Ep. 20 - ex nihilo nihil fit [nothing comes from nothing] 1/5

Over the next five weeks I’ll be doing something a little different. I'm shifting away from the quick, actionable posts to more robust and philosophical articles. The reason behind this pivot is two-fold. First, I don't think there is enough content covering the interconnectedness of work, life, and hereditary adaptations. Second, the actionable lists, motivational posts, and general 'get it done' attitude conveyed in many of my posts doesn't work for all. For some it's daunting and frustrating. So, with that being said it's my goal to shed more light on why I hold such strong beliefs in many aspects of work, and life. This stems from much of the reading I've done on stoicism, history, and the human body. As for the title, well, you can't make something out of nothing. It takes work.

The overarching theme of the next month will be the simplicity of life, and how we’ve unnecessarily overcomplicated it. It will be written through a philosophical lens, with some personal experiences woven in. With this, I’ll be attempting to tie each area back to the art of starting an entrepreneurial venture, and explain how this is the greatest duty someone can uphold in society.

The over complication of life is something I think about often. In a world where we have an abundance of optionality, one would think our lives are easy. The services and comforts we crave are at our fingertips, literally.

Comparatively speaking, our lives are extremely easy. We don’t need to leave our home to eat great food (DoorDash), we don’t need to go grocery shopping (Spud), and we have an abundance of entertainment right in our laps (Netflix, YouTube, Instagram). There are very few hardships [in the historical sense] left in daily life, if any.

As I’ll argue, this is exactly what’s wrong, and exactly why our lives have become burdened with unnecessary decision-making and complication. We have completely bastardized our thought process, and have continually confused our wants with our needs, which are drastically different.

As our standard of living has skyrocketed over the last century, so too has our desire for more. This desire for more has inevitability increased envy. The culture of comparison has been running rampant. Everyone feels they ‘deserve’ certain luxuries life has to offer. This in turn has led to the real pandemic - depression and anxiety. It's a tragedy that my generation is riddled with anxiety and depression. This can stem from many areas; childhood trauma, unsettled households growing-up, genetics, and many more factors. I can't speak to these areas of cause, however I will focus on a main driver that is in our control - our work.

To clarify, I'm not discounting any of these factors that often lead to anxiety and depression. I'll admit, I don't understand the full complexities of anxiety or depression, but I do understand how work impacts our lives, and our thought process. Therefore, work, will be the first area I focus.

Work - compare - repeat

Work is what we spend the majority of our time doing. The average person will work from roughly 18 until 65 years-old. With the average lifespan nearing 80 years-old, this provides people 15 years of freedom. So, the main goal of many is to decrease years worked, and increase freedom.

And this is where the dichotomy lies. Everyone wants that freedom, but very few people are willing to work for it. 80% of millionaires in the United States are first generation. Therefore, it’s new money. We can’t blame the trust fund kids - these new millionaires created, built and sold businesses. They provided value to society, and society rewarded them. Instead of learning from these individuals and questioning their process, we witness people attack them for being wealthy. Whether it’s through envy or the victimhood mindset that so many have adopted.

This envy drives anxiety and depression. Anxiety that you’re 'behind' (as if there is some magic measure of being 'ahead' in life), or depressed because you feel that person had an unfair advantage.

Skin in the game

However, the main reason for this is our lack of work. I don’t mean the hours we log in the cubicle, because we’re actually ‘working’ longer than ever. I’m referring to our lack of meaningful work and hardship. We grow-up in a society with very little consequences. Take for example the following:

• Bad grade, no big deal.
• Fail the math exam? Well, the teacher will push you through.
• Get 5th place in a sporting tournament? You get a ribbon too.

This is toxic. We need to understand that sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose. Failing a test should result in real consequences. By the time we’ve gone through 22 years of school (if you attend college or university), it will have been 22 years of zero consequences. Effectively, we have no skin in the game. No wonder we expect results with minimal effort - we've received them our entire lives.

So how do we come back to a place of purposeful learning, and purposeful work?

We need to have skin in the game (i.e., we need people to face the consequences of their actions and eliminate the empty suits). We need people to have ownership of their lives. The next president or premier won’t change your life - only you can do that. We need to understand that we’re part of a larger ecosystem that relies on all moving parts. Everyone is both a producer and a consumer. Think about your daily actions as if you needed to stay balanced. If all you did yesterday was watch Netflix, order from DoorDash, and then order something from Amazon - you were a net consumer yesterday. If all you did was work and create, then you’re a net producer. This pendulum needs to be balanced. Inevitably there will be people that consume more, or people who produce like crazy for ten years and then retire. This is fine, however what we’re currently witnessing is a swarm of consumers who effectively produce nothing, but want what the producers want. They want the rewards. They want the nice vacation. They think they deserve it and they think it’s unfair. Well, it’s not unfair. That’s the beauty of Free Market Capitalism (I italicize to make the distinction between capitalism - which is our current system controlled by government officials and a small minority - and Free Market Capitalism, where bad banks are left to die, companies go bankrupt for poor decisions, and the rich don't get bailed out).

You have an opportunity to start today. You just need to seize that opportunity.

Side Note: I understand the difference between equality and equity. I understand that some (myself included) had great childhoods, while others weren't as lucky. However, it still comes down to the individual. The individual has to be the force of change. Taking individual ownership of your life creates a better society - one person at a time.

Work is natural

Work is inherently natural. It takes many forms, but people naturally need something to do, and something to connect to. I’m not arguing that everyone should just go get a job like a good little soldier, shut up, and sit-down. I’m actually arguing for the opposite. Freedom and ownership over your own life provides a wave of empowerment. And a wave of confidence in one’s ability to pursue dreams. This is where purposeful work comes into play.

But we will never know what this is until the work is put in. It could take years to find your passion as you trudge along. This is okay. This is all part of life, and all part of the process. Who cares if someone found their passion at age 20 and you’re 35. Everyone is on their own journey, and that’s what makes life worth living.

Purposeful work is found by doing the work.

Purposeful work won’t fall from the sky. It won’t randomly fall into your lap one day when you’re watching TV. No, purposeful work is found by taking risks. It’s found by going outside your comfort zone. It’s found by pushing the limitations of your own self-belief. Purposeful work is very, very hard to find. But everyone can find it, it just takes effort, and the willingness to remove yourself from an 'okay' situation into a great situation.

Closing

To close off the first week, I'll leave you with an old tale.

Have you ever heard the story of the dog whining on the deck? It goes something like this:

There was once a dog who would whine all day on its owner’s front porch. A soft whimper. One day, a man asked the owner why the dog was whining. The owner replied, “he’s sitting on a little nail”. The man asked, “why doesn’t he just move?” The owner replied, “I’m not sure, it just doesn’t hurt bad enough I guess.”

This is the majority of people’s situation. It just doesn’t hurt bad enough. We have just the amount of comfort to get by. And then we wonder why we’re not happy and fulfilled? If it hurts just a little - make the change. Life is too short to have a numbing, lingering pain.

We’ve confused what work really is. We’ve lost the art of hard and purposeful work. We need to reclaim this, and the only person that can is you.

Next week I'll discuss the physical aspect of life and its relation to entrepreneurship.

P.S. if you liked this article, please share it with friends and family, and let me know what you think :)