We are charged a lot all the time.

O
TIME
ALL

We have to have good grades in school, we have to pass the year, we have to get into a good college, we have to take a renowned course, get a good job, have a good resume, earn more than our friends.

I personally never understood the pressure of getting a good job in my late 20s.

We are taught that success in life is having a high position, in a recognized company, with several subordinates.

And we grow up believing in it faithfully.

Nobody cares if you’re going to become a depressed, mega-competitive and materialistic person. If you’re making money, that’s what matters, isn’t it?

Not.

Life shouldn’t just be studying, working, earning and dying.

We were not born into this wonderful world, full of different places, unique people and exotic foods to live in an office, every day, from 9 am to 6 pm.

I, for example, consider myself a very successful person.

I have never worked in any multinational, I have resigned from all the companies I have joined and I have never earned any salary to envy.

But I consider myself a much more successful person than all my tie-wearing friends who earn more than 5 minimum wages a month.

I’ve parachuted, I’ve taught English classes to monks in the interior of India, I’ve been to countries that most people have never even heard of, I’ve done volunteer work, I’ve backpacked completely alone and without direction, I’ve lived in several countries, I’ve been robbed and I’ve run out of money on another continent with no one to help me.

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Doesn’t that count as experience?

Shouldn’t this be asked in job interviews?

You are not your resumes.
You are not the multinational companies you work for.
You are not the salary you earn.
You are what you live for.
The people you know.
The books you read.
The places you go.
The experiences you have.

There’s nothing wrong with working a modest job, saving money and traveling the world.
There’s nothing wrong with doing volunteer work.
There’s nothing wrong with writing a book, even if it isn’t published.
There’s nothing wrong with fighting for a cause you believe in, even though the whole world thinks you’re crazy about it.

Crazy is someone, in their late 20s, who is stuck in traffic going to work. Seeing the same people. Facing the same computer.

What is all this search for professional success for?
Do you really need all that money you’re making?
What will add to your life a few more zeros in your bank account?
Do you think you are a superior person for having studied at the best university?
Because you work for the best multinational company?

And unless you have to help out financially at home, don’t say the problem is money.

I’ve already spent two months backpacking around Asia on the salary I managed to earn in a year of internship.

And still left.

We don’t need all these excesses that we think we need.

We have reached 60 years.
rich.
Living in a 300m² apartment.
With a cleaning lady every day to wash our dishes and extend our beds.
With the car of the year.
With children in English, German and Spanish classes.
Thinking that all our purpose in life has been achieved.

But we arrived unhappy.
Depressives.

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Fulfillment for me is not money.
Fulfillment are stories to tell.
Fulfillment is sitting at a bar with friends and drinking a cold beer, not worrying about the work I missed today because I was overwhelmed and didn’t have time.

Go after what makes your heart flutter.
We’re too young to worry about retirement and mortgages.

Coffins have no drawers, what you earn in life will not be taken away after you die.

What you take from this life is the life you lead.