i have not created YouTube videos (long form) since the beginning of this year. i begin with the end in action to search for deeper meaning in my Life, Happiness, and Money. Below are the elaborations of the 7 inspirations and reasons why i did what i did.
One thing to note, i am a big believer that context always matters. i wrote this from the perspective, perception, and interpretation of my life experience and encounters. We are all unique and you may have a very different way of thinking. Do share with me below.
1: Are We Crystal Clear in What We Want?
Have you heard about The Fisherman and Businessman Story by Paulo Coelho?
There was this Businessman who met a Fisherman and ask how his day went by. Basically, the fisherman is enjoying his life, catching some fish in the morning, and enjoying time with family and friends for the rest of the day.
But to the ambitious businessman, the Fisherman was wasting the opportunities in front of him. With that, he was suggesting ideas to the Fisherman, step by step how he can improve his life, his income, and building his wealth.
The suggestions are in this order:
- Catch more fishes
- Get a Bigger Boat to catch more fish.
- Buy more boats and hire more people
- Set up own company
- Set up a factory
- Set up a regional HQ
- And become very rich
With each suggestion, the fisherman would reply “And after that?” So after he become rich, the businessman told him, then he can retire, catch a few fish in the morning and spend time with his family and friends for the rest of the day.
Then the fisherman became puzzled asking him back “Isn’t that what he is doing now?”
Moral of the story: Are we blindly chasing what we thought we want in life? When our end goal is already within our reach right in front of us…
As the popular saying goes, “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.”
So the question is:
“Do We Spend Our Every Day Doing The Things We Want?
And Ultimately Heading Towards The Life We Want?”
Similar to Paulo Coelho’s quote: “You have to do What You Want to Be What You Want”, my question is Do you know what you want? Sometimes, the best and only way to find that answer is by living it.
2: In The End, When We Are Dying…
Alexander The Great Last 3 wishes
- He wishes for his physicians to carry his coffin to show the world they are helpless against Death. Death comes to us all until humans can reverse aging can cure whatever illnesses.
- Displays his wealth along the path to his grave to show the world we can’t bring any possession with us – Wealth has no meaning or value to us when we are dead.
- Displaying his hands out of the coffin. Summarizing: All men must die, and We’ll all die poor. We came empty-handed and we’ll go empty-handed with all our wealth passed down as inheritance, either to our next of kin, or some financial institutions…
3: Most Impactful Money Lesson From Squid Game
In the last episode before Oh Il-nam’s death, the conversation was a very thought-provoking lesson for me: “Life is no fun being too rich or too poor.”
That’s also most likely why the wealthy ones like to overspend even when they don’t need to. What they valued more is time and having meaning in life, thus the saying: “Problems that can be solved by money are not Problems.”
Somehow because of the show, it also became more fun for me to try winning things than straight out buying them. it comes with a sense of achievement, a validation of my deeds, and bragging rights.
For me, money is just a tool – a means to an end. Money doesn’t make us happy, it’s what we do with the money that makes us happy.
In fact, I believe Money is a Force multiplier, the more we have or the lack of it will show more of our true colors. – A greedy person will be more greedy when he has more, the same thing happened when he has less than his comfort zone. This leads us to the next one…
4: Problems with Wealth
Money can be problematic too, if we get too wealthy, we might get kidnapped, murdered, or chopper crash. Your kids or grandchildren may even fight for the inheritance.
Or anything that we do will also be judged unfairly. Just like how people criticized Mr. Beast for not donating enough
And the popular Chinese saying “富不过三代” translated as “Generational wealth doesn’t last past 3 generations.” implying that the future generation will eventually squander away the wealth.
Or just like the popular online viral video of Aaron McKie speech* that his grandfather walked 10 miles to work every day, his father walked 5 miles, he is driving a Cadillac, his son is in Mercedes, and his grandson will be in Ferrari, but his great-grandson will be walking again.
*The video has been overused by too many people so we just post the YouTube search result link instead.
5: Money and Happiness
Money can definitely buy us happiness, but we don’t need a lot to be happy.
For me, as long as i have enough for the next 10 years, i consider myself as having Financial Freedom to do what i want in my life.
“i live my life a decade at a time” – Max Yeo inspired by Dominic Toretto
After all, we never know how long we can live. A number of my relatives and friends didn’t live past 60.
Last year (2022), i had a superior who passed away from Colon Cancer, from discovery to his passing, it took less than a year. Imagine, upon discovering an illness, and our days become numbered, there is only so much time we have left for the ones around us.
i also considered myself as fortunate having outlived quite a couple of boys that i have known personally too. Some suicide, some medical, and one ended up floating at sea with only a pair of underwear because of gambling issues…
Thus i always cherish my every day, and cherish my loved ones.
i am not a believer in YOLO (You Only Live Once) as i always believe we can choose to abandon everything and restart our lives anew elsewhere if the current life is not worth living. i am more of a believer in YODO (You Only Die Once)…
Why i haven’t been creating since the start of the year is because I’m…
6: Starting from the Back…
Since my schooling days, especially for programming projects, magically the most work done is on the previous night when i need to submit it the next morning.
i would be powering through without sleep and completing it beautifully. Somehow my mind just works extremely well in that situation. And the project will not look like it was a rush-through project as it will have a very well-thought-out flow.
Well, i guess that the Power of Deadlines and maybe the guilt of wasting the previous days not taking enough action previously.
And Just like the scene in Ready Player One, where the protagonist has to start from the back of the race so that he can gather coins (fuel) for his car. Starting from the back has its advantages too.
Starting from the back, taking over noobs, gaining momentum and resources, and maybe confidence too. But unlike the movie, in life, there’s no cheat code or driving backward to win the race.
i also remembered my senior told me, not to “run” too fast starting out in my career as it will become an expectation to be good and people around me will have higher expectations of me. Well, at that time i was already ahead, so nothing much i can do, but i understood what he meant.
So this time around, in my second career as a YouTuber. i started slow and playing catch-up now at my own pace. For all i know, maybe i am already ahead of someone whose New Year’s resolution is to start creating videos online.
And talking about Racing…
7: Life is an infinite race
They’re always people in front of us and behind us. Takeover if we have the capability, and help others along the way. It’s not about winning, but the ability to continue racing. And i get to decide when i’m done.
Learned the Life is an Infinite Race concept from Simon Sinek’s Infinite Game. Our lives are finite but life itself is infinite.
Everyone’s life has an unknown finishing line. Some have to run longer, some are destined to have a short ending. How would you run in this race? Would you run as fast as possible? As best as possible each day? Or taking your own sweet time to enjoy and appreciate the beautiful scenery life has to offer?
For i’m a hard worker who will most likely work to the end of my life. So see you around for more productivity and self-development stuff to come. 😉
