Ambition is our life blood. In the past, ambition was seen as a vice, but I think in today’s world, ambition might be one of the best things we could teach our kids, and also ourselves.
Why? The greatness of a person and a man should be measured on their ambition, not the outcome.
Why ambition?
One of the greatest benefits of being a first generation immigrant to America is that inside the immigrants DNA, we have insane ambition, and also, insane motivation to advance and succeed.
Why? The initial wave of immigrants to America, let us say my mom and dad, was predicated on notions of furthering opportunities. Truth be told, America still is the land of opportunity.
For example, going to Seoul South Korea, there is no opportunity there. Everything is controlled by these huge mega conglomerates, and the most one can aspire towards is becoming some CEO of a big corporation. There is no spirit of entrepreneurship there.
In America, I think the reason what makes our country so great is because of the spirit of entrepreneurship. For example, Elon Musk could have not created Tesla or SpaceX, if he didn’t come to America. Also, difficult to imagine a Steve Jobs or an Apple computer without Silicon Valley or America.
Even for myself, a lot of my initial ambitions in my photography and street photography and online shenanigans was predicated on the entrepreneurial nature of the Internet. Like my mom says, “Eric you are so lucky that you were born when you were born, because if it were not for the Internet, there is no way you could do what you love for a living.â€
Are the opportunities tapped out?
No. There is still so much space and opportunities ripe right now for disruption.
For example, as I write these words or as I voice dictate them, it seems that there is a general sense of fear and malaise in Silicon Valley. Everyone is scared shitless, and even my friends in good high paying tech jobs seems stuck. Nobody wants to leave their jobs, or attempt new positions. This is a very bad position to be in.
Typically speaking, it is when everyone is scared shitless it is a chance for you to become even more brave.
Be greedy when others are fearful — Warren Buffett
You got nothing to lose, everything to gain.
The number one thing to consider, and the number one thing I learned from stoic philosophy, and my best friend Seneca is that in life, everything is upside, no downside. Even the “downsides†are simply opportunities for you to gain, and flourish.
The secret to stoicism:
How to transform every single perceived downside into an upside.
What do you desire to create, build, or make?
It still seems in today’s world, we are too obsessed with consumerism, and purchasing art. For example, most of the things we desire I think are art objects. For example, the Lamborghini is an art object of masculinity, recklessness, audacity, ego, flashiness, success, etc. Yet isn’t it better for us to simply imbue those values into ourselves, instead of purchasing it?
Also, what is it that we really desire? I think it is not success, but rather, good spirits, supple strength in our bodies and muscles, liveliness, joy and happiness, productivity, motivation, and the hunger to do things and attempt things.
Attempt a lot, but not too much.
Another thought that I personally have is that in life, we should attempt much, but not too much.
For example, I think there’s only so much bandwidth that we have. Bandwidth as measured by both time and attention. And also physiological energy.
For example, our physiological energy in a 24 hour time span is not unlimited,
So what do you want to focus on and attempt?
For myself, the two major things I care for is photography, and weightlifting.
It seems that in order to kill two birds with one stone, best to just do both in a clever way.
For example, some people might be very confused by my flexing. Why do I like to flex? For me, I also see my body as an art object. Whenever I flex my muscles, I am very overjoyed to see my progression with my body, see what a human body could become without the superficial and artificial assistant of steroids, drugs etc. I don’t even take protein powder! Fun life experimentation with both 100% carnivore diet. Also intermittent fasting, no breakfast no lunch only dinner. Also no starch, no sugar, no vegetables, no fruit, no sweet things. Only black coffee, water, beef ribs, beef brisket and kimchi.
The hunger to share and propagate
My simple heuristic when it comes to things is this:
Even if there is a 1% chance that this thing can benefit you as it has benefited me, it is worth it.
Whenever you try to help others, or benefit others, it is always a form of risk-taking. In fact real life is all about risk-taking.
Simple, when you talk to a stranger, there is always a high likelihood that they will act in such a way which is contrary to how you would like them to act. Yeah that is all part of the game and what makes life so interesting; if we knew with 100% precision how our lives would turn out, would it be worth it? I think not. Imagine going into watching a movie and already knowing the outcome. It makes the thrill all less enjoyable.
Tragedy can be beautiful
Also another thing that I realized about life is that tragedy is a tonic, as our best friend Nietzsche has told us.
For example, whenever I think about my life story, if I had never experienced any form of personal tragedy, I think my life would be insanely boring and meaningful. A lot of the meaning of my life is predicated on the fact that there was a lot of difficulties, which acted as the strengthening agent.
Jay Z
Let us consider, Jay Z. Could Jay Z have become Jay Z if it weren’t for his hard knock life growing up in the projects in Brooklyn? No.
Also Kanye West; it seems that his personal tragedies in life, like the death of his mother, losing his best man and his wife, has acted as a positive motivating factor, rather than destroy him.
I think the intelligent thing in life is that whenever something threatens to destroy you, figure out how it could strengthen you.
From the military school of life: that which does not kill me only makes me stronger. Twilight of the idols, Friedrich Nietzsche.
Conquer with EK
There is so much to conquer, so little time. Where shall your camera take you?
Ambitious Assignments
- In a single day, strive to walk at least 30,000 steps. Take along your camera. Shoot an extra small JPEG. Have fun, and try to shoot at least 1000 photos.
- For an entire day, whenever you see a stranger that you like, compliment them. Compliment them on their look, their clothes or fashion, their face, etc. This is one of the best ways to build your social confidence.
- Start a website and blog, and just start posting and publishing your personal thoughts on everything. There is no right or wrong; everything is simply your opinion and your thoughts.
- Post your best photos, to arsbeta.com
- Have the courage to become more philosophical. Have a chat with zen of Eric Kim, why app chat bot.
Brainstorm with EK
If you want to become more ambitious, invest in an ERIC KIM experience and brainstorm with me!
Random thoughts on my mind
- I saw the new Toyota Sequoia on the road the other day, and was very impressed with the design. A fun idea I have is what if you could build some sort of minivan, which had the chassis of a truck?
- It seems that real successful people actually drive trucks.
- The exterior design of the lucid air is very cool, but, the interior materials feel pretty cheap. Considering that Lucid is a publicly traded company, I think they will go under. Probably best to short their stock.
- Better to buy Tesla stock and than buy a Tesla.
- Seneca and I have been going to the Tesla store almost every day, often three times a day. It looks like their sales are actually doing really well.
- Currently housesitting for a friend in Santa Monica, and as a city, although Santa Monica is not perfect, I really like Santa Monica. If you’re looking for an ideal place to live, live in Santa Monica, close to downtown. I also really like the golds gym in Venice, and also, going to Abbot Kinney.
- If you have the chance, go to the golds gym in Venice and simply lift up the legendary 330 pound golden dumbbells with two hands, and then re-rack it.
- My personal thought is that the future is outdoors— outdoor parks, outdoor places, outdoor malls, and also outdoor gyms.
Consult with EK
Eric [at] erickim.com
Propagate yourself
- Start an email newsletter with sendy.co
- Start a blog — bluehost.com and WordPress.org
- Publish to YouTube and anchor.fm for blog
GOOGLE SEO THOUGHTS
The best way to get yourself indexed well in Google, in terms of Google search engine optimization is to use the Newspack theme from Automaticc and install the Google amp, accelerated mobile pages plug-in.
Also, it seems that a wise strategy is whenever you upload something to YouTube, create a title like you were to Google it yourself.
Notorious is Better.
Also, when in doubt, better to become more notorious, hated, and vilified than to be the good guy.
EK
EK TURBO NEWS
My personal ambition: whenever you visit the ERIC KIM BLOG, there will always be something new. The ERIC KIM BLOG as the new Mashable, the new TechCrunch.
Refresh it 100 times a day, you will always see something new!
EK