Dear friend,

What is an hour of your time worth to you?

I. The ending of your life’s movie is death.

Spoiler alert: one day you’re going to die. At best, you might live to be 100 years old. At worst, you might die tonight in your sleep. Or you might die in a car accident while texting and driving or falling asleep at the wheel in a week. Or you might find out you have pancreatic cancer and die within a year.

II. What does it mean to be human?

Why is it that we think that we’re going to live forever?

I’ve been watching a lot of films lately, and it seems that all stories and movies ultimately go down to these two points:

1. Death
2. Love

To me, that is what it means to be human.

1. Death

First of all, to be human is to die. Memento Mori. You must die, and you will die.

If you think about Charles Darwin and what it means to be a biological being– it means that it doesn’t matter whether we live on. We just need to spread our genes and DNA. And in modern times, we should seek that the information we create (the art we make, the photos we make, the books and poems we write, the drawings we make, the love we make) should be immortal. We make children, to pass on our DNA and “information”. But ourselves, we are supposed to be mortal hosts. We are born with an agreement that we will die. Whoever wants to live forever is being silly, or just a coward of death.

2. Love

Second, to be human is to love.

For me, the only reason that I wake up in the morning is that I have this massive love of humankind. Like literally all human beings on planet earth. I believe all human beings deserve a chance of love and opportunity and empowerment, regardless of your class, race, age, or background.

Cindy is my best friend, my life, my wife, my soul, and my whole world. Snuggling with her in bed is better than owning a red Ferrari, and conversation with her is more fun than playing an 8-bit Atari. Sorry Cindy for all the times I hurt you, but know that you’re worth everything to me. You make me feel like our love will exist indefinitely, until the day we both part– you and me.

To me, love is the binding agent which holds humanity together. Love is the glue that keeps humanity glued to the earth like a shoe. Love is resistance and persistence in lieu of the black and blue, or the gloomy hues. Love is tight like a glove, and will elevate our souls to above.

III. My time is mine.

So assuming these two humans truths, Memento Mori, and love for all of humankind (agape) is what drives me.

So to live a meaningful, purposeful, and noble life is to always make sure that everyday is lived according to knowing that you will die, and that love should be your mission statement in life.

Of course, we need to make a living. We need to pay rent and groceries to feed ourselves. And of course, lots of (good) coffee, preferably a lovely light roast espresso.

But friend, realizing that your life is a smartphone battery without a charger, what is an hour of your time worth to you?

For example, if one day you woke up, and the Grim Reaper told you that you had only 100 hours of life left, what would you sell one of those hours for?

For me, if I knew that I only had 100 hours of life left, I would sell an hour of my time for $1,000,000.

Let’s think about this together. Assuming I had a hundred hours left to live, and I need to sleep 8 hours a day, I have 16 hours a day of time I can do meaningful work. 100 hours is roughly 4 days.

So I have four days left of life. I would sell an hour of my time for a million dollars, because I can give some of that money to Cindy and my family and hopefully it can help support them financially after I die.

So if I have four days left of life, and sixteen hours of work, I have 64 hours I can do meaningful work.

So that means, my smartphone battery only has 64% charge left, and I have no charging cable.

If I only had 64% charge left, what would I not waste time on? I wouldn’t spend an hour jerking off to porn (maybe just thirty seconds). I wouldn’t spend an hour on reading celebrity gossip, downloading apps, playing games, watching soulless entertainment, reading the news, ruminating on my regrets from the past, blaming others, saying anything negative, lusting after a car or camera or material thing, social media, email, or how to add more commas and zeros to my bank account.

What would I want to spend my 64 precious hours on? I would want to do more meaningful writing (like letters like this), focusing on empowering humanity through teaching or making videos that can affect people on a large scale, enjoying meaningful conversation with Cindy, my family, or close friends.

And to be frank, that is the only two things I give a fuck about now:

1. My work
2. My loving relationships

So friend, I think the secret to human flourishing (eudaimonia, the Greek concept of “happiness”) is simply to have:

1. Meaningful work (directed to empowering others, beyond yourself)
2. Meaningful relationships (full of love, sacrifice, and gratitude).

IV. What is an hour of your time worth to you?

I think it’s okay to sell your soul for money. But if you’re gonna do it, just don’t work it for cheap. Charge a lot of money for it.

So friend, what is an hour of your time worth to you? It don’t matter how much you get paid a hour, ignore that. Or don’t think about how much you can “realistically” charge.

Just ask yourself:

What is an hour of my time worth to me? What is my life worth to me?

Be strong,
Eric

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