Death wakes people up, and the closer it gets, the more awake and aware we become. When the end is near, we suddenly start thinking, What the hell am I doing? Why did I wait this long? Until then, most of us go through life as if we had all the time in the world.
Your biggest fear ought to be wasting your life and time, not "Am I going to have x number of dollars when I'm 80?"
- Bill Perkins
There's a
discussion on the forum on Bill Perkins' Die With Zero but in this thread I wanted to specifically focus on the philosophy of optimizing life for experiences and fulfillment instead of just net worth.
I believe that it's way easier to build a business that will shackle you than it is to build a business that will still allow you to enjoy your life. In a way, if you want to live a richer life, you need to have the discipline to control how much time you work and aim to work as little as possible (while being as productive as possible).
While some people love working and draw most of fulfillment from that, most people here also have other interests and goals in life beyond business. So it's important to learn to prioritize time and freedom to pursue various experiences rather than just maximize income.
I recently listened to a few interviews with Bill Perkins. And just to give a short description of the guy for those who don't know him: the guy makes 100 million a year, is worth close to a billion dollars now, and is a hedge fund manager, Hollywood film producer, high-stakes poker player, and author of the bestselling book
Die With Zero.
He's 55 now (but looks younger) and his wife is 35 years old. He got divorced before which he calls his biggest life failure, nonetheless he seems very happy with his new wife and maintains a friendly relationship with his ex-wife and kids. In short, the guy seems to be successful in all areas of life, not just money.
Here's a relatively short and sweet interview covering the most important stuff on Bill's philosophy:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXJDP9Hoic
Some of the most important principles he shares that guide his optimization for experiences/fulfillment are:
1. Get the order right - you can experience lots of things in life but there are phases better suited for some experiences than others. Backpacking through Europe or partying in strip clubs is best for your early twenties but not so much for your sixties.
From my perspective, this depends a lot on whether you want to have kids. If not, the phases are IMO more flexible since you won't be spending time between 30-50 raising kids. The health aspect, though, is definitely a thing. I practiced aggressive inline skating when I was a teenager. There's no chance I would do it today because of the fear of injuries. Bill used to be obssessed about wakeboarding until he was 51 when his body could no longer tolerate the beating from this sport (he has since switched to wakesurfing).
2. Fear wasting your life rather than money - as he says in the interview above, “My biggest secret sauce is not giving a F*ck. Most people don’t try because they can’t handle the emotional shame from their friends. (...) A lot of people fear running out of money or being embarrassed. I fear wasting my life.”
3. Spend money on health and experiences - here's a quote from Noah's summary of the interview:
Business-wise, he says that most of the time he's trying to fire himself and that allows him to enjoy his life. “That’s the secret sauce. Delegating and getting a team going.”
How do you optimize for fulfillment and experiences in life, both in your business and in your personal decisions?
