The rat race
Here is to everyone whose dreams keep them awake all night.
Some people are happy out there. They are happy working the 9 to 5 job. They are happy with a triple bedroom condo and a family sedan. They are happy competing with their colleagues for an increment. They are happy with what they have and also ‘happy’ with whining everyday about what they want. They are happy with all the bread crumbs their company throws at them just to make them work towards someone else’s goals. I call these people the rats. I call this the rat race.
We all have a lot of wrong ideas hardwired into our minds. We are taught that to settle is to live. We are taught to treat money like god. We worship money, work for money, and preserve money. We are taught to give up on our dreams at the first sign of discomfort. We are told that our dreams are impractical and impossible.
We also have wrong ideas of assets. We create our own criteria to settle down and call them assets. We are made to believe that a car and a house to live in are solid assets. A car makes you pay for it every other day. It takes money out of your pocket in the name of installments, maintenance and a lot of other shite. So you tell me, is your car an asset or is it a liability?
We are told that a 9 to 5 job is all we need to run life. And we fight for increments, promotions and incentives because we believe in money more than we believe in anything else. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Who is winning here? You or your CEO? He is making a step towards his own dream by raising your pay by a lean amount. Your desire towards the materials you consider as assets are being exploited by someone else who knows what real assets are. Mediocrity is a comfortable illusion you chase while you should be chasing your own dream instead. I would say dreams are the most powerful feelings in the world. Dreams are on which the world is built. Dreams are on which the world runs. As long as there are dreams, there will be life. Ever wonder why you look so dead after coming back from work?
So what is stopping you from following your dreams? Are you scared? Of what? Are you scared of losing things in the process? Are you scared you will never get there even after all that loss? Are you scared that the loss wouldn’t be worth it? Well let me tell you something. There is one thing that you can never ever lose. Yourself. And that is all you need to get there. Your mind, your work, your visions and YOU are all you need. The vision of where or who you want to be is your greatest asset. An asset that you have to preserve with your life.
The cars, houses and luxuries are rat biscuits that the mediocre life promises. Do not settle for those. One fine day, all these luxuries wouldn’t even be expensive to you. You would be able to buy all these with a week’s income without any kind of financial assistance or without denting your bank balance. It wouldn’t even matter. But for that, you have to be willing to work on your dreams now. You have to be willing to lose it all in order to walk towards your visions. Risk is the small price you pay for an opportunity.
A rich man is not the one who owns a lot of cars, bungalows and businesses. A rich man is the one who can lose it all, smile, get out there and earn it all back again. The ability to earn all these is real asset. The earnings come next. You might think everything is about the money and get disappointed when you fail or when you don’t earn as much as you expected. Money is not the goal. Money is just a variable that comes along the way. What matters is the difference you make to yourself. You do not have to work for money. Money will work for you if you work for your dreams.
Most of us have big dreams and goals in the beginning. We all want to make a difference. We all want to make history. Why do we lose it as time passes? What does all our dreams dissolve into? We tend to lose confidence in ourselves after a while. We see other people living the mediocre life and we think it is okay to live like that. We are told that our dreams are impractical and cannot be achieved. We are told that we have no background, connections, and investments to pursue our dreams. We are made to believe that we need all these to pursue a dream. We doubt ourselves. Self-doubt is something that we cannot afford on the road to success. Anyone can doubt you except yourself. Doubts kill more dreams than failure ever will. Never ever doubt yourself. You can be whoever you want to be, if the desire is strong enough. People may not believe in your dreams. They tend to believe in what they see. Make them see it. Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.
Someone once told me not to bite off more than I could chew, I said I would rather choke on greatness than nibble on mediocrity
– Unknown
Now it’s only up to you. You can either make a superhuman out of yourself or you can be a rat. You choose.
Behind every self-made millionaire, behind every game changer, behind every great personality, there is a young lad whose dreams kept him awake all night. So here is to all the dreamers.
See you at the top.
With love,
Sathya Kumar.
