Is it really all worth it?

I’m not scared of death because I know when I die all my problems stop. No more stress, no more problems. Win win. I also know that because I find life challenging the Universe will ensure that I live for a very, very long time! Sods law.

You look at the big picture and have a think about what life consists of. Constant battles every day dealing with people and companies letting you down and trying to rip you off. People taking advantage of your good nature.

Large companies are the worst to deal with. You try make a complaint to Facebook, Google, BT or Starbucks? Irrespective of company size, the first rule of making a complaint is that whoever you are complaining to needs to care. Otherwise its a waste of time. Microsoft took some money from us and never delivered what we paid for. It took about 5 months to get to the bottom of the issue. Why? Because companies, are still made up of people who are crap at their jobs, don’t take ownership or are held back by weak company policies. And the aim of the organisation is to make ridiculous profit. Not to serve their customers. We tried to deal with IBM about a year ago and eventually gave up. Never come across so many self important, incompetent people who simply fail to deliver or answer questions. Make no mistake, there are a few good people around but the majority are corporate wastage.

Large corporations and banks completely taking the piss and basically doing what ever they want to get more money by any means necessary. Food companies, deliberately producing food that causes cancer in order to make a profit. Doctors apparently having people treated for cancer when they don’t have cancer purely to make a profit. Companies like Wonga charging people who have very little money 2000% interest on loans and the Government allowing them to get away with it. Wonga then getting hacked and having 240 000 people’s details stolen with no recourse.

Doctors used to have a sales rep from a drugs company in the room while prescribing drugs to patients. The sales rep would get the doctor to prescribe their drug rather than a competitor’s drug for profit. Drugs companies taking doctors out to lunch and for holidays in order to get more sales. Ever notice that Pharmaceutical companies only ever talk about profit and share price. They never talk about a drug and how many lives it will save and how many people it will make better. It all comes down to profit. Funny how after the patent runs out, they bring out a new replacement drug and tell you how bad the previous drug now is and the new one is the best one available. Lets not even get into false  drug trials.

I am still amazed how surprised everyone was when they discovered that FIFA and Sepp Blatter was so corrupt. You only have to look at the organisation. Logically, when there are only a few people at the head of a very large organisation and there is a high amount of money involved, there will be corruption. Why? Because it is human nature. Everyone is trying to get ahead however they can. Money and power. Is it taking a short cut or is it just the way of the world? The way the world works? Its who you know, who you will help personally so they will help your organisation get a contract. We look at football and there are no drugs scandals. Is this because there are no drugs in football? Just how stupid and naive do you have to be to believe that? Its impossible for there to be so much at stake in terms of hard cash and contracts and careers and everything else that goes with it for performance enhancing drugs and corruption to not exist.

Russia got busted for a national doping program.Its been happening for 50 years for crying out loud. If not longer. And do you for one second think that Russia is the only country not involved in state sponsored doping?

My point is that human beings by their very nature are just not very nice creatures. We don’t see a fellow unknown human being as a person with problems and challenges. We just see them as either a potential threat or someone in the way or someone to make money out of. Survival of the fittest. Dog eat dog world. What is actually nice in the world? What is nice about being part of the human race?

We see very rare moments of compassion by a few. Humans caring for animals that are desperate for our help. Poor people with nothing helped by another selfless human being. Are these incidents rare or the norm? Do they happen all the time but we don’t see it or are they indeed few and far between. We treat the few special people on our planet with such contempt and jealousy and we break them down.

We see a cyclist on the road and we try to scare them or run them off the road because they can hinder our journey by 10 seconds. So essentially, someone else’s life is worth 10 seconds. I was running on the road the other day and some stupid wanker in a small white truck deliberately swerved towards me to try and run me off the road. I held my ground and he had to desperately had to swerve the other way. What is going through his head? Is there a thought process? When we are in a car we are so desperate to get to our destination that we don’t care about who we kill on route to getting there. And it has nothing to do with cyclists or runners. It is just a mind set against anyone else on the road.

People don’t consider consequences. If I do this what happens next? If I kill this person, I go to jail and loose everything I have today. Their little brains don’t process this kind of information.

So what is good in the world? Obviously our children and partners make us smile. We get pleasure from doing things we enjoy doing but a lot of people have a job they hate and spend most of their life doing something they don’t enjoy with people they don’t like in order to get a small amount of time and material things in return. Is it really worth all the effort?

Is it any wonder so many people suffer from depression? Not only do people suffer mental illness but we can’t even talk about it. I remember a famous English cricketer was playing away in Australia and had to come home due to suffering depression. I heard everyone talking about how on earth can he be depressed. He is doing what he loves and playing for his country. The problem with depression is that you can only understand it if you have it or have had it. Otherwise it is very difficult to relate.

What inspired me to write this outburst was the Royal family choosing “Heads Together” as the charity for the 2017 London marathon. It is slowly coming to the fore but I think we have a very long way to go. The whole problem is that admitting you suffer with some kind of mental illness is that you are weak. You have a weakness. And humans prey on the weak so you have to be strong and angry all the time.  I have a few friends that suffer quite badly with depression and I am so proud of them that they can talk openly about their depression and mental challenges. They get a lot of support fro their friends on Facebook but i can’t help feeling that people that don’t know them would have zero empathy. Would just see them as weak and a target.

I listened to a podcast the other day (UFC Unfiltered). They were talking to a guy called Don Frye who is a former legend of the mixed martial arts fight game. Now 51, he has had some pretty serious health issues last year and a horrendous divorce. However, the guys on the podcast asked him where he is living and he was silent for a moment before saying, “In my truck”. It was a stunning admission. And yet it was so brave and honest that he could admit that. Its a fight with depression coming from a no fear cage fighter. I realise that living in a truck doesn’t automatically mean you suffer from depression but it was discussed and you have got to have a pretty strong mind to be happily living in your truck at 51 years old.

So whats the answer?

Everything is Mindset. Convincing yourself that everything is good with the world, that everything is going well, that you are fine. While it actually works and makes a huge difference to your life, I can’t help feeling that it is false. People indulge in other activities to escape the reality of the world. Gaming all hours, drinking, over eating, drugs, partying, the list goes on. I left out exercise because as at least it is healthy but it can still be a selfish obsession. But what is life? Perhaps it is all those things. Perhaps it is working to get money to do all those things. Its when it leads to self destruction that it becomes a problem.

We have to have a purpose in life, a goal, a journey. An ever changing goal so that we strive for the next target. Stay motivated. Constantly pushing and pushing, never taking our foot off the gas while others round us never put their foot on the gas in the first place. How do some people have no time at all to do anything while others have all the time in the world and still don’t do anything. Its all about your mindset and what drives you.

Often the most successful people are those who have been the lowest. They have been addicted to drugs or alcohol or both. They had absolutely nothing. And then, something clicked in their mind and they stood up and went for it. Did whatever it took and became hugely successful and a multi millionaire.

The most positive person in the world has no arms or legs but the strongest mindset of all. Nick Vujicic

Like many of my friends in Zimbabwe where I grew up, I arrived in the UK with not a lot. A small bag with some clothes and £200. Got to London and tried to phone two friends I couldn’t get hold of. I was on my own in a whole new world. I had heard of Earls Court so just headed there. I think a lot of people head over there as there was a guy at the station entrance looking for little lost faces. He said there was a place I could stay just up the road. A large house with about 4 or 5 floors and 6 people to a room. I think it was £10 a night or something. I’ve also been at a point where I had only £10 in my account a few years later. Only had enough money to drive from Bristol to Coventry to my friend’s house. I’m just not a multi-millionaire yet!

So I have constant drive and huge ambition but i still find it very difficult living in a world filled with selfish hate. And that doesn’t even touch of people living in war torn countries like Syria. We can not imagine what people living there are going through. I met a really nice guy from Syria. He had to leave his job and go back home as the family business needed him. The factory had been bombed and they had paid a huge amount of money for some equipment that had not been delivered.

I find it incredible how people can treat others as just a number and meal ticket. People will set up a whole organisation to sell a sub standard product and service but tie people into a 12 month contract. Huge global organisations, lying blatantly about how many customers they have. Companies like Solarwinds (nable) who I am sure is run by the Devil himself. And what can we do about it? We can complain bitterly on social media but nothing ever happens.

I spend my life trying to evolve, become a better person, become more understanding. To think bigger than myself. To help people. But I do wonder if I have it all wrong. Perhaps being a human being means I should just selfishly seek profit at any cost. Just look after number one. Ruthlessly go after what I want. Not have any morals. Lie, cheat and bribe my way to the top of society. Destroy those that get in my way. Whats the best way to live in this tough world?