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168 Life is Short · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn, and tell stories.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And today I want to talk about a quote. Now,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: this quote has been said in a thousand different ways,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: but the one I came across recently was by Amy Winehouse.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Life's short. Anything could happen, and it usually does. So
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: there's no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and buts. Now, memento mori... remember death, life is short.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: There's so many ways this has been said, but I'm
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: not doing these quotes to find the first person who
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: said anything. I read a quote and I'm like, yep,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: that makes sense for traveling. And I want to talk
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about how that is relevant to travel and how it's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: relevant to living a fuller life for myself and hopefully
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: for some others. Life is short and Remember Death, Memento Mori,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is just, it's something I think about all the time.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: It's a huge, I'm about to buy a plane ticket
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to the next city, and I don't even want to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: wait two weeks to save a couple hundred dollars. It's just,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: life is going by so fast. And I have felt
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this since I was a child. I think I talked
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: about this, but I went through like this three-month, four-month
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: thing where death was real to me all of a sudden.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about how short life is because I
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: could remember my entire day. And I was like, people
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: live 100 years, let's say. That's 36,500 days. I can
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: remember as a seven-year-old, whatever it was, I can remember
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a whole day. So it's finite. That idea of finiteness,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of how finite time was, my time was and is,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I was aware of that from a very young age,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and that has not changed the older I got. There
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: have been blips or waves or... I get distracted when
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I'm having a great time or when I'm traveling or whatever,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: but so often I have to make a decision and...
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: when I make a decision, the deciding factor is very
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: often how little time I may have left. Who knows?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Anything can happen. Illness, accidents, it's all out there. Or
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: in here. And it's difficult to know when my time
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: is up. So when I'm deciding where to go next,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: or If I should do something, life is short is
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: forefront of my mind. It's always sitting back there regardless.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: But when I'm like, should I get that flight? Should
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I wait a couple? Maybe I should try that next year.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I can always come back. And then life is short
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: makes its appearance. And I think life is short. Amy
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Winehouse died at 27. That's insane. Like, that's crazy that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: she had such a cultural impact. I know the 27 Club,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: all that. Life is short, and I've already lived longer
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: than a lot of people get to. I'm very thankful
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: for that. I'm also very aware of it, and I
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: want more of this life. So often when I think
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: about whether or not I should do something, life is short.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I tend to do it. Next part of this quote
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that I also think is very relevant, and I say
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: this in different terms all the time to people. Anything
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: could happen, and it usually does. That is true. I
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: never would have traveled. I never would have guessed how
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I would begin traveling. Looking for a Nintendo 64 controller,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and the drunk guy in Beijing who started a private school...
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Because he got kicked out of his job for smoking
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: weed that is now legal in his state. That was
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: not legal when he got kicked out of his job.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Started school. I got to start teaching. Saved up. Retired
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: at 32. Traveled during the seven years I was in China.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Been traveling ever since. Pretty good. Never would have guessed
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: that could happen by looking for a video game controller
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: on Craigslist. Everything I was ever told. everything I had
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: ever read about, everything I had ever gleaned from my
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: first 25 years of life, no mention of, by the way,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: sometimes anomalies occur. Except for all the books I read.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I love reading sci-fi stuff, and there's, you know, one
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: alien ship drops into Earth's atmosphere one day, just out
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of nowhere, and everything changes forever. And that's what happened
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to me with looking for a video game controller. getting
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: this job, new track for my life. New, much more
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: comfortable track for my life. New track that rewrote what
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I understood futures to be from everything I had ever
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: heard or read or everything. But sometimes anything can happen.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Anything can happen all the time, and it usually does.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: This is so important and I think difficult to wrap
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: our heads around. And I practice wrapping my head around
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this because it's so easy to project into the future
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: or predict what's going to happen based on what has
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: come before. But I used Craigslist hundreds of times before
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that day. I bought things hundreds of times before that day.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I bought video game controllers and video games and TVs
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and I've used all of these things. I've used my
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: computer multiple times. I've met plenty of drunk people thousands
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of times before that day. But then, this day, I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: go on it. I stop playing video games for a second, think,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I guess I could look for another controller so I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: can invite a friend over. And because I went on
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: at that moment, it was on the first page. It
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: was like the fifth listing. This guy in Beijing posted
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: it in the wrong section of Craigslist. Anything can happen.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And it often does. There's always things happening. So when
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I look around, I pay attention to things that don't
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: conform with how they should be happening. I see those
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: anomalous events happening around me a lot, quite often. And
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: if you tell someone about them, they don't fit into
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: everyday life. I'm going to try and think of an
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: example instead of abstractly defining a cloud. Okay, like I
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: could be walking down the street and I will see
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a windowsill fall down, hit a spoon that was left
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: on there. The spoon will fly up, smack a bird
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in the head, it'll fall down dead. I've seen things
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that ludicrously Rube Goldbergian happen in front of me. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: now I will be able to follow that sequence of events,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: not because it's Goldbergian, but because it's so weird that
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that would happen and that I would experience that on
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: any day. What I used to do was, oh, that
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: was weird. I probably didn't see that right. Or, oh,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that was strange that that just happened. I don't know
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: what really happened. But I trust my senses more now
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: because the more I pay attention to the world around me,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the more that quote, anything could happen and it usually does,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: is presented in very stark relief. It's very clear that
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that is true. Whatever the routine is that I do,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: if I pay enough attention, there's always something anomalous going on.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And I look at those as opportunities. I was at
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the grocery store quite recently. And the guy bagging my groceries,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I beeped a thing. And I was like, you know what?
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I don't really need these. These are $ 7 tater tots.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: And he was like, hey, are you sure you want
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: to get rid of them? Or do I give them
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to you for free? And look, I've been to how
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: many grocery stores in my life, my whole life? That's never,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: ever happened at all. And he said, yeah, if you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: want it, you can have it. And I was like, yeah, okay, sure.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: And then he typed in the price for these silly,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: expensive tater tots. And I got a free bag of
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: tater tots. And why? How can he do that? It's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: obviously tracking him. He has to put in his employee ID.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: He says, and he told me when I left, hey,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: if you're ever back in, I'll give you more free stuff.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And I was like, what? How are you saying that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: out loud in your place of employment in the United States,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: which is like the most tracking you authoritarian, like Orwellian,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we know what you're doing. I don't know. Maybe he
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: hates his job and wants to get rid of it.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: But that stuff just, it happens all the time. Like
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: it does. There's weird things going on all around us
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: all the time. Anything can happen. And it usually does.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I cannot emphasize how very real that is. I was
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: going to buy a new phone and I was waiting
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to figure out internally for myself. Is it worth the money?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Your old phone works fine. Is this going to be
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: that much better? And all this stuff. And then I
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: was like, you know what? That's it. I've decided. And
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I decided to get it. And then it was sold
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: out right after. Right after I decided to get it,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: there had been a few left in stock. And then
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I guess that day all of them were sold and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I didn't get mine. So I waited about a week.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: And then a week later, I thought I should check
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that phone. And I checked it and that one was
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: back in stock and it was completely out of stock.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So someone must have returned their phone. Anyway, I got
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the phone that day, like immediately when that happened. And
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: there wasn't a bunch in stock. There was one single
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: piece of stock left. And when I had started looking
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: at that phone, there were only three left. So when
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: it was out of stock, I was like, well, of
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: course there were only three left. But I figured, hey,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you know what? Sometimes things just happen. So I checked
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: again a week, week and a half later or something.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: And a single phone was back in stock. Of the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: exact model, color, and pricing I was looking for. My
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: favorite phone I've had so far. And it's bright red,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: which I like. A big, bright, vibrant color. But it's
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: like a cool magenta-y, not an obnoxious red. One time
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I was walking down the street and I decided to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: turn around because I didn't like how that street looked.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: There was something wrong with it. So I turned around.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And as soon as I turned around, two cars crashed
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: into each other. I wouldn't have walked into them, but
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I would have been pretty close to the corner that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: they crashed at had I not turned around a couple
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: seconds before. I'm not into seeing the future. I do
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: believe in universal patterns, like seasons, for example. How seasons work,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: that makes sense to me. And within those patterns, how
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: frequently deviations from patterns and routines occur. There might be
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a tree that for... whatever reason, holds onto its leaves,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you know, three weeks longer than all the other thousands
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of trees around it. Or someone falls into a lake
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and their metabolism, the conditions are just right for their
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: metabolism to slow down enough that they can survive underwater
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: for four hours being pulled out. Where someone else might
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: drown in a puddle. Anything can happen and it usually does.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I cannot emphasize how true that is the more I
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: pay attention to all the weird things happening all the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: time all around all of us. And because of that,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the last part of the quote, there's no point in
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands, or buts.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: There really isn't. If you have something you want to do,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and this could be called dangerously impulsive, it's probably a
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: good idea to go do it or to go try
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to do it. If you are trying to do something,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: you are doing it. And you're learning about how capable
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you are or how driven you are or how interested
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: you are in something you're trying. So try it. If
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it works, that's great. And if it doesn't work, that's fine.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: You can try again or you can try something else
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: or a meteorite might hit your city tomorrow. There's no
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: way to tell what is going on at any point.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Have you ever tried to turn on your car and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: then it doesn't turn on? You have no idea why.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And you're like, I don't know what's happening. Why? Why
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: did that spark plug choose that day to fail? It
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: didn't choose. I know anthropomorphizing, but the spark plugs, you
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: have a bunch of them in your engine. They're going
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to fail at some point. And there's no way for
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: you to predict which spark plug is going to fail
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: at which time in which order they're going out and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: how much that's going to affect you. turning on the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: ignition of your car, there's so many small parts. There
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: are so many parts to every single part of our life,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: so many components to every single part of our life,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and every single thing going on around us, that anything
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: can happen, and it usually does. So don't worry about
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: what could go wrong with anything. There's no reason to.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You can say, oh, I don't gamble because I don't
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: want to very likely lose money. That's fine. That makes sense.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: But if you're wondering if you should pick up the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: guitar because maybe one day you would like to be
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in a band, that's not something to wonder about. You
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: should just pick up a guitar. You will know pretty
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: quickly if you like playing the guitar or not. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: if you do, great. And if you don't, great. Grab
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: another instrument or don't play music if you don't like it.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Most people like it. You'll probably be into it. Or
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a job you don't think you're qualified for, you're not
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: sure you're qualified for. Definitely just apply for it. I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: know so many people who are not qualified for the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: jobs they got. Those anomalies are often opportunities, and those
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: anomalies are constant. But as far as travel goes, I
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: cannot count the number of times I hear ifs, ands,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: or buts about traveling. Everyone... talks themselves out of traveling,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and so many people want to travel. Everyone. Not everyone
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: talks about it. I obviously didn't. Many people do not,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: but many more people do talk themselves out of traveling.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I had a school, right? I had my Beijing school,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and then I had my Chengdu school. And I had
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: many friends in the U.S. who were either still working
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: at the same place that I had been working, a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: sandwich shop, making minimum wage, not being able to afford
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: where they lived, having very tight budgets, and working 40
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: plus hours per week. After I was established, I would
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: tell them about my school. And when they said they
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: were looking for another job, like actively looking for a job,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: or they wish they could do something else, or very often,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I wish I could be with you in China and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: not having to work 12 hours a week sounds great.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And I'd say, hey, I own the school. I can
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: bring you over here. I can give you the exact
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: same thing I'm getting paid. I'm not getting paid like
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: twice as much as any of the other teachers. I'm
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: an owner, but I'm teaching. We all make the same
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: amount of teaching money. So if you come over here,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: you have a guaranteed job. We have the students. You
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: have a friend right here. We can go to dinner.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I can take you to the mountains. We can ride
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: on some trains and do whatever we want to do.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And I would get questions of ifs, ands, and buts.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I'd get concerns, and they would talk themselves out of it. If.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: But what if I want to leave before my contract
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: is up? That's fine. You can leave. Go for it.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Go with grace. But I can't speak Mandarin. Doesn't matter.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: We have English and Mandarin speaking local assistants who will
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: help you with everything. But I have to get a
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: new phone number? Yeah, you have to get a new
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: phone number. But the assistants will take you to the
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: phone store. They will help you pay. You can choose
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: whatever phone you like and you'll get a local phone number.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: but I have debt here in the States. That's okay.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: You can pay off the debt after your first paycheck.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: You'll have extra at least a thousand your first month
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and then more afterwards, but I don't have any certificates.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: That's okay. TEFL certificate is a two-week lifetime accreditation if
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: you want to get that great, but again, I own
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the school, so you don't need it if you don't
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: want to get the accreditation. These are children. You're repeating
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: sentences like, The rainbow is very pretty to children for
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: 45 minutes at a time and getting paid $ 100 to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: do it. And what about airfare? Our school reimburses one
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: airfare per year per teacher, so you'll be reimbursed at
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the end of your contract. But what if I like teaching,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: but I really don't like China? That's okay. Go to Thailand.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: They're super nice. It's great. Go to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Portugal, Spain.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: You can go tons of places with the experience that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you gain and teach English. But what if I get
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: sick while I'm in China? You go to one of
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the hundreds of hospitals all over the place, or what
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I would do, go to Thailand. They have world-class medical care,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: better than the U.S., and you're going to pay nothing
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: for world-class diagnosis and treatment. And I would just get
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: questions and questions and I'd get ifs, ands, or buts.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I'd get a lot of ifs and I'd get a
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: lot of buts. But I can't do this yet. Well,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of course you can't do it yet. You're not doing it.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: But once you join a school and you begin teaching,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: you are a teacher. That's it. But I never taught before.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: That's okay. We'll teach you how to do it. You
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: just follow this PowerPoint, really, and then talk to children.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: You just repeat the PowerPoint, ask them questions, have them
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: ask each other questions. Play an activity, class is over,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: money in your pocket. But what if I don't fit
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: in with the other teachers? If you don't work at
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: my school, you can work at the hundreds and thousands
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: of other schools across the country. Totally fine. Completely fine.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It'll be really easy to find another job. You might
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: click with another school. Or country. Go to another country
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and teach. Just get out of the situation that you're
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: stuck in now. And after several of those conversations, it
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: became clear that they were trying to talk themselves out
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of something outside of their routine. It wasn't that the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: opportunity sounded bad. Obviously, it sounded great with regard to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: their current employment concerns. But it wasn't in the routine
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: they already knew. It was... anything happening to them, part
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of the quote. It was anything can happen and it
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: usually does. These people happened to know me. I happened
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to have a school. The next time this person called
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: me up and told me about the job they hated,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Guess what? Instead of the same response I usually gave
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the first 10 years they knew me, yeah, that sucks.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I could say, hey, I have a way better job
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: opportunity for you. Anything can happen. It usually does. And
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that's the thing. These ifs, ands, or buts, they're not
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: coming from a better position. A lot of these people
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: were my friends, my age, 25. They were all entry-level people. Waitresses, bartenders,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: sandwich makers, bagel cookers. The waiters were getting some tips,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but they weren't exactly thriving, and they were giving a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: lot of their time away to their profession. Whereas they
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: could come to my school anytime they wanted, work less
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: than half the hours they were doing, save more than
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: double probably what they were saving per month. But the butts.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: The butts are there. And people like butts. So everyone...
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: gave ifs and or buts until they talked themselves out
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: of it. And that's something that people just get stuck in.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: It's sort of a negative cycle where you start thinking
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: of all the things that could go wrong. But the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: second part of this quote, anything could happen, it usually does. Yeah,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: anything can happen. When I went to China, the school,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the guy who hired me wanted to close his school
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: after three months. So that could happen. The third part
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of this quote is there's no point worrying about the ifs, ands,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: or buts. I take that to mean that there's a
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: billion ways things can go wrong. You can always think
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of a way something could go wrong, but if you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: can do it, then it doesn't matter if it could
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: have gone wrong because you have achieved what you decided
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to try. So when this guy told me he wanted
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to close the school he had just hired me at,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I thought and said to him, why don't you just
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: give me the school? And then if you still have
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the school when you get back, great. And I still
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: have a job. And then if it doesn't work out,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: then you were going to close the school anyway. He
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: did that. The school was still there when he came back.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: So instead of closing the school, he had a functioning
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: school with a surplus of funds. And he was like, hey,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: you should be a partner in my school. Why don't
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you be a co-owner with me? And that's how I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: became a co-owner of the first school. Anything can happen,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and it usually does. But someone wanting to close the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: school that hired you, It could happen. Doesn't mean things
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: are going to go badly, especially with English teachers. I mean,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: if someone closes the school and you're already in the country,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: you're good. You just go to any other school, of
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: which there are thousands, and you'll get a job at
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the next one of your choosing. Life is short. Anything
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: could happen, and it usually does. So there's no point
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: in sitting around thinking about the ifs, ands, or buts.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: You can consider things. I don't mean fly by the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: seat of your pants. I like to do that more
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: than most people. But when I'm looking at plane tickets
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: or choosing a house to live in for a month,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I check the reviews. I don't just buy the first
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: thing that comes across my brain. I consider what's happening.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, this flight is the exact same, but
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: it's $ 100 cheaper. I'll get the $ 100 cheaper one. Everything
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: else is the same. It's one hour later, $ 100 cheaper. Sure.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And when I'm getting a house for a month on Airbnb,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I'll check the reviews. And if they're 3.8 versus 4.9
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and the 4.9 is 60 reviews and whatever, 3.8 is
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: 12 reviews. Yeah, I'll get the higher rated one, which
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: could be cheaper. It often is. So certainly take time
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to consider your options. But if you have not made
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a decision after you've considered your options, if you haven't said, yes,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I'm doing this, or no, I'm not going to do this,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: then maybe think a little bit more because it's so
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: easy to say, yeah, maybe I'll do that, or I'm
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: not going to do it right now. After all, I
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: don't have the credentials. A lot of people get hired
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: for jobs they don't have the credentials for, and you
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: just have to apply for the job. Okay, real estate's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a great one. I'm looking at houses right now. And
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: if you're paying in cash especially, you can offer $ 20, 000, $ 30, 000,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and those prices will get accepted very often by the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: owner who doesn't want to go through a mortgage thing
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: or doesn't want to go with a bank. If you
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: see a for sale sign and you offer someone cash money,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: even if it's a fraction of the listed price, those
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: offers get accepted all the time. And you could easily
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: talk yourself out of it. What if they get angry
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: at me for offering a low price? But if I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: spend this money, I won't have other money. What if
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I have to do work once I get a house?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, spoiler alert, you're going to have to do
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: work on any house you get. It's like owning a car.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Things break down constantly. You're always going to have to
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: fix it. But it's very easy to talk yourself out
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of buying a property or buying anything. thinking about all
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the things that could go wrong or all the things
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: that you think you are lacking before you take the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: step to get this house or this car or this
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: new computer, whatever it is. It's very easy to give
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the ifs, ands, or buts and talk yourself out of
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: your future, out of moving forward. And again, it's good
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: to consider things. It's good to weigh the pros and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: cons and But weigh the pros and cons and then
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: come to a decision. Anything can happen, and it usually does.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: With that in mind, is whatever you're looking at something
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you still want to do? Is traveling still something you
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: definitely want to do? Then despite your ifs, ands, or buts,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you should probably go forward and do it. You should
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: probably start doing whatever that thing is, despite the considerations
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: and the anxieties and General concerns. Because life is short.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Every day is a new chance to do something, to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: do that thing you want to do. Every day, every
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: hour of the afternoon is another chance to do that
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: thing you think you might want to do. You can
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: start doing that thing every hour of the day, every minute.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And how much time do you have left? How much
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: time do I have left? I do not know. I
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: do know. I know life is short. Anything can happen,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and it usually does. There's no point sitting around thinking
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: about ifs, ands, or buts. And so many people, so
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: many travelers, and so many sedentary people, people who look
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: around for opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities, and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: you don't have to know some secret ritual. You just
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: try to do the thing. There's a new job. You're
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: not sure if you're qualified for it. Go in there
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: in person. Talk to them. Say, hey, I'm interested in
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: this job. Can I have it? It's very likely they'll
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: talk to you and you'll make more of an impression
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: than anybody else who AI generated 400 resumes and mass
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: sent them out to every company in their city. Not
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: everything is going to work all the time. Most things
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: are not going to work most of the time. But
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: some things do work sometimes and there are so many
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: things around us that you can Pick and choose the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: things that do work. Houses in your neighborhood, if you
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: want a private house, $ 1, 600. You can fly to 100
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: countries right now and pay less than $ 400 USD for
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: a private house. You can do that with a plane
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: ticket to a different location. It's the same as two
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: identical houses on the same street. You can buy one
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: for $ 100, 000. You can buy the other one for $ 5, 000.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Buy the one for $ 5, 000. Just buy that one instead
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: of the $ 100, 000 one. If you take a plane to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: different places, you can make that financial choice. You are
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: presented with that. You want to stay in your neighborhood
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and pay $ 1, 600, especially if you don't like your job.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: That's a big one with English teaching. There are thousands
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of positions available right now, this second that you're listening
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: to this podcast. And if you don't like the job
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: you're doing, go teach English because even if you don't
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: like teaching, you're going to be in a new place.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: There's going to be good food. You're going to be
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: working less than half the hours you're working now if
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you're working a standard 40 hours a week. And you're
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: going to be spending less and saving more money. If
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: you're doing something you know you don't like, you can
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: try something that maybe you won't like, but maybe you
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: will like. And in the meantime, you'll be getting better
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: benefits and pay. It's really easy to talk ourselves out
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Of making a change and thinking that, well, we can
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: always do it next week or next month or next year.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: But life is short. And things are changing constantly. Anything
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: can happen all of the time. Those things don't usually happen.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: They always happen. Amy Winehouse, she was 27. We can
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: forgive her for absolute statements. I still make them. We
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: all do. But anything can happen. And they usually do. do.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Things happen all the time. Even if you have the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: most routinized life available to an office drone, something is
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: going to happen on your day. There's a squirrel that's
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: going to leap from one branch to the other and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: miss the branch and fall down. He'll be fine, don't worry,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: but It's going to happen. Weird things are always happening.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: There's always something happening. Worrying about it doesn't change it.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: The worrying doesn't matter. Considering, fine. The odds of going
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to a casino and winning a bunch of money, very low, sure.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: But if you want to take a boat ride from
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: one high island to the other and you think, ah,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: but what if it rains? It won't be as nice
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: as I want it to be. Yeah, it could. But
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: if it does rain, so what? They have a covered cabin.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: It's the ocean. You'll see the ocean anyway. You're going
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to get to the place you were going. You're still
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: going to get to that island you wanted to go to.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: The rain might be nice, especially in Thailand. It's hot there.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Rain is welcome. Should I apply for that job? What
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: if I get rejected? That's fine. You got rejected. Doesn't matter.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: There's a billion other jobs. You just go to the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: next one or take the shortcut and go teach English
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and retire early. Should I join this club? What if
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I don't fit in with the members? Yeah, you might not,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: but then you don't have to stay in that club.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Go join, and if you enjoy it, great. And then
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: if it feels weird to you, or you don't like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the people, or they don't like you, get out of Dodge.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: But you should try to do it, because opportunities are
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: all around us. And we all only get a finite
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: number of opportunities because the time we have is finite.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Life is short. Anything can happen, and it usually does.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: So there's no point in sitting around thinking about all
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the ifs, ands, or buts. I really like this quote.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I like all three parts of it. I like that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Amy Winehouse said it. I am sad that she's not
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: around to say it anymore. But it's a very good
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: set of ideas to keep in mind. Life is so short.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Think about where you were 10 years ago versus where
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you are now. Two completely different people, I assume. That
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: is certainly the case for me. And if you're not
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: a completely different person than you were 10 years ago,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: you should maybe stop looking at all the ifs, ands,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: or buts. You might want to make some major change
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: because we're living for a finite time and we should
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: be developing every year that we do. We should be
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: learning new things and... valuing new principles and new experiences.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I hope things are going great. Life is short. Anything
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: could happen, and it usually does. So there's no point
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands, and buts.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Have a great day. If you want to talk to me,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: bitofarambler at gmail.com, bitofarambler on Blue Sky and Lemmy. I
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: will talk to you on the flippity-flops.