“A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed – I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.” - Georges Clemenceau
Yesterday I was on a 30-minute call with a very dear friend of mine. We go way back to the days of middle school. Since then we've been friends, and somehow we've managed to stay connected since then.
He was always a brilliant student, but not like the kind who'd be studying all day. The type who acts as if their life depended on books, homework, and class tests. He was the effortless kind when it came to education. He truly was interested in learning, and that's what helped make it all look so effortless. He would also engage in sports activities, focus on learning different languages, and join us outside of school during our hangouts and moments of shenanigans.
He was kind of like an all-rounder.
After our A-levels, he moved to the Netherlands for his higher studies, and over the years our sizeable friend circle kept on getting smaller. The distance increased as many of our friends moved to different countries. Yet, both of us managed to stay connected somehow. He later came back to the country after he was done with his studies. Then he got married and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in the US of A. He's been there for over a year now.
ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵒᵛᵉʳᵃˡˡ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ ᵃʳᵉ ᵐʸ ᵒʷⁿ ᵘⁿˡᵉˢˢ ᶦᵗ'ˢ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿᵉᵈ
As we both were catching up he got to know about my current endeavors and was slightly worried about me. He thinks that I'm working a bit too hard and putting too much pressure on myself, and to an extent, I do agree, but I say it's needed.
Later on, I explained the whole scenario to him, and he understood. The pressure certainly was high, but not all the time though, that is why all of this is somewhat manageable. I also have my ways of detaching from all the stress and anxiety; methods that keep me at bay, for which I am not completely going bananas, yet.
All we have in this life is trial and error, in repetition. And as you keep on experimenting and failing, one day you'll just "hit the jackpot", the jackpot of success. Then you'll celebrate that moment, and get back to work the next day. It may be the same old exertion in the same category and industry or a whole new endeavor.
It doesn't even have to be related to work, who knows, you could have a hobby that you want to pursue, something you want to get better at, or maybe invest more time in. We are always looking for the next big thing. There's no point in sitting around.
Even those who've "made it". They are out there putting in the effort, whether it be the effort in traveling and climbing up a hilly track, the effort of finding worthy businesses to invest in, or the effort of collecting bottle caps.
You don't just sit around after you've made your millions or billions. You still go out there every day, you survey, help the needy, innovate, maybe go on a little vacation, and travel the world with your loved ones.
There's a new goal to achieve almost every day, after every step you've climbed up...
Recently, I watched a video on YouTube titled -
"Elon Musk, why are you still working? You are worth $184 billion."
Now, we all know what Elon is up to, from his work behind Tesla to SpaceX, to his obsession with conquering Mars, to pumping meme coins on X(Twitter).
But, what would you be doing if you were worth a small sum of close to $200 billion?
If I had that much, I'd first look for investment opportunities, then I'd delve into my hobby of watches and perfumes. Soon enough, pretty sure more ideas and categories would pop up as well.