Demystifying Excellence:
A Good Night's Sleep
Ultimately, your fulfillment -- and your children's fulfillment -- is not gonna come because the cool and successful crowd thinks you're all that. It's not gonna come because you have won the sweepstakes of a winner-take-all game and joined the richest 1%. There is no winner-take-all game for life's most important things. Winners who take all get lonely, isolated and stupid quickly. In all the best things, if you win, there are many other people who win too -- especially if you're truly wise enough not to keep 99% of the spoils to yourself. I've aligned Doctor Noize Inc. and my life goals so that if I win, a whole lot of parents and kids win. I'm not gonna get rich selling you junk food media for kids. But I'll earn an honest living -- or fail trying -- producing sophisticated things that I believe treat kids with respect and have the potential to make the world a better place. I sleep well at night. You can too.
A nice rule of thumb to assess your personal and societal goals is to ask this: If you are successful at your goals, who and what will it inspire? Ask this question of a teacher, and you will love their straightforward answer. Ask this question of an oil company executive or an investment bank CEO who makes a thousand times what his janitor makes, and if you care about him you'll still be trying to reconcile his convoluted answer with his true potential tomorrow. Here's hoping that in the 21st century, our moral evolution catches up to our technological evolution in time. I dream of a society that admires Bill Gates even more for his amazing humanitarian generosity than his amazing computer company and mansion. It's there to inspire you if you look.
In summary, then: Your fulfillment will come because you know that what you're doing is best for you and your world. Everyone -- consciously or unconsciously -- has their own internal BS Meter, and it's always on. It's the number one factor determining whether you truly feel joy or just sometimes experience pleasure. And if you're not making an honest effort to live up to your wonderful and unique gifts -- for both yourself and your community -- all the hip clothes, toys and titles in the world aren't going to cover up the fact that you're coming up short for yourself and your world when you look at yourself in the mirror. Don't worry about how I feel about you. Worry about how you feel about you.
And then, once you've set your course, and it's in sync with your internal compass... Stop worrying. Be what you want to be. Be a hero to your individual goals, to your family and friends, to your society's needs. Do it today. Nothing on your cluttered schedule is more important. I can't wait to see what you do.
Thank you.
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