Hi Ramsey,

I understand that you’re not interested in how only one person can improve his/her own work life; you’re more interested in the big picture. I only shared that with you because I wanted you to know that the career that’s ahead of you doesn’t have to be torture. It can be rewarding. It can be great.

Yes, the picking of vegetables and hunting for food for survival sounds pretty peaceful, I agree. Say we lived in a society like that and you became an expert fly fisherman, ate delicious fresh fish you caught every day but you had no idea how to build shelter for yourself. Say a neighbor who lived an acre away became an expert builder but didn’t know how to fly fish effectively. What would you do? Would you consider fishing overtime in order to provide plenty of fresh fish for him and his family while he built you a nice home? Or would you continue to live in your cold tent because you are dead-set against having to sell your time and labor in order to survive? You might say oh he can teach me how to build and I can teach him how to fish. We can cooperate with each other. Maybe he’ll agree to do that; maybe he won’t. I think that in a society like this people will inevitably develop skills that will become valuable to others who are willing to “pay” for them. You may say but I have a choice in the matter. I can fish overtime for this guy or I can decide not to and stay in my tent. What if you have another neighbor who doesn’t have that choice? Say he’s physically unable to build or fish but knows everything there is to know about calculus, astronomy, and physics and has written books about each subject. What would you do then? Would you provide fish to him for free, trade fish for his knowledge, or let him starve? You may say no, no, no, this isn’t what I’m saying. I’m saying that in today’s world we shouldn’t have to be concerned with survival. What does that mean? Does that mean the government provides each of us with shelter? How does that look exactly? Apartments for everyone or does everyone get a house on an acre of land? And who builds these structures? And then there’s the question of how to keep someone from breaking into your home and stealing all of the fresh fish that you caught for yourself. Who is going to protect you and your family? Whoever does it will want to get paid for it, maybe in fish.

I realize this may be a ridiculous example. I know what you’re saying. There’s massive greed and unfairness in the world. I agree completely. But getting a job and working hard doesn’t mean you have to buy into the b.s. You don’t have to compromise your character and integrity in order to be successful. And it’s possible to be content, happy and fulfilled within this current system. Don’t believe everything you read about what it’s like in the workforce. Decide what you want, the person you want to be. What do you want? What’s exactly is your utopia?

If you became the CEO of Nike you wouldn’t have to use your money to exploit people. Who says you have to do that? You wouldn’t have to be that a-hole. You could use your money to make big changes in the world. Positive changes that affect a lot of people positively.

B