R3ciprocity: Research Life, Innovation, Business Growth, & Strive Towards Being Happy

Our notion of freedom is quite perverse, and we need to stop and think about what freedom actually means. Freedom doesn’t mean that you can choose and do whatever you want. Freedom means that you are are free of fear.

I talk about the consequences of our idealistic view that men should be men on things like steroid use and the hidden depiction of manly men within popular culture. I remind everybody to be careful and how they understand the imagery of what it means to be a man and how they think about their own choices in their own life.

Can we stop with the “manly man” act? You know. The barrel-chested, tall, asshole that we see depicted as a “real man” in business, life, and culture. The man who “mans up” or gets the tough job done. The idea that we need to be manly men and do things because that is what men do is holding us back and where we get to in life. We don’t need to “man up” or act like a man. We don’t need to “be a man.” What we need is to be ourselves. To be human beings. To be your unique and imperfect person. Being a manly man is physically impossible for many of us. So often many younger men decide to take steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. The pressure to be this unrealistic manly men often creates men to be jerks. We have this depiction in the business world that men have to be jerks to get ahead. We have to “man up” and “make the hard” decision. Why do think men are men are 1000% more likely to die in industrial accidents than women? They manned up and did the dirty work to their peril. Why do you think men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than women? Why do you think 70% of homeless people are men? Thinking that we need to “be a man” makes many of us want to do it on our own, and not ask for help when we need it. We automatically default that it’s our fault when things go wrong. Manning up and making a tough decision makes us be disliked by our friends, family, and coworkers. Nobody likes to be around somebody that has to be a jerk. Manning up is the problem. Listen. You are not any less of a man if you act like yourself, whatever that is. You might call me “woke” for saying this, but facts are facts. “Manning up” creates problems. Let’s just start being ourselves. Be kind to yourself and others. You don’t need to “be a man.” You need to be a human being.

How do you deal with burn out? Stop worrying about the outside world and start living your own life. Enjoy your life for the sake of the fact that it’s your life.

I wonder about why more people are not walking around as billionaires. It seems absolutely ridiculous to even stay, but it is possible if you do the financial calculations.

Problems exist everywhere. Many of these problems are rather large and scary. Yes, at any moment, the world is facing some terrible outcomes. However, I have to pick and choose the battles then I want to fight. For me, I know that there’s many problems, but the only thing that I can do is get up and fight the battles that are in my local neighborhood. This means I have to ignore some battles, and some macro problems. I also have to have a positive outlook, so I can keep going despite having so many problems to deal with in this world.

if you look at how much resources you would actually have by properly investing over 90 years you would be baffled in the extent it would be. Properly investing will result in unbelievable amount of wealth in the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a century. How come you were not investing for the next century?

During your #PhD education, you often have some really bad bouts of loneliness. The two most important things that have made me feel not lonely is getting exercise and having a busy social schedule outside of any solo endeavors. The most important things to deal with loneliness is to just have a busy social schedule outside of work. Yes, it is okay not to work. What I have found interesting in my own life is the strong correlation between me wanting to get up on Monday morning and having friends and family that you see on the weekends. Taking time off to spend with people that are not associated with work always makes me feel like I can work. Never think that time off is taking away from anything. It’s adding to your life.

Just go get things done. You’re going to learn a lot of things when you actually try some thing. The biggest lesson you realize it’s really up to you. You also realize all of the little issues along the way that you would never forecast. Things that you think would be easy upfront are not easy and you can’t anticipate the problems that you can experience. However, you can’t wait for other people to come help you. They are never gonna come. Nobody is coming to the rescue. Just got to work at it yourself and get it done yourself.

Most people will sit back and think that somebody else is creating some thing in their life. Remember everything around you has been made up. If you want to actually make a difference, you just have to make it happen. You start doing things that you think are seemingly below you, and you keep pursuing those things relentlessly. There’s no other way of making some thing happen then just getting up and making it happen. I don’t like making things happen just as much as you do, but I choose to do it regardless of how it actually feels. It’s just a matter of determining that you’re going to make it happen, and just making it happen. Start making things happen.