Monopolize yourself

"A Giant asteroid filled with gold is going to make everybody rich" read a click-bait headline in my Twitter feed.

I chuckled.

Gold will lose its value as soon as it becomes abundant; When everyone possess gold, it will lose its value; scarcity is what makes gold valuable.

This is what happened to pearl.

Pearl, a once extremely valuable and rare commodity, was haunted from the treacherous sea-beds. By the end of the 19th century, the Japanese were able to cultivate it. The lucrative pearl markets diminished forever after they had been flooded by cultivated pearls. Scarcity made pearl valuable, and abundance took away that value.

Escape competition through authenticity; No one can compete with you on being you. - Naval

As it applies to gold and pearl, the same law applies to humans in some way.

In my country, final high school exams were issued by the ministry of education. They were notoriously challenging and required a great effort to pass. Now, students can easily pass the multiple-choice exams cooked by teachers.

When you equalize delinquency with excellence, excellence gets inflated. It was hard to distinguish who was better. Universities realized this and started making their own entrance exams. Today, a high school degree accounts only for about 20% of the final acceptance score.

I could go on telling tens of stories like this, but I'll just stop here.

Any human being who does not wish to be part of the masses need only stop making things easy for himself. Let him follow his conscience, which calls out to him: “Be yourself! All that you are now doing, thinking, desiring, all that is not you.

You compromise the value of your life if you insist on being similar to everybody else.

Everyone is born unique; it's just that most of us tend to confirm without forethought. We disregard our true selves in favor of the narratives fed to us by everybody else.

To believe in your own vision, to "Self-become" is not easy. It requires you to think about your purpose in life, to build your own principles. It requires courage to confront the temptations of pre-built templates and shortcuts.

This doesn't imply that you have to deviate from social norms. Try it, and you're guaranteed to be a social weirdo.

If you're just like everyone else... In business, you become a highly replaceable replica. In relationships, they "can always find someone like you".

Be yourself, not by being satisfied with the status quo but by realizing what your soul has been longing for.