My thought:

Life is far too long to be bored. Why live your life being bored, enslaved, or chained down — even for a minute?

It’s all about courage

My extremely positive thought:

You can live your life however you desire, as long as you’re willing to have the courage to endure poverty, and embrace an extremely simple and ascetic lifestyle.

Note that you can live in a brand new (very nice) studio apartment in Hanoi for only $350 USD a month (includes WiFi). Also note that there are many nice hotels you can live in Vietnam (or the developing world) for less than $20 a night (imagine living in a hotel for less than $600 USD a month).

How to gain control over your life

This means if you truly desire freedom and control over your life, you first need:

1. Become self employed: I don’t think you can gain “financial freedom”by being employed by someone else. Also, you are probably always wanting to do something related with money in the long-run, and being self employed gives you more optionality in your life.
2. Once you’ve become able to live on a very meager diet and ascetic lifestyle, then figure out what you really want to do with your life.
3. Spend the rest of your life only doing things you’re interested in.

Why passion?

Photography is (one) of my passions. So is entrepreneurship, philosophy, fitness, diet, sociology, art, technology, and a slew of other things. I’ve discovered in my life, the more I pursued my passions with dynamite zeal, the happier I am and the more successful in life I’ve become.

Why? Because:

1. When you pursue your passions in life, it never feels like “work”(toilsome labor). It’s fun! It’s challenging, interesting, and you don’t need to “motivate”yourself to do anything. You do it simply because you enjoy it, and because you do the work for the sake of the work— to fulfill your own inner curiosities, and to prove to yourself whether you can do it or not.
2. There’s not just one passion in your life, you have many passions. I think the secret to life is being able to cross-pollinate and create an interesting hybrid of all your life passions. Take all your life passions and combine them in interesting and novel ways. For example, sociology + photography = street photography. Technology + philosophy = philosophy of ethics and aesthetics in technology.
3. The enemy in life is feeling bored, apathetic, ennui, or feeling enslaved. If you live a life of great passion, you’ll never experience any of these depressing emotions.

Following your passion is the best way to live your life

What about money? The simplest route: embrace an extremely frugal and simple lifestyle (don’t own a car, don’t own debt, don’t buy clothes, don’t own a phone plan, live in a tiny apartment, or live in a cheap city), and it’s quite easy to gain your freedom. As for becoming self employed, become a “sole proprietor”(become a business of one)— and make your money teaching, selling your time/products/services/ideas, and ideally do it over the internet (start your own blog, YouTube channel, etc). Charge a lot of money for your paid services, and do much for free (this is how to advertise and market yourself).

It starts with you.

Gain trust by being yourself — not censoring yourself, being extremely authentic, and speaking what you believe in. And realize that being an entrepreneur is like being a warrior: you can be the most skilled warrior in the world (like Hector on the Trojan side), and still die in battle. Actually your chance of success in entrepreneurship is part skill and part luck. But the more you attempt and try your luck, the more likely you are to succeed.

Never stop pursuing your passions in life, and seeking the apex of your personal success!

ERIC