Vent Session: Produce more than poop + pee + sweat

“There’s no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time.” — Helen Mirren

A little history

Life should be exciting. As humans, we are gifted with a conscious mind, creative expression, and the ability to self-reflect. We have the tools to dream big and make life exciting.

In an interview Steve Jobs once mentioned a study of locomotion that measured various species on the planet… “…the condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list,” Jobs said. “It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.”

It is not our physical presence in this world that is impressive. It is what we create that separates us. As humans we have the ability to beyond the realm of natural born capabilities. We can produce more than just poop, pee, and sweat.

Stop wasting your time

I realized five years ago when I got to college that I wasted a lot of my time. I had a typical lifestyle, doing just enough with mediocre effort. I made good grades, got my work done, but never pushed myself any further. I love to build things, so I studied CS. I’ve always been a big fan of Steve Jobs and when he died I think we all realized just how monumental he was. It was incredible that one human being can make such an impact on our daily lives. I realized it was time to make a change in my own daily life, in order to make an impact on others’.

I began to work/study 12+ hours per day, during weekends and so on. I invested fully in myself. I excelled as a CS student. During my years in college, I did a lot of freelancing, worked with startups without even noticing it. The more I got involved working with startups, the more ideas I had to start my own company.

Workaholic

Working 12+ hours per day, gave me just enough time to eat and sleep. But I was happier than ever before. I felt like I was starting to become something bigger than myself, as my contribution to the world was more than simply producing just poop, pee, and sweat. I invested in myself, writing code, building products, and keeping to myself. What I realize today, is that I’ve predicted some tools that now are million dollar companies, but I didn’t have the courage to show them to anyone. I am not saying that if I had released them first, that I could have now have a million dollar company. What I am saying is that I will never know, because I never tried.

Throughout the past five years, I’ve met a LOT of people that are just wasting their time, doing nothing impactful, working their 9-to-5, and being miserable. It seems like this is a common trend. I am not saying that it is wrong to have just a 9-to-5 job, but you have to follow your passion — create what makes you happy. Do that job as it is the dream job for you and you will help you and the world by doing it right. As technology evolves like crazy, we need to keep up with it, and more people need to start to go above average Joe, the technology guy, that knows how to write some HTML and CSS. Push your limits, start studying and stop being mediocre. Remember, without our creations we cannot even compete with the condor.

Your time it’s limited, how about starting doing something useful with it?