My last blog post was all about my perspective on how life,
love, and entrepreneurship mirrored each other in so many ways. Its crazy how
much I believe I have grown as a human being over the past two years; a two
year period of tremendous experiences across all facets of life.
love, and entrepreneurship mirrored each other in so many ways. Its crazy how
much I believe I have grown as a human being over the past two years; a two
year period of tremendous experiences across all facets of life.
My awareness has caused me to think about life as this
journey that really has no definite answers or destinations. What we can all
agree upon is this wanting to be happy and fulfilled. A few years ago I did
some consulting work for a very wealthy NYC hedge fund CEO; who I admired for
quite sometime. I went into that gig thinking that a lot of money, a big office
on 58th St and Lexington, and all the power you could want would
equal happiness and fulfillment. What I ended up observing saddened and
confused the hell out of me. How could this be? – I thought all those guys with
private drivers and $20million dollar apartments were super happy. What I found
was an empty man who heart had been buried by ego, money, and a loss of
perspective. It hit me hard because at the time I had been using the pursuit of
financial success as my guiding light in life. What was I supposed to do? -- Abandon all pursuit of financial, career success and go work at a minimum wage job? What I also observed on that extreme was a world plagued with the same heartaches, emptiness, and issues.
journey that really has no definite answers or destinations. What we can all
agree upon is this wanting to be happy and fulfilled. A few years ago I did
some consulting work for a very wealthy NYC hedge fund CEO; who I admired for
quite sometime. I went into that gig thinking that a lot of money, a big office
on 58th St and Lexington, and all the power you could want would
equal happiness and fulfillment. What I ended up observing saddened and
confused the hell out of me. How could this be? – I thought all those guys with
private drivers and $20million dollar apartments were super happy. What I found
was an empty man who heart had been buried by ego, money, and a loss of
perspective. It hit me hard because at the time I had been using the pursuit of
financial success as my guiding light in life. What was I supposed to do? -- Abandon all pursuit of financial, career success and go work at a minimum wage job? What I also observed on that extreme was a world plagued with the same heartaches, emptiness, and issues.
So what now? -- could it be that happiness had nothing to do with how successful you are? My observations of both extremes indicated that perhaps the topics where different, however the discontent existed on both sides.
I had always encountered joy from the
thoughts associated with the pursuit of success. However this new realization had thrown
me into a small existential crisis. It actually forced me to start thinking about
and really trying to remember the other things that used to make me happy and
fulfilled.
It wasn’t until about 3-4 years later, after leaving NYC for
San Francisco, did I start thinking about the idea around perhaps happiness
actually being at peace with not knowing all the answers. That happiness was
actually about peace.
San Francisco, did I start thinking about the idea around perhaps happiness
actually being at peace with not knowing all the answers. That happiness was
actually about peace.