“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.” (Albert Camus)
HellO, WOrld!
Few weeks ago I was on a beautiful beach in Bali, with a glass of mojito on my hand, watching my friends surfing on the waves of the Indian Ocean. The Sun was shinning and I was pretty happy. It was my first holiday as an entrepreneur. After 15 years of hard work for multinational companies, I decided that I need to do something for myself. To work my ass out for my business, not for a guy from New York or Zurich. That’s why, when I pass through the Singapore Airport on my way to Bali I went to the Book Store and I bought a pen to write my new business ideas and a book with a very intriguing title: “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck”.
I considered that it will be the perfect reading for a jobless guy like me.
Well, I was lucky. I’ve never heard before about Mark Manson, the author of this bestseller book. But his ideas are very clear and simple. If you want to be happy, you don’t have to wish to be happy. You just have to live. Or, to understand better: if you want to be rich, you don’t have to wish to be rich, because you will never consider that you will be rich enough. And that will make you unhappy. “The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.”
And some more: “The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become in trying to get there.”
And quoting Camus, he concluded:” *You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.* Or put more simply: Don’t try.”
Well, as I said, I was in Bali, on a wonderful beach, sipping from my cocktail. I couldn’t try less. I was totally carefree.
Because, in the same time, I was reading the book I took with me in my luggage, one of the most beautiful books I ever read: The Forty Rules of Love, by Elif Shafak. And in this book, somehow, I discovered some of Mark ideas. Written in a more poetic language, but in the end, the message it was quite the same. You don’t have to care about little things, just live and find the true and important ones: “Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That’s the hardest part and that’s what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.” (Elif Shafak – The 40 Rules of Love).
I’m not sure where this new experience as an entrepreneur will take me, but I will try not to give so many fucks about how this should be. Probably it won’t be easy, but at least it started so well, under the Sun, on a beach, with a mojito in my hand.
PS Meanwhile, in Bucharest, the Winter is back. And I don’t give a fuck.
LOve,
O.
Photography: Alexandru Rosieanu
Hair Style: Robert Both Studio
Outfit: COS SS18 coat, Tshirt and trousers, available in COS Stores, Ray-Ban sunglasses.
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