[By Friday, 18 July 2003 I was back in what was formerly known as Johannesburg, but which goes by another name now that one can only use if you actually live in (Johannesburg). Funny, these rules of tribe and place, and language and rituals of membership to a group …
This particular Friday morning I suffered the final burst of inspiration and insight before the end of my vacation, and from 06:01 until shortly before 06:24 I jotted the following in my notebook:]
Principles of a Meaningful Life:
STRUGGLE
BELONGING
CREATE
and:
BASIC LEVEL OF EXISTENCE
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF EXISTENCE
HIGHER LEVEL OF EXISTENCE
Identity is the Key to Membership.
The past few weeks I’ve said a lot about the so-called adult world and how I view myself as immature in this world (or have done so, until now). I want to change this to the “world of money”. I am by far mature enough to take my place as an adult in this so-called adult world.
The real problem has always been my ignorance, and consequent fear of the world of money. My fate, until now, was sealed because I didn’t want to take the “easy” way of just getting a job somewhere – or at least trying to find one. However, it is non-negotiable that one needs money. But what to do when you don’t want a regular job or a formal career, and you don’t know how to make money in any other way in South Africa? Ignorance, fear, Korea, then Taiwan …
What I’ve realised the past three weeks though is that the dreaded World of Money can be investigated, studied and mastered. In the end, it’s like most things that make you nervous – if ignorance is replaced by knowledge, fear disappears.
Two words:
FREELANCE
ENTREPRENEUR
[And since I had produced these profound insights in the spare room of a house of a friend of a friend in a city that is not my own, I thought, in conclusion:]
MY HOME IS WHERE MY NOTEBOOK IS.
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