It is of critical importance for a man to distinguish himself as valuable. Not just for the sake of his income, but for the sake of his sanity. The need to contribute something to the group is built into every man. A man who does not live out this purpose finds himself listless and empty. Whether the group you contribute to is your immediate family, your customers, or your small tribe does not matter. All that matters is the answer to this question: Are you bringing value to the table wherever you find yourself at this moment?
Most men cannot answer that question honestly. They may say to themselves that they provide value to their company, but reality does not bear this out.
Most modern jobs are unnecessary.
I would go so far as to say we have created thousands of low-value jobs for no other reason than to give the masses something to do with their time. The number of jobs that are actually needed to perpetuate human survival is small in comparison to the unnecessary jobs that exist.
The majority of men have no technical skill, minimal experience, and no ability to think with their own brains. Yet they still manage to find a company willing to pay them just enough to maintain their existence in exchange for some menial labor.
This is not the way men are designed to live, and it is no wonder that the majority of people are unhappy with their work. It is because they know in their hearts that they are not contributing in the best way possible to the greater good of society. They may not even be able to see if they are doing any good in their immediate environment.
Let me give you a few of the non-negotiable keys to human happiness, though happiness is irrelevant to being a man.
- Progress
- Contribution/Service
- Being Needed/Responsibility
- Autonomy and Self-Direction
The fundamental key to human happiness is progress.
We are never as happy to achieve a goal as we are when we are in pursuit of a goal. Men were not designed to stagnate and stay still. Earl Nightingale observed that men are like ships, designed to sail from one port to the next and they fall apart if left to “rest” in the dock.
The most unhappy men in the world are the ones who have checked all society’s boxes yet have no goal for themselves. They went to school, git married, had a few kids, bought a house, and have a “safe, secure, stable” job, but they are still continually unhappy. And it is simply because they are truly idle and because they have no port to sail to that they find themselves so miserable. All the trappings of common life cannot provide the peace and evenness of mind that the steady pursuit of a worthwhile goal can provide.
Secondly, a man must contribute to some greater good in order to be satisfied with himself.
This is a point that has taken me years to recognize, but I believe it to be true. Men are fulfilled when they can serve others, and this service is usually rewarded monetarily. While it sounds very nice to be able to live in a cabin in the woods far away from all humankind, if there is not some portion of a man’s life spent in service to others, he will find himself feeling empty. Even if the emptiness is only a slight, nagging feeling, it will be there, and it will rob him of complete peace.
Thirdly, men need responsibility.
A man must feel that he is needed by his company, family, or tribe in order to be fulfilled. Really this is true for every person who lives. Who in the world does not want to feel that they are needed by society?
Jordan Peterson has observed that human beings are happy in proportion to the responsibility they are willing to take on. Greater responsibility, counterintuitively, equals greater happiness and fulfillment. A man has to take on some sort of responsibility if he wants to be happy.
This does not necessarily have to be traditional, industrial-age work, though society would have you think this is required of you. However, you rarely find a fulfilled man who is also unemployed. The happiest retirees are the ones who have found additional work they are able to do, even if it is non-remunerative.
One of the reasons that post-retirement work is even more fulfilling than previous work is that it is autonomous. Autonomy and self-direction is the fourth key to human happiness.
No one likes to be told what to do. We live in a day and age where, to a certain degree, the average man can choose the manner in which he wants to spend his days. There are plenty of professions to choose from and there is no shortage of work, despite what you hear in the media.
Most men simply give up this freedom, however. they choose to mindlessly go to college, major in whatever is popular then complain about their post-graduation salary. They complain even though they learned no useful skills in college and simultaneously did not learn to use their own brains. They simply went to college for the false promise of job security.
Job security is an illusion.
It is something that we create in our own minds as an ego protection mechanism. If we buy into the lie that the masses tell each other and themselves, we feel better. Everyone believes in this idea of a safe, secure, stable job. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no such thing as a stable, secure, safe job. There is only the illusion of such a job.
Take a look back at the depression of the 1930s when nearly a quarter of the American population was unemployed. Let me reiterate that: one out of every four Americans was out of work. And this is back when more American men had families to consider.
Do you think those men thought their jobs were “safe and secure”? They likely did. As humans, we would degenerate into a neurotic mass if we felt we were constantly on the verge of losing our income. Yet I argue that this is the reality of most American men in the modern-day. Especially those men who know in the depths of their minds that they have low-value skills, little experience, and are not contributing to their current employer.
Let me ask you a series of questions and see if you still believe in the idea of a safe and secure job.
- When your income rests in the hand of one man (your boss), is it stable?
- The only thing between you and lack of income is two words (“You’re fired”), so is your job stable?
- When a worldwide pandemic can crush the global economy over the course of a single year and leave many Americans out of work, is your job stable?
- When at any moment a company could lose a large chunk of revenue and be forced to downsize, is your job safe, stable or secure?
the fact that people still promoted the idea of a safe, secure job after the depression is another piece of evidence showing that will learn nothing from the 2020 pandemic. We do not do a great job of learning from history.
A man’s greatest weapon against the inherent insecurity of the workforce is to build his own skills and increase his value to the world.
Imagine this, if the world as we knew it ended and chaos ensued. If the United States disintegrated into hundreds of small city-states that fought and warred in a feudalistic manner, what value could you bring to your group? If you were in a small group of people forced to survive, what exactly would you bring to the group that would justify your life? Could you provide the group with anything that would justify feeding you from the group’s supplies?
Most of the men I know would not be able to contribute more than a few low-value skills to the group. They have no technical skills, but they also do not have the ability to use their own minds or to lead others. Most men have no value, and the greatest sin is the fact that they have control over this fact and still elect to do nothing.
We all have control over our personal values. But society has been so safe for so long that we take this for granted. So many men have been coasting along bringing nothing of value to their company but they are kept on because it is easy. There is nothing that is rocking the boat for most Americans, so there is no need for men to improve their value.
So many of us are detached from the stark reality which is that we could lose our current income at any given moment. What would you do about that if you were in that situation? Most men have no idea what in the world they would do. They have no stash of funds nor marketable skills. They assume that everything will proceed as always and never plan for the moment that their life will be sideswiped by a tidal wave.
Most men believe there is no reason to become more valuable. society is already stable and safe.
Most Americans are one hospital stay away from bankruptcy. You cannot listen to the old advice given you by the older people advocating for a safe, secure, stable job. Most of these people will outlive their resources or will lose them all in one medical emergency. The average American not only builds his financial house on the sand but advocates that you do the same thing.
One of my titanium rules is the following: do not take advice from anyone you would not trade places with.
It may seem arrogant, but if you think about it, you will find it makes perfectly logical sense. A person’s life is the direct and cumulative result of all the actions they have taken up to that point. If you do not admire, like, or want the same result in your own life, why would you model their behavior and actions?
You have the opportunity to prepare for that now. Write down 10 ideas for how you would generate income if you were to lose your current income stream right now. You need to be ahead of that game when it comes to your personal value. Plan your protocols for if you are ever in a situation where you have no money coming in.
Also, you need to make a plan for how you are going to make yourself more valuable to society and to your group. What would you contribute to your group in a survival situation? If you cannot think of anything, consider learning a skill that would be useful in those instances. While that may not happen in your lifetime, cervical situations always unfold over the years.
Additionally, you need to come up with ideas to make yourself more valuable to society.
What is it that you are contributing to your company, family, or society? Most men think they are contributing value, but in reality, they are contributing nothing. They merely go with the flow and call it “Doing the right thing” or “doing their duty”. I think men should do their duty, but let’s not go so far as to label everything as “duty”.
Some things are just stupid, and men do them anyways under the ruse of “doing the right thing”. Sometimes doing the right thing involves going against the societal flow. Sometimes it means rocking the boat and making some serious life adjustments are making some equally serious personal life evaluations.
Find out ways to increase your value to society and to yourself. There is no excuse for our value to not increase proportionally with our age. We should consistently see geometric growth of income. Or even better, if we are clever enough, we should see the increase of income due to capital or investments, known as “passive income” which is extremely tax-effective compared to ordinary income. Every man should be wise enough to establish revenue sources that do not rely on him being present.
If you can create stability for yourself through financial independence, you have much less to worry about in life.
References to Consider:
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Unemployment Rate by Year since 1929 Compared to Inflation and GDP.” The Balance, 23 Sept. 2013, www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506.
NVSS – Marriages and Divorces. 2019, www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage-divorce.htm
