The Essential Question
“The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself, you will always be someone else. Become yourself.” — Myles Munroe
A few weeks ago, I listened to an episode on the “Founders” podcast that focused on Sam Zell — an American businessman — a very inspiring rags-to-riches personality. Sam’s autobiography is titled “Am I being too subtle?” and Wikipedia notes that Zell is known for using “salty” language”. Clearly, Sam is an in-your-face, what you see is what you get personality. His life’s motto is to “optimize for freedom”. As I heard this on the podcast, a penny dropped in my mind — all the important decisions in my life and all my personality quirks betray just this one thing — that I strive to be “free”. However, I do not really “optimize” for freedom as much as I “solve” for freedom.
With the various advances in the field of behavioral psychology in the last couple of decades, it has now been firmly established that all of us have a core and primarily unconscious mental personality that more or less completely shapes us. Our conscious personality mistakenly feels like it employs volition, but it is essentially a slave to the unconscious personality. Not that the core, underlying unconscious personality cannot be changed but such change will be slow and at best, marginal.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle
Each one of us has our own unique propensities on top of the common inherited human tendencies. We are largely, and by design, ignorant of these propensities. I think there is lot of value in discovering our own natural inclinations and aligning our life’s efforts along them. This alignment has potential to amplify the value from our general efforts. In the minimum, it can help us put our own thoughts and actions into perspective.
At a corporate workplace, despite all the talk of empowerment, the prescient fact is that one is pigeon-holed into working in a certain way. Every employee’s scope and nature of work is almost completely determined by his or her boss. Even the CEO’s wings are curtailed by the board or the owners.
Society sets many limits on our lives — the way we dress, the way we speak, the way we conduct ourselves etc.
When you drive on the roads, you must abide by traffic rules — you will have to wait at red signals, you are meant to drive within speed limits etc.
I personally like to be free of encumbrances. But how do I get free from the above entrapments? Being a recluse is not an option. As a social species, we can neither survive nor thrive alone. Our life tends to lose meaning as soon as we have no one to share our feelings and thoughts with.
We need to work — in the least — to make money but also for social aspects of work — interactions with other people, a team spirit, a feeling that we are contributing to something bigger and larger than ourselves.
If we are to travel from point A to point B, we really have no choice but to deal with the traffic on the road.
For safety and security that our societies provide us, we are required to tend to their stipulations.
“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.”–Blaise Pascal
Being stuck in a traffic jam in my car or on my motorbike muffles my sense of freedom. So, I avoid using my own vehicles wherever it is possible (and it is eminently possible because I live in a big metro). I use public transport — cab, auto, metro and local train. This gives a great sense of freedom. I do not have to focus on driving. I instead spend time listening to podcasts or reading books. I even make notes. There have been many occurrences in the past when I just got off the vehicle stuck in traffic jam and walked a couple of kilometres — this saved me time sometimes, importantly it always reduced my angst and gave me a sense of freedom. When people follow rules on the road while driving — each city is dominated by its own set of unwritten traffic rules — you have a sense of what to expect and accordingly maneuver your own vehicle. So, rules help.
After years of stifling experience in my corporate career, I finally realized that freelance suits me. It allows me to indulge in depth and lets me put a premium on the deep value that I can in turn provide to my clients.
Only after trying to make sense of my default tendencies and actions, did I discover that I tend to solve my situations for freedom.
Bottomline
“Once I began to realize that there were no rules and that my path didn’t have to look like everyone else’s, I relaxed and my whole world opened up.” — G. Brian Benson
I find myself constantly solving for freedom and this seems to drive my sense of purpose. This discovery helped me accept myself. It allowed me to be at peace with myself. It actually liberated me from a sort of stranglehold of constant doubt, particularly when I do not conform to norms expected of me. This also gave me confidence and impetus to play only those games where my natural strengths give me an edge. I really see no reason why you will not be able to partake of all these benefits if you discover your own answer to this essential question — “what do you solve for?”.
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Thanks for taking time to read this. In this newsletter, I share my learnings that could help you improve your decisions and make meaningful progress on your goals and desires. I share stuff that I have personally experienced or experimented with. If you find this newsletter worthwhile, please do share it with others — only if you do not mind it.
A bit on my background
I help people make better decisions.
I coach people on “Making Better Decisions”, “Financial Intuition” and “Building Great Careers”. I’m open to run sessions on these topics in institutions — this will help me create larger impact.
I’m also an Investment Advisor (RIA) registered with the Securities and the Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As an RIA, I analyze and prepare financial plans to help people achieve their financial goals. My primary goal here is to develop financial intuition in my clients.
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