The Life and Times of A Remarkable Misfit - AJ Leon

59 Pages·2012·5.74 MB·English

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to the misfits
,
I wrote these essays over the last two years, after leaving a lucrative finance career
in Manhattan in order to travel the world & work on projects that actually matter.
I wrote them at different times and for different reasons, and I never intended to publish
them together. I hope you will forgive any repetitiveness or lack of cohesion. They are dif-
ferent thoughts for different moments, but I wrote them with you in mind. You see, I believe
that you, like me, were not meant to live a life of convention and conformity. I believe that
you were put here at this very moment, to change the world in a fashion that only you can.
These essays were written while on my own path to do just that. And I hope beyond hope
that they will help you in some small way to find yours. Here’s to taking over the world.
Your Fellow Misfit,
AJ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACT I ACT III
A Necessary Revolution 7 We Don’t Care About What You Know 39
Maybe It’s Your Time 11 A Time to Reflect and a Time to Stop Traffic 41
A Brief Moment of Audacity 13 Arrogance and The War of Art 43
When We Have Dreamed Too Little 14 The Trap of Infinite Scalability 46
The Anatomy of Average 16 Every Artist is A Thief 48
What Kind of Tired Are You 19 Beer and A Bike Ride 51
The Absence of Fear Is Not Courage 21 Destructive Creation and a Big Flying Horse 53
When Perfection is Achieved 23
ACT II
The Opportunity Cost of Not Taking Yourself Seriously 25
Any Child Can Poke Holes in a Balloon 27
The Paralysis of Waiting 28
Beginnings Matter 29
Let It Go 31
You Can’t Have It Both Ways 33
A List of 10 Essential Don’ts 35
16 Simple Ways to Make Money and Lose Self Respect 36
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A Necessary Revolution
Greetings from a crowded coffee shop in Boston.
“There are times when we sail so far off course, scene. But to stop, once and for all, living some oth-
when our dreams are so far from reach that they er dude’s life. That day I realized two things. There
appear but balmy glimmers violently strewn on a was more to life than working a job you hate, and
distant horizon which we will never pierce. When more importantly, there was more to me than could
complacency and compliance, when safety and secu- ever be expressed in a place with so many rules. If
rity have so entranced us, that gradual reform is no you read this paragraph and have no idea what I’m
longer possible. In these moments we have but one talking about, you should probably stop reading
option – revolt.” now. For the rest of you, hopefully this will be help-
ful. I sure as hell wish somebody would have shared
My name is AJ, and I nomad around the world and this with me.
make things happen. I used to be an unremarkably
average financial executive in Manhattan. I made six The Game We’re Taught to Play
figures, had an outrageous bonus and a corner office.
But there was this little problem. I despised my job. The day I graduated from school, the world handed
I was passionless about my work. And of course, I me a pair of dice and pointed me towards a famil-
hated myself for trading the hours of my life away iar board game. Except this time instead of a Rolls
for more money at every turn. On December 31, Royce, I was sporting a busted ass MetroCard. The
2007, I left my six figure, crazy bonus, Manhattan parameters of this game were simple. Just follow
corner office job. Not for a raise. Not in a vertical the board, round and round, and the longer I stayed
move to another company. Not to get a change of on the board, the more times I could pass Go, the
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more stupid little green houses I’d get to buy, the A Life You Were Meant to Live
more railroads I’d procure - the more wealth I’d
If you are still reading this essay, you either have
accumulate. All of which would culminate into me
no idea what the hell I am talking about or you’ve
turning into a happy rich guy with a white mustache
already bookmarked it. If you’re in the latter camp,
and a top hat.
let me tell you something. If you feel like you don’t
belong where you are right now, maybe you weren’t
Of course, soon enough I realized that I was essen-
meant to just win. Maybe you were meant to
tially spending the vast majority of my existence
change the world.
rolling the same stupid dice over and over again,
following the same board to a completely prescribed A Necessary Revolution
life plan, taking no risks, tucking away every dream I
The time has come for you to plan your very own
ever had, living for the weekend, and peering off the
conspiracy. Not against your boss or your company
board from time to time, dreaming of the glory of a
or the system or the world, but against yourself.
life that could have been.
Against your inner critic who keeps telling you that
you can’t make it outside the game of Monopoly that
Why Monopoly Sucks as a Boardgame and as
the world handed you. Who keeps telling you that
a Life Plan
you’re crazy to think you can. You’re selfish to think
It’s fun for about 10 minutes. you deserve more. And you’re silly to think you’re
It’s entirely about the accumulation important enough. The greatest obstacle any of us
of stupid things you neither need nor want. (in the developed world) have to living a remarkable
life is not outside pressure or finances, it’s not eco-
The best you can do is win. nomics or market conditions, it’s the lack of courage
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to question the devils in our own mind that tell us #2 Start Taking Yourself Seriously
we’re not special enough. I know. I spent the first The greatest opportunity cost you have as a human
part of my twenties believing them and the second is not taking your own ideas seriously. Write a 500
part inciting a revolution against them. word description of what you want your life to look
like in 2 years. This will act as your signpost. Then
Three Ingredients (and here’s the kicker) post it on your blog or email
it to someone who will “get it”. It’s hard to go back
Here are the first three ingredients you need to start on a revolution that you’ve already announced. Don’t
cooking up your very own revolution. have anyone to send it to? Email it to me at aj (at)
misfit-inc (dot) com. Think this is a stupid exercise?
#1 Stop Wasting Time It’s exactly what I did four years ago. I am now do-
ing every single thing on that list, including traveling
You get home from work, you’re drained and all you to 35 40 47 countries, raising millions of dollars for
want to do is grab some Chinese left overs and watch humanitarian projects, working every day with my
reruns of Seinfeld until you fall asleep. I know. I’ve beautiful wife and living a life on my terms.
been there. But you know what? The French Revo-
lution was fueled by old coffee and stale baguettes #3 Create an Evacuation Plan
at midnight in Parisian bistros. The time you have There is no sense dreaming about something you
in between work and sleep is sacred, it’s where you don’t actively plan towards. Every great revolution
plan your insurrection. is a mixture of incremental changes and brief mo-
ments of courage. Start writing out precisely what
you will do every day to breach the gap between the
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life you live and the life you were destined to lead.
If you’ve gotten this far, then maybe you were meant
to read this today. Maybe, it’s more than just sheer
luck that you landed right here, right now, on this
particular day. Maybe this isn’t all a game of cosmic
chance. And maybe, just maybe this is your moment
to change everything.
Here’s to taking over the world
Written from: Barrington Coffee in Boston
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