Hello everyone welcome to another daily gym it has been a while so today i'm gonna get back into it it's uh tuesday uh december 10th 2024 almost at the end of the year today i want to talk about how how we can enable people to do what they dream and how to kill a mockingbird.
Was the famous book came about because of this now i'll come up with a better title afterwards because i'm doing this one really off the cuff so we're just gonna go um i just read on one of my friends instagram stories that harper lee the author of to kill a mockingbird was given a gift of one year of financial help or one year of salary to be able to focus on writing a book and it came from two of her friends and I believe the friends from what I just read were industrial music uh producers um writing things for DuPont and JCPenney and things like this back in the states in the 50s and um they gave her one year of money and apparently it was something like who knows I haven't fully fact checked this I don't know if this is just myth or lore I saw that it was on New York Times so I'm assuming it's probably made it to truth but that's also how misinformation spreads um and disinformation spreads so um if something like there was an envelope on the christmas tree or whatnot that said hey you know we're giving you one year salary so you can focus on writing and for those of you not familiar to kill a mockingbird is one of the most famous books in american literature especially over the last i'd say 70 80 years and um.
What I find interesting is that there are examples of this. I've talked about this before in the podcast. There are examples of people saying, I believe in what you do. I think you're really talented. I'm tired of seeing you struggle at some full-time job and not have enough energy to work on the thing that you really care about. Here, go do this. so I've talked about it before the Mark Arthur fellows program but also here's an example of somebody privately doing it and I'm sure there are many many many many more examples I mean parents do it a lot for their children hey I think you really care about this and I want to see you thrive I want to see you chase your dreams go for it I mean angel investors do it in a different way they maybe mask it and oh I think there's huge growth potential but sometimes it's like i like you i think the idea is really cool i think you're really smart here go go dream go play, um go strive and striving and thriving that's interesting um but yeah there's just something about what if we could enable people to go after their dreams and not just dreams of like i want to. Um i don't know even if they're facetious dreams even if they're dreams that are going to change the world what what does it do to us when we are giving something to somebody so that they can go after their dreams not even talking about how it impacts them not even talking about how it impacts the world but how does it impact us when we give a gift to someone because it brings so much joy to them. What benefits do we receive by the giving?
How good can it feel to give money to somebody who is going after their dreams, even if they don't make it?
How good can it feel to really just support people? Not only to prevent them from dying, but to really, really help them live.
This is the business model, funding model, helping, giving model that I've talked about for a long time. And it just, it keeps coming back to me as when we deny people the opportunity to help us with our dreams, how much life and love are we denying them how much are we hurting them how much are we, withholding kind of the dreamlike state from them the excitement the ambition the, energy the uncertainty the giddiness how much do we deprive them of something like that by not letting them help us. I have a friend of mine, and he's helped me out with a little bit of money. But more than that, he's helped with the money, but he's also helping me. He's like, dude, your website needs to get better, so let me help you with the website. And he's like, I believe that you're really talented, you're really skilled, and what you can do in this world is really helpful. I want to help you. And so there's an element there that I think, yeah, it's about how much I can impact the world. But i honestly think he just cares about me a lot i care about him too we've known each other a long time and i think he probably sees me swirling in some pattern he's like no i want to light a fire under you because i care about you and to help you makes me feel so good.
And again you know i reflect on how much how generous we can be in giving to others but how often do we deprive other people from being generous and giving to us and the benefits that are associated with that, some of us would rather die than ask for help and how much does that hurt the other people in our lives some of us would rather just be zombies not die but just kind of like, hum drum go through the life heads down never look up just kind of same day different what my friends say same day different shit same i don't know there's some expression that i've even tried to work out of my vocabulary um and there's just this idea of.
Letting other people help us live so that they can live so that they have purpose so they have excitement so they have so they can see the people that they care about really striving really going after what they want do you want the people in your life to just kind of put their heads down and do the well it's just what everyone does that's just how it is that's what life is or Do you want them to actually go after what they want? Do you actually want them to strive and to dream and to find the things that really make them come to life and go after them and not say, well, I found what really makes me come to life, but you know, I gotta be a responsible adult human. And what that means is I have to just go through the ringer like everyone else does. I have to fit in. Or do you want somebody to say, listen, I found what I love to do and you know, it makes me weird and unique, but I love it and I'm gonna do it. And I don't know how I'm gonna do it. I really need your help because I really want to do this. I really don't know how.
But I want to learn. I want to learn this so much.
Yeah, it's just, when people come to me like that, I feel so alive. When people come to me and say, you know, life just sucks. It's just the same thing, different day. Let's just go through it all. It's like, man, it's like they've already died before. It's like they're living, but they're already dead.
And it hurts for me to see that with strangers, but it really hurts for me to see that with people that I love and people that I feel really connected to, really close to. And so I can imagine maybe for some of you too, some of you, where'd Jim go? Why'd he disappear for a little bit? You know, it's tough. I would love to do these daily episodes every day. I would love to do podcasts. I haven't figured out how to support myself financially to do this. And people say, oh, just get a gym. No, like this is what I want to do. Why would I go do something else so I could do this? It doesn't make sense.
So yeah i think sometimes i disappear because i i just don't know if, i don't know it's like i gotta fit in all these damn boxes just so that i tick off what everybody else thinks is a proper way to live life instead of them going oh you found something that really really excites you and you could really help a lot of people and you want to do it here let me support you do it let me support you in doing it i don't know now I've reached the complaining part of the episode and it's almost 10 minutes, so.
But I think there really is value into the frustration and being like, I don't know, and value in recognizing that there have been moments in history, when really powerful things have been supported by people who just believed in the person, and said, I don't know what you're going to write, but here, take a year, figure out, here's a year, here's 12 months of you not having to worry about rent or food or this or that. just go right.
I wonder what that would unleash in me I wonder what that would unleash in so many other people if we were just given these opportunities, given these opportunities of somebody in our lives some close friends who said listen, I want to see you chase your dreams it brings me so much joy and so much life so here, go do it, so I don't know I'm going to title this but that's the end of the episode and I will talk to you all tomorrow bye.