I’m just thinking here.
It’s so much easier to lose things than to get things in this world.
Bear with me for a second.
You want to get a lot of money? It will typically take a while; you’re usually going to have to bring something of value to the world (the Kardashians are an exception) and work long, grueling hours (again, the Kardashians are an exception).
On the contrary, you want to lose a lot of money? You can Venmo your entire savings account to your old middle school Algebra teacher almost instantly. Oh, you have federal reserve notes? You can burn all of them in less than 10 minutes
This applies to more than just money.
Learning new languages. It can take years to master a new language. Countless hours studying vocabulary words, analyzing sentence structure, reviewing culture, etc.
If you want to, you can decide to unlearn all of any given language in an instant. Think to yourself, “I don’t want to know Spanish anymore,” and then you won’t know it anymore. You’ll have to start from scratch if you want to pick it up again.
For this reason, I’ve never once thought to myself, “I wish I didn’t know English,” because if I did, it’d be incredibly difficult to relearn English. Think about it– my internal dialogue is in English, so if I didn’t know English in the first place, my internal dialogue would have no language. My internal dialogue would probably just be a series of screams.
The point is– do you understand how easy it is to lose something compared to how long it takes to gain something?
It applies to virtually everything.
You want to get a good friend? You need to spend hours and hours learning about each other and gaining mutual trust.
You want to lose a good friend? Look him in the eye and say, “if you die tonight, nothing will be different tomorrow.”
That’s all it takes.
If the friend always jokes around with you like this (in which case, one (or both) of you need(s) to discuss with a mental health professional), it may take more than this insult. You could use this same line on his mother/sister/girlfriend, and he will be so full of hatred towards you that the friendship will end.
The idea that gaining something takes significantly longer than losing something also applies to life, unfortunately.
Consider for a moment– how long have you been alive?
5 years?
10 years?
20?
40?
41?
42?
42 and a half?
43?
Whatever the number of years you have under your belt, your life could end instantaneously, and, in some cases, you might not even be aware that it’s ending.
You’ll think you’ve earned it all, but then reality will hit, and you’ll lose it all in a matter of seconds, leaving you alone, quietly crying to yourself in Panera. Then, the manager will, as he does every week, offer you a free loaf of sourdough, assuming you must be homeless, even though you explain to him every week, without fail, that you just haven’t slept in a few days. Then, he’ll look you in the eyes, and he’ll say something like, “we all need a little help sometimes,” insisting you take the loaf of sourdough anyway. Not wanting to push the issue any further, you’ll reluctantly agree to take the loaf of bread, shortly after which you will resume quietly sobbing between bites of the aforementioned sourdough.
Until next time,
Michael J. Erickson, CEO & Co-Founder
