This email is personal—it’s for people (like me) who can’t be normal.

I’m an extreme case study:

I made it all the way to the top. I landed the dream job—complete with a 7-figure salary, prestige, fancy office, and executive perks.

I was a made man. All I needed to do was sit in an office, do good work, and collect fat paychecks.

But I couldn’t be normal.

I walked away from a coveted C-level job at a company that sold a few years later for $14 billion. I did the math, and it turns out that I traded more than $20 million for… rocks. 🧗

🤪 What kind of nut job sabotages his own career?

In the comments of the post I quoted below, @adele_bloch put it this way:

The vast majority of people choose Option 1. It’s the default and TBH, it’s the smart play for most. But it comes at a cost:

You never find out what’s behind door #2. You risk becoming an NPC, following society’s script rather than writing your own story.

Option 2 is the red pill—the way of artists, vagabonds, and misfits who choose to live outside of societal norms. The few who choose this path get a shot at fulfilling their potential and living in alignment—becoming the main character in their life.

But it’s not all roses—there’s a price to be paid for eschewing society’s safety net. (There’s a reason the term “starving artist” exists.)

Which way, Western Man?

After years of processing and second-guessing, here’s what I’ve concluded:

⚖️ There’s no right answer, there are only tradeoffs.

Before founding Amazon, Jeff Bezos developed a mental model that he calls the Regret Minimization Framework:

When faced with a major life choice, project forward to age 80 and choose the path that minimizes future regrets.

When I talked to 80-year-old Kevin, he didn’t care about money left on the table—he told me to go to Colorado, climb rocks, and build a life that is my own.

Everyone is wired differently, but if you ask a bunch of octogenarians what they’d tell their younger selves, what you’ll hear consistently is:

Don’t be normal. Shoot your shot. Be the main character in your life.

Whichever way you choose, remember:

Getting ahead is not the same as living.

All the best,

Kevin (@camp4) 🤙

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600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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