If you were to step outside of your body and look at your life from a bird’s-eye view, you will find that it just consists of solving one problem after another.
Although solving trivial problems can give us a glimpse of meaning, our feelings of fulfillment aren’t at the highest level while completing these tasks.
When reading the biographies of successful entrepreneurs, a common theme I found amongst them was that they weren’t just doing what they were doing to make a quick buck. But instead, they were devoted to something bigger than themselves.
Take Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, for example.
We remember Elon for his accomplishments, but we fail to acknowledge all the setbacks he had along the way. In 2008, he had to use his own money to save Tesla from going bankrupt. In the same year, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket failed to launch for the third time, but Elon never gave up.
He continued to burn the midnight oil in spite of all the critics, and now these two companies are absolute powerhouses in their industries. So the key question to focus on here is: how was Elon able to stay resilient in spite of failure and take risks nobody else would’ve taken?
Ever since he was a teenager, he dreamed of making humanity a multi-planetary species after getting inspired from reading a sci-fi novel.
This higher calling has been the driving force behind his actions, so even when things got tough, he was able to persevere. Since he was determined to help the human race, and not just himself, nothing could put out the fire that was fueling his ambition.
The road to success is full of bumps and twists, and if your motives are in the wrong place, then the inevitable obstacles will be harder to overcome. It makes sense that most people fear becoming entrepreneurs, and many of those who start the race don’t even make it to the finish line.
Now although there isn’t one specific reason for why they ended up quitting, a reason that I’m certain about is that they were only doing it for the money.
If you truly care about the problem you’re trying to solve, then you’ll push onward in spite of temporary setbacks. Even outside of just the realm of entrepreneurship, many of us are doing things for the wrong reasons.
Maybe we want to fit in with our peers, so we conform to the social norms set by the group we’re in. Maybe we want praise from others, so we pursue fields like management consulting or investment banking because they’re viewed as prestigious by the eyes of others.
Whatever that incentive is, if you were to take a step back and really think about how much you value the things you’re currently chasing, it’s likely that the value you assigned to them is associated with the value other people assigned to them.
When we start thinking about what we really want and who we really are, our initial list of aspirations might change.
The world we live in contains a type of system, let’s call it the machine. When we were born, there already was a predetermined course of events laid out for us. We’re expected to go through school, memorize a bunch of abstract facts, and then get a job afterwards.
After we land that job, we’re expected to continue working at a corporation for the rest of our lives. This means that our work will take up a large portion of the time we spend on this planet, so it’s in our best interest to do work that is meaningful to us.
The consequence of not striving to find meaningful work is a life full of dull, repetitive tasks. It will be a life dedicated to fulfilling the desires of other people.
It took me a while to realize and accept this fact about the world, but learning this has prompted me to start prioritizing the things I value most over everything else.
The only thing is that I can’t give a universal solution to everyone’s quest for meaning, as what’s meaningful to me won’t be the same as what’s meaningful to you. The only thing I can do is encourage you to become more self-aware.
What makes your life meaningful? And how can you design your life so that you can derive meaning from your work?
There are important questions that don’t have clear answers for many of us, and the answers to these questions can give us completely different outlooks on our lives.
What makes you tick? What problems do you care about more than other people? Since we are getting closer to entering the workforce, the importance of knowing these answers will only increase as time goes on.
Anybody who aspires to leave a legacy behind them will be forced to answer these fundamental questions before embarking on their journey towards self-actualization.
Let the soul searching begin.
JL