So recently I shared a video about having a value
system as an ENFP. And no surprise, in the comments, a few
people asked about my own values. And it's something that
I hesitated to share because, of course, once you state your
values, you risk looking like an absolute hypocrite, if you don't
always follow them, which is obviously terrifying as an ENFP,
right.
But of course, at least two of my values compelled me to make
this video one and of course, authenticity. And the other
being the first value here that I'll share, which is
utilitarianism. Probably not what you expected my first value
to be. And this is something that I picked up in a university
philosophy class, I think it was like philosophy 200. And we had
to read John Stuart Mill's and this probably more than anything
in that philosophy class. Well, I can say absolutely more than
anything in the philosophy class, maybe even more than
anything in my degree, has stuck with me. And I think about every
day. Utilitarianism is essentially, how can you do the
greatest good for the greatest number of people. Right before
filming this video, I did google it just to make sure I had the
name right for the last 15 years or so and didn't look like a
complete idiot. Wikipedia says it's about actions that maximize
happiness and well being for all individuals affected. So what
this means on a day to day basis is that I'm thinking about what
actions I can take, that will do the greatest good for the
greatest number of people, sometimes against my own
personal best interest, which probably isn't the hardest thing
to wrap your head around as an ENFP. But for some people, this
absolutely blows their mind. And actually, there's a story I'm
going to share in another video telling one of those stories.
And it's something that made me think a lot about
utilitarianism, and how other people act as well. So let me
give you a very basic practical example of how this played out
in my life. In the summer, I was in Hamburg, Germany. And we have
this luggage scale, because when you are moving countries every
three months or so, how much your luggage weighs becomes an
issue. And the last thing you want to do is be stuck at the
airport and all stressed out and have to unpack and all that
stuff. So we bought a luggage scale. The only problem with
this luggage scale is it seems to really go through batteries,
like every time we have a new flight, it the battery seems to
have stopped working, even when we take the battery out stored,
right, all that sort of stuff. So I'm in Germany, and I need a
new battery for this thing. And it's one of those watch battery
looking things a flat battery. And I go to the store to buy the
battery for this. And they have a few options. One is a single
battery for three euros and 30 cents. The other is a pack of
two batteries that are this and 26 other batteries for any
device you would ever possibly have that needs a flat battery
for three euros and nine cents. So it's actually cheaper to buy
all these batteries that I know I am never going to use than it
is to buy just one of the battery I need. So while some
people might look at that and be like, that's a great deal, I get
all these extra batteries. For me, it actually really bugged
me, because I'm thinking about all the production costs, the
environmental damage, everything that goes into making all those
other batteries. And that realistically, like I'm not
going to put up on Facebook who needs these batteries and meet
up with people that would be probably a poor use of
everyone's time involved. And so these are just going to go to
waste 80% of these batteries. Now I know you're probably going
to ask in the comments what decision I ultimately made.
Fortunately, it was made for me, so I didn't have to carry any
guilt, as the single packs were also sold out. So forced to buy
way too many batteries. But it's something that bugs me. And
that's what thinking in a utilitarian way is it's about
the greatest good for the greatest number of people. And
in theory, if more of us thought that way the world would be a
better place. Now, of course utilitarianism can be used in
some pretty poor ways by government, or you know, the
good of the many over the rights of the few, that sort of
thinking. That's not how I think about it at all. I don't use it
to justify a moral act, but more of a way to think about my
decisions and value system. You know, no, I'm not a huge fan of
big taxation, because I feel like most governments are pretty
incompetent or corrupt. And the money doesn't go to the best
use, at least as someone who thinks from an entrepreneurial
perspective, which is all about finding good solutions and not
having bureaucracy. But let's say I lived in a place with a
great government and I thought they were doing good then
thinking Yes, maybe I should pay more taxes because that will
suck a bit for me but will be better for the greater good.
That would be a utilitarian
way of thinking as well. The next for me is that I need to
know the outcome of things like, what's the purpose of it? What's
the point? This leads me to be somewhat harsh and judgmental at
times. There's someone I knew back in Prague and his business
was basically making spammy websites like, where you'd have
articles that really had no point to them, like with really
click Beatty titles, and they'd use Facebook groups to send
people there to make money on ads, and the ads would send
people to other sites. It's just disgusting stuff. And I really
thought about it like, wait, what do you do? Like, aren't you
just creating noise for the world and wasting people's time,
like, there's no purpose here. And on top of that, if it makes
any difference, he even basically stole the content, he
would find content in one language and translated into
another language. Needless to say, I did not agree and did not
really want anything to do with this. And this is one of those
things were you need to know the purpose of things? Why are you
doing what you're doing? On the surface, he would introduce what
his business was, as, you know, he had media companies, he had
publication companies, he had different web properties, it all
sounded really good. But when you actually think about what do
you do, what is the point of it, you realized, like, there is no
point of it, you're actually every day, you make the world
worse. And the bigger your business gets, the more impact
you have, making the world worse. And some would argue, I
don't think ENFPs. But some people playing devil's advocate
would argue, well, it just publishing everyone makes
content, you know, what's really the difference between this and
a magazine or a YouTube channel. And the difference to me is you
actually care about the content, and you're actually trying to
have an impact with it, rather than just recycling whatever,
and just trying to get ad money and ultimately knowing that
you're not doing any good with it. So also, one of the reasons
that I tend to butt heads with multilevel marketing people and
have an issue with that, which you may or may not know, is a
certain dislike of mine, if you think of my first two values
here, starting with utilitarianism, having a lot of
people pay money for their like work at home starter kit, with
some products that no one will ever use. And the whole goal is
to get more people to buy these products that no one will ever
use. And a few people make a lot of money well, is that doing the
greatest good for the greatest number of people for the
environment, making these products that probably don't
ever get used, etc? No, it is not a utilitarian way of
thinking. And there's really no purpose to it, except making a
few people rich who are selling this dream, and convincing
people to buy in and you know, form their whole downstream,
whatever they call it in the multi level marketing. So you
can see why I'm not a fan with that, right. Another important
value for me is independent. Basically, don't tell me what to
do, I won't get in your way you don't get in my way. I don't
know if I'd say I'm a libertarian. But there's
definitely some values within the libertarian way of thinking
that I buy into. And a lot of it is around personal
responsibility, fairness, independence, I don't
necessarily think that free markets solve everything,
because most markets aren't actually free and extra
analogies aren't usually factored in. So if you just have
a free market, but people can pollute all they want and make
money off that or manipulate people who maybe don't
understand how credit works or lie to people. That's not really
capitalism, that's a very distorted system that does not
reward value and reward other things. And so I don't
necessarily believe in the libertarian way that just like,
if anyone can do anything, it will all work out. I think we
all know that usually doesn't happen because people can be
very manipulative. And some people have a lot more maybe
resources or intelligence or persuasive ability than others.
And therefore, they can have a very unfair advantage in that
kind of a situation. But I definitely don't like
bureaucracy, and people telling me what to do. So a level of
independence is very important to me. Next up, and no surprise
here. So the ENFP authenticity is very important to me. When I
know someone is lying, and they know they're lying. And you
know, we're not going to talk about every politician ever
here. But that for me, I have a very zero tolerance policy on I
kind of understand it, but I really don't understand it. I
think it just complicates the world more. There's a movie I
think it's with Ricky Gervais is where like, no one can lie. It's
just not possible. Like that might actually work out. Well.
I'm not saying the white lives no tell everyone there but looks
great in those jeans, that's fine. But when people are
knowingly lying to manipulate as you see government, pander to
special groups or whatever's popular and things like that, it
drives me absolutely nuts, which you might imagine if you think
of my values now utilitarianism, Authenticity, knowing the
purpose of things that generally not a fan of special interest
groups, lobbyists, anything like that tends to rub me the wrong
way. Now a huge value for me is about personal
No responsibility. And looking to find a solution looking to
find a way, you will rarely find me blaming anyone else for my
situation, which right now is pretty wonderful. But even when
it wasn't, even when I was in the worst of times, you would
never hear me blaming other people. Now you will hear me
complain about the incompetence of government, you will hear me
joke about things like this or situations created by certain
people. But you will never hear me relate those to my own
personal situation. If you do call me on it, I've slipped up
and I'm not living true to my own values here. I believe in my
own personal responsibility. I'm not going to get into that whole
debate about everyone else's personal responsibility, our
childhoods, our upbringings, our opportunities, all that that is
a very complex issue that I don't think I'm informed enough
on to really talk about for other people. But for myself, I
find that most empowering to believe that I have the full
control over my life. Do I believe that? No, I understand
chance I understand genetics, I understand that at some point, I
might have an aneurysm and whatever could happen. Totally.
I do understand that. And in this one case, I choose to still
believe that I have the ultimate responsibility because I think
that gives me the most empowering way of thinking and
viewing the world and ultimately sets me up for success more than
any other way that I figured out that I can think about things
now there are definitely some more values that I could
include. I might do a second video on this in the future. In
the comments below. Let me know what are some of your most
important values in your life. And if you are new to the
channel, my name is Dan, this is Dreams Around The World and my
mission here is to help you become the best version of
yourself all while creating the most awesome life possible for
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love it. See you soon.