Patience is a Virtue
“Patience is not the ability to wait but how to act while you’re waiting.”
- Joyce Meyer
Have you been patient? Have you been waiting for something to happen in your life for so long? Have you tried and tried and tried and tried and it starts to get so frustrating and you wonder why you aren't going anywhere? I’ve been there and I’ve learned a lot from it. When I was young, I remember being told I could be anything when I grew up. I also remember that nobody told me that one of those possible things would be unemployed. I hoped to be a pilot, an astronaut, a scientist, and/or an actor. I wanted to do something fun - something that got me recognition for either being awesome or changing the world in a positive way. I couldn’t wait to show the world what I was made of and counted the days until I was old enough to pursue my dreams. I was told that to get to where I wanted to be, school was the only way. I blindly accepted (now looking back on it) that naive advice from the older people around me. Recognition and fortune would come later. For the time being I was expected to be patient, do well in school and eventually I would achieve my goals.
Some Game
Around 4th grade or so I was really getting into video games. Of course, lots of kids love video games but the appeal for me was that in video games the tutorial isn’t 12 years long (like school). You could hop right into the action whenever you wished and play to your heart’s content. I remember being jealous of my best friend for having more video games than I did and always wondering why I couldn’t have those video games. Looking back it was a very petty thing to be jealous of but with patience I realized it wasn’t anything to be jealous of it would be something to celebrate. As we grew older I’d share my games with him and he’d share his games with me. His success in life and my success in life would be shared and we’d help each other out as best we could. At the time though it was plenty bothersome thinking of his video games and me not having them. This was a “zero sum game” so to speak.
Teachers, leave them kids alone!
As a middle school student (the worst part of my life), I patiently waited for the day when the torture of middle school would end. The worst parts that I remember were the stupid homework assignments, the teachers with bad attitudes and the early mornings where I felt sleep deprived. I had felt jealousy towards the celebrities who got so much attention in the media while I felt like the major injustice of me (and my fellow classmates) having to go to that dump of a middle school was overlooked. A lot of things in my life at that point were less than optimal including my living situation and feeling as if my natural talents were being overlooked by my school. As the nightmare of middle school ended I was in a state of relief.
Coming Face to Face With Reality
High school started after that and as graduation day approached I thought that all my patience for a better more fulfilling life was finally going to pay off once I got that diploma in my hand. I thought “Here is my chance to at least know what working will feel like; how it’s going to feel to finally get a paycheck and not having to deal with a classroom anymore.” Little did I know that school had little to no relation to the world outside of it. To add insult to injury, I loved the idea of travelling and it seemed as if most of my classmates got a chance to travel internationally on a regular basis while I didn’t. A new jealousy of my former classmates who had their lives together sparked in me. I was frustrated that I got the short end of the stick while they had their families together, big homes and looked like they could travel whenever they desired. I, on the other hand, had my family torn apart, had no income of my own with which to travel and felt trapped in a home that was far away from the hot spots of the city.
Chasing the Dream
I soon realized that all those things I was told I could be when I was young were either lies or required a ton of money to get started with (money that me and my parents lacked). After my failed job search during the summer, I went to pursue higher education at a community college with the hope that it would be a ticket to a reasonable middle-class job and financial independence. However, during my second year of community college, the Great Recession of 2008 struck and the job markets entered a state of hyper-competitiveness. I was told that a Bachelor’s degree was my only way to make a decent living. I only cared for an Associate’s though. I had no intention of getting a Bachelor’s. I looked at college as an extension of middle school and high school, both of which I was not eager to prolong any more than necessary. I wanted to get started living my own life and making my own money so I could achieve my goal of financial independence. Sadly, that dream was slipping away from me through forces that I had no control over and that school did not prepare me for.
Discovering the Men Behind the Curtain
After my second year of community college, most of my peers were going to a university/four year college. I, on the other hand, choose a broadcasting career certificate to get out of community college. I wanted to use my certificate and passion for politics to let the world know how corrupt and useless our schooling system is. Specifically, I set my sights on becoming a talk show radio host. Before I dived into my new career path though, I went travelling by myself (staying in a hostel inside of the United States) as well as took a trip to Italy with my mom. I felt like I finally had something fun and positive happening to me after all that time and effort spent in school (Although the amount of hard work I put into my studies, sadly, had no real correlation with my travels, I nonetheless felt deserved of a vacation). Fast-forward to my broadcasting classes and I remember feeling disgusted at how shallow and stupid the media was. The evidence presented in those classes confirmed my suspicions that media coverage consisted of nothing more than sound bites, celebrity stupidity and sensationalization. However, those classes also confirmed my suspicion about school After all the tests, essays, group projects etc. that we did, I learned next to nothing about how to get a job. All they said is that the market is “competitive.” By the time I graduated, the education system left me feeling more disgusted and dispirited than ever.
Lost in a Haze of Deception
I knew that I had music inside of me. I knew that I had a signal that others could resonate but through this faulty, stupid, and unhelpful education system I had no idea how to share my talents and passions with the world. All those years of patience when I was a young child, dreaming of an awesome career and making an impact in the world were slowly fading away to the harsh realities of feeling alone and my talents going to waste. I wanted financial freedom. I wanted to be around the types of things that brought me wonder and happiness, yet I had no freaking clue how I would do that! I was met with empty platitudes of “starting my own business” which I didn’t understand and was told that things would just magically work themselves out.
Biting the Bullet
Eventually, I decided to go to university. I was very fortunate in that I didn’t have to take out any loans. In fact I got enough money to save up through grants because it was a cheap school. I begrudgingly went to university just for the financial aid and I’m not ashamed to say it. If I’m going to be made to do something boring and frustrating that wouldn’t get me to where I wanted to go (at least based on prior experience), I’d better be getting paid for it. With the extra money saved up, I was able to travel like I had always wanted. I went to places like Japan, Australia, and New Zealand and boy did I have a blast (I talked about that in my other blog post). During my travels, my jealousy kind of faded away. When I was in those countries I felt so free and happy. I could go wherever I wanted, talk to whoever I wanted, experience different cultures and get a whole new perspective on life. This sparked the idea of starting this blog and creating a YouTube channel for myself. I knew that getting what I wanted out of life through traditional means turned out to be a gigantic scam - a scam that most of society continues to perpetuate. It is a scam that is somehow honored and celebrated in some cases. Once I liberated my mind and removed myself from the scam, I felt a new level of freedom from my mental frustrations. My patience was starting to pay off.
Expanding My Horizons
Then through more non-traditional online methods I got involved with my first information product that turned out to be less than optimal but I still learned from it. Then I got involved with 3D-printing (which is also one of my posts). With that I finally got to express my creative self. Then my signal through my YouTube page started getting picked up. I joined Toastmasters to speak about what I saw going wrong in society and was met with widespread agreement and applause. I did things like meet Jeff Bezos through volunteering with the NSS National Space Society and simulated living on Mars through joining Mars Academy USA. All that jealousy I had towards people who I thought were living better lives than me started fading away slowly but surely. I looked back on things that I used to be ashamed of such as living with my mom. American society brands adults who live with their parents with a mark of shame but I looked at it as a liberating business plan. My mom likes me and I like her. I save money in this arrangement to do the things I love and not have to worry about everyday expenses. That gives me a leg up to invest in the things that’ll make me successful later in life. I joined HTC (High Ticket Closers) and now I’m part of a project that will make tons of money and improve many people’s lives. Looking back on my life, my early twenties were a disaster because I bought into the traditional scam method of moving up in society. Now that I’ve trusted myself and went with non-traditional methods I’ve learned to listen to my instincts. They’ve always paid off. Ultimately, the best thing about being patient was that I learned to finally trust myself.
Be the Best Version of Yourself
To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “You can never connect the dots looking backwards. You can connect them looking forwards.” Be patient and don’t lose hope. Be persistent with your patience. The worst thing you can do is start catastrophizing, which unfortunately I tended to do sometimes. Most importantly, don’t be jealous or envious of those with more than you. That attitude will not serve you. Instead, try to be their friend and learn from what they are doing. That’s a far more productive use of your time. Dwelling on negative emotions you feel for people that will only end up hurting you. If you see something that’s clearly not working, don’t fall prey to a sunken cost fallacy. Rather, follow your gut and remove yourself from the person or situation that is draining you. Don’t compare your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20. Some people have amazing lives at a young age and terrible lives at an old age or vice versa. A direct comparison to a person whose prior history in life you know nothing about is not a good measuring tool for success that we should use. Last but not least - with enough persistence, drive, and motivation the signal that you send will finally hit something and reverberate throughout the world. With all that being said, would I say my life perfect right now? No. Despite that, it just keeps getting better and better with patience.