Do you remember when you were little, being asked: What do you want to be when you grow up?
I probably had a hundred different answers to that question, but I
can definitely remember wanting to be a professional baseball player, an artist,
an astronaut, trashman, scientist, professional snowboarder, professional
skateboarder. It's an interesting question because when you ask a kid this
question, you get an idea of what they enjoy and what they like doing. It's not
really about making money and I don't know that when I was ever asked that
question it really registered in my mind that it was a question about career path
and how I would make money. But I wonder what would happen if you asked a kid:
How do you want to live when you grow up?
I read this super interesting New York Times article that was titled:
'Stop Asking Kids What They Want to Be When They Grow Up.' And the whole premise of
the article was that maybe this question is conditioning kids to define
themselves based on their work, and to only define themselves on how they're
making money. It's an interesting concept and one that I'm super passionate about
because I think we have a very skewed definition of success.
For example, if I say: "that person is super successful!" What do you picture?
I probably picture someone living in a super nice loft downtown and drives
fancy cars and wears nice clothes and shops at Gucci...and whatever other fancy
stores there are. We kind of all have this idea that success equals money and
that's not the case and I don't think that should be the case and I want to
change that.
I think we're in desperate need of a new definition of success.
And not just one definition that everyone agrees on, but I think that everyone
should define their own version of success. For me personally I've just
developed my own three mantras, or three pillars of success that are just
specific to my values and what I care about. Those three pillars are
Consume less, create more. Master your craft. Tell a better story.
I'm planning to dive into each of those in detail in future videos but the point of
it for now is just that each of those things are not tied to money and they're
just things that I can gauge on a day-to-day basis to see whether I'm
being successful or not according to my definition. So it kind of brings me back
to that first question of 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' I think we
should start asking: 'How do you want to live when you grow up'
I'm planning to start making a lot more videos centered around this idea of
redefining success, so if you have any ideas or if you want to collaborate or
give me any feedback, I'd really appreciate it. I'm kind of at this point
where I've strictly been making videos for myself, and I don't really know why
you're watching and what you're getting out of it. So I'd be super helpful if you
felt like telling me why you watch my videos and if you're getting anything
out of it or if you want to see anything in the future. I don't know I'd love to
hear your feedback. So that's all I've got for this time hopefully I'll see you
soon I'm trying to make a lot more videos so I'll see you next time.