16-Jul-2020
Each day, we all have 24 hours, it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, it is still 24 hours. How those hours are being used is what sets us apart. Say you’ve done well in your life and you could well be relaxing on your yacht and cruising the Mediterranean right this moment. Or you could be on your break in a sweat shop, trying to use those few scarce minutes to catch a glimpse of what’s happening with the world. Still, the seconds keep on ticking relentlessly, time moves on and before you know it, it’s the end of day, time for bed and for another 24 hours cycle to begin.
Time has some interesting dimensions, it’s both infinite and finite. It’s infinite because since the big bang some billions of years ago, the universe is still expanding and time marches on. All one has to do to capture some part of this magic is to breath and live. That is, as long as you wake up each day, you are practically guaranteed another 24 hours. It’s almost like the universe is saying, here’s another 24 hours, off you go, do something and keep things ticking along.
Yet time is finite because as humans, we age and only have a limited time on this earth. Also, once time has passed, we don’t get it back and it’s gone from us forever. Herein lies the real dilemma, we are constantly given time but as soon as we get it, it’s also taken away. Time represents a certain cruel irony.
The lesson is of course, what can we do to capture this fleeting and wonderful resource called time? For the vast majority of us, we think time should be used for enjoyment, after all, if time is finite then it makes sense to make every second enjoyable. Whilst not all of us have the money to be on a yacht, we do other fun things within our financial means, like shopping or hanging out. Yes, even poor people have their own versions of fun, it’s all relative. That said, most of us feel we are not getting enough fun because we neither have the time and money to do so. In turn, this fuels our insatiable desire to be rich and dreaming of the day where we can have endless fun, forever.
For the have nots i.e. the 99%, the day generally goes like this, get to work, make a few bucks, pay bills and any spare change & time are then allocated to fun. Because you might have worked 10 hours a day and have only been able to sit down and relax for 1 hour, so it is perfectly understandable that you might rile at the unfairness of the world, dream of striking the lotto and hope for things to change for the better. Yet inevitably, when the next 24 hours comes along, it feels like groundhog day and you lived the same way over and over. In short, the story and essence of your life’s struggle is the yearning to break free for more fun.
Look, there are plenty of people, both rich and poor, who are satisfied with their lives, having a great time and have achieved their version of success. Kudos. However, the vast other majority do feel they are somewhat deprived in their lives and want more. It is not wrong to want more but it is certainly wrong to believe that more fun comes free of charge. In fact, it might come as a shock to you that there is a high price to pay for more fun.
Take Johnny Depp, the Hollywood movie star who makes double digit millions per movie and he’s made quite a few. Now we know a bit about his personal life because he’s being dragged through the courts for various proceedings. The bottom line is, the court documents had revealed to us that the man has heaps of fun, expensive fun at that, so much so that he needs to constantly work (make movies) to pay for his fun. Essentially, he’s just like your average worker bee but with more zeros in his pay cheque. Money still comes in one hand through work and goes out the other in the pursuit of fun. Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?
The story of Johnny and that of ourselves reveals a fundamental flaw in our fun strategy. That is, by choosing fun with the very little spare time we have left after work, we are effectively chasing our tails and going around in circles. If you are after that little bit of fun at the end of each work day or the weekends, well yes you deserve it and yes you’ve got it. Make no mistake though, just like Johnny, the work each day only enabled you to maintain your current level of fun, it’s all squared off. So, if you want more fun, then chances are you will need to work more.
The problem is of course, we don’t want to work more for our fun. Johnny old chap, even with all the drugs he’s taken, still have the sense to understand that he needs to work. Now this is in spite of nearing his 60s and having made a reported 650 million. It can be said, that at least he’s aware of the ‘laws of fun’ and it goes something like this.
There are basically 4 equations in the laws of fun. Firstly, a) 0 fun = 0 work, b) more fun = more work, c) less fun & more work now = more fun & less work later and lastly, d) heaps of fun now & little work = more and more work + interest later. It is all about trade offs and what you choose for your life.
For Johnny, it’s clear he’s chosen choice #b, he works hard, plays hard and continues to do so. Nothing wrong with that but maybe we could imagine had he picked law #c, been a bit more frugal with his fun allotment, saved some of the movie millions and invest it properly, he might have gotten away with working less and still enjoy the good life. Yet, it is clear that’s not how he lives his life. So for lesser mortals like us, to have more fun means you either keep working perpetually like Johnny, or work in advance & apply delay gratification.
Let’s say you are about to take a camping trip. It sounds fun but there is a lot of work involved up front, especially in planning and preparing. You’ve got to pack the tent, get all the fishing gear and so forth. The fun technically doesn’t start until you have left the door. That said, people who do it because they have weighted up the fun part vs the work part and thinks it’s a good deal. However, there would be others who might not be a big fan of camping and thinks this is all too much work for nothing exciting. It is all about how you value your inputs and outputs and knowing the trade off relationship.
The concept of trade off is probably what’s missing in our understanding of fun. You see, fun is not given freely, it is only obtainable because you have worked at some levels. (Or it can be that said that some other people have worked and you are lucky enough to reap the rewards like inheritance or investments). Say you worked 10 hours today, well you’ve earned that 1 hour screen time. The ratio sounds terrible but that’s the going rate. Of course there are some exceptional people who can work 1 hour and earn enough to watch TV for the rest of the day, but unfortunately we are not there yet.
In order to have more quantity and quality of fun and without working long hours, you are going to have to move further up the ladder – up front. With only 24 hours in a day, you are going to have to make a hard trade, where your 1 hour of screen time will have to be traded and put to better use like learning new skills, so that you can earn more money and then later on, you will be able to trade more work time for fun time. On paper it sounds terrible to work and work but that’s the price for getting ahead.
The simple truth is, the more fun you need, the more work you need. By working harder and put in more effort now, the more fun you are able to have later in life, as that’s like a payment in advance. Conversely, if you have an overdraft of fun now, your future repayment will come in the form of extra hard work plus interest. In fact, a lot of us are already living on borrowed time, having wasted our youth in the pursuit of fun and thus paying for it now. Yes life should not be this hard but it is, mainly because we have wasted opportunities prior and now reaping what we have (not) sowed. It’s not too late now as you are finally aware of the consequence of your actions and inactions. So what’s left is to decide is what price you are willing to pay vs the rewards you are going to get. By choosing to pay though advancement in work and thus making sure every day count for something, means you have invested in yourself and guaranteeing your future self will collect the rewards.
The key take away is, here’s another 24 hours, boom, what are you going to do, boom? The answer that should be – I’m going to do more, I’m going to do better this very minute, every day. Boom, boom! The fun of your dreams is waiting patiently for you to finish the work you are (or need to be) doing, so you better get a move on.
Struggle Perpetual 