This is obviously better than being an asshole. Well I’m sure a few of you out there would even disagree with this.
My old friend Johnny said this years ago: “I have to make up mind on whether or not I want to be an asshole or a nice guy”. At the time I was like “WTF are you talking about?” But I now I get it. It’s basically a philosophy you have to choose at some point in your life. You gotta decide if you’re going to go to the “dark side” or just be a good guy. But I’m sure you’re still confused as to why you have to make this decision. Let me give you some hypothetical examples:
1. Your First Job Out Of College.
Say you graduated with the same degree that I obtained in college (Aerospace Engineering). And you happen to have some sort of a brain, where you can think ahead. And let’s say you get approached with a job offer to work on…say….the Predator Drone. It’s easy to say “Oh F*ck yeah. A job! I can pay off my loans. I can buy house now. I can buy a car. I might even get some girls!”
But then you think about what the end result of working on a project like the Predator Drone really is. If you’re an idiot, you’ll go “well I will be helping America by building products that defend the country from terrorism”. But if you do one second of research, you’ll see that the Predator Drone has killed a bunch of innocent civilians, destroyed families and have created terrorists. And you go to say to yourself “Damn, all the hard work I put into getting this college degree, and I’ll just end up killing little kids and families. That would make me the biggest asshole ever!”.
Or, you could say “F*ck em. I could care less if some random people I don’t know, tens of thousands of miles away from get f*cked up by something I worked on. I’ll get my money, I’ll get my car, and I might even get some….”
This is a situation where you have to decide if you are going to be a good guy or an asshole.
2. The Homeless Beggar
This one is a tough one. It’s always uncomfortable for people. And for a good reason. You don’t want to be an enabler. You don’t want to be aiding someone who has an addiction to drugs or alcohol.
The one thing I don’t do in this situation is ignore them like they don’t exist. I just get honest. “What do you need? Food, money, a ride?”. I’ll tell them straight out that I don’t give random people money because I don’t want be an enabler. If I have some time on my hands I’ll buy them food. And I generally never have time to give random people rides around town. And I will just tell them that. I’ll be 100% honest and get on my way.
This situation is more about getting your tactics ready before you get into the situation. In this case I chose to be a good guy, but I’m also not forced to lie and say “I don’t have any money” or be an asshole where I pretend they don’t exist.
What my friend was saying:
Is at some point in your life you have to get your philosophy straight before you go on to make all the wrong decisions. So that’s the point of this commandment. At ToobBox.com we have decided to take the “good guy” road. We’ll strive to be kind, considerate, thoughtful and try to make the world a better and more loving place.
BTW these commandments are for us at ToobBox.com
Please don’t get this confused. We’re not telling you to be this way. This is just what we pledge to be like.
