Tyler Durden’s Words of Wisdom

Chuck Palahniuk’s book, Fight Club, and the movie adapted from it have developed quite a following since their respective releases in 1996 and 1999. I only recently saw the movie for the first time, but I’m certain I will not be forgetting it anytime soon.

The coarse, violent, and gloomy story limits Fight Club’s appeal to the masses, but it’s essential to the message it portrays. At it’s core, I believe it’s a tale about stepping out of our comfort zones of half-conscious existences and superficial pursuits and living for something bigger and more meaningful. Rather than sugar-coating this in a feel-good story, Fight Club acknowledges how difficult, painful, and even frightening this can be.

With that, here are some of my favorite Tyler Durden thoughts from the movie (I’ll try to avoid any spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen it):

1.) “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f’n khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

American consumerism has long had us searching for happiness, identity, and meaning in more money, bigger houses, and more stuff. I highly doubt anyone has succeeded in doing so, yet it remains typically American to try.

2.) “God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. 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.”

One of the best scenes from the movie…

3.) “No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

I love the little thought experiment where we ask ourselves if something will matter 5, 15, or even 100 years down the road. In order to do something truly remarkable, we have to let go of trivial matters and focus on where we can actually make a lasting impact.

We have no shortage of convenient distractions to drown out our longing to do amazing things and remain safely within our shell .

4.) “This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

This could be interpreted as a cynical phrase, but I don’t see it that way. Rather, it reminds us of the finite nature of our existence here on earth. The time is going to pass no matter what you do, whether you’re playing video games, watching TV, working towards more material “success”, or busting your ass to do something worthwhile.

5.) “Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life.  His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.”

Taken out of context, this doesn’t mean much. If you’ve seen the movie though, you probably remember this scene. While Durden’s method of instigating Mr. Hessel to follow his dreams is a bit over the top, this is in essence what we collectively need. We need someone to get in our face, shake us up a bit, and convince us to quit settling for mediocrity and do something more.

~

Fight Club certainly isn’t inspirational in an uplifting kind of way like a cliché-ridden sports movie, but I think it offers a deeper sense of motivation that lingers long after the closing credits are done rolling. If you haven’t seen it, do so.

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First Post!

As some of you may already be aware, this is a new beginning for me.  For well over a year, I have been writing about personal finance on YoungDough.  For a college freshmen trying to learn the ropes and survive in the blogosphere, I think it was a respectable first effort.  It was a tremendous learning experience, and I have no regrets whatsoever, but it’s time to move on. 

My new venue will give off a much more professional vibe.  I can’t picture myself still writing on a site named YoungDough very far into my 20s, and it would be difficult to build a respectable resource around that site.  On this domain, I believe I’m much more well-positioned in this regard.  In a world where successful branding becomes more crucial by the day, I badly needed this change.

I also moved to coincide with my change in direction.  Youngdough never had much of a clearly defined purpose; my post topics were all over the place and I did nothing to distinguish myself from more established financial bloggers.  It’s no surprise that it never grew like I envisioned.

Here my vision is clear.  I want this site to become a top resource in the world of unconventional finance, with a key focus on pursuing lifestyle design (see my About page).  The web doesn’t need another site existing simply to explain the benefits of 401(k) matching, how to save money at the grocery store, or giving tips on bargaining with a car salesman.  I’m not belittling the importance of such topics; they are often highly relevant to what I want to accomplish here, but only as a small facet within a greater mission. 

There are scores of established financial resources out there, so who would I be benefitting by simply cluttering the web with essentially the same info?  I think this is where I failed on my old site.  I didn’t offer a perspective that hadn’t already been covered by far more-established bloggers and other web sites, so naturally my growth was extremely slow and frustrating.

I need to offer a unique, fresh perspective that hopefully offers lasting benefits to my readers.  Otherwise, I’d simply be wasting time; both my own as well as those who read my work but receive nothing of value.  It’ll be difficult to consistently do so, but I look forward to the challenge.