But when all of our self-worth and success is tied up in being number one, then what happens when you’re number two, or number three, or number five? And more time for things like writing or other creative endeavors. He realized his job had long-term growth possibilities, so he worked hard, taking little time off; he became a top salesman.He got married, built a large house, and continued to work harder and longer. I’m at my home office while I’m speaking to you, and it is a little cluttered. Okay, guys, that’s it for me. I really had all the stuff to fill every corner of my consumer-driven life. I had the ability to finally contribute in different ways to my community, whether that was soup kitchens or food banks, or donating money to charity. We’ve all been given one life, exactly one life here on earth. And if you would like to check out the shownotes, just go to foundr.com, foundr.com/168. And, quite often, we did give those up willy-nilly right?

… Having too much is not good, but having not enough is also not good.”Having grown up poor and then making a lot of money in the corporate world, Millburn knows of what he speaks.While money may not buy happiness, he’s quick to point out that “neither does poverty. And I’m just gonna leave it at that. And so I reprioritized my relationships, that was a great benefit. What are your thoughts on that?Joshua: Yeah. We funded a high school for a year. And there’s a lot of pain involved in that transition because I had so much debt. You show me how you spend your days, whether it’s incessantly checking Facebook or watching television, or, yeah, just checking email, you know, 150 times a day or whatever, the supposedly high level successful people do.And those are all real priorities and they get in the way of what we aspire to do. It’s about getting rid of the excess so the things that I own, this is a weird paradox of minimalism actually, I get far more value from the few items I own than if they were watered down with hundreds of thousands of other items. “The question that started the whole thing,” he says, was “How might your life be better with less?”As it turns out, the co-founders weren’t the only ones asking this question. So, the word enough is important because that word is perspectival for each person, right? Money doesn’t buy happiness. It took him two years to leave and another two years to find the “special kind of freedom” that comes with being debt-free. So, when it comes to living, I guess, with a minimalist lifestyle, can you talk me through how someone could get started and then also, I’m really curious around, you know, how much stuff do you own right now?Joshua: Certainly, yes.

And there’s probably a bit of a spectrum there but I think that can breed a lot of discontent. The other thing, sometimes I like consumables. But really, I think our priorities are how we spend our days. But I was, of course, I had all these other things that came along with that ostensible success. Because he still felt unfulfilled he bought things in order to achieve temporary highs.Joshua Fields Millburn remained unhappy and his health suffered — so he worked harder and bought more stuff. So this is like…this is really helpful for me. I said, “Well, wait a minute.

Society tells us that working hard, climbing the corporate ladder, acquiring material things like a big house and fancy car, and taking expensive vacations is the American dream, and will make you happy. And by answering that question, I was really able to identify the purpose of minimalism. I knew that I couldn’t just simply do an about face and turn the other direction, and run away. You know, at the time I didn’t have any kids and my marriage had just ended. The best of The Minimalists. There he ran across entrepreneur Colin Wright, who practiced an exceptionally minimalist lifestyle by owning just enough possessions to fill a single backpack, so he could more easily travel the world.Millburn knew that wasn’t the specific lifestyle he was looking for, but a lightbulb went off nevertheless. Aligning those short term actions with the long term values. They produced an epic documentary  that I highly recommend that you watch on Netflix. We can justify just about anything, but I don’t hold on to things that I want to purchase and I don’t hold on to them just in case. If I win, you win. And everything that he owns fit in his backpack.And while I thought that was admirable, I thought it was really cool that he owns like 52 items. There’s nothing wrong with working a 9:00 to 5:00, we all have to pay the bills. So, I stopped selfishly clinging to those things that for so long I was selfishly clinging to.And when I let go of it I figured, you know what, maybe someone else can use this. I felt discontented, I felt kinda stuck. And, man, we better act accordingly.Nathan: Yeah, wow. Those things are few and far between, but there’s some things that… You need your computer that’s in front of you. So, final question or two last questions. All I can say, it’s a great conversation. What matters to him is that he’s using a pen or a pencil, but he doesn’t need all the additional instruments. So, I was somewhere in between all of that, right?I didn’t wanna be the globe-trotting, peripatetic writer like Colin and I didn’t wanna have six kids like Leo.

I’m gonna sum up my entire life in a few short words. We went out and talked to people like Leo Babauta and his wife, Eva. And he was moving to a new country every four months and writing about it. There’s more than ever like things that you wanna buy that don’t necessarily always add value to your life.

The secret for me, or the key rather, not the secret, the key for me was discovering something that aligned with my values and my beliefs, and the person I wanted to be. I’m just gonna hold on to this old, you know, Blackberry charger just in case I need it someday, and some non-existent hypothetical future.

And I realized that, “Wait a minute, if I simplify my life, if I’m no longer tethered to that other lifestyle, if I’m no longer tethered to someone else’s template of happiness or success, or contentment, then, you know what, I can probably pursue what I’m interested in, these sort of creative endeavors that I’d like to try out.”But I said, “Well, wait a minute. That’s really powerful.Joshua: Thank you.