We're all the same... but different | Part 1
At the end of the day… We’re all the same. Having visited all 50 states and over 25 countries on 5 continents, I have experienced a variety of different cultures. Over time I’ve also learned that if you break down all the differences in people, we have the same three core hopes in life. Over the next few blog posts I am going to dig into each of these as it creates the baseline for some fun coming up in the near future.
The first thing everyone wants is basic life needs met… Food, Clean Water, Shelter, Healthcare access. As someone who became by definition homeless when my landlord sold my place out from under me in August 2020, I learned a lot about how stressful things become when that is pulled out from under you. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized two major things about life…
1 - Being poor is expensive. Growing up I was always taught to look at unit price when shopping for food & toiletries. This usually resulted in buying a larger quantity of the item. When I was first booted from my home in 2020, I was living in the back of my Subaru Outback… Needless to say I didn’t have space for large quantities of anything. Thus, life got a lot more expensive as I had to buy smaller quantities at a higher price per unit.
2 - You can’t focus on what’s next and how you can create a better future when you’re worried about where you’ll sleep & how you’ll eat. I always laugh when I hear business owners say things like “you can’t work on the business when you’re working in the business” because it’s true and also comically disconnected in my opinion. The reason I say disconnected is because you have to be in the business for it to reflect why you started/took over the business initially. You lose sight of where the business actually is if you spend too much time on the business and not enough in it. During my 2 years living on the road as a nomad there was a lot of time spent focusing where I’d sleep and what could I afford to eat instead of tracking down jobs or finding new opportunities. I had ideas for the future, but having a place to sleep safely was way more important than trying to execute on some ideas.
Having all of life’s basic needs met is crucial to personal development and creating a quality life for oneself. It truly changes what you’re able to focus on. It’s something that no matter where you are or how old you are, that needs to happen daily.
When it comes to living a full life, how does one create something sustainable when you’re constantly stressed and focused on the everyday necessities? What does a world look like where everyone is able to provide the basic necessities for their family? What would it look like if we could all spend more time creating a better future?