Are You a Sheep?

You’re probably getting screwed over and taken advantage of.

But it’s not your fault. Our society is set up to cater to the lowest common denominator. People that don’t want to take any responsibility or initiative and therefore need others to do it for them.

The problem is that society then propagates the message that this is what everyone should do which results in huge swaths of people doing what they think is right that is actually losing them incredible amounts of money, time, and happiness.

Let’s start with the most blaring example—insurance. Everyone and their mom says you HAVE to have insurance. So you pay hundreds of dollars a month for something that fights you every step of the way to deliver the service you’re paying for.

Imagine if this was any other business. Imagine you go to a restaurant and order something and they say “well…if you want that you’re going to have to get a note and you’re going to have to wait 2-6 weeks for us to deliver that to you.” You would never go to that restaurant again. You would leave it horrible reviews on Yelp and yet we tolerate it because we think that’s just the way it is.

So let’s look at some math. If you are chronically ill and need to go to the doctor frequently then insurance can absolutely be worthwhile. Of course, if you are chronically ill it will probably be harder to get insured anyway.

BUT let’s say that you don’t make a lot of money and so you can get your insurance subsidized by the state you’re living in (this may also be going away with recent legislation that was passed) and you have to go to doctor’s appointments that insurance is paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for every month. Then insurance is absolutely worth it.

But for many people they make “too much” for their insurance to be subsidized by the state and they are in decent health. So they pay hundreds of dollars a month for insurance that they don’t use and when they do use it they still have to pay a percentage of the cost. They would be better off putting those hundreds of dollars away in a savings account and using that money for medical emergencies.

Not to mention, for many people when they go to the doctor the help/advice they get is less useful than typing in a prompt to ChatGPT and figuring something out for themselves. There are definitely amazing doctors out there but they seem to be the exception to the rule unfortunately. Most doctors are overworked and burned out.

And dentists are the worst offenders. Usually dental plans will only cover up to a certain amount which means that if you have to get some severe dental work done, the insurance isn’t going to help much.

AND the treatment is horribly inconsistent. One dentist will tell you, you need an extraction, another will tell you, you need a crown, and another will say “Oh we can take care of that with a filling.”

“But Sean, what about emergencies?” They say.

“What if I have to be rushed to the hospital?” They say.

Funny thing about the American healthcare system…we don’t technically have universal healthcare but what ends up actually happening is if you go to the hospital and don’t have insurance—they have to treat you.

Then when you inevitably can’t pay the bill because the cost is outrageous, they just write it off as a loss on their taxes, which means the government ends up paying for it anyway.

“But won’t it affect my credit?” Medical debt is viewed differently and so in my experience it both personally and working with people it does not affect your credit. Obviously your mileage may vary and this isn’t medical advice but in my experience no.

So like I said if you fall into the one of the categories where insurance is worth it then by all means use insurance. But, for many, insurance is at best a gamble and at worst a scam. Both insurance and doctors often rely on the assumption that people aren’t going to take care of themselves. Insurance assumes that people won’t save money for medical costs, and doctors (especially dentists) assume you won’t take care of your health. So they charge you more money for regular check ups and cleanings etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge proponent of taking care of your body. But a $60 blood test on a semi-regular basis can give you way more information than a standard doctor gives you during a checkup.

But it’s not just insurance. There’s another myth that is thrown around as the one size fits all answer—investing.

The path that is presented to most people on how to get rich is that you’re supposed work a job, work your way up the ladder, and along the way put money into an investment account like the S&P 500 or a 401K. And by the time you’re 65 you’ll be rich. Which means that the best years of your life are spent working and depriving yourself of money so that at the end of your life you can have a bunch of money. Problem is what you can do with that money is now limited by your body’s health, which let’s be honest, has probably suffered from all the years working. It’s a shitty path to success.

Because if you invest in something like S&P 500, on average you will make a 10% return over the course of a year. i.e. if you invest $1,000 at the end of the year you will have $1,100. On the other hand if you invest your time, energy, and money into building a valuable personal asset, like a business, you can make 300% returns.

Let me lay out a realistic example for you. Let’s say that you have a crochet business where you make cute little crocheted plushies like a dragons and Pokemon. And instead of investing that $1,000 into the S&P 500 you figure out how to run ads for your business. Let’s be conservative and say you have a 3:1 return. For every $1 you put in you get $3 out. Many businesses have much higher ratios than this. 10:1 14:1 even 20:1. So you invest that $1,000 into your business over the course of a month, and make $3,000 back. In just a month you made $2000 vs the $100 you made with the S&P 500.

You always hear people talk about how you should start investing early so that by the time you’re 65 you’ll be rich. But the problem is that when you’re young the amount that you’re able to invest is so small that it doesn’t make a difference. So instead use the money/resource that you have to invest in skills and build something valuable and then when you have a lot of excess money invest it in something like the S&P 500 because then it will actually make a difference in your life.

Now I am not proposing that everyone should start a business. It’s not for everyone. Some people are very content working the job that they are in and don’t mind doing that until they are 65. In which case, more power to you! Do what makes you happy.

But for many people working a job feels like rubbing their forehead against a cheese grater every day. And for those people, there has never been a better, easier time to start a business. Thanks to the internet we have so much opportunity to reach people and solve problems.

And let me be clear, starting a business is hard. Especially when you’re already so mired by all the things that you have to deal with in your day to day life. But that’s actually exactly the point of what I’m talking about. A lot of these of things that weigh us down are only perceived to be necessary. When you really look into the details of them the return on investment for them is abysmal.

When I work with clients we ruthlessly prioritize what is important to them and cut everything else. Life is too short to spend all your time toiling away on things that you don’t care about and don’t even fetch any kind of return.

So many people know that the way the world works doesn’t fit them. The tragic thing is that in having that realization they conclude that they need to bend themselves to the way that the world is. The truth is that you have so much more power than you think.

When you see ways in which the world works that don’t fit you, slough them off and find the alternatives that light you up inside. I am a staunch believer that there is always another way to go about it. It may be a lot more work, but because it is aligned for you, it doesn’t feel that way. You may work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life, but the tools will feel light in your hands.

And this isn’t just some aspirational, naive crap. This is how I’ve found contentment and joy in my life and how I’ve helped clients find the same in theirs. So don’t settle for what the world says you’re supposed to do. Not only are those train tracks not meant for everyone, but they are horribly outdated.

With care and service,

Sean

P.S.
You standing up for what feels right to you: