Follow Your Dreams and End Up Broke!
When I first heard this from one of my business law professors way back in college, I thought it was brilliant:
“Follow your dreams and the money will follow, follow the money and you’re like everyone else”.
This was a small one liner in his parting speech to us as we wrapped up our final exam and prepared to traverse the long distances through the blustery December night back to our little covel (aka hole in the wall) that is known as a college dorm. This little saying hit many of us hard. It forced us to reexamine why we were getting a degree in a certain field. God knows I don’t want to be the guy that chases money but is unhappy. I want to be the man with a balanced yin and yang. Peace and purpose, not stress and cash (well maybe a little cash!)
Now I just think it’s just eloquent bullshit to impress average people.
He rejected mediocrity by quitting his life sucking corporate law job to follow his dream of become a teacher. He gets paid a quarter of the salary he was making as a high powered lawyer, but is happier now. Has more time to lead a balance life, does work that is deeply important to him, and makes enough to not have to worry about money. He is worth listening too, but this one bit of wisdom is a bit off the mark.
Passion is really overrated!
Passion is a term b rate personal development sites and self proclaimed “life coaches” (and other new age junk food types) always harp on as if it’s some magic forumal for success. That if you follow your passion or dreams things will workout in the long run. This does a disservice because it confuses everyone who does believe they are passionate about something to question why they are not leading abundant lives.
I will tell you why:
Because passion is not the sole requirement for success. It also takes a whole bunch more of:
- Discipline
- Knowing when to quit and when to keep pushing
- Doing the opposite of everyone else
If you are not embracing these three bits of wisdom above it might be a contributing source of frustration. Seriously, look at who has success. Take work for example. Is it the most productive guy that gets ahead? No way! It’s the guy who contributes the best ideas. Doing what everyone else is doing (ie trying to be as productive as possible) is a trap, you’re just wasting your time. Instead, use your unique creative gifts to contribute unique creative ideas. If your not in a position that values creativity, or allows you to contribute, then know that you are just a cog in a machine.
Look at blogging as well. Who has success? It’s sites that look different, talk about new ideas, and if it’s a personality driven site (like this one) and expresses a lifestyle that looks fun. This is why make money online bloggers are so popular. They can’t touch my ability to write, I make them look like a joke…but who cares right? You read them because deep down you too want to be like those make money online guys. Though I am one of those make money online guy…here is how I do it: create a profitable website
Discipline
Discipline is infinitely more valuable than passion. Passion is an emotional based fuel for the fire. It can cause action but it can equally cause discouragement. Discipline however is a characteristic, a trait. If you are disciplined, roadblocks are simply challenges to overcome or learn from while passion driven people tend to get upset that there idea is not working.
Knowing when to quit and when to keep pushing
This is the most difficult part of any new project. Following your dreams when things are not working begs the question: When do you quit and when do you keep going? This reminds me of Letters to My Brothers by the artist Vincent van Gogh.
It’s a compilation of letters that were collected and published long after his death. Vincents desire to lead a remarkable life and to leverage his creativity drove him mad. His art was not accepted. He was ridiculed and pushed to the edges of sanity. Only one shining star stayed constant in his life and that was his brother Theo. It grieved Vincent to no end to know he was a burden to his brother and a disappointment to himself and his family…but he would not surrender. Paintings that would be later sold for millions were at one time traded by Vincent for bread and a place to stay. He was willing to risk it all for his art.
Is this crazy? Yes. When it comes to quitting you must ask yourself this: “Am I getting ridiculous results from this?” The answer will help guide you in your decision…I know this question has helped me ditch projects that were going nowhere fast. However, the story of Vincent Van Gogh makes this point:
You must choose
Choose to follow your dreams and lead a remarkable life where you live on the edge if need be to get to where you want. One with risk involved where you might actually fail. Or lead a comfortable life of mediocrity and averageness. Either way, following your dreams is not always a sure thing
One bring the rewards of risk and the punishment of failure, the other brings about comfort through security. Seriously though, why punish yourself? Why go through the difficulties of failure, the heart stopping fear of collapse? No one else does, why should you? You must choose. Walk the road less traveled to the end of the rainbow to claim your pot of gold, or walk the path everyone else has taken…only to find the pot of gold already long gone by someone who walked it before you.
Doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing is brilliantly simply but difficult
Chris Guillebeau release his book, The Art of Non Conformity (meet him by the way, nice guy…came off like a self reflective introvert). In the opening he talks about the old childhood analogy of jumping off a bridge. If your friends are jumping off a bride should you?
This surface level argument of this saying is to think for yourself. Don’t do things everyone else is doing. The real deeper meaning however is don’t do anything risky. Just because other people do risky things doesn’t mean you should. Chris equates the factory economy of today as everyone doing the same thing, or as it relates to his analogy, jumping off a bridge. Don’t jump off the bridge, walk your own path…
The most valuable piece of advice for success and financial abundance is to look where everyone else is going, and go the other way.
Chris signed my copy with the phrase “Dave/David grab the bananas!” My girlfriend was a bit perplexed by this. She asked me whats with the monkeys and the bananas. I explained to her how it’s an analogy for why we follow the crowd.
It starts with a group of monkey that are taught they can not eat the bananas. If one of them tires, the whole group gets hosed down with water. After a while the monkeys start beating up any monkey who tries to go after the bananas. As the monkeys are replaced one by one, the new monkeys who don’t know they will get hosed with water go for the bananas but end up getting beat up by the other monkeys. After a while as the monkeys are replace one by one, no monkey goes for the bananas…but they don’t know why they can’t. They just know they can’t. Break the cycle and the absurdity and go for the freakin bananas!
To conclude:
- Following your dreams is good advice though you may go broke.
- Watch where everyone else is going and go the other way.
- Innovation and imitation should be valued equally as they are two sides of the same coin.
- Safety is not first. It’s second, right behind getting the job done.
- Plan for retirement but don’t make it your life’s goal, do what is important now…otherwise you are living in the future which may never come.
- Grab the bananas!
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image cred: coconutpalmdesigns
best,
-David
