You Don't Need to Stay Hungry My Friend

The other day a Russian colleague told me that he wanted his children to feel a little like foreigners. After all, the feeling to be different and excluded at times gives him the hunger to succeed in the US society and economy. His children were born here in the US, so he knows as well as I do that this is just a wish; his children will grow up to be American like everybody else. Don't worry about the drive I would say, your life sets you up optimally to be the one you are born to be. I know this sounds like an empty tautology, but it is true.

We are all driven by some hidden ghosts. Some work hard all their lives because they want to give their children something better. A more prosperous community, a better education, a social advancement. Some strive because deep down inside they are afraid of life, or they feel they have to prove something. Some want to score with the opposite sex and they know that status and wealth often does the trick. Everybody has a secret engine. You don't need to worry about your children. They are being set up for their idiosyncratic movie plot; just always put your best foot forward, but leave the script up to a higher authority.

You may have seen one of the Dos Equis beer adds in which a handsome (but somewhat past his prime) man is surrounded by attractive women half his age who advises the audience to 'Stay thirsty my friends!'. I am not so sure about his advice though. To advice our young folks to step out of the movie plot is meaningless because they still have to make it to the scene when the heroine is born. But you can my friend. Once you discover that life is nothing but a movie - your movie - you can step out of it. Waking up from this dream doesn't mean you become a drifter, it just means that you live a purposeful life full of peace and serenity.