We all know that many office and retail jobs can royally suck when we’re just coming of age and entering the market/workforce. And in this day and age, when many jobs face being replaced by highly sophisticated algorithms and mechanical droids, our generation is faced with the peril that if we do not successfully adapt to the coming changes, we will be facing untold calamity and destitution.
So what can young millennials do?
I think in this day and age, anybody with a brain can profit and prosper to an immense and previously unimaginable degree. The hard-work that earlier generations had to do is largely a thing of the past. Today, there is so much wealth in the world; it’s not so much about competing with others for scarce resources. It’s about taking what is ours, claiming our piece of the pie, helping others to do the same, and holding the long prophesied massive utopia party we-all-made-it celebration party.
We are truly entering an age of post-scarcity, and with this abundance of wealth comes the possibility for true freedom, and anarchy, to finally prevail.
But what if our generation could free itself from this status of being the state’s chattel, the government’s slave workers?
I read a book a few years ago that truly blew my mind, and though I didn't really understand how it would all work, I intuitively agreed with absolutely everything it said. This book really crystallized my understanding and conviction that freedom for mankind was real and possible, though certainly not guaranteed.
This is when I first started to really grasp the sheer extent of the emerging possibilities for our generation, and making appropriate changes to my world view and thus getting on track to thriving and prospering in this new millennia.
The book was called: “Post-Scarcity Anarchy”, a collection of essays by Murray Bookchin. And conveniently, you can read it in PDF Form right here. If you want to start thinking about the world in a not-all-doom-and-gloom way, I can't recommend this read more. It's like 90 pages. Really, if the name is not enough of a selling point for some of ya'll, I guarantee the ideas in there are truly awe-inspiring.
The purpose of this [book] is to explore three questions. What is the liberatory potential of modern technology, both materially and spiritually? What tendencies, if any, are reshaping the machine for use in an organic, human-oriented society? And finally, how can the new technology and resources be used in an ecological manner—that is, to promote the balance of nature, the full development of natural regions, and the creation of organic, humanistic communities?
I won't go into the contents of the book too much here, but in essence, the book explains in the simplest terms possible how we can actually use all the tools available to us today to actually live the best frippin' lives imaginable. We can literally enjoy all the finest things in life, have untold free time to bond with each other and spend quality time with one another, and in general just live out our dreams like our life is a magical fantasy. Read it, and you'll realize that everything the media says about the world is literally the biggest load of BS.
We can become free if we really want to. There's no longer any logical need for "toil". Instead, what the world really needs and wants from us today is to do "pleasurable work". Making art, expressing ourselves, understanding each other and the world... It's actually the most beautiful time to be alive, if we can adapt to the changes that are taking place today.
If you are already on Steemit and getting into cryptocurrency, this shows you are at least on the right path towards your freedom and long-term prosperity. So here are some suggestions for the brave millennials out there that are trying to figure how they're going to make it. They all come from my own personal gut instinct, years of browsing the internet and reading interesting books to help me open my mind, and a little bit of what may still have some form of relevance to our world: common sense.
Start working with no ceilings
So today, we are living in a globalized economy. That means that for the most part: capital, information, expertise, technology, currency, you name it; is moving across borders instantly and effortlessly. You know what is not yet moving across borders effortlessly?
It's not that it's impossible to move across borders. In fact many people are doing it, probably more now than at any point in the previous 5 centuries combined. But I think out of all the things that should be moving across borders, people seems to be high up on that list of things that need access to more mobility.
First Recommendation: Just decide to go live in another country and learn the language of that land.
Why? Because when you move to another region that you are not from, this immediately increases your worth, because people like you are in much shorter supply and much higher demand. How is capital, tech, expertise and information supposed to circulate across the globe without restriction if there are no "human nodes" to act as transistors for this movement to continue flowing? Just by uprooting yourself and moving to another foreign land, by logical extrapolation, untold opportunities will be able to present themselves to you.
How to do this? Well, if you're a young millennial, you could look to go educate yourself in another country. Many countries have scholarship programs that will pay for all of your expenses, because many countries realize they need a steady flow of different kinds of human beings to keep up in pace with globalization. You don't need a big company to arrange a post and visa paperwork for you. Often all you need is a letter of invitation from established company or institution in the other country. Get yourself on Craigslist, or do a little bit of searching online, find a teaching job or a another kind of company looking for young people with 0 skills except a fun, open personality. And hop on the train to wonderland.
Going to another country, and additionally learning another language, is not only an adventure of a life-time, but you will meet incredibly dynamic and interesting people who are doing the same thing as you. These kinds of relationships, sharing in the discovery of a new world and building a whole different kind of relationship, especially one that might involve the use of another 2nd or 3rd language, will stimulate your mind, keep you active day in and day out, and help you get over yourself and move on with getting to where you were meant to be in life! Don't stay back home, surrounded by the same people you've been surrounded with your whole life. The demand for people who choose to do this in our world is literally rapidly shrinking to 0.
Recommendation 2: Create an Online Business
If you're already on Steemit and have the opportunity to read this post, you've already realized that there is a big opportunity to make money online simply by sitting at the computer. There's no point in grinding untold hours for somebody else's business for a minimum wage paycheck. Anybody who's ever made any amount of money will tell you that the way they were able to stack stack stack was by having multiple sources of income. Maybe they were blogging, doing photography work, doing freelance work editing a local paper, running a side-business that dealt with helping old people... I don't know what the fuck they were doing. But they were doing lots of different things and getting paid fat bandz.
What's the upside of starting your own business? You get to do it with your friends. (And by the way, if you have no good friends around you who you could see yourself making millions of dollars with while having the time of your life, that's a BIG sign you're ready for recommendation number 1.)
Seriously, when you can divide the work of making your dreams come true with one or two of your best friends who also have similar dreams and goals as you, instead of having to work all by yourself, exhausting yourself, and feeling depressed, you can actually get excited about all those rewards your work together is going to reap, all the great times you're going to have sipping Martini's by the beach somewhere in Latin America, or South East Asia.
Additionally, you'll never get bored. Why? Because you'll be literally having fun all day with your friends. A good friend is somebody who wants to see you at your best, most-fulfilled and enriched possible. A bad friend is somebody who will be jealous of your success, try to shoot you down every time you have a good idea, and generally be unhelpful with helping you reach your goals and live your dreams.
The whole name of the game today in terms of online businesses for millenials is building your network, in real life as well as on social media and online, getting your ideas out there, and starting to grow your capital enough so that you can start enacting them.
Realistically, the longest time-frame it would take to build a mildly-successful business in this day and age is like 6 to 12 months, from decent idea to shipping out the product. All the resources and tools you need are available online, most of them for free if you know where to look. So why bother living pay-check to pay-check when you could just start working on something that's gonna change the game and take you to a whole new level?
I came to China and was teaching English and doing gigs on the side as they came along, and bit by bit, the whole world started to open up to me. The Universe provided for all my needs and gave me enough time to work on my wants. So honestly, unless you know you have really shitty karma and need to do a lot of cleaning up of your psyche before you can be ready to trust the Universe to guide you towards your most awesome and fulfilled state, trust the Universe.
In this day and age, all you have to lose are your chains, as some famous old-git once said.
Recommendation 3: Don't worry about the end-result, just get involved in the process.
In life, there are very rarely any big sweeping victories. You have to look at success from the point of view of a general leading an army in a big drawn out war.
The general doesn't win by making big, rash sweeping moves. You can't just send 50% of your forces to go fight in the North-West corner of the battlefield, move other forces here, encircle the enemy and clobber him.
The Art of War is much, much more subtle than this. This is something that the late Sun Tzu said:
"Every battle is won before it’s ever fought."
Well what does this mean? This means that before you can even think about "having a profitable business", or "losing 20 pounds of belly fat", or "being an expert in kung-fu and parkour", or "getting a new pent house in downtown Tokyo" or anything like this which is like the equivalent of winning the frippin' Battle of Britain and sending those sorry ass German soldiers back to the continent where they belong, you have to realize what goes into that first.
Success is actually created in our minds first, and then manifests outwardly. So what does this mean? Before you can enjoy any measure of success, you first have to imagine yourself achieving this success, then believe you can actually achieve it, and then figure out what it is you need to do to achieve it, breaking it up into millions of little steps that you can actually physically do with your arms, legs, body, words, pens, papers, powerpoints, word documents, bank cards, online registration forms, mailing lists, and logistics and management computer systems.
Seriously. Success isn't defined by "doing this incredible thing that one time". It's done by knowing exactly what you want, and everyday, doing something, anything, that brings you slightly bit closer to that outcome. Say you want to become a famous pop singer. Everyday, you gotta start by learning something new, watching YouTube tutorials, taking notes, doing exercises to practice your singing, coming up with lyrics, recording yourself and then looking for ways to improve, saving up money to buy the mic, talking about it with people and manifesting that connection who knows how to record artists, etc, until one day you're in the booth doing your shit, and suddenly a guy hands you your first demo and is like congrats now go get this out there, and you're on Steemit like "Guys, check out my new demo and follow me on Soundcloud" and you're on your way to the best life you could have possibly ever lived.
Don't worry about big victories. It's the little victories every day that count. You can hit the gym once a week and absolutely wreck your body and be demolished and unproductive for a whole week after, and you'll never seen an ounce of muscle growth. Or you could be that guy that spends half an hour in the gym almost every day, lifting his little weights but doing it regularly and consistently, and in three months you'll start looking more shredded than 90% of guys you come across.
I have three definitions of the word "Discipline" that help me stay on track with my goals out here in China.
1. "Discipline is Training."
2. "Discipline is Remembering What You Want."
3. "Discipline is Doing What You Decided To Do, Even When You Don't Feel Like Doing It Anymore"
And with those three points being stated, if you can learn to roll with the punches, and find a harmony between the positive and negative aspects of your life, you will find the Way to realizing your best self and enjoying your life to the absolute maximum.
Life is a journey, not a destination. Learn how to enjoy what you do, appreciate what you have, and keep striving for what you dream of, and life will reward you with everything that you really want deep down inside. You may not get all the bad bitchsss, the gold chains, the fancy cars... But you will get what you truly want. That is guaranteed. And your needs will be taken care of. Because the Universe is good.
It may seem fucking impossible at times. It may seem like it's all fucked. But that's the negative, the punches you just need to roll with. At the end of the day, you will make it out on top. Fo sho. Just need to trust in yourself, and know that all the challenges and difficulties you encounter are all meant to help you navigate your way to your most perfected state.
IMP UNITY REVOLUTION
Peace and Love
Hae-Joo
All Images Courtesy of Giphy: Ryan-Gosling / Bye-bye-Anarchist / Strictly-Business-Honey / Mad-Stacks / Show-Me-The-Money / Pack-Your-Bags-and-GTFO / Art-is-War / Cat-Military-Strategy / Meditating / Cosmic Consciousness