Fuck A Job. Do your Work!
The Commencement Speech the World Actually Needs
Let’s get brutally honest: Most graduation speeches are empty blueprints for conformity. Recently, at my nephew Zen’s graduation, a highly successful businesswoman gave a speech filled with advice on how to be an excellent worker: "Don’t make spelling errors on your application," "Do your best for your coworkers," "Practice excellence." This isn't bad advice—but it's deeply incomplete.
Excellence doesn’t come from merely doing what's expected at the culture level—getting a job, making money, and fitting neatly into the workforce. Anyone can do that. The real excellence, the real flex, is doing something you genuinely love, and more importantly, becoming someone who truly loves. Graduates, your teachers and parents probably don’t know this, and it’s exactly why so many of them are broken and miserable.
The Big Idea
We've chased the wrong incentives: accumulating wealth, popularity, and fleeting pleasures. These pursuits—power, popularity, and pleasure—are poor substitutes for real fulfillment. The only genuine path to thriving is purpose.
Your job is how you make money. Your work—your true, authentic purpose—is how you make a difference. Purpose means consciously choosing the unique way you'll impact the world, and it's infinitely more valuable than any paycheck. A homeless person authentically doing their purposeful work is richer, happier, and more fulfilled than any corporate cog in the capitalist machine.
The Breakdown
1. Humans Are Lazy—Laziness Reflects Lack of Purpose
Without purpose, distractions become deeply appealing. If your life lacks direction, watching eleven strangers chase a ball on a field becomes the consequential and riveting thing in life. Trying to hit a tiny white ball into a tiny hole 400 yards away feels crucial & all encompassing. Laziness and distraction are merely symptoms of a purposeless life, leading inevitably to boredom, smallness, and misery.
To be clear, pleasurable distractions are a wonderful addition to life. Who would want to live a life without these joys? The key distinction is when this becomes the primary drive—an obsession with no purposeful buffer.
Football isn’t the problem. Golf isn’t the problem. Netflix, fantasy leagues, gaming—none of these are inherently hollow. They become a problem when they’re the only things filling the void. When they stop being expressions of who you are and become escapes from who you're afraid to become—that’s when they signal a deeper issue.
Purpose cures laziness by clarifying your direction: It asks, "What unique energy will you bring into the world? How will your life become a meaningful and inspiring experience for others?"
From that place, those games become a way to connect—not a way to escape.
2. Humans Are Ignorant—Ignorance Comes from Aimlessness
Ignorance is more than lacking information—it's clinging stubbornly to outdated beliefs because growth feels pointless. True education involves continual curiosity, courageous questioning, and the willingness to evolve your beliefs constantly.
Purpose ignites relentless curiosity because it requires ongoing evolution. It challenges you to grow and adapt: "What example will you set? How will your authenticity inspire others to learn and grow?"
You are here to evolve yourself and transcend your family’s generational trauma and bigoted ideas. Your work is to grow yourself, enrich others, and evolve the world in the way only you can.
3. Humans Are Fearful—Fear Flourishes Without Purpose
Fear emerges powerfully when purpose is absent. Without purpose, you're uncertain about your value, your direction, and your reason to persist through difficulties. Purpose, however, provides a clarity powerful enough to overcome fear.
And look, I get it. Life is hard. The world’s chaotic. It makes sense to crave comfort and predictability. But if you’re not careful, you’ll confuse sedation with safety. You’ll stockpile guns and flat-screens and think you’re building a fortress—when really, you’re building a prison of fear.
Think of the soldiers of my grandfather’s generation storming the beaches of Normandy. Terrified beyond words, yet driven by a conviction far greater than their fear. Purpose tells you clearly who you are, what you stand for, what you'll fight for, bleed for, and even die for.
Purpose asks, "What unique experience will you create for the world, even in your smallest daily interactions?"
Defining Purpose Clearly
Purpose is not passion, though it begins there. My passion started with football, evolved into fitness and nutrition, and deepened as I went through medical school. Passion required external conditions: the football field, the gym, and friends.
Passion evolved into meaning when I shared experiences and learning with others. But even meaning depended heavily on other people's involvement.
Finally, purpose emerged clearly when I began authentically teaching, creating, and passionately sharing my love for personal transformation through books, programs, and coaching.
Purpose became something entirely owned by me—it didn’t depend on conditions or others. Purpose became the fulfilled energy, unique experience, and inspiring example I brought everywhere I went.
It’s critical to understand purpose is not an outcome. It is not trophies and “success.” It is a mindset and way of being. True purpose is a game you create, and define and then play all out. This is the only game you should be playing and the only one you can win.
When you show up to the simplest places with your unique energy, setting your example and creating an experience for others that only you can generate—that is purpose. It is nothing grandiose. It is humble and unhurried. It is also undeniable and the most attractive quality any human can have.
And don’t confuse purpose with profession. You can be a janitor and change lives. You can be a barista and uplift the world. Purpose doesn’t care what you do—it cares how you do it.
Why We Are Truly Here
We aren’t here merely to accumulate nice things, build castles, drive SUVs, and stockpile guns. We've misguidedly prioritized productivity and money over genuine human thriving. Real success isn’t measured by material wealth—it's measured by how authentically and purposefully you live your life.
It is measured by you thriving. And it is measured by how you inspire others to thrive too.
Your life is not about doing your job; it’s about choosing and creating your work—your authentic contribution. This work—your true purpose—is the most valuable thing you possess. In fact, it is the only thing you can ever truly own.
Practical Takeaway
Here’s the simple, profound formula for genuine, lasting success:
Be less lazy: Choose purposeful, intentional action.
Be less ignorant: Embrace continual curiosity and authentic growth.
Be less fearful: Live courageously, clearly defined by your purpose.
Closing Thought
Most graduates will feel inspired momentarily, then drift back into conformity. But a rare few will sense their deeper calling, recognizing they're here to contribute something uniquely valuable.
You’re not special, but your impact can be extraordinary. Purpose gives you unshakeable power—resilient through all life's storms. Choose to live authentically and purposefully. Fuck a job—do your work.
Consider deeply:
Who will you authentically become?
What will you courageously stand for?
What unique difference will you make?
What energy will you generate?
What example will you set?
What experience will you create for yourself and others?
The choice is yours. It always has been.
PS Call-to-Action
If you're ready to reject empty conformity and authentically define your success through purpose, the Next Level Human coaching program awaits. Your purposeful life demands action today.
👉 http://www.nextlevelhuman.com/human-coaching
You describe exactly how I felt in the classroom. I finally truly had a purpose for existing. When I mentioned to my students I had been accepted into medical school and turned it down, they commented that I’d be a lot richer if I had gone. My answer was that I am far richer today because now my riches are eternal, not just numbers in the bank.