A Letter On What Really Matters
Issue #002
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to succeed at life. Not just at work, or at building something impressive, but at the whole messy, beautiful project of being alive.
Here’s what I keep coming back to:
There is no true success for me without being successful in how I live my life.
I could build an empire, accumulate wealth, achieve every milestone I set for myself, and still miss the point entirely. Rather, the real opportunity I see is to do meaningful things and to freely give of myself. This is why I started writing on LinkedIn in October 2023. This is why I am writing this letter in The Kaizen Way. This is why I’m writing this letter now.
Giving has meant different things: money to those who needed it, time mentoring others, putting myself at risk for what I believe in. Too many times it has been a mix of these things and more. No regrets, because meaningful things require commitment.
Recently, I’ve gone all in. I didn’t feel ready, but I did it anyway.
Jim Collins wrote something in Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 that struck me:
“If you spend your life keeping your options open, that’s exactly what you’ll do... spend your life keeping your options open.”
The people who inspire me most are the ones who, at the crucial moment, burned their ships.
I don’t intend to waste my life like this. I want to make my own choices before circumstances force them on me. I want to live by my core values and find my own meaning of life.
The Path to Conscious Living
Friedrich Nietzsche described three metamorphoses of the spirit in Thus Spoke Zarathustra - three stages we must pass through to create our own purpose.
The Camel
We begin as camels: obedient, saying yes to everything. “Load it all on my back,” the camel says. It carries everyone else’s expectations, does what it’s told, and lives in awe of society’s “Thou shalts.”
The camel is a slave, but doesn’t know it’s a slave.
As students, we absorb everything - all the knowledge, all the values, all the rules. We spend years being “good,” carrying burdens that aren’t really ours.
Then, if we’re lucky, something breaks.
The desert is lonely, and the journey through it is hard. At that moment, the camel realizes that there is no one meaning of life.
And its spirit rebels against the burdens.
The Lion
The lion knows it’s a slave. And it’s done with it.
To rule over the desert, the lion needs to overthrow the existing lord, the dragon.
This is an awe-inspiring creature with thousands of glistening golden scales, where are written the words “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not”
The dragon is an obstacle to the freedom the lion seeks.
Every “Thou shalt,” the lion roars back “I will not.”
Every “Thou shalt not,” the lion declares “Yes, I will.”
The lion fights for the principle of it, resisting everything it’s been told.
But here’s the trap: the lion often falls into nihilism, trapped in an exhausting cycle of resistance. Many people who make it here stop, defining themselves only by what they’re against.
Nietzsche warns that this is a mistake. The way through is to stop fighting so much and start moving toward who we’re supposed to be.
The Child
The child is the goal. He doesn’t even care about the dragon anymore. He doesn’t take it seriously and moves on to play.
Life is no longer a reactive struggle against other forces.
The child says yes to things he truly wants - and knows exactly why.
Life is a game to be played. He’s free to discover meaning for himself.
This is what living by your core values actually looks like.
Each decision flows from authentic self-knowledge rather than obligation or rebellion.
This is conscious living.
Life Is Short
None of us knows how much time we have. What we do know is that we’re spending it, right now, on something.
So here’s what I’m asking you (and myself):
Are you still a camel, carrying burdens that aren’t yours?
Most people never leave the camel stage. Some wait for a crisis to force change.
But you don’t need permission to start living on your own terms.
I haven’t figured out what I truly want - I only know what I don’t want. For this reason (and many others), I am still stuck at the lion phase. But I have no intention of stopping here.
I wish you an incredible journey,
-Ivan