Unless we are willing to buck the reins of our so-called civilized society, none of us will ever reach our full potential. As a general rule we are not special—I don’t care what lies your mother may have told you as a child. You need to realize that, though we are social creatures, there is only one person you should devote your life to, and that is yourself. You should be the most important person in your world, and to take any actions that demonstrate anything to the contrary is a betrayal to yourself.

If, once you are secure in your situation, you feel that you should help those who are inferior—(cough) I mean, less fortunate—then more power to you. But you are of absolutely no help to anyone if you are unable to first help yourself. If you are dependent on someone else, you are of no help to anyone else, and you are only hindering the efforts of those who are truly useful. This may sound crazy, but take this for example: If a volunteer at a soup kitchen is dependent upon that same food, then they are not a volunteer, rather an employee. All that is is a weak attempt to steal the glory of those above them, which is of exactly zero street value.

Though you are the most important person in your world, you are not the best. Nor can you ever hope to be; we are not all created equal. I guarantee if you are reading this, there is someone smarter, faster, and stronger than you, not just somewhere, but here at RPI. Unless you already started at the top, you need to learn to calculate your decisions such that they either cause a positive or a net neutral move towards the improvement of your status.