going away which is highly highly related to this next one I had down which is people will judge you for whatever you do people will judge you for whatever you don't do so people and do the thing it's not going away right wait so this is yeah this is another interesting way to look at this is that again this fear of judgment if you do something well there's going to be a judgment if you don't do it as well like there's a judgment no matter what you do or don't do so like judgment is just
like I I think the Trap that people fall into is they assume that judgment is something that you can avoid like there's a there's a world where you are not judged by anybody ever for anything that you you find the perfect people who love you perfectly and like always agree with everything you do like that that world does not exist that's a fantasy land uh so judgment is a permanent state of your existence whether you are being actively exposed to that judgment or not like makes little difference um so you might as well be judged
for the things that you find important and worthy and this ties back into one of you know one of the the main points of of subtle art or in the first chapter of subtle art is that like the key to not giving a [ __ ] about adversity is giving a [ __ ] about something more important than adversity and I think this is this is ultimately like what holds so many people back in this area is that they they get so caught up on on on just not experiencing the Judgment that they don't think
about like what's worth being judged for what are the things in my life that I don't care care how many people judge me for it I'm still going to do it because it's that important to me I care that much about it um I think that's actually the question that people should be asking right I and I don't think like this happened for me actually when I came to work for you I've told you this story before but um you know I was in this middle of this PhD program there's a very set path to
go uh then you came along ruin my life and continue to ruin it today continue to ruin it to this day no but there were I mean there were a number of people around me who basic thought that you're ruining your life here what are you doing because again this was 2014 what the hell's a Blog and how do you makeing money with it and how's this guy going to pay you there were a lot of people you know the the head of the grad um The Graduate study she sat me down like are you
okay what's going on what happened to you um and to me though it was just so I was like yes that this was so self-evident to me that no this was the right thing to do so I think you're right I think you have to you either have to figure out or or be in the right space um to where you do know exactly what you give a [ __ ] about right in this in this situation to be able to be like I don't care what you think I just didn't care it's also realizing
like I bet a lot of those people who tried to talk to you it it's funny cuz my wife went through the same thing like when my wife decided to leave Brazil and start Trav like a bunch of her friends sat her down they're like cuz she quit her job quit her career all this stuff so like bunch of her friends sat her down they're like where are you going with this american guy like how does he make money like what's a block and but it's interesting because I think a lot of those people in
those situations they're their judgment is actually more about them than it is about you 100% right cuz it's like 100% they're struggling with the PHD program they are uh heavily invested mentally and emotionally into it but also maybe have some doubts maybe are second guessing themselves make maybe um wishing certain things certain sacrifices in their life weren't being made and then they see you just picking up and leaving and like that's scary because it's like well if he can do it what's stopping me right what's my like what's keeping me here and and it forces
them to ask difficult questions about themselves that's 100% what I saw I think yeah yeah I I there were there were it it was funny though that because there were several people this like my parents they were like yeah go for it that's cool so which they've always been like that so I'm very lucky in that in that regard but it was the peer pressure around it was palpable but yet at the end of the day I was just like I knew I just knew whatever it was so I don't know is there a way
to get to that do you think there's a way to get to that space or to me it just I didn't even have to think about it right at that at that time and so I don't know I think that's that's maybe harder where it's it's hard to find that kind of uh Clarity I think for a lot of people I mean I I think what you're talking about is conviction yeah and conviction is a hard thing to find but it's I mean from what I found true in my life is like like there's this
great Peter teal question where he says like every founder CEO that he talks to that like comes to him for an investment like the first question he asks him he says like what do you believe is true about the world that most people don't and I like I love that question so much because I think as a creative person just as a writer I find that that generally leads me to the most interesting topics and the most important topics but on a personal level I feel like that that's where conviction comes from from because it's
easy it's easy to believe in things that everybody else believes in like everybody believes a PhD program is valuable right so it's easy to believe that and and the fact that you believe it doesn't it doesn't carry any weight or significance with it it's very difficult that to think that a PhD program maybe doesn't have a lot of value to it and like to do that you have to search for evidence and principles on your own and do the reasoning on your own and become convinced of the reasoning on your own and I guess that
process of like doing it on your own rather than relying on the opinions of others um it is more difficult but it generates more conviction once it's done successfully I got you yeah and like what I have found in my career is that I I will often investigate things that are very contrarian and like you know everybody believes the opposite let me look at this thing and nine times out of 10 there's nothing there it's like okay well everybody believes the opposite for a good reason but that one time out of 10 you you actually
do like okay the crowd's missing something here and and if you can like generate enough evidence there it like it becomes a very powerful thing I had several years to stop and think about it so it wasn't like this was just it fell upon me and I was highly convicted it it took a while but yeah I got to that point yeah I went to I went through a thing to a lesser extent when I started started my online businesses uh cuz all my University friends went into the corporate world and it was funny because
it I mean it wasn't as explicit like nobody like pulled me aside was like what the [ __ ] are you doing but I noticed it's like I kind of stopped getting invited to things uh you know it was like conversations and like I started getting left out of conversations or like certain questions that people would ask each other they stopped asking me you know uh so yeah you you like it tests you for sure but it's like I I think this is important like the this comes back to to that first point of of
like what are you willing to be judged for I think when you find something that you have high conviction in that is maybe not a a popular path or a popular belief the fact that you get judged for it like that that testing of it I think is actually important and makes it feel more meaningful like I take a lot of pride in a lot of in the things that I've done because people thought I was kind of crazy when I started like that's actually what makes it feel more meaningful and Powerful on the other
side of it whereas I feel again I feel like if you're just always following what everybody else says and thinks and does you're not going to have that that feeling of of purpose and reward at the end or not not to the same extent definitely yeah 100% I I use it as a badge honor too just like yeah I'm not and but I think I've always kind of been like that too and even when I was younger I was like I'm not going to be like every body else around me right yeah yeah I guess
but there is a cost to that right so it's like oh yeah you get to you get to feel a little bit more uh significance and meaning when you know when things turn out well um but when things don't turn out well you look like an idiot and also like it's isolating right so it's like uh when you're on the same path with a bunch of other people you have the added benefit of like a sense of community you're in a in a thing together there are other people who understand what you're going through when
you when you choose the thing that most people aren't doing um there's a there's a certain amount of isolation that comes with that hey everybody thanks for watching this was a clip from the subtle art I'm not giving a [ __ ] podcast we release podcasts weekly on YouTube and everywhere where you can get podcasts so be sure to subscribe follow us on Apple Spotify wherever you like listening to stuff cuz we're going to have a lot more stuff to listen to check it out
