Does Following Your Dream Suck?

“Izzy, that sounds really hard”

“I don’t know… that’s pretty hard”

“blah blah blah blah HARD!”

Turns out everyone seems to believe it is hard to become a ninja and make money doing it. In fact, many people have been kind enough to inform me that it will be “REALLY hard!”

Can you believe that!? That sounds ridiculous! You and I know otherwise! Let’s go through a quick summary of my life… This will disprove all the naysayers:

My Life Summary

1. I want to be a ninja.

2. I live in a foreign country and I can’t speak the native language.

3. I am going to move to Kyoto (a big city), train in martial arts full time, and find creative ways to make money.

… Wait, this isn’t right. That doesn’t sound easy…

That sounds hard…

I thought if I moved to a foreign country, quit my job, and then started to follow my dream it was all flowers and roses.

WELL THIS IS JUST TOTAL BS!

I have been duped, deceived, denied! Where is the justice!?

Okay, I lied

okay, I lied. Let me tell you what I really think when people say “it’s gonna be hard”:

Thank you Captain Obvious. How about you help me with a few other things with your insightful advice: how do I spell my name? What color is white? What happens if I stop breathing for 5 days?

By last count I have been told “It will be hard” approximatelly 48,597 times. That is a lot of times! I really don’t understand why people tell me this. Maybe it is because they think I am the dumbest person in the universe. I will not deny I may have an unfortante habit of doing stupid things on a consistent basis…

But, I can confidently say “I am not the stupidest person in the universe!” How do I know such a thing? Well, when I was in 1st grade one of my fellow classmates ate glue… all the time. You have to be pretty stupid to eat glue. I don’t eat glue. There is no way that I am stupider than the glue eater. Hence, I am not the stupidest person in the universe.

Of course it is hard

I would have to be completely inept to believe it would be easy to move to a foriegn country, try to become a ninja, and to make money doing it. Why does this even matter?

I feel like people throw out the “hard” word like this is a bad thing. Hard isn’t bad, it isn’t even good, it is insanely AWESOME!

Uh oh, have I lost you? Are you starting to head back to the “Izzy’s the stupidest person in the universe” camp?

Just give me your ear for a moment. Hard is awesome! Insanely hard is SUPER AWESOME! Why? If it was easy to follow a dream everyone would do it. If it was easy I wouldn’t learn anything in this process. If it was easy, there would be no sense of adventure.

Hard is beautiful because it makes everything exciting. Yes, I might fail. I might even fail epically . I might lose every dollar to my name, I might hit my mid 30s realize I can’t do it and then feel like a massive failure.

… But I might not…

What if I succeed? What if I can actually find a way to make money doing this? What if I can follow my passion and dreams and wake up every single day to live it.

One Without The Other Doesn’t exist

I do not believe it is possible to follow my dreams and passions without difficulty. They go hand and hand. If I want to live a life of mediocrity that is easy. I’ll move back to America, take the first job I can find, immediatelly apply to grad school without thinking if I care about the subject matter, then constantly impress my friends with my new fancy degree… all while feeling bored out of my mind!

If I want mediocrity then all I need to do is follow someone elses path for success.

Following your passion is ALWAYS going to be more difficult. Why? because it is ambiguous, it isn’t clear. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, can tell you what your passion or dreams are. Yes, they can help you, but only you can answer that question. Even once you discover it you are likely to face some crazy barriers you never expected.

It is hard, it always will be hard. So F’ing what!

What do you think? Does a dream always have to be hard? Am I being “overly dramatic”? Do you know of anyone who has chased a dream and said it was easy? Has it been easy for you? Am I the stupidest person in the universe?

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http://www.vishnusvirtues.com/ Vishnu

you are nowhere close to being the dumbest person in the universe. now, that guy who lives in your town who buys coffee out from that coffee shop you go to every Sunday….he’s a different story.

I have a lot to say on the subject but I think it a nutshell, not following your dreams is hard and not following your passion is hard.

Also, I think of the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho who said that ‘to realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligatioin…and, when you want something, all the universe inspires you to achieve it’.

If being a ninja is your destiny, go for it Izzy! And whatever others may think, if the universe is helping you out, it may be easier than they think. I’m hoping that our paths will never cross and if you ever want to rob me, just ask me for my wallet without trying out any moves you’re learning. Thank you.
- http://www.30yearoldninja.com/ Izmael Arkin
  
  Yo Vishnu!
  
  I love The Alchemist. Its the type of book everytime I read it, I gain something new and powerful from it.
  
  I would agree with you that “not following your dreams is hard and not following your passion is hard”. I think this is what drove me to do it in the first place. It was too darn hard and painful to keep on living a life of “What if…” or “Well, I would but…” At some point it just burned too deep inside of me and I had to go for it. (I think you just gave me an idea for a future post).
  
  I am not sure if becoming a ninja is my destiny or not. It would certainly be awesome if it is . That being said, I do believe that wherever I am supposed to end up, this is part of the path that will take me there.
  
  I may or may not rob you if our paths do meet. It will really depend on what type of items you have in your possession. For example, if you have a bazillion dollars in your possession, it is fair to assume I will rob you.
  
  But I can promise this: now that you have taken the time to politely ask that I just ask for your wallet rather than try to destroy you, I will go ahead and make sure to request the wallet before I throw the first blue fireball (street fighter reference) your way.
Sean

(A pre-apology for
the long-winded comment). Personally, I
think about a lot of decisions in terms of probability weighted outcomes. In your adventure, I would boil the results
down to two main outcomes. “Success” or “failure”. Then I would assign a “happiness value” to
each outcome (let’s say on a scale of -100 (pure pain) to +100 (pure happiness)). Let’s say I come up with the following: “Success” = 70 points, “Failure” = -30 points,
and the probability of success is 10%.
Then I just calculate the formula and see whether the expected outcome
would make you happy. 10%*(70 points) +
90%*(-30 points) = -20 points.

At this point, it looks like a bad decision, yet somehow, you
are proceeding forward with it. Logically
then, one of the following items must be happening. A) Your quantification of happiness for “Success”
and “Failure” is different or B) Your assumed probability of success is
different. Somehow you’re getting to a
positive net number. In the example
above, the probability of success would have to equal 30% just to have the
expected happiness = zero. Since I think
it’s 10%, this cultivates into a brilliant comment. “Izzy, that sounds really hard.”

What I think most people miss (including myself), is your perspective. Being a ninja is your
dream, not theirs. Therefore it’s hard
to fully quantify that happiness. Where
in my example, I had assigned a value of “Success” to be 70 points, in reality
it may be 90 points. More importantly, the
same issue happens on the other side. I
value “Failure” based on my own trepidations.
Your ability and desire to, face tough challenges, learn through the
process, and enjoy the adventure is something I admire. It makes failure a part of life and something
not to shy away from. In your world, failure
from this adventure may well be a positive experience. If I were to make it 0 points, under the new
calculation (even with the odds of success only at 10%), the result is now
positive. 10%*(90 points) + 90%*(0
points) = 9 points.
Sean

(A pre-apology for the long-winded comment). Personally, I think about a lot of decisions in terms of probability weighted outcomes. In your adventure, I would boil the results down to two main outcomes. ”Success” or failure.” Then I would assign a “happiness value” to each outcome (let’s say a scale of -100 (pure pain) to +100 (pure happiness)). Let’s say I come up with the following: ”Success” = 70 points, “Failure” = -30 points, and the probability of success is 10%. Then I just calculate the formula and see whether the expected outcome would make you happy. 10%*(70 points) + 90%*(-30 points) = -20 points.

At this point, it looks like a bad decision, yet somehow, you are proceeding forward with it. Logically then, one of the following items must be happening. A) Your quantification of happiness for “Success” and “Failure” is different or B) Your assumed probability of success is different. Somehow you’re getting to a positive net number. In the example above, the probability of success would have to equal 30% just to have the expected happiness = zero. Since I think it’s 10%, this cultivates into a brilliant comment. ”Izzy, that sounds really hard.”

What I think most people miss (including myself), is your perspective. Being a ninja is your dream, not theirs. Therefore it’s hard to fully quantify that happiness. Where in my example, I had assigned a value of “Success” to be 70 points, in reality it may be 90 points. More importantly, the same issue happens on the other side. I value “Failure” based on my own trepidations. Your ability and desire to face tough challenges, learn through the process, and enjoy the adventure is something I admire. It makes failure a part of life and something not to shy away from. In your world, failure from this adventure may well be a positive experience. If I were to make it 0 points, under the new calculation (even with the odds of success only at 10%), the result is now positive. 10%*(90 points) + 90%*(0 points) = 9 points.
- http://www.30yearoldninja.com/ Izmael Arkin
  
  Sean,
  
  This is an awesome comment in about 28 different ways (I stopped counting after a while). Have you read Derek Sivers? He uses a similar formula when he is talking about the power of execution over ideas. Basically he gives execution a huge multiplier while giving ideas” a small multiplier. The higher the outcome the higher the likelihood of success.
  
  So in response to your comment, I will say the following.
  
  As soon as I finished with the first paragraph my immediate thoughts were: I would give failure a value of 5 and success a likelihood score of 50 to 60…
  
  But this does deal with how I view each of these components. I find it extremely difficult to believe that if I go through this entire process, I won’t learn some extremely powerful things. As far, as I am concerned failure would be go through this entire process, learn nothing, and be worse off for it.
  
  If I end up better for it that is success. As you and I have discussed, I do want to run my own business. I think if this isn’t it, it will definitely provide me with the skills, creativity, and risk tolerance to be able to eventually do this down the road. This is why I put my success rate so high. I don’t define success as becoming a ninja- I see success as learning, growing, and helping me eventually run a business in the long run.
  
  I guess, in my eyes the worst case scenario is that none of this works out and I am way smarter for it. I guess time shall tell.
nate schubick

Izzy, its hard to go chase your dream. ” running down a dream, it never woulda come to me.” Tom petty sang that and was quite accurate. I like checking out your blogs. The stupidest person comment had me laughing. My brother in law argued about who was. He ate glue and i ate dog food. Then he trumped me and admitted he ate glue and cat food. The kind you open with a can opener. No small wonder you are building one awesome brand behind your dream, problem is for to change your site name after your 31st bday. Lol rock on!
- http://www.30yearoldninja.com/ Izmael Arkin
  
  Nate! That is a hilarious story about you and your brother in law. Glue and cat food!? Shoot man! That’s the type of story I hope is shared over a major family event for all to hear Maybe I’ll have to change it to “the 30 something year old ninja”… Doesn’t quite have the same ring.
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I quit my job, I moved to Japan. I want to be a Ninja

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