Like most of the kids in the era of technology and gaming consoles, I often found myself glued to the screen playing games for hours on end each time I came home from school.
The gaming console was my teleportation machine. The moment the joystick and my hands collided together I knew I was on a journey to a different dimension of time and space.
The games were my escape from the boring reality.
I could be the superhero with super-natural powers that fought the bad guys and saved citizens. Or I could be that secret agent on a very important mission to save the world from a dangerous villain.
I could be the pilot I always dreamed of being, flying on an F-16, or I could be the medieval king who had to grow a civilization from scratch. Maybe a criminal who escaped from prison and now drove fast cars and ran over pedestrians.
Yeah, in a video game I could be whoever I wanted to be.
As I was becoming a more experienced gamer growing up, I found out that the people who created the games often times left some codes that could give you special abilities such as being invincible, having unlimited money or ammunition, unlocking levels, making it easier to fight villains… etc.
It was really fun!
I’d finish a game in a day where normally it would’ve taken me a month.
I was cheating the game by using these cheat codes I was finding on the internet. And yeah, of course, I was the cool kid.
Fast forward many years later…
I stopped playing games, because I was a grown up guy now. Life became harder, and, yeah, more boring. I had to do stuff that all people did. There was already a life plan that everyone somehow seemed to agree to unconsciously.
People often said: “Life is a game, you need to learn how to play it.” and stuff like that.
So I started wondering, well if life’s a game, there should be cheat codes for it too, right?
I was seeing people driving cars that you could never buy with an average salary you get once you graduate. Then there were millionaires who were living on huge mansions or luxurious yachts. There had to be a secret, or a few of them.
Did they cheat the game of life?
– Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard University to create Facebook.
– Steve Jobs did the same, he dropped out of Reed College, only took the classes that he was interested in, and later founded Apple.
– So did Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft and is one of the world’s wealthiest people.
– Jim Carrey dropped out of high school and became an awesome actor.
– John Lennon had a similar story, he quit school, joined The Beatles, and they eventually became more famous than Jesus.
– Abraham Lincoln also left school and later became the president.
All these people have something in common.
Yeah, dropping out of school is one, but that’s not what I’m thinking.
These guys found the cheat codes to their lives.
They found the tools and methods that allowed them to escape their ordinary lives, become successful and live a meaningful life.
I spent a lot of time as a teenager reading and trying to find out what these secrets of life were.
And I actually found some of these “cheat codes” that helped me make my life easier in general. These cheat codes are methods to overcome the obstacles you face along the road and the easy shortcuts to get what you really want from life.
Each person is different because of their personality and background, so what works for someone might not work for someone else, but everyone has their own cheat codes to their lives, waiting to be discovered and activated.
For example, instead of reading books (I used to hate reading as a kid), I’d search on Google for people who had already read these books and who wrote synopses or reviews. I then simply translated them into my native language and got my A each time.
I learned to play the guitar, simply by watching YouTube videos of my favorite artists.
I learned many magic tricks to impress my friends by reading e-books on sleight of hand written by Las Vegas card dealers.
I learned how to edit videos and make those cool visual effects you see on commercials and movies. (One was so good, a local TV station actually stole it from my YouTube channel)
I learned how to code websites from scratch and eventually earn money doing this. And still do.
I learned business skills and gained confidence when speaking with people. This allowed me to create the right connections with the right people.
I was constantly learning new skills, and slowly becoming a super-player in this game that for everyone else was so difficult and boring.
The only bad thing the majority of people are good at is finding excuses. People complain about universities being expensive and getting in debt, yet they don’t drop out when there’s thousands of free lectures online being uploaded everyday. People complain about their corporate jobs, yet they don’t learn new skills and start their own businesses.
Now, I’m not the richest guy in the world nor I’m striving to be, but I can say that I’m enough successful and financially free to actually enjoy and live my life the way I want to. I’m launching my own business ventures, trying new things out, traveling, and making my dreams come true.
Because that’s what matters to me.
In the end, real life is really a game, so keep in mind that it’s always fun to find the cheat codes to your life and cheat the system. Or, without the metaphor, get skilled at something, use free online resources, throw away excuses, eliminate all those artificial needs the society forces you to believe you need, find ways to get what you really want, work hard toward bigger and meaningful goals, and simply enjoy life.
The outcomes of sailing towards the uncharted waters can be interesting and probably never as expected, but you’ll learn far more about life this way than following the same old route like everyone else. You’ll find what’s worth doing and what gives you real meaning in life. You’ll be free inside and, most importantly, happy.