The Meaning Of Life

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to ask you a question. If you achieve or you make all the money that you dream of making, if you buy all the homes that you want to own, the car that you want to have, If you get everything that you ever dreamt of, would you be happy? I think, I think there's different levels of that answer. I think initially when we're young, we go, oh yeah, hell yeah, I'm gonna have that car, that Ferrari, that Lamborghini. I'm gonna have all those women. Women, I think, I'm gonna have all those men, I'm gonna have a beautiful home, kids, all these materialistic things. And I think a moment ago I said when you're young, I think the young is not just the age, it's young in the mind. But let's think about it. Think about that feeling you have. Close your eyes. Think about it. If you— what are you chasing now? That's the real question. Are you going to work every day? Are you doing everything you do every day to chase, to get all that stuff, to have as many homes and as many apartments and as many stories as everyone else that you know? What the hell are you doing? What's your endgame? What's your goal? What is it? What are you trying to do? When's the last time you sat down without anything on? Maybe some music, because sometimes that helps to occupy the conscious mind, because it's the subconscious mind you got to get down to. And ask yourself, what the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this? What's— what is my purpose? What is my goal? I saw a drawing recently that was perfect, and it was a picture of a young guy running, and in front of him the wind was blowing— excuse me— the wind was blowing and there was money in the air, and he was running to chase to get the money. Then the drawing underneath it was the same guy years later, middle age, and he's caught up to the money and he's got some— he's collected some and it's still in the air and he's smiling now because he's got the money. And then the third drawing is the same guy as an old man. He's no longer running and he's got his entire hands and body is full of money. He caught all the money, but he's super old. And the question is, so what? Now that you're old and you have all the money, now that you're old and you have all the cars and women, so what? What are you doing and why are you doing it? Why are you chasing that dream? Who put that dream inside of you or put that thought? Is that thought you have— was it placed there because of envy? You saw someone or someone said something to you. I'm being serious now. Think about it. The picture that you have or the want— it's really the want, the want that's driving you— where did it come from? Did you create it, or was it created back when you were a kid, when you were so immature that you didn't understand that you just wanted somebody else's toy? Are you still chasing to get somebody else's toy even though you're an adult now? A friend of mine, I'll give you a couple of stories so you can relate. A friend of mine has all the money in the world. I mean, the guy has hundreds of millions of dollars. I knew him before he had that. Hungry as hell, ambitious as hell. Met him in London one day for lunch. He flew me out there. Very nice of him to do that. And we had lunch, and at the end of the lunch, he told me that he could buy anything he wanted, and he's done that, but he lost his purpose in life. This guy was about late 40s, had hundreds of millions of dollars cash in the bank to spend, and didn't have a reason. He didn't have a focus. He didn't have a point to look at as to why he was living. So he decided to, um, what he was doing now was— and he was married with kids, but his mind took him because he wasn't prepared for where he was in life with all that money. He decided to change his sexual orientation into something very strange, and that he felt was interesting. At the end, when he finally— at the end, he's only 40, but when he finally got everything he dreamt of, the best he could do was to decide to do the strangest things. And even he felt it was strange, but he goes, that's the only thing that's of interest now that I can have anything I want in life. Interesting, isn't it? Another person I know quite well, he chased women his entire life, slept with as many women as possible, and I mean he collected, he collected a lot, slept with many, many, many, many, you know, like the Wilt Chamberlain, the famous basketball player who's famous for saying that he slept with over 10,000 women in his lifetime. This guy is now in his late 50s, And he goes, after sleeping with all those women, after convincing all those women to have sex with him, he's like, yeah, so what now? What's the point of all that? And a story about women— there are women who are, when they're young, they don't want to be known as being easy or sexually promiscuous. And then as they get older, they start knowing what they want, and then finally they just know what they want, when they want it, and how often they want it. And even when they get all that, then what? You get houses, homes, cars. There's so many famous people with a garage full of 11, 15 cars. You can only drive one at a time. Many of them sit there for years, you know, years at a time, and they too go, what's the point? What are you driving for? I'm sorry, I'm going off. I'm just trying to give you stories to understand that there are so many people who you walk by in the street who will spend their entire life wanting, and so many people who have, and they lost their way and they never figured out what is it that they're living for. What is it you're living for if you have everything you needed? What is it? That you're living for? So here's my answer. My answer is I'm living for life experiences. I want to be able to look back and have so many experiences that I was at places and I touched amazing things. For example, I could look back now and I cherish the fact that I've been at the Gardens of Versailles, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, where in somebody's backyard they built a lake so big that they built ships to have fights, ship fights, major ships against each other to appease and amuse the royalty. This is somebody's backyard. Absolutely beautiful, the gardens of Versailles. I can't even describe to you how beautiful it is. I've walked— I've not only visited Rome, but I and my wife, when we were younger, climbed the fences of the Roman Colosseum. Snuck over with a guy we met when we were having dinner who was at the table next to us. His name was also Thomas Anglero, and the three of us climbed over the walls of the Roman Colosseum, snuck in at 2:30 in the morning, 2:30 AM, and walked around inside the Roman Colosseum where the gladiators fought. My goal is to collect more and more life experiences. To touch as many things, to smell as many smells, the Indian spices of India, to be in places where I cannot possibly imagine. And at the end of the day, when I'm an old man and I cannot physically make it these places anymore, I want to be able to have all those memories of all those smells, of all those sights, of all those feelings. I think that's what life is about, at least the way I see it. And I share that big picture with you just to help push you towards you answering your question: Why are you doing everything you're doing? What is it that you're going for? And if you, at the end of the day, you get it, are you happy? Is it really of meaning to you? What is it that you're dreaming of, that you're fighting for? And use the stories of other people who've collected as many materialistic things and collected as many sexual experiences. Those things are shallow, and that is not a goal. Everyone who's come before you who eventually achieved that all end up empty at the end of the day. They spent decades chasing that crap, and at the end of it, when they got it, there was nothing there. It was like opening up a Christmas present with a beautiful bow tie packaged so well, you're all excited, you open up the box and it's empty. I'm trying to save you all from that. Don't chase that. Chasing things from the outside, the outside world, the cars, the boxes, the women, the men, is empty box, is empty. Chase from within. Chase what makes you you. Go forth and spread beauty and light and fill the box within you. You know those boxes that some people collect things from their entire life? There's a chest, I think it's called, a life chest. They collect precious memories and these huge chests of something people used to do 100 years ago, and they passed it on to their kids and their kids. I think that is a good symbolism for what we should be doing in life. We should be filling up our own chest, our own box within us. And at the end of the day, when we're sitting there in that rocking chair, we can open up our inner chest are in a box of memories and life experiences and enjoy it. No one can take that from you. It's all yours because they're your experiences, your moments. Because when you sit there super old in that rocking chair, you can't drive that Ferrari or that Lamborghini. I guess you can, but it ain't gonna mean as much to you. And you can't have sex like you could when you were 18 and 20, so it ain't gonna mean as much to you. But you can sit there and enjoy all those incredible memories of all the incredible places, all the incredible people, all the incredible things, and all the incredible moments that you've had. Is that a good life? Is that the life that you're living? It's a good question. Now answer it. I love you. I'm with you. And I'm Thomas Anglero, your friend for life. Take care, okay? Until the next time.