Find Your Happiness

or all of you out there that are the perfect number 2 or number 27 or number 997, this is for YOU.

Please understand that somebody who makes $80,000 a year being a blogger about basketball is like being the 12th man on a team. You made it to the league, but you’re not Lebron. You’re one of the best basketball players in the world, but nobody knows who you are. There’s no shame. As a matter of fact, the practicality of making $80,000 a year being a blogger about basketball because you love it, versus making $109,000 a year as a lawyer is a great arbitrage for a lot of people.

“It’s the unlocking happiness.” — Tweet This!

Would your life be better making $109,000 a year as a lawyer versus making $80,000 a year creating basketball content full-time? I’m not sure because I don’t know your situation. You may have loans, you may have debt, but if you can afford it, I can promise you, you’re going to be way happier doing the stuff that you want to be doing. Those are the choices everybody has to make for themselves. When I say not everybody is going to be Lebron, I mean not everybody is going to be Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs.

But almost everyone with access to the internet, social media, Instagram, Snapchat, Musical.ly etc. and some level of skill or talent to deploy in the creation or documentation of content within their hobby can turn it into a job.

And many will lose. Just because it CAN happen doesn’t mean it will. But what’s amazing about the internet is that it’s a true marketplace. Many will strike out because they gave up too soon or because they literally aren’t good enough. But you can try. With all of the resources that we have at our disposal, everyone has a chance. And that’s the beauty of it.

There’s a level of practicality that’s different for everyone predicated on how fancy they want to be. Where’s your happiness and where are the things you want that you need money for? There’s a lot of people reading this article right now that are doing well and making $200,000 a year doing something that’s ‘just a job,’ but if they made $140,000 doing something they loved they’d be much happier. Got it? They start working, the machine takes over them, the business eats them up. A lot of people think that happens to me when they don’t understand me. They don’t get it. I already won! I’ve won!

I’m getting to play the game that I want to play. I don’t need to make more. I only need to make more because it means I’m succeeding in the game that I want to play.

I’m ultimately patient. I figured myself out. I know what makes me happy.

“Nothing in the world makes me happier than doing.” — Tweet This!

And by the way, this is for everybody. Everybody is the happiest when they get to be doing what they want to be doing. When you do what you want to do, you’ve won. That is the seductive nature of entrepreneurship because you have control. There’s no boss. The company can become your boss. The overextending yourself, and paying for your lifestyle can become your boss. Not paying attention to what makes you happy anymore can become your boss. That’s why I try to stay grounded in understanding my truth.

When people don’t know me and a video goes viral, they’re like, “This guy is just going to be miserable because he just wants to make money.” They don’t know me. They don’t know me at all.

There’s plenty of people that are miserable that are home all day. Misery doesn’t come in the way you want to judge it. Misery comes in the way that it is for the actual person. The time I get to spend with my family, and then the fact that I get to spend every day playing the game that I want to play is ultimate happiness for me. I would suffocate and die if I worked 9:00–5:00. I wouldn’t be happy. I want to work.

That 6:00 to 9:00p.m that so many of you go out to dinner with friends, or watch shows, or play volleyball, that’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s just three more hours of work. My meeting is your card club, my meeting is your book club, my meeting is your pool table night, my meeting is your dart team, my meeting is your going to the shore and surfing, my meeting is your yoga. That’s what makes me happy. That’s what makes me relaxed. I get relaxed when I’m working. It’s what I love.

So, please, I implore you to understand yourself and know what makes you tick. Know what makes you happy and find the time to do that. Find your happiness and win.