Many of us when we were kids, teenagers, and let’s be honest adults have played video games. Personally, I compete in Men’s Physique, go to school, and work two jobs so I don’t have too much time on my hands to play video games but when I do… I love playing them. That being said, I got some free time on my hands so I sat down and came across this new video game. This video game is by far the most unfair game I ever played in my life and it’s terrible, but it’s the most serious I ever taken a game in my life. How does it work? Let me explain.
You login, and you get a character, you don’t get to create how they look, you don’t get to choose any attributes about the character, you don’t even get to name the character… it’s just given right to you. So, I logged in, I look at my character and I think to myself, “Meh, okay he’s average looking, has average to above average intelligence, whatever..” When I look into my pack, I have roughly 20 gold to start out with, so I thought to myself “okay cool, I guess I start with some money”.
I walk and look around at the other characters who just logged in and noticed some things, some characters are really ugly and but some are basically models. Luckily, looks don’t really impact a video game too much, but then I see something crazy. A character started with 10 million gold in comparison to my 20 gold. I can’t restart to try and get that gold, I am stuck with whatever the game gave me. I was annoyed but I said, “Okay, whatever I will just have to make that gold.”
The game was pretty slow as you learn basic fundamentals, until level 18. When level 18 hits, things get very serious, you have to train hard and learn new skills before you can travel and find new ways to make gold. You train and train until level 22, then you are finally offered different zones that offer gold. Some offered me 40,000 gold per level, and some offered me 60,000 gold per level. I decided to go with the 60,000 gold per level zone and use my new skills to my fullest capability. As a couple levels went by, I was doing pretty well for myself but then I saw that guy who started with 10 million just sitting, doing nothing as I worked trying to get my 60,000 gold. So this whole entire time as I have been working level after level, this guy has done absolutely nothing and still has more than I could dream of earning.
I take a step back and really think about it for a second. Who would play this game when someone like me has to work every level to earn average gold and will never catch up to the guy who started out with 10 million gold no matter how many levels I go through?
Well, this turns out to be a game we all play. It’s a game called real life.
We start out with certain looks, attributes, money, we don’t get to choose. But there is something we can choose and develop through it, which is, our work ethic. During that “video game” I had to work level after level and increase my drive to make more and more gold while the other guy didn’t have to do a single thing. There are people who are born with nothing, there are people born with everything being average, and then there are people born with everything they could ever dream of.
So, are there going to be excuses for how you compare to others, or are you going to be the one who works everyday to achieve the greatest possible of success through the work many others would never attempt.
You don’t get to choose how you look or you begin, but you can pave the path for how you end.
Sam Smith
IG: @_ssmitty_
The Ohio State University
