What comes to your mind when you hear the word “Weird”? The word Weird is usually associated to being an insult to someone who is foolish. Particularly because that person seems to be doing something so strange that it’s just off-putting or “Weird”.
Cambridge Dictionary Describes Weird as:
“very strange and unusual, unexpected, or not natural.”
Let’s break it down a little bit more and see what you lose on not being Weird. And why it is So Important to be one if you want to be successful. And remember, I’m not talking about just finances. They are great but Real Success isn’t all about the numbers in your bank. Success is more closely related to your Quality of life and how Satisfied you are with what you Already have.
Let’s explore a little why being weird is so… Weird.
1- Survival
One of the strongest human needs is to Belong to Groups, Tribes & People. In the early days of humanity, our Survival literally depended on that! That’s not the case anymore in today’s world. We’re not constantly being hunted by predators. But we still feel a strong need to observe others around us and it makes us feel safe to be doing what everyone else around us is doing.
Even if everyone else is wrong, we feel safe doing the same just because, well, it’s being done by everyone else around. Don’t get me wrong, we learn a lot from observing others around us. But the problem starts and ends with us living sub-par lives when we don’t Re-Evaluate what we’ve learned. We need to ask ourselves if what we’ve learned makes sense today or not? If that’s serving a purpose in our lives today or are we just afraid?
The best example of that in current times would be the Covid Vaccine. Covid Vaccine was a scary affair in the beginning. There were so many rumors and so much fear around getting vaccinated. But as our own siblings & relatives started getting vaccinated, it wasn’t that scary anymore. Fast forward to today, most of the people around me, around my age are vaccinated.
2- Validation
An even bigger reason why being Weird is such a difficult path is the Validation of others. We seek validation as children from our parents to be able to differentiate right actions from wrong ones. While validation is a great motivator for getting things done. It’s not the best source or motivation when you’re trying to do something New and Unique.
The best example of that would be perhaps the most important decision I took in my life. I left my Safe & Secure Government Job as a 17th Scale Lecturer in College. Everyone around me was so skeptical of my action – my parents, friends & relatives. They warned me again and again against the bad things that would happen to me if I did that. They couldn’t understand why would anyone do such a Weird thing.
Even my closest friends didn’t get it at first but at least they were ready to change their minds and they did change their minds and supported me. But even to this day, I think they were a bit uncomfortable with such a huge, unusual decision of leaving such a great opportunity.
These are the most common reasons I’ve come across why we’re afraid for journeying into the Unknown. Into doing something Unique. Into something Weird. Now lets take a look at the contrary.
Unfair Advantages of Being Weird
At the end of the day, I’m glad that I choose this path for my life. This path is still an Open Secret to this day and perhaps always will be. It’s such a great treasure enchanted with powerful magical protections. That even those of you who read this post would end up telling themselves all the reasons this won’t work. This reminds me of this specific quote by Erin Hanson:
“What if I fall?” Oh, but my darling, “What if you fly?”
Another huge distraction is the Feeling that we Know something. We start taking it for granted and we just assume we know all about it there is to know. And we never dig deeper. I’ve realized that by revisiting what I’ve learned I can not only get rid of the false assumptions and wrong lessons I learned along the way. But I can also revisit what I already know and dig a little deeper into it. See, its one thing to Know the 80/20 principle or that Less is More or literally any of the general wisdom. But it’s another thing altogether to really Dig into these ideas and implementing these into your life can take months if not years. But most of us will just learn the definition and be done with it.
1- Less Competition
There isn’t a lot of competition when you’re considered Weird. Which is great! By owning your weirdness, you can focus on what you know deep down is who you actually are. Or even if you don’t know, you can get started on that journey by trying out all the weird stuff one by one until you find Your Weird!
No one tries to compete with you at that point, and you get a Huge Advantage with anything you do. There would be very few people doing what you do. And just by being a person with a focus on what others just generally skip, you get way ahead of everyone else.
In my personal example, just by quitting the Safe & Secure Government Job, I set myself on a path of my own making. Just by being a Weird Guy who didn’t follow the path everyone else thought was so great, I broke all the rules of Life. Things you’re “supposed to do” for success. And that’s been all the difference ever since.
I have a Google Spreadsheet that automatically calculates each month how much I would’ve made in that Government Job vs How Much I’ve made by not walking down that path. And the difference is SO HUGE. It’s 10 Times more than what I would’ve made with PPSC.
2- More Life Satisfaction
As I mentioned earlier in the blog post, it’s so easy to measure our lives in the amount of money we make. But we forget that Happiness, Being True to Ourselves, Freedom & Our Satisfaction with Our Choices are just as important.
When you start on the Journey of being Unique in your own way. When you embrace the unexpected skills & talents you have that only You understand the value of, only then you can begin on a Journey that’s only for you. And since everyone else around you is trying to blend in with everyone else all the time. You get this advantage of being unique in terms of not just financial success but being successful at life as well.
Embracing your weirdness is not just a career choice. It’s a way of having a better understanding of who you truely are. And it’s only when you understand that and live the way that you were Meant to live (as compared to how you’re Supposed to live by society, by keeping your head down & following the norm)
3- Following Your Passion
I’m not a Huge fan of the beaten to death trend “FOLLOW YOUR PASSION”. But just because something is so hugely misunderstood and so confusing, doesn’t mean that the advice is all bad. The people who generally promote that advice or the words in which they talk about Passion are the real criminals.
Real Passion does exist but it isn’t a single thing to own. The pursuit of exploration. Doing multiple experiments to see what you like and what you don’t. Trying everything that you feel might be fun. All of that is where all the fun is. It’s not the Achievement of your Passion. It’s the Journey you take to get to know yourself better. Every time you have fun with something, you learn something about yourself. Everytime you feel like shit, you still learn something about yourself.
See, a man isn’t just made of the Things he likes. A man is also made of Things that he doesn’t like. And the only way of getting to know that is by owning your Weird. And experimenting with different things. You’re only complete when you know Both your likes and dislikes.
Not everyone will be able to understand or implement the content within this post. But if these words resonated with you, I’d love to get in touch with you! Leave a comment or shoot me an email at [email protected] and let’s have a chat!
See you guys in the next one! And as always, if you have a specific question you want me to write a blog post about, Get in Touch with me and I’ll try to write a future blog post around that topic!