Hello Friends!
Here is my weekly dose of lessons that I’ve learned in the past week:
The Five Year Rule: You get plenty of shots at life to make it BIG
I hear many peers make the following statement: “I’m not doing the right thing. I’m not focussing on the right path. I’m wasting my time. I’m not in the right spot, job, project, or not with the right people. I need to act fast and shift gears because soon it’ll be too late”.
The statement implies that starting early or starting right now is the only right option to choose. They speak like there is only a small window of opportunity that may evaporate at any second. They speak like success is a make-it-or-break-it situation where you get only one shot at it.
I’m afraid I have to disagree with this as long as you set your life up in the right way. You’ll get many windows and opportunities to become successful.
These many opportunities come in the form of the Five Year Rule:
- Within five years you can become a master in any new subject.
- Within five years, you can build a brand new profitable business from scratch.
- Within five years you’re able to reinvent yourself completely.
- All the above roads are achievable until you’re unable to do the work.
Let’s assume that I’ll be able to do real work until the age of 75.
That means that I have 47 years left to start new projects, build a new profitable business or completely reinvent myself. When you believe in the Five Year Rule, it means that I have 47 / 5 = 9 projects and new episodes in my life. That is quite a lot of new opportunities still ahead.
I shouldn’t be worried about my current path since I’ll have many years left to do things all over. To start something new. And, I’ll be able to do them with the lessons and learnings from the past.
That is the great part. The further you get the wiser you become, the more experiences you have and the more lessons you carry with you, which will increase your chances of success because in most cases you won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Believing in the Five Year Rule gives me peace of mind. I trust in the process, and I can say to myself: “Whatever happens, I’ll have many other shots at it.”.
But remember, living your life this way only works if you believe the following statements are true for you:
- I am mentally prepared to start from scratch every 5 years. I’m willing to do so, and I’m not afraid to do so. I don’t care what others think about it. I do it because I know a new opportunity lies ahead.
- I’m dedicated to getting the most out of these new 5 years. I will give it my all. I will not half-ass these five years.
Besides the mental preparedness, you’ll need to withstand the financial setbacks from starting a new adventure.
Are you ready to deal with that? Most people are not. That’s why they stick to shitty jobs with marginal yearly increases in returns.
You can only live out the Five Year Rule if you’re able to scale back once you start over. It would help if you had a good grip on your spending habits and all your habits in general. Starting over requires discipline in many areas of your life.
So how do you design a life for yourself that fits the Five Year Rule into it?
Let me show you how I designed my life using the Five Year Rule:
- My First 10 years (starting from when I was 20, which is 8 years ago):
I need to build a profitable business that can grant me freedom, wealth, and a budget to invest in smaller companies and startups. - Next 5 years:
Write a book on business, write a fiction novel, write short non-fiction stories and lessons. - Next 30 years:
Do whatever comes to mind + Design and build a fully sustainable farmhouse/homestead in the Netherlands’ countryside. Give back and help others to have a better life. - If I haven’t reached my goal of building a profitable business, I’ll rinse and repeat the process until I have that business. That is my path.
If you could build out your life in blocks of 5 years, how would your life look and what would you like to achieve?
A few quotes that made me think:
The search may also be the destination
Unknown
My interpretation: It’s okay not to be where you want to be. Finding out where you want to be is also a destination. Knowing that you’re searching may grant you extra peace and joy. Accept that you’re searching. Trust the process. The search is the process. Arriving is not everything. Arriving will only make you hungry for more searching. Searching is the destination.
Everything That is expensive costs a lot
Unknown
My interpretation: First, I like the fact that it sounds so stupid. My first response was: “DUH, of course, jeez wise-ass”. But then I started thinking deep on the hidden meaning, and I came up with the following.
There is no free lunch. Everything that is of high value has a high price. Nothing comes from nothing. It takes hard work, time and effort to reach a valuable goal. Long story short: Achieving large goals will have their price. The price to pay is different for everyone.
Every Master was once a disaster
Dan Lok
My interpretation: Every great man or women started from zero. They were all noobs, nobodies, losers and misfits when they started. This comes back to my belief in every person’s ability to reinvent themselves every five years (the Five Year Rule). Don’t be ashamed to become a new disaster.
Believe in the practice of the Shoshin, and you won’t be afraid to start over. When you trust the Five Year Rule, and when you trust in the power of Shoshin, you become invincible. Beginners Mind is the most potent, fluid and powerful mind there is.
Emotions are becoming more powerful than laws and arguments.
(The following is more of a questions spree I had based around free speech, freedom of media, freedom of mind and why we’re becoming so sensitive. When I reread it, it feels like a rant, and maybe it is. I’m not ashamed of it.)
“I’m hurt”, “That hurts me” has become a serious argument in the public discourse. Even though I can feel with people that use it as an argument, it still brings me fear.
Where is the line between feelings, facts and what I’m allowed to say?
Are we becoming a world where it’s not allowed to state a voice that might hurt or offend others? Is there only one correct voice that counts?
Why aren’t I allowed to offend you? Why are we as humans so easily offended in the first place?
Is it because of a common heritage, a culture, a group feeling that you belong to? Why do we care so much about what others think and what others say?
Why do we fight others that think differently? Why do we force others to think the same as we do? And why does it feel like no one wants to have an open discussion these days?
Why are we in a constant state of attack and defend? Why can’t we listen with to others and hear what they have to say?
I care so much about the above questions because I state my voice online. I think it’s massively important for people with a public voice to feel safe. Currently, safety is at risk. That is wrong, and in the long run, it will kill creativity and difference in the world.
I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of thinking while simultaneously being respectful to others. Hurting people isn’t good, but keeping your true, your voice for yourself is also bad.
On the flip side, I came up with the following:
Why may I not offend you? Can’t I be offended by someone’s offendedness?
Are you saying that I’m bad because I don’t see the world the same way you see it? Is that why you’re offended? You say I’m hurting you with my ideas and words. That offends me since I care about my words and my ideas and the personal beliefs they stem from.
Are we equal now since you’ve offended me and told me that what I believe is bad? Are we equal now since we’re both offended with each other? This is where the problem lays. No one wants to be the loser; everyone wants to put their heels in the sand; they don’t want to give in; they can’t give in.
Group consensus > Facts & arguments = Dangerous
Groups only function because they have a shared consensus on what to believe in. That is how groups function so well; they’ve accepted the same beliefs and ideas. Unfortunately, consensus doesn’t need to be fact-based, that is a problem. These days group consensus has a large grip on what is right or wrong or what is fact or fiction.
Just because a group says something is offensive doesn’t make it offensive. The group just shares a feeling and a belief. That is okay, and they are allowed to have such a group sentiment. But they should look at themselves as part of a group that experiences group thinking. This group should understand that other groups of people that think different are not their enemy. They are fellow inhabitants of this earth with different opinions, and that’s okay.
As long as we humans stay rational and accept that we get influenced by cognitive biases and group thinking things will be okay. The moment we forget this we’re in a bad spot.
Just because it’s a group with shared ideas, doesn’t mean that these ideas are the only correct ideas. There are no right ideas; there are only facts and ideas. “Right” is always in the eye of the beholder is part of a group most often.
Some personal social truths I want to live by:
- I respect your way of looking at things even though it might differ from how I see things. On that basis, I will grant you time to speak and to speak your mind. I will listen to your voice while at the same time, you will grant me the right to disagree with you.
- No one of us is less because we see things differently. We are equal even though we have different viewpoints.
- Emotions, consensus and the way you feel about things are not the same as facts.
- My feelings about something are my own. I’m responsible for the way I feel about something. Someone else should never change their views to change my feeling.
- I will never force my way of viewing something on others.
- I may say that I’m offended by something, but being offended ultimately has to do with how I look at reality compared to how someone else looks.
- We should never alter our common history; we can only alter how we act in the future.
Luckily I believe in data and facts. The more data we collect, the more REAL truths will become apparent. Unfortunately we humans suck at unbiased interpretation since those interpretations do not fit our mission or our beliefs.
But hey, tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow is a new opportunity to be nice to others. That is what counts, and that is a real impact. Take your time to listen to others. Take your time to feel with others. Respect the views of others. It’s okay that others have different views. As long as we don’t cross certain lines, different opinions and beliefs aren’t that bad. They make life and our time here interesting.
Have a good one, and I’ll see you in the next one.