Morgan Housel

Elon Musk was born wired very differently than you and I. And there's nothing we can do about that.

So we are who we are.

But I think we can...

put those feelings into a better context.

Even if we can't control having those feelings, we can choose, we can tell ourselves a more complete story about why we're having those feelings and what those aspirations will actually do to our happiness.

Well, one of the things this is a little bit different than the question that you asked.

But one of the things that's important is that a lot of the people who do retire early, who they tell themselves, I'm going to save so much money.

I'm going to retire when I'm 32 and then life's going to be great.

What actually happens is they retire at 32.

And six months later, they're bored out of their mind.

And they realize that like what actually makes you happy is purpose.

And for a lot of people, their purpose can be their career.

Or they realize they had this idea that when they retired, it was just going to be a great life.

But the truth is all of their friends are working and don't have time to go play golf with them on Tuesday afternoon.

And so a lot of people who retire early end up going back.

They realize it was not what it was made out to be.

Because if the formula is independence plus purpose, they gained independence, but they kind of lost their purpose.

And so it was incomplete.

They didn't get what they wanted.

Because for example, a lot of people, when they talk about passive income, they're like, oh, I'm going to own real estate.