Cracked: 6 harsh truths

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person

1. The World Only Cares About What It Can Get from You
   • society is full of people who need things.
   • Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how inoffensive and courteous you are.
   • Remember when Chick-fil-A came out against gay marriage? And how despite the protests, the company continues to sell millions of sandwiches every day? It’s not because the country agrees with them; it’s because they do their job of making delicious sandwiches well. And that’s all that matters. You don’t have to like it. I don’t like it when it rains on my birthday. It rains anyway. Clouds form and precipitation happens.
2. Your “job” – the useful thing you do for other people – is all you are.
   • There is a reason why surgeons get more respect than comedy writers. There is a reason mechanics get more respect than unemployed hipsters. There is a reason your job will become your label if your death makes the news (“NFL Linebacker Dies in Murder/Suicide”).
3. What You Produce Does Not Have to Make Money, But It Does Have to Benefit People
   • “Nice guy? Who gives a shit? If you want to work here, close.”
   • So, what do you bring to the table? What do you offer? Are you smart? Funny? Interesting? Talented? Ambitious? Creative?
   • OK, now what do you do to demonstrate those attributes to the world? Don’t say that you’re a nice guy – that’s the bare minimum. Pretty girls have guys being nice to them 36 times a day.
   • The patient is bleeding in the street. Do you know how to operate or not? If all you can do is list a bunch of faults you don’t have, then back the fuck away from the patient.
   • Saying that you’re a nice guy is like a restaurant whose only selling point is that the food doesn’t make you sick. You’re like a new movie whose title is This Movie Is in English, and its tagline is “The actors are clearly visible.”
4. You Hate Yourself Because You Don’t Do Anything
   • It’s always “How can I get a job?” and not “How can I become the type of person employers want?”
   • People quit because it takes too long to see results, because they can’t figure out that the process is the result.
   • The bad news is that you have no other choice. If you want to work here, close.
5. What You Are Inside Only Matters Because of What It Makes You Do
   • “who you are inside” is the metaphorical dirt from which your fruit grows. But here’s what everyone needs to know, and what many of you can’t accept:
   • “You” are nothing but the fruit.
   • Nobody cares about your dirt. “Who you are inside” is meaningless aside from what it produces for other people.
6. Everything Inside You Will Fight Improvement
   • Intentionally Interpreting Any Criticism as an Insult
   • Focusing on the Messenger to Avoid Hearing the Message
   • Focusing on the Tone to Avoid Hearing the Content
   • Revising Your Own History
   • Pretending That Any Self-Improvement Would Somehow Be Selling Out Your True Self
   • Delaying any self-improvement until the entire world changes to accommodate you

Whatever you try to build or create – be it a poem, or a new skill, or a new relationship – you will find yourself immediately surrounded by non-creators who trash it. Just remember, they’re only expressing their own fear, since trashing other people’s work is another excuse to do nothing. “I don’t have the money to take a cooking class.” Then fucking Google “how to cook.” Damn it, you have to kill those excuses. Or they will kill you.

Alec Baldwin - Always Be Closing