As you can see by the "posted" and "edited" dates, I edited this post about 2 weeks after posting it. When I edit posts, I usually only make small changes to clarify things or correct typos and I don't say what I changed, but I want to explain why I edited this post because I almost completely re-wrote it.
I edited this post because the first version wasn't a fair representation of what I was trying to get across. I was more focused on trying to make the writing interesting to read than I was on articulating my point of view, so now (hopefully) my point of view is much more clear. Here's the heavily edited post:
If you ask me what the number 1 priority on my big "to-do list" of life is... I would have to say that it's to make the world a better place.
But I'm not saying that because I want you to think I'm some kind of saint.
I'm definitely not a saint.
It's not really even true. There are deeper reasons why I want to make the world a better place, and those are my true priorities.
My deepest, most honest priorities in life.
After a lot of digging, I found out that these 3 things subconsciously drive me the most:
- to be happy,
- to feel good about myself and
- to be admired.
Please take note: money and fame do not top the list. Honestly, I want many more things in life (including money and fame), but I have yet to think of a single thing that in some way isn't connected to one of these 3 things.
My happiness is untouchable.
I'm already very happy. My happiness cannot be touched by anyone or anything for any significant amount of time. My mind is in a very good place. I appreciate everything I have, I make the best of every situation, I don't judge myself for making mistakes and I take full responsibility for my mistakes. Number 1 is done for.
Number 2 and 3 are a different story. I have to work for those, and that's where making the world a better place comes in.
Feeling good about myself...
Making the world a better place just feels like the right thing to do in life. I can't explain where the feeling comes from — I just feel it. I feel like I need to be part of helping humankind progress and thrive. I think everybody should feel this way. I think it's hardwired into our DNA.
But anyway, making the world a better place makes me feel good about myself, and that's primarily how I satisfy number 2.
Being admired...
... and even though I'm sure lots of people will either never hear of me, hate me, misunderstand me, think I'm fake, not believe a word I say, etc. along the way, making the world a better place is also something I think people will admire me for, so that will satisfy number 3.
... and actually, making the world a better place and being admired for it circles back to number 2... because it's something that I want to be admired for. Being admired for making the world a better place will make me feel good about about myself.
How I figured this out about myself.
To give you a little bit of deeper insight into how my brain works, I'll tell you how I figured out that these are the 3 things I want most in my life...
I don't think specifically about these 3 things very often. With all of my interests and the things going on in my life, they're often the last things on my mind.
As a matter of fact, I know for sure that they are often the last things on my mind because I had to think very long and hard to dig them out of my mind. I don't think of them directly, I subconsciously incorporate them into everything I do.
I could have told you years ago that I want to make the world a better place... but for the life of me I could not have told you why.
I figured out what I really want... just by taking the time to think about it.
Often times before falling asleep or at completely random moments where I have a few seconds to think... I would ask myself why I want to make the world a better place. What really drives me? What do I subconsciously crave the most? If you could add it all together, I've probably spent hours of trying to bubble up my deepest desires from my subconscious mind into my conscious mind and then make sense of them.
And eventually, it was obvious. Being happy, feeling good about myself and being admired drive me more than anything else.
I don't think I can go much deeper and right now, I not convinced it would even be worth it. I don't really care why I want these 3 things. I presume it would be something tied to my genetics and even if it's not, beyond this... things might just get too theoretical for me. I'm confident that these 3 things drive me the most, and I don't need to go deeper right now. Who knows, in the future I might have some epiphany that will change my mind.
I'm selfish and I admit it.
Making the world a better place sounds like a selfless thing, but I actually think I'm quite selfish. I've been trying to prove it to you since the beginning of this post.
In case it wasn't clear already:
Hell yeah I'm selfish!
I'm selfish and I'll be the first one to admit it.
I may be the biggest narcissist this world has ever seen.
I want to make the world a better place because it will make me feel good about myself and make people admire me.
That sounds selfish as hell...
It is. Because I am. I admit it, I'm selfish and I don't care what anyone thinks.
It may not be true, but in my mind... I'm convinced I love and care about myself more than anyone else in the world.
I will help an absolute stranger and want nothing in exchange for it... not just because it will be good for him... but because it feels like the right thing to me. it will make me feel good about myself.
I want to make other people feel good because it makes me feel good.
I want to do nice things to other people so that they admire me.
This has never happened, so take this statement with a grain of salt: but I honestly believe that In the heat of the moment, I would risk my life to save somebody else's because I couldn't live with myself knowing I had the chance but didn't take it.
I'm all about me, and I'm okay with that.
In the end, I don't care if I'm selfish or if anyone else is. I don't care what drives anyone as long as their heart is in the right place, the cause they fight for is noble and they're doing things for the good of humankind.
I want you to admire me, but I will never convince you that you should.
Just so we're clear, I don't want to convince anybody to admire me.
If you ask me, I think should do your due diligence.
Do my words maps to my actions? Am I really doing anything good for the world?
I don't want anybody to admire me because I convinced them they should, I want them to admire me because they genuinely want to.
People I admire...
I admire lots of people.
I admire Elon Musk for what he does for space exploration and the sustainability of humankind on Earth.
I admire Gandhi for standing up for what he believes in, no matter the consequences.
I admire Martin Luther King, Gary Vaynerchuk, my dad, my uncle Igor, anybody who does what they love, anybody who is happy just to be alive, and many more people for many various reasons.
But I want to tell you specifically why I admire Steve Irwin:
Steve Irwin is one of the first people that I saw a completely different side of... I remember the exact moment it happened... it blew my mind.
Steve Irwin is known for doing lots of crazy things with dangerous animals, and to a lesser degree he's known for doing amazing things for wildlife conservation, but neither of those are the biggest reasons why I admire him...
I admire him for how he conserved wildlife.
He did it by becoming famous for doing dangerous things, and then leveraging his fame to raise awareness and money to conserve way more wildlife than he otherwise could have.
Steve never did it for the money, or for the fame, or to impress girls...
He seemed to do it just because he truly believed that was his purpose in life.
I don't know for sure why he did it. He may be a much better person than me. I want to make the world a better place for selfish reasons... my own happiness, feeling good about myself, the admiration of other... Steve Irwin may very well have done it just out of the goodness in his heart.
Steve Irwin is a legend.
He is a greatest of all time.
I want people to think of me 1/8 of what I think of Steve Irwin.
I'm not Steve. And I don't want to be. I don't want to emulate him or any of the people I admire. Honestly, I probably haven't watched or read more than a few hours of content about Steve Irwin throughout my entire life... but I know everything I ever need to know about him from those few hours. He's a good person, through and through.
How I'll make the world a better place...
Through good business.
I think that the best way to make the world a better place is through good business.
I think that fame and fortune are great things which give you leverage and allow you to make the biggest positive impact on the world (they can be used to drive good businesses).
And I think the best way to get rich and famous it to selflessly give people much more than you take from them.
Elon Musk is and companies like SpaceX and Telsa are examples of a private individual and private companies that improve humankind through fame, fortune, and good business.
I'm not saying I want to copy Elon Musk. He and the companies he leads are just great examples of a real person and real companies that exist today and make the world a better place.
Through random acts of kindness.
I think that random acts of kindness are absolutely huge and fundamental to making the world a better place.
... and because I'm neither rich nor famous nor do I run a large-enough business right now, I think that just helping strangers when I have the opportunity, for no reason other than that because I can, is one of the biggest things I can do right now to make the world a better place. And not only me, it's something that anyone can do and I think that everyone should do!
Really, if I do succeed in becoming rich and/or famous and/or running big businesses, I just plan to leverage those things to do bigger random acts of kindness.
Being kind is the answer. Whether you're an average Joe walking down the street throwing a ball back to some kids that dropped it or you're Elon Musk investing a significant amount of his time and money into making human life multi-planetary.
What I mean by "better"...
Besides making the world a generally better place by helping people through random acts of kindness, when I say "I want to make the world a better place"... I don't know that I mean by "a better place".
Not yet.
Maybe it's by making the air on Earth cleaner.
Maybe it's by advancing space exploration technology.
Maybe it's both of those things plus 5 more.
I don't know what it is, but I'll find out. Probably soon.
Bullshit?
I must be shitting you, right?
I don't want money? I don't want fame? Then why do I have a website? Why do I invest in stocks? Why am I on every single social media platform?
To be super clear for my great grand kids reading this in the future: I want money and fame. I want to see some cool places around the world. I want to see and experience cool things. The desire to do these things drives me. I think about stuff like that way more often than I think about "how much people admire me"... but they're either just small things I want to do because they're fun, or things I can use to for leverage to make a greater impact to improve the world.
Money and fame will help me do more good and reach more people.
I want to make the world a better place because I feel obligated to do so. I want to do it for my kids and for my great grand kids and my great great great great grand kids... Every human should feel this obligation and should be aggressively and relentlessly pressured into feeling the obligation by every other human on Earth if they don't. Humankind needs to make progress and it should be getting ever easier and easier for future generations to improve on what the last generation had done. VIVA HUMANKIND
This has been probably the "realest" post I've ever written. Thanks for reading it and venturing deep into my mind with me, I hope you have an incredible day and I hope to see you next time! Cash me ousside, how bout dah?
Am I an asshole? Am I full of shit? Should I feel guilty for being selfish? Let out all your anger in the comments 👇
Right after you check out Wildlife Warriors.
