the myth of 'good enough'

the other day, i got talking to a newly-engaged couple who were planning their honeymoon trip.

they were deciding between 2 places, & it was a tough choice because of 1 detail:

‘i can only take a 2-week vacation once in my career, so i want to make it count.’

everybody at the table nodded along to those words as if they made perfect sense.

but i didn’t understand why.

i think it’s because i see the world a little differently than i used to.

here’s my situation, for context:

i’m 24 years old
the last time i worked for someone else (outside of school) was 2022
i started a business in 3 weeks with no experience, & now i only need to work a few days per month to pay the bills
i don’t need to set an alarm tomorrow morning
i get to choose what i do each day
i only work on problems i care about solving
i can go out with my friends whenever i want
if i really wanted to, i could go anywhere in the world right now without asking anyone for permission
i own assets that i created years ago, & they still earn me money while i sleep
if i lost everything, i’m fairly certain i could do it all again

i’m not saying that to brag.

i’m saying it because when i heard that couple talk about their 1 vacation, all i could think was:

it doesn’t have to be this way.

the way i see it, nobody wakes up 1 morning & decides,

‘you know what, i’m gonna spend the next 40 years of my life doing something that i don’t really want to do.
i’ll just wait until i’m 65 to live the life i want.’

but when the rubber hits the road & bills need to be paid, a life like that becomes ‘good enough’ real quick.

i’ve seen it happen over & over again with people my age:

they graduate school
they get a job — it sucks, but it’s ‘a good start’
they get their first ‘adult’ paychecks
they buy things that they couldn’t buy before — a new car, a nice apartment, a new wardrobe, etc.

& before you know it,

they become slaves to a job they don’t like because it’s the only way they can pay for that new life

all of a sudden, the job that was supposed to be ‘a good start’ evolves into ‘stability’ & ‘it’s not so bad.’

they know they’ll change eventually, but they can’t yet.

so days become weeks,

weeks become months,

& months become years.

i can’t help but imagine how horrible it must feel to look in the mirror one day & realize what you’ve done:

you settled for ‘good enough.’

‘one of the worst things to believe is that your real life has not yet begun.
that your current life is just the prelude to some ‘better’ one in the future.
this is an idea that will fade away over time, revealing that the prelude you hurried through was in fact the one to your death.’
~ Gurwinder Bhogal (paraphrased)

it’s just hard to wrap my head around the idea that most people are willing to trade away the most valuable thing we have — time — for so little.

see, when it comes to living the only life you ever get to live, i believe that accepting ‘good enough’ is the single biggest form of self-betrayal there is.

& i’ll prove it to you.

let’s look at the lives of ‘Average Joe’ & ‘Richie Rich.’

Average Joe’s life:

for 2 days each week, he can do things he cares about
for 5 days each week, he must do things that he doesn’t want to do
he earns a flat rate no matter how good he is at what he does
his income is capped at ~$200k per year (if he’s lucky)
he puts blind faith in his employer to let him work for money
he can travel once per year
once he’s 65y/o, he’ll have 7 days each week to do things he cares about

Richie Rich’s life:

for 7 days each week, he can do things he cares about
he earns more or less money, depending on how good he is at what he does
his income is not capped
he is in control of when he earns money, & how much money he earns
he can travel whenever he wants
when he’s 65y/o, he’s already spent decades doing things he cares about

now answer this objectively:

at the age of 80, which person is more likely to

have spent more time with their kids?
have seen more of the world?
be physically & mentally healthier?
have better relationships with people?
have less stress?
have fewer regrets?
have lived a more meaningful life?

the answer is obvious: Richie Rich.

WOW, BREAKING NEWS — having more control over your life is a good thing!

deep down, i think we all know that.

& yet,

whose life is more similar to yours?

most people choose to be like Average Joe, & not like Richie Rich.

but why?

one explanation is that we’re surrounded by other Average Joe’s who don’t know any better, & it’s the blind leading the blind.

another explanation is that it’s just the default path in life. you go to school whether you want to go or not, & then by the time you’re 18, the only 2 options you get are (1) get a job or (2) go to school so you can get a fancier job.

which is why i think the best explanation is that we simply don’t believe it’s possible — you don’t know what you don’t know.

the only reason i can say that is because i was in that exact position, walking on the ‘Average Joe’ path & wanting more out of life, but not knowing how to get it.

so do you wanna know how i found the path i’m on?

i got lucky.

i happened to read the right books.

i asked a million questions & stumbled into answers i didn’t expect.

& i met people who were already living the life i wanted.

in other words, pure dumb luck showed me what was possible.

most people never get that.

they spend their whole lives on the default path, because nobody ever told them they had another choice.

that’s why i write these newsletters.

because the moment you learn that 1 week of vacation time per year is optional — that the whole ‘Average Joe’ life is optional — you can’t unlearn it.

& from that point on, it’s all on you.

every day you complain about work, or you can’t afford something you want, or you can’t decide where to go for your only 2-week vacation ever…

it’s up to you to do something about it.

because we only get 1 shot at this thing called life.

why would you settle for ‘good enough?’

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your body tells you the truth about your life twice each day
it happens at the door every morning & night by asking 2 simple questions:
am i excited to go to work?
am i excited to come home?
failure can be a tool
‘to me, no failure means no risk, which means nothing new. it’s that simple.
if you're not failing, if you're exactly on plan, exactly on schedule, you are not stretching.’
~ Vinod Khosla
life is a mirror
‘everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.’
~ Carl Jung

cool stuff i found

it’s cherry blossom season!
this past weekend, my gf & i went to High Park in Toronto to see this year’s bloom. the park was full of people smiling & relaxing, & it was one of those moments that just reminds you of how nice the world is.
pic by @pseudeauriche on X
a visual of work vs luck vs play
by Jack Butcher
a video worth watching
in the London marathon this year, the world record was broken by 3 different people in the same race. to get an idea of how unbelievable a sub-2h marathon is, take a look at this video: