Jordan Feldstein is a friend to all, lover to few, who hopes his writing shows people what’s within reach when you’re willing to think and operate outside the norm. He believes that education should be used to open minds not train workers, that technology should simplify life and that music can free the soul. Now building his second company, Jordan is waiting to turn 21 to have a beer with you.
So 15 goals in 15 years? Let me start with the basics and work towards specific goals. It’s easier to start here, because at the heat of it, I want to see some cool stuff with some quality people, and I want to give my kids the opportunity to do the same.
I doubt I’m alone in that.
Life’s about entertaining your friends, caring for my family and exposing yourself to as much as possible of the limitless novelty the world has to offer.
Lofty, right?
Well, ok. I have to admit I might have a materialist somewhere inside me, because I like things. I like nice things a lot.
Setting 15 Goals
1. Live Like Ludacris
Aren’t things pretty awesome? They can be. Especially toys. I love toys. Oh, and I love gadgets. So I think it fits that the first goal I should tell you about is my secret desire to be a super rich tourist, if only to try it out. Let’s go totally nuts, buy everything and ball out on a tour across Europe.
It should be fun.
2. Money is Irrelevant
If I can pull that off, it means that I’ve reached a point where I’ve accomplished my second goal of having complete financial security. I don’t need to start a set number of companies, I’d be perfectly happy with one that gives me what I need. It’s about arranging your finances so you can enjoy a vacation in peace, while past work takes care of you.
Whatever company I’ve put together should have people there to monitor it and only call me in from vacation if something really hits the fan.
3. Take Care of My Parents
Once I don’t really have to worry about making money, I can start a Bed & Breakfast — I’ll let my mom run it. That’s always been her dream, and the woman deserves it after putting up with enough of my grief.
4. Build a Foreign Town
Craziness? Nay.
Let’s turn a town of relative poverty into a thriving community where all sorts of people — most of whom we might never even get to know — enjoy opportunity and security with their families. We can do it by funding our own micro-lending and hand picking people to run key businesses. Pump money into the right people who’re in the right places, and you can give that community the power to provide its own jobs and be self sufficient.
One day, the children of the people in the village we helped will be able to enjoy prosperity that would otherwise be impossible.
5. Work Only 4-5 Months a Year
Most people will spend one third of their lives in an office. False.
As far as I’m concerned, we can spend some time during our 8 months of vacation a year picking a village doing doing micro-lending. That’s 4 months of vacation at a time, separated by two 2-month work sessions so I can reinvigorate my businesses and make sure they’re running strong for the next 4 months.
6. Speak in Tongues
On the side, I’ll learn to speak one language a year for the next 5 years, using that language by living in a country it’s spoken. I’m getting pretty good at Spanish, and I think I’ll live in Brasil — technically I’d need to learn Portuguese, but I’m pretty certain I can get by. Next is Hebrew for a stint in Israel (The Middle East is a wonderful place if you can ignore enough of the Western media) followed by Japanese so I can go back to my favorite country, as far as culture shock.
Only three? … What other languages should I learn / countries should I go to?
7. Design My Own House
I might live in any number of countries, but my home will be a house of my own design.
It will have a 360 degree view from high up in a turret, at the top of which is a glass walled, wood floored office. There’s a cylindrical whiteboard in the center for brainstorming, the staircase down is actually built from my bookcase so you pass through all my books while descending into the house and everything will be techno’d out.
Yes, I want to live in Tony Starks cliffside palace of awesome. Yessss.
8. Design My Own Beach House
But put that house on a beach – The turret? Maybe it’s actually a lighthouse. Another staircase from the garden takes me down to my docks.
All I know is I will live where I can see the water and hear the surf from my porch. Open water has a natural beauty that I really want in my life.
9. Sail to a Beach House that I’ve Designed
I need a sailboat. And I mean a real sailboat. (Ok, it’s got a motor for when you really need one, but nothing beats actually sailing.)
Handling the ropes, tighten the sails and harnessing the wind as you drift through the waves…
It’s the perfect meditation.
10. Leave My Beach House for Chicago
I’m not saying this has to be done after my beach house. For all I know I’ll have them both at the same time, but I’d also like to have a condo in Chicago. That city is so choice. I want to spend some real time in Chicago and get to know it from the inside out.
11. Achieve Maximum Comfort
A memory foam mattress and a big lovesack.
What? I really like lounging. And who said your goals have to be extravagant? I’m totally set if you give me a comfy place to relax where I can take a nap. I just bought one of those memory foam pillows. Unfathomably comfortable.
12. Leave Chicago for the World
Let’s get some adventurous friends together, maybe renting a palace? Ok, so maybe a big house or condo. But get one someplace, somewhere around the world. Rent it for a few months, picking a new place every year. Proceed to live like kings. Exploring, lounging, adventuring and adventure-lounging awaits!
Adventure-lounging is when you go someplace really extreme, like the top of a building or at a waterfall, set up a hammock and proceed to read or even just nap. I will be the first World Champion Adventure-Lounger! It helps that I’ll also be a pioneer of the art.
13. Demand My Own Freedom
Freedom to go wherever and do whatever on a moments notice. This ties in closely to financial security, and sorting your finances into a money machine really helps get the time-flexibility you want. Also, you lose that when you have kids, so you may as well enjoy it while you can.
14. Learn and Teach More
I want to start a non-profit private school that takes intelligent adolescents (8th grade through high-school. Old enough to see the value of education and young enough to have impressionable minds) and teaches them a curriculum that empowers their mind to see a better future while giving them the skills and know how to bring about the future they imagine.
You’re probably here because you have that mindset and you understand how powerful it is. Imagine how the world could be improved with a generation of really really smart kids conditioned to think big and act on those dreams. Together, they’ll be unstoppable! very beneficial to society, at large.
15. Be Happy
If you haven’t been able to tell, this one’s not too hard for me. I’m a pretty good natured, confident guy, and I’m a bit of a goof, so being happy tends to just happen. Still, encouraging that, and sharing it, is a big focus of mine.
Let’s face it. Who knows if what we want now, all the stuff that’s on my list and on yours (Yes, you should be writing a list even if it’s just for yourself), will actually bring you happiness?
So here’s my single biggest, most important goal, the bit of personal character I strive for more than anything else in the world. It’s very important to me. So, please, do not take it lightly that I’m sharing it with you:
Trust yourself. When you know you can do or make something better, trust yourself.
Never settle for your own 2nd place and you’ll never be let down by what life gives you.
Whatever your goals, in the end we all want the same thing. We’re all looking forward to the day we can look back from and say “Damn, that was fun.”
