Humans are very similar. Both behaviorally and in the way they look. How many times have you met a person and you ‘re trying to remember who this person reminds you of? But we will not talk about that in this article. Instead, this article is about similarities that people have in terms of the way they think and view life. Here's why you should not do what 95% of people do.
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What 95% of people do
Most people take it easy in their lives; this basically means that they are risk-averse. They go to school, in order to passively absorb knowledge. Then they get a job, in order to make money in exchange for their time.
Let’s take your parents for example who want you to get good grades at school. Have you ever asked them why you need to get good grades? The answer you are gonna get is: “Because you can then go to college and later find a good job”. This is how it works unfortunately…
Most people watch television, download or stream movies and TV series, read the news and are on social media. Over there they look at what other people do. They also post about everything they do.
This includes of course important milestones of their life. Especially photos of their graduation ceremony and status updates about their new job usually generate huge engagement.
The social aspect of success
What you can alternatively do is to limit the number of movies and TV series you watch (or do not watch anything at all, if this is possible). And use social media for more important reasons, like marketing or talking to your loved ones through the chat.
What you will have achieved is to gain valuable free time, which you can use to learn new things or skills and build something that creates value to other people.
95% of people cannot live without socializing with others… This is not a bad thing and you should be an extrovert person, if this comes to you naturally as a personality trait. The issue here appears when socializing comes as something you have to do, simply because this is what all other people do.
Let’s take my favorite example again… parents. Your parents want you to have many friends and go out every Friday and Saturday, because this is what they think that makes you happy.
And they are not entirely wrong… this is what makes 95% of people ‘happy’... To go to school/have a job, have friends and go out every Friday and Saturday.
The 2 paths to stand out
Here also lies a bigger problem; Most of the times teenagers don’t want to do what others do. They want to feel unique and so they follow different paths.
These paths can be concluded to 2 main categories:
- The creative path where teenagers express their uniqueness creatively by starting to draw, paint, act, exercise, dance, sing or learn how to make money etc.
- The destructive path where teenagers express their uniqueness destructively by starting to drink, smoke, do drugs or even commit suicide.
So, it’s pretty safe to assume that the role of parents is to influence their children and lead them towards the creative path.
What parents should do
If you notice that your child can draw like Van Gogh from an early age encourage and accommodate him any way you can to become a professional painter.
Or you may notice that whenever your child goes to Walmart, he starts analyzing the company’s successful business model. In this case let him know about the path of entrepreneurship and that he can also create his own big company.
In case the above is true
Just in case your child (or anyone else) is interested in Walmart's success there's a book written by Sam Walton (founder of Walmart) that describes how he built his business empire. A great valuable gift for your loved ones (or yourself).
And what if you want something like this? What if you have decided that for a specific period of time you are going to limit your social life, in favor of starting the business you always wanted? Then do it. Do it yesterday.
But if I do this, then I will have no friends at all. If you decide to limit your social life in favor of creating something on your own, this means that being an employee is not what you want to do.
What about friends?
And, if your friends do not have the same beliefs as you do, then you will find a hard time sustaining a true friendship with them.
What you need to do is try to find people who think like you. People who think that - being an employee while hating your job - is at least pathetic.
People who don’t want to be just in time to catch the last bus back to loser-town.
I know that this kind of people are hard to find... I’ve only found two so far. But if you're reading this post, it means that you are probably one of those people (the rare 5%) and you can at least join the online community of Life Proficients!
I mostly agree with what you’re saying here. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to but out watching movies from your life. It’s one thing if you’re spending too much of your time binging movies and series and another when done in moderation. I dont see anything wrong with watching a few movies during the week, or binging a netflix show once in a blue moon.