Things No One Else Can Teach Us summary

Now comes the hard part. 

When you’re identifying the people who light you up and support you, you’ll also identify people who don’t show up for you in the way that you need.

Charting a new future for yourself can sometimes feel like being stuck in the middle of a fierce storm. Visibility is poor and you don’t know where you’re going. The map that you’ve been following doesn’t apply anymore. So you’ve thrown it away.

That means you’re free.

Living in Los Angeles, Humble the Poet had bought into the city’s hustle culture. Everyone was ambitious and hard-working. He admired their grit and was determined to emulate it. So he forced himself to write every day, make music, post on social media to try and grow his audience, and try to get meetings with important people.

As he became more successful, he also became more strung out. He kept track of how many times his songs were downloaded; how many people liked his posts. He compared himself to even more successful and established artists, like Pharrell. He was desperate to have a massive hit and everything in his life became about working toward that goal. In the process, he lost sight of why he’d set out to become an artist in the first place. He stopped having fun.

Are you familiar with the character of Eeyore in the story of Winnie the Pooh? Eeyore is the sad donkey who always looks on the dark side of life. No matter how much everyone tries to cheer him up, he always sees the glass half empty. Eeyore is convinced that nothing will work out for him. And guess what: it doesn’t!

We all have an inner Eeyore.