Restrictions
Limitations in life and creativity.
If you were given all the money you would ever need, and were free to do absolutely anything with your life, what would you choose to do and why?
The easy thing to do would be to take the money and run. In this case I would keep the money for myself and buy iMacs, iPhones and send my parents on a tropical holiday. I might also try to solve some major global problems and change the lives of millions of poor people who suffer from illness, hunger and the consequences of war. The world would become a beautiful paradise. Would that be satisfying, to just fix some problems? I think big things start with yourself. With this in mind I decided to answer this question differently.
The question actually asks what life would be like without any restrictions, which is quite difficult to imagine because this is obviously not the case. Restrictions are an essential part of life and the society we live in. From birth onwards, we face restrictions. None of us were able to talk before our first birthday. Our first year was hard, we had to learn how to use facial expressions and body language to express ourselves. Our parents taught us that certain social restrictions are necessary. These early experiences and lessons are what prepare us for the rest of our lives and learn us how to handle problems and how to use our creativity to solve these problems.
Back to the question at hand. I could never accept this life of “luxury”, especially if there were no restrictions. A life without restrictions would curb my creativity, and it is exactly this creativity that makes me tick and keeps me going. Most people would probably think a life without restrictions is exciting and easy. I think a life without restrictions would be boring and would drive me crazy. I believe in living my life the way it is, the now so to speak, and accepting those circumstances that are inevitable. That brings me to the following point; what is a restriction? In many situations a restriction can be turned into something positive.
The fact I know these restrictions are in my life does not say I don’t think in restrictions, the opposite is true, I think there are no restrictions in changing. So, if I was free to do absolutely anything with my life, I would continue my life as I’m living it right now. There are always times when a situation might need to be changed, often caused by certain restrictions. I love working on great ideas and with the best people the world has to offer. For me, this is where the money part comes in to play.
So, if I had all the money I needed, I would hire the best people in the world to work with me on my ideas for change, because, in general, truly amazing things are only done by truly amazing people. I would love to have people around me who inspire me and whom I can inspire. This is the perfect recipe in order to achieve truly amazing things.
Of course money would help me to hire all these amazing people, because they have to make a living. More importantly though, true success in life is tied to character and truly believing in your ideas and the need for change. It is definitely not about cramming certain problems with money.
In general, truly amazing things are only done by truly amazing people.
By the way, this is an essay I have written for my Stanford Summer Course application, I got in and had the best month of my life.
