Take a Leap!
The alternative story of success
The original version of success goes a little like this: study hard, go to college, meet the love of your life, work for a top company, keep climbing the corporate ladder, buy a house, have kids, send them to college, and have them repeat it a little better than you did.
If this isn’t the good life, I don’t know what it is. This is the peace that many people envisioned and fought for and now we are able to enjoy it. We’re able to come back to an air-conditioned home, get some leftovers from the fridge, and just chill out checking Instagram while binging on Netflix. This is the perfect life, except that it’s sold as one-size fit all. If you like the original version, stop reading. You won’t enjoy it, since this next part is for the misfits — those who itch for more. Those who feel like there’s more to the story.
We started feeling it in the chaos of our teenage angst. We saw doomsday approach and we were angry at those who came before us for letting it happen. “Why would they let the world just continue being like this?”. We felt apathetic and powerless and the answers were so obvious then.
We asked ourselves, “What is the point of it all?” too many times because in a more interconnected world, it’s easier to feel lost. We experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows, and we didn’t know what was left. We live in a world where suicide is frequent and mass shootings are regular. We take deep breaths of pulluted air and we scream words of madness as we hear that the world will burn then drown as the ice melts. We scream and scream, but those who hear us think we’re nuts. We have trouble communicating. We can message whoever we want whenever we want, but we have a problem starting conversations and are left feeling lonely. We’re cool and insecure, and at our best, we are authentic.
We’re confident, arrogant, egotistical. We think we’re special. Fuck! We are special! We are from a new era — post-internet. We have the entire tree of human knowledge on a search bar in our back pocket. We are able to share our lives with strangers on the other side of the world in a 3 step process: click, share, post. We are more aware of the world. We have studied more and for longer than the generations before us. We have tools and resources that didn’t exist back then. We’re entrpreneural. We stopped giving a fuck about what other people say our limits are. We’re artistic. We are able to feel a void being filled when we participate in the story-telling process and when we hear the stories of others. We care, and we’re dramatic, and we’re daring, and we’re scared… but we take action, because we are brave.
We live off magic now. We’re addicted to that shit. We snort that Disney fluff like cocaine because we need it to keep going. We live for the few moments that we forget that the world is a cold and shallow place. We live for the moments when we make other people forget it. We want to fix things, change things, shake things up — disrupt, create, endure.
If you can relate, snap out of it. Snap out of the old version of success. We have a world to create. A world that is green and won’t die off. We won’t have any more species go face extinction because we were careless with our CO2 emissions. Our future has its roofs filled with solar panels and green gardens. We have a world to create where hunger isn’t a problem anymore, and neither is shelter. We should all have the choice of coming home and binging on whatever new Netflix original while sipping on a Coca Cola. A world where everyone can go to school if they please, regardless of race, gender, or geography. I’m tired of seeing the bullshit that 6 year olds have to go through just so they can pick up a book. We have a world to create where war is not a viable alternative anymore, and where Mars is only a flight away. A world filled with art and passion and magic!
There’s nothing wrong with the old version of success. Just understand that it’s not a one-size fits all. Extract the good stuff — Education, Romance, Adventure, Craft, Security, Impact — and find it another way. Live life with style. Fuck whoever says it’s not possible — don’t let them impose their limits upon you! Take a leap! & let’s make magic happen ;)
