When I was 21, I read this book called the magic of thinking big. It inspired me to think big.
Why you should aim big in life.
“Aim for the heavens, because if you don’t make it you will land on a cloud.” – Kanye West
The reason why it makes sense for you to aim really big in life is because even if you don’t make it there, you will still achieve more than if you set small goals.
For example, let’s say you are Eric Kim and want to create a trillion dollar photography company. Of course you’re not going to make a trillion dollar company. But you’re more likely to make a million or billion dollar company, than if you aim to make $40,000 a year.
The biggest asset we have as human beings is our mind. The bigger we dream, the bigger we can create. The more we can achieve.
This is why I think if you want to be successful in life, you should always aim really fucking big. Like massive.
For example, it is my aspiration to deadlift 500 pounds (for one rep). You might think I’m crazy. But from age 21 to 28, I’ve raised my deadlift from 135 to 405 pounds. My maximum 1 rep max for deadlift was 420. Because I set a really big goal, I was able to overcome my boundaries.
I still remember when I first deadlifted 405 pounds. You know it is a monumental task when you put four “plates” (forty five pound plates) on each side. Mentally I always thought I couldn’t deadlift that much weight, but then one day I thought to myself, “Why not?”. I then said “fuck it” to myself, and when I was about to deadlift, I went into zen mode, turned off my brain, blasted “Black Skinhead” by Kanye West and then screamed, pulled the weight with every fiber of my being, and lifted that motherfucker into the air, at waist level. I felt like a motherfucking beast. I dropped the weight, and I knew at that moment:
I have no limits.
Money is a tool.
I have no use for more money for myself. I have simple needs. I don’t eat breakfast or lunch, and eat dinner mostly at home.
I don’t own a car, nor do I desire one. I prefer riding Uber everywhere, and taking naps. I fucking hate traffic. I’d rather ride in an uber stuck on the 405 freeway in la, and type blog posts, while having a pleasant chat with the uber driver.
I don’t need no motherfucking $300 headphones. I’m just using the default iPod white headphones, and they work fine. And I quite like the design.
I don’t need no $10,000 digital Leica. I prefer my film Leica MP, and I think it looks cooler. For digital, I prefer my Ricoh GR II.
I don’t need no $5,000 espresso machine. I prefer using my cheap $2 Capresso espresso machine at home (Cindys mom got it at a garage sale), and the $30 coffee grinder we got from Costco. I’d prefer to go to a hipster coffee shop and enjoy a lovely espresso off a La Morzocco machine while having a pleasant chat with the barista, and admiring them for their “God Shot”.
I don’t need no big ass house. I prefer to live in small studio apartments. I prefer to rent, less stress than owning. I like to pour coffee grounds down the sink and not stress out about fucking up my own pipes. I like to see things in the apartment fall apart and think to myself, “I’m glad I don’t need to stress out about that.”
The only reason I want more money is to help uplift and empower my family. To help my sister Anna, who is stuck in a rut and wants to find her passion in life. I wanna help Cindy’s sister Jennifer, who has so much untapped potential.
I wanna use money to empower my mom, so she can backpack through the entire world and never work another day in her life. So she can dedicate her time to help her local church community, and hiking group. For her never to be a slave to her $10 an hour job anymore.
Honestly, I also want to give you the ideas and the tools for you to empower yourself. For you to no longer work your shitty job, getting paid slave wages. I genuinely want you to make enough money to no longer need to work for a “boss” and for you to use all your mental energy and potential to uplift and empower the rest of humanity.
In today’s society, capitalism is king. And we cannot overthrow capitalism. We should play by the rules, but to exploit it. To have money is to have power; power over your own life, power over your schedule, power over your time, and the power to do whatever you want, and more importantly– to not do shit you don’t wanna do.
What I don’t need in life.
I really do not think I’m that special. I just have massive self confidence, and no doubts in myself. But in terms of my ability, I’m average. Probably below average.
I don’t know how to do business, nor do I know how I answer emails.
But I know what I think is bullshit. I think it is bullshit that society tries to subjugate us to man made “rules”. The biggest lesson I learned from studying sociology is that all these societal rules are just used to keep “social order”. Society wants you to be a sheep. Society tries to castrate your individuality. This is the reason I love being American, we are encouraged to be more individualistic than other countries. But to be frank, most of Americans live like sheep– consuming more than producing, being made passive by Netflix, being made passive by alcohol and weed, by holding onto shitty jobs in order to save money to buy shit we don’t need, and seeking happiness through sex and materialism.
Honestly, it’s not our fault. We’ve been brainwashed to think this shit since we were kids. I still remember when I was a kid, I would stay up late watching infomercials on tv. I was raised on tv, because my mom was always working 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week on minimum wage jobs. My dad just watched tv and movies all day at home. So I had no parental supervision. So who were my role models? Ron Popei selling me the rotisserie chicken maker (Set it and forget it!), wanting an Acura Integra (Fast and the Furious), and making a shitload of money and having “big booty hoes” (rappers).
We might not have the power to quit our jobs, but we have the power to quit believing this bullshit were spoon fed by the media. The best thing I’ve done is stop reading the news. There is so much “fake news” out there which gives you a distorted view of the world. The only blog I read for politics is zerohedge.com.
Also, I’ve found that Instagram gives us this fucking really distorted view of reality, in terms of what our friends and other human beings are doing. Of course it is a filtered reality. We only show our best moments on Instagram: when we buy a new car, a new Rolex, a new Hermes bag, us having a cappuccino and reading a paperback book at a hipster coffee shop, us sipping a glass of wine in Paris, us sipping a Corona on a beach in the Bahamas, us doing some bougie shit in the Hamptons, our kids in some private school, or us doing interesting shit all the time. The truth is that we only share our best moments, and what we do not see on Instagram and Facebook is how the majority of our time is spent being bored, passive, feeling ennui, lethargy, a lack of the will to power, a lack of inspiration, and motivation.
This is why I deleted my Instagram. I was sick of being a slave to this dumb platform, which makes your life some sort of competition. It is a competition to see who has more followers or likes. And ultimately the point of Instagram and Facebook is for Facebook to get you to click on more advertisements, to make more money. It isn’t for you to express yourself artistically. Don’t use social media; make your own blog on wordpress.org. Use bluehost.com to signup.
There is that one Silicon Valley quote:
If you’re using a free product, then you are the product.
Be strong for others.
Sorry I totally got off point.
The concept is this: think really fucking big for yourself, and don’t care what others or society thinks of you.
As long as your opinion of yourself is great; why care what others think of you?
Be massive, great, and powerful in life — in order for you to help the less fortunate, the weak, and disempowered.
Be strong,
Eric