Let’s see if this describes you:
You’re someone who’s got dreams. If I ask you what a life lived to the fullest looks like, you imagine things like traveling the world, falling in love, or starting a company.
But also:
You feel a gravitational pull. The world pats you on the head and says “those are great, but first, let’s settle down, take the job, play it safe”
And the dangerous lie we tell ourselves is that we can always do that later.
Narrator: he did not do it later. He just stayed doing the same shit he was doing, until the dream faded away.
My message to you is simple: The ‘safe path’ is not actually safe. In fact it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to your dreams.
Safety murders your ambition. Murders your sense of adventure. Safety is a serial killer. But it operates in a slow, boring fashion. Like a pillow suffocating an old-man on a hospital bed.
Your ‘safe path’ keeps you stuck in an “OK” relationship, or living in the city you grew up in. Postponing that trip to europe until “things settle down” and you’re less busy.
But things never settle down. You simply stay busy. And “later” never comes.
“later” is one of the most dangerous words in the english language. Whenever I hear it, I immediately put my dukes up ready to fight.
“Later” and “Someday” have murdered more dreams than you can count.
F*ck that. Go start the business, tour with the band, backpack thru thailand, whatever it is. Do it. And do it now, not when you're 31, and have a wife and kids and a mortgage.
You gotta risk it for the biscuit.
(oh, and if you’re a 31 year old reading this – now is STILL the right time to do it. Better than when you’re 41, with an achy back and you’ve become the type of person who didn’t take risks for 20 years.)
If you’re called to do something, the only right time is right now.
The older you are, the more you’re nodding right now. You know it’s true.
If you’re 20-27, you might not realize it yet. But you’re in the Ramen Era. It’s a golden period of time where you don't mind sleeping on the couch, you can live off ramen and free refills, you don't have anyone to take care of but yourself.
Sure, you’re broke and have no skills.. but you have maximum flexibility and nothing to lose.
Warren Buffett would give every dollar he has, just to trade places with the average 22 year old dipshit who spent the last year doing beer runs for Sigma Chi. That’s how powerful youth is.
But when you’re young – you get seduced by those sexy twins: “Someday” and “Later”.
They whisper in your ear. Telling you that you’ve still got so much time. You can always do the things you actually want to do after you get done doing the stuff you’re doing.
But we become pavlovian dogs. Trained to stay put in the stuff we’re doing, and losing the muscle to go chase the stuff we really want.
This is why they say: “youth is wasted on the young”.
This chart shows how life swings between The Ramen Era and The Mortgage Era
But you can resist this. Don’t fall for the illusion of safety. Go on adventures. Go on quests. Find the people you love, and the projects you were put on earth to do.
