Nick HutchisonFounder and CEO, BookThinkers

“It’s all about if you want to exist or if you want to live. And it’s two different things.”

7 May 2024 · 1 min

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1:01

In this solo, reflective monologue, the speaker distinguishes between merely existing—focused on meeting basic needs such as food, shelter, and material comforts—and truly living, which he defines as pursuing a personal mission and uncovering one’s unique gift. He shares his own journey of recognizing writing and industry work as his gift, emphasizing the importance of self‑valuation and prioritizing time over money. The speaker argues that time is the ultimate measure of value, urging listeners to act now because life’s duration is uncertain, and to shift from a needy mindset to one centered on purpose and contribution.

Chapters

I think at the end of the day, it's all about if you want to exist or if you want to live. And it's 2 different things, because life, it's all about mission, it's all about finding your gift, all about helping, compared to existing, which is all about need. I need to nurture a body, I need to feed, I need to rent an apartment, I need to buy an apartment, I need to have a car, I need clothes. It's all about— it's a needy place. And if you're in a needy place, you will never get out or never be able to focus or find your gift. And that is a big A difference. If I wasn't able to understand that my writing is my gift and me getting jobs in my industry is my gift, in order— and then finding the right people to do this job, that is my gift— then I wouldn't be able to be here standing here and planning all of this. But it took me time, and it's one that I had to learn, is to self-value, value myself, value time more than value money. Because if you don't value time, you can't value your money, you can't value how much you're worth, you can't value anything. Because time is value. You don't have a lot of time. You don't know if you're going to live tomorrow. I don't know if you're going to wake up tomorrow. Maybe that will be my last podcast. I hope not. I'm just saying, maybe it will.