may I ask, does he think such money will ever make him the happiest human in the world?
Now a lot of people might have abandoned this video but if you’re still here, let me tell you the truth most people don’t know; the way the world defines success is dumb. Success is not when you’re Bill Gates. Success is when you’re you. Success is when you know yourself enough to know what you were created to do and do it.
Yes, everyone needs money to pay bills and I strongly advocate that young people should learn how money works so they can have enough of it but money is like oxygen. An everyday human inhales like 11,000 liters of oxygen every day. If for whatever reason you don’t have enough oxygen to inhale, that’s a big problem but if you have 1 billion litters of oxygen all around you, your body still won’t need more than what you need. That is money. If you don’t have enough to cover your basic needs, you’re in trouble but after you have your necessities covered, Ferarri and Rolex watches add nothing to your life.
Success to you may be to be a father, be a great father. Success to you may be to save lives by working in a hospital, do just that. Success to you may be to be a wife, do it. Success to you may be to live in the woods, just do it. Because we all focus on billions, most of us neglect the real thing that ought to make them happy and when we’re in our 70s and look back at life, we see that we’ve done nothing but pursue the wind.
- Death is better than mediocrity
When I was in secondary school, I often see an old, wretched man whenever we’re coming from school. This man was so poor that even though my family was poor, I called him poor. Looking at that man, I would tell myself, “I’ll rather die than to grow up and become like this man”. To me, as a young adult, I don’t think there’s much difference between death and mediocrity. If you live an unhappy life, you’re dead anyway. If you accept whatever life throws at you instead of fighting for what you deserve, you’re dead anyway. If you’re living just like everyone, pursuing shadows, well, Benjamin Frankly said, “Most people die at 25 but are not buried until 75”. Living doesn’t mean the same thing as being alive but most people don’t know this. They live all their lives in fear of death until when they are old and realize that the real death happens when a man agrees to live for food and clothes. When the sense of purpose is lost, life itself is lost.
- Mistakes are the way we learn
Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
The human mind is very good at exaggerating negative things so you’re likely to think that if you leave the job you hate, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, if you start a business and lost all your money, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, if you follow your dream and it doesn’t work, you’ll never recover from it but the opposite is the truth; failures rarely harm us. In fact, it’s the greatest of all teachers. Most humans avoid failures all their lives only for them to be old and look back to see that all those ugly failures they experienced actually taught them great lessons and if they had tried more things, they would have had far better lives.
- You’re the most important human in the world
I have an interesting memory of one day when I saw one of my classmates with a very expensive phone. I simply couldn’t understand why a student would want to buy such a phone when all I wanted was to buy books, to learn about myself and the world.
Over the years, I have seen people doing things just for others. We buy cars that we cannot afford, simply to get others to think we’re fine. We buy phones we cannot afford, simply for our friends to think we’re up to something. We live in homes that are bigger than us, simply because that’s where the well to do guys live and we want to pretend we’re one of them.
Why are we so stupid? Why do we hate ourselves this much? Why do we sacrifice our future, simply because we want others to have good opinions about us today?
- Happiness comes from relationships, not from things
There’s this 80-year-study on happiness. The aim of the study was to find out what really makes humans happy and the finding is surprising; relationships. Yes, you won’t be happy if you wake up this morning and find no food you can eat, no clothes you can wear or your landlord is about to evict you but you won’t be a bit happier if you live in the biggest mansion either.
While I advocate that people should fight hard to pursue their life’s mission, I advocate that to fulfill a calling.
For example, I have a calling that is keeping me from sleep. The more I pursue this calling, the more money I have but I’m no doing it with the hope of being happier if I become a billionaire. I tell you, I won’t be a bit happier than I am now, even if Bill Gates gives me all his money. Instead, you’ll want to pay attention to your relationships. Your marriage, your kids, your friends, your mother and father, your colleagues, the better these people are and the more you invest in such relationships, the happier you’ll be.
Nobody is on the death bed and think, “I wish I make more money”. Instead, a lot of people regret not spending enough time with their kids, wife, and friends.
- Success is whatever it means to you
- Death is better than mediocrity
- Mistakes are the way we learn
- You’re the most important human in the world
- Happiness comes from relationships, not from things
