"What would you do then, if you didn’t need the money and didn’t need the attention?"
That's a strong start.
This book is a collection of essays written in Derek Sivers' blog, curated around the theme of how to know what is worth doing.
One morning, I sat down to start reading this book and found that phrase in the first essay. I immediately put the book down and started trying to answer that question as honestly as I could. This led be to grab my thinking notebook, where I began adding and removing bullet points of actions I've wanted to take for the past four years and hadn't started yet.
I spent about 20 minutes trying to select one thing. Eventually, I decided that reading a bit more might be the best approach to start answering the question.
As I countinued reading, I found that the answer became clearer. With each essay it felt like I was peeling back a layer of fog surrounding what's truly important to me. I think, if I didn’t need money or attention, I would play video games and share that experience with my family. I often avoid playing because it doesn’t bring me money, but it’s something I care about and love doing. Being involved in the video game industry would be nice too, but I know that making video games as a job would probably make me hate it.
These were my favorite essays:
- If you’re not feeling “hell yeah!” then say no
- Disconnect
- 232 sand dollars
- How to do what you love and make good money
- You don’t need confidence, just contribution.
- Parenting : Who is it really for?
- Goals shape the present, not the future. (resonates a lot with me)
This is a great book, full of good advices, food for though, and carefully curated insigths. I think there is at least one essay that would reasonate with any kind of person. I would recomend this book to anyone.