Do You Love What You Do?

I’m probably an oddball here because despite what my friends tell me, I just can’t seem to subscribe to the whole “build in your 20s and chill in your 30s” kinda thing. I mean sure, in an ideal world, everyone wouldn’t have to work and still be able to afford everything they wanted, and sure, though the idea of having to work for 10 years and then never think about working ever again sure is nice, it’s not exactly the best way to use your time on earth now, is it?

Don’t get me wrong, I would love the opportunity to just sit back and relax in a villa in Bali and just waste the rest of my days away doing nothing, but if I just try to think about it a little bit more clearly, that whole philosophy just doesn’t align with me.

Let me explain.

I was raised to work hard, and that doesn’t mean to work hard for the sake of having sacks of cash to spend on things I don’t need, that means I need to work hard for me and my family. I work hard so that I can provide for them so that they can have all the funds they need to pursue the things that they love, it’s not just for me. On my end, I don’t really need much. A laptop, a strong cup of coffee, 2 meals a day, a roof over my head and I’m all set. I don’t drool over mega-mansions and dream to have one someday because why would I? I like the idea of a self-sustaining person, living off the grid, planting and harvesting my own food, and most importantly, I’ve been very lucky to do what I love as my job, and I’m lucky enough to have a brain that somehow is restless enough to keep pushing me to strive to be the best in what I do.

You can’t achieve everything you desire in 10 years, life just doesn’t work that way. And sure, there have been an insurmountable amount of Instagram “gurus” that will teach you skills that you could’ve just as easily learned from platforms like YouTube and skillshare from people who are more credible than they are, they’re playing into your greed and laziness to help you achieve this get rich quick dream which in reality serves to do nothing more but to help them achieve their get rich quick dreams.

I’m not calling you lazy if you dream of retiring in your 30s. If that’s your goal, then, by all means, go ahead.

But here’s the thing, nothing great ever comes quick and nothing quick is ever great.

Think about how long it took Apple to even come up with the iPod. Think about how long it took Google to become the all-knowing search engine that we all love, heck, look at how long it took Tesla to become the entity it is today and they’re not even done yet. The best minds in the world don’t do things because they’re driven by the thought of finally getting to retire at a certain age, no, they do what they do because they want to make a difference because they want to leave a lasting impact on the world that hopefully makes everyone’s lives better and easier. Take a good hard look at the people running those companies and look at their work ethic, take a look at the dedication that they’ve poured into their companies and really think about it. They could’ve easily retired to their mansions and villas decades ago and yet where are they now? In their offices thinking of making better products to make our lives better than it is.

I’m not comparing myself to these people. Nope. But I do strive to do the same thing.

At this point in my career, I can say that I’m an okay writer at best. You can agree or disagree with me, that’s entirely up to you. But work is the first thing on my mind the second I wake up, not the amount of money I have in my bank account. I don’t look at villas for fun dreaming of a time when I can finally purchase one. I have one retirement plan just because I thought I had to have one and even then, I still want to be working from my laptop in my tiny home on a hill with an old car that probably won’t even start in the winter.

Sure, I’m just a writer for now, and sure, no matter what I do, there’s only so much that written words can do to better humanity as a whole, but I don’t know what I can come up with in the next few years, heck, I don’t even know what I can come up with in the next few hours! I know myself well enough to know that I am obsessed with work not because of the money behind it. Sure, it’s nice to have some extra money, but what’s the point of having a big bag of it sitting in a bank? I’d much rather be spending it on my family and friends while living modestly in the hills somewhere. Maybe I’m just a product of my upbringing and maybe I’m just that driven but I love my job.

I want to work until my fingers fall off and even then I’ll keep on working. I’m sure by that point voice to text software would have been good enough to do the bulk of my typing for me. I want to make life better for other people. I want to make it easy for them to gain access to the things they need. I’m not in this for the short, sporadic bursts of making money in whatever way I can. I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m doing this precisely because I love doing what I do, and I believe no one does it quite like I do.