Why Be Normal?

“I’m an alien.” – Elon Musk

Dear friend,

Philosophical question — why do so many of us want to be ‘normal’? Wouldn’t it be more fun and interesting to NOT be normal? Wouldn’t it be better to be a mis-fit than a “square”? Wouldn’t it be better to be an alien than a “normal” human?

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Download PDF: Why Be Normal


Why be normal?

“We are not alike.” – Eminem

This is my idea: we should have more pride in NOT being like others. We should have more pride in being different.


Only desire to be you

My buddy Nietzsche once said, “We should never seek to emulate the virtue of others.”

I like this idea– we should only strive to be ourselves. To be “unabashedly you”.


I am an alien

I just watched the Elon Musk interview with Joe Rogan — and I thought it was hilarious when Elon said “I’m an alien.” I think ‘Lil Wayne also said something similar: “I am a martian.”

The problem of modern society:

Modern society is trying to turn us all into obedient sheeple (sheep people).

Society wants us to be fit into these pre-packaged templates and boxes. But as Steve Jobs said — many of us are “mis-fits” that don’t fit into what society demands of us. And this is the sad reality:

Society doesn’t want you to be “happy” or “fulfilled”.


What does society really want?

Society wants us to be obedient servant-slaves. Society wants us to “contribute to society” in some sort of utilitarian-way. This means society wants us to become obedient email-answering machines, and for us to follow directions. Even if you look at modern schooling, we are trained to check boxes, take tests, and to listen to our teachers-authority figures.

But I think you were born for a greater destiny — to do something GREATER than anything that has been done before!


Realize your potential (turn your potential into reality)

I’m an Elon Musk fanboy for life. He from a young age knew that he was different. And to be frank, we are all different. We are all endowed with certain strengths and talents-gifts. And all our strengths are “latent” — meaning, we need to put forth the effort to realize our potential!

For example to use a Pokemon analogy:

We are all little Magikarps, and some of us don’t know we have the ability to evolve into a Gyrados.

And how do you evolve, or “level up”? Easy — you must train, gain ‘experience points’, and put in the hard work and effort!


Hustle hard.

I don’t think that humans are naturally lazy. I think humans have just been scared into submission. We are slaves to “learned helplessness“, because our teachers have punished and disciplined us into obeying directions. Even in America (the country that encourages the most innovation) isn’t so benevolent– American mentality is still (mostly) a herd mentality.

But American society is still better than Asian-Confucian values (there is an ancient Chinese saying that says: “The nail that sticks out the most must be hammered in the hardest.”


Leverage your strengths

Revel in your differentness. Exclaim loudly and proudly that you’re not normal!

Once you no longer desire to fit in — you can truly start to begin standing out.

Idea:

Figure out what your ‘archimedes lever‘ (maximal strength) is– and exploit that strength to the maximum.

BE BOLD,
ERIC


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