What Is the Shortest Path to Success? How Do I Get Rich Quick?

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It’s 5 am and I’m sitting in my office eating cold pasta and staring at my laptop screen. I have thoughts I want to share, but they seem to alternate between being too profound and being too mundane. The importance of acceptance and equanimity. The importance of charging your electronic devices. The miracle of electricity. The curse of social media. 

I’m having trouble finding a middle path. A balanced path. And I’m realizing it’s a metaphor for my life in general. Wild enthusiasm. Paralyzed indecision. The path is in balance. It’s in a particular shade of grey. It’s in not falling prey to the lure of certainty. 

It’s fucking difficult, is what it is.

And sometimes balance itself is the problem. I’ve been trying to balance too many aspects of my life instead of prioritizing. I want to be a father, an investor, an author, a philanthropist, a friend, a restauranteur, a loving husband, a purveyor of advice, a creature of learning, a generator of wealth. I want all of these things, but most of all, I want peace. 

I’m being ridiculous. If I want peace, I can just stop wanting all the other things. I can just accept life as it is. 

But if I just accept life as it is, what do I do with my time? How do I decide? The answer is I can do whatever I want. Accept whatever happens. Choose based on whimsy or based on prioritization. It doesn’t actually matter because we’re all going to end up as stardust. Or we’re all just figments of consciousness, indestructible. Either way, I can decide my path without getting stressed about the outcome.

I’ve been repeating a little bit of advice this past week to people who’ve asked about the path to success. I’ve said there are three steps:

1. Decide what you want.

2. Surround yourself with amazing people.

3. Don’t be in a hurry.

That’s it. 

If you have some sort of a destination in mind it will help to focus your efforts and give you mental clarity as well as peace. And if you surround yourself with amazing people, you’ll enjoy every minute. It doesn’t matter if you actually get anywhere.

In my own case, I want peace. Check. I’ve been working my whole life on surrounding myself with amazing people. Check. I keep forgetting to take my own advice on not being in a hurry, but yes, dammit. Check.

How am I doing? I just sat down and ate pasta and typed, trying not to get any sauce on the keyboard. I’d call it a moderate success, cleaning up with a tissue. There, done. 

Go.

Don’t be in a hurry.

1. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down

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