You know many people must have told you about the concept of perspective. This is how it goes most of the time: “How you choose to see the world and the people around you matters and it’s all up to you. If you choose to see people in a positive manner things will appear different or everything in life is about perspective, goodness, and blah blah blah….”
Honestly, at one point in my life, I started to question my own behaviour and started to believe that maybe there was something wrong with me or my perspective because this philosophy was quite intriguing to my naive mind.
I almost thought that maybe I needed to change my behaviour, my personality, and my perspective because after coming across this idea, I started to analyze my past experiences, and let me tell you the dots were connecting really well. I even tried for a while but the world and the people were still the same.
I tried even harder to be good, nice to people and stuff but you know maybe something was missing here or maybe the whole idea was crap.
This is actually true, the whole idea is indeed crap. With time, I left that pursuit and developed my own philosophy based on my experiences and observations.
If you believe in such a soft approach towards life or such ideas then you are gravely mistaken. No matter how hard you try, you will end up disappointed.
Such ideas may sound very convincing because we suffer from confirmation bias and desire an amicable life. This is exactly what happened when I first heard about it. We suffer from confirmation bias because we start to see the proof of such ideas everywhere. This is the reason why so many cults and ideologies exist in our world.
So, what’s then? I have worked with a few startups or businesses and I have come across many people. The only thing that I have noticed is it’s really difficult to find people with integrity. It’s extremely difficult!
The same is true for our everyday lives. People lack integrity, and they genuinely, or call it innately do not care about you or your feelings at all. Even most of your friends.
Bad people are extremely good at pretending to be good. They know how to exploit you emotionally and even they corrupt the ones with integrity.
You think that there is something wrong with you or your perspective but the thing is you are seeing what’s actually true. It’s just that you don’t know what to do about it.
Let’s say a person starts a business with a good intention of solving the problems of other individuals but there is no guarantee that this business will keep on doing so as it grows bigger and bigger.
This will happen because that person will need other people to manage and run the business and he will have to adjust and align with their interests as well.
This is exactly what happens. When a startup is just starting, it will offer the best customer experience but when investors are involved it will shift from the experience to profits. This is why you will see many businesses do not care about their customers at all.
Nobody wants to change the world other than a few but those few can’t execute their ideas with integrity because they will need other individuals as well, and those individuals are going to corrupt their minds somehow.
Most people function in the same way in their daily lives. Even the ones who are good try to fit in because they have no other option or most of the time they lack self-confidence, or are shaped by their own bad experiences.
You were taught that goodness is a good thing and being bad is a bad thing but this whole idea which was designed by our ancestors a long time ago to keep our society running is completely flawed at its core but it appears valid and makes sense because we are co-dependent. We are not immortals.
If you look at this idea from a bigger perspective, you will see how flawed it is and how easier it is to bypass it. Nature actually does not care who kills whom. Nature has no such definition or concept of goodness (I will talk about this another time). Many people end up living a good life even after killing, raping, and harming others. There are so many examples in history to prove it.
This is also the reason why I don’t follow the concept of Karma. If you believe that there is some kind of reward waiting for you for being good you are wrong.
My approach is that I like to see the world and people around me from a bigger perspective. The way nature treats us. I like to think from the point of view of statistics and probability. We live in a world full of 8 billion people. A sample distribution of such a big size dependent on such limited resources will never result in everyone being good.
There may be some good people or people with the highest level of integrity out there but they are sparsely distributed all over the world and the only way to increase your probability of meeting such individuals is by dealing with more and more shitty people every day. Maybe you won’t find them but you have no other option. For that, you don’t need to learn to fit in but learn to be bad when needed, and try more.
You need to come out of your sensitive shell. You need to accept the reality that it’s not rewarding to be good to everyone. It’s not natural and it’s not going to help you in most of the situations. You need to master diplomacy and learn to grab what you want. You need to learn to deal with all kinds of people. You need to know when to act good and when to act bad. It’s not about perspective and it’s not your fault.
The world is wild and full of selfish individuals, and you don’t have to lose because of them or give up hope. Accept the reality. You need to learn the natural way of living. You need to be careful and watch out for the people you care about and love. You need to show your integrity if needed and use your chicanery if needed.
Treat others the way they treat you and by that, I mean the way they genuinely treat you in their hearts It can be a business or a person. They all deserve to know what you are capable of.
Embrace Practicality.
- Elixir