What attributes? Consistency. Doing the same thing over and over. There's a line in Fight Club that goes something like "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
It's deeply ironic that this line is being uttered by the spiritual successor to Robert Redford to a room full of other movie stars in a large studio production that was adapted by a bestselling book by the bestselling and rich author, Chuck Palahniuk. I guess the line is comforting if you have the wrong value system and have given up. But the fact is, that line had nothing to do with anyone even tangentially involved with that movie.
And jealousy or hypocrisy has nothing to do with this observation. That movie was pretty savvy, and the conceit was almost certainly self-aware. Anyway, the point is that becoming a millionaire, movie god, or a rock star is indeed attainable. It is like any other thing in life: fairly simple but agonizingly tedious. It's just running a race a few paces further than anyone else is willing to. It's like a bell curve. You only receive an A because the majority of people received a C. Now whether or not you were able to outpace someone because of a dispositional advantage or inbred talent is up for debate.
It's more illuminating to consider why we want to be millionaires, movie gods, or rock stars. And also considering why we think that should come easily. Tyler Durden calls us the middle children of history. That's not very accurate. We seem much more symptomatic of being spoilt.
I'm not meaning to go pedantic. Just trying to be accurate. I, more than anyone I know, have an unsettling propensity to quit when I don't see the desired results. I'd like to think it's because I'm called to something higher. I'd like to think it's because someone will just hand me millionaire-hood, etc. etc. I get pretty irritated when it doesn't just happen.
The reason I'm not meaning to be pedantic is because I don't think the answer is simply "work harder." The question should stop being "how do I get everything I want" and start looking more like "Well, how do I work hard and do God-pleasing work- whatever that might look like." If that means being a millionaire, great. But if the only way to motivate yourself to that end is to constantly ponder how the leather wheel of a new Mercedes SLS might feel in your hands, then perhaps it's time to review Matthew 6:24. In other words, money shouldn't be the end-all. If you make it such, than you really can only have two results: you get to point A and regret it forever, or quit along the way and go all Fight Club anarchy up on things. Point A isn't fulfillment. Worshiping it or throwing a fit at not getting it will not change that.
So what is that peculiar fortitude? I'm 23 and don't know jack, but I'm staking it on doing God's work. Being meek and content with what God hands you, whether that's Mogen David or Warre's Colheita 1986 port. I referred to Matthew 6:24 before. Read it in context. Christ isn't anti-industry. He's extremely concerned with priority, however. My struggle is that I aim at money and justify it by promising, "I'll really help you out with it God!" Instead, I should seek God and if he gives me money along the way, then it will be because God has a way to use it for his Kingdom.
It's like James Bond. He gets all these cool gadgets and cool suits and cool hotels and cool locations because he's a secret agent first. The others are just tools for what he does. James Bond would suck, or be an arch-villain, if he were seeking the goodies first and spy-work second.
Yeah, I think that's about right.
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