Freedom, my new value system.
TLDR: Previously my value was LEGACY. Everything i did surrounded building a legacy. I don’t believe this works any more bc the stability of the world before doesn’t exist in this chaotic world today. Now, my value is FREEDOM.
I took some time lately to sit down to reflect. The main change of the last few years is the change in values. That thus will have a tickle down effect of how it affects my principles, my decisions, my thoughts, my actions.
Side note: with the advent of AI, I noticed I’m writing less. I use AI to think with me sometimes and iron out my thoughts. However, there is a beauty in writing. The process of thinking and unwinding, to slow down and look within, to connect the dots from a human level — it is different than thinking with AI. I don’t want to lose my hobby in writing, and find a balance in writing to share and using AI to learn.
What does freedom look like?
Honestly, I don’t truly know yet. I just know that everything I do will be around freedom. It is a long journey ahead — for the past phase of my life, I’ve been optimising for legacy. I’m equally excited and scared. I know I’m starting off from a better ground, given all the experiences I’ve had, to build this new phase. It’s almost like that thought exercise “if you retained everything and were 8 again, how will you live your life”. This is the same, and time continues. I’m not too stressed about what it looks like, but I do feel rather impatient.
Initially, I thought freedom looks like being anyone I want to be, going anywhere, doing whatever I want. But I think this sums it up better — freedom to do nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing. Freedom is nothing. It feels like nihilism in the good sense, and returning to square one.
Nothing
I’m not religious, and I think life is absolutely nothing — it is a journey between 2 certainties — Life and Death. Life in its own right has no meaning. The fun part is that you give life meaning. Whatever is meaningful to oneself is how one can live. This is being an artist and life is a while canvas. What a fun experience!
So previously, the meaning I gave was legacy. To think long term, to plant the tree in shades I will never enjoy, to change the course of the world because I’ve lived. It just seems fun — fun because I enjoy challenges. Everything I did was to build legacy — my empire of companies to dominate a vertical, my documentation and database for my future biographers, reading about historical legends of how they became The Great. Now that my world view has collapsed again (minor collapse in my early 20s), I get to rebuild from nothing.
And strangely, after all these cycles, it’s coming back to nothing. But this time, nothing has a different meaning. To me, this nothing now means the removal of ego.
Note: this reminds me of Z-plane.
I thought I’ve dealt with ego all my years, destroying it every time it becomes a blocker. Yet time and time again, I’m proven that it still lingers, hidden in the shadows, controlling my thoughts and decisions.
I’m calling out my bullshit now. “Building legacy” and “because it’s fun to do what others can’t do” have legitimate noble reasons. But ultimately, the darker why I do what I do was driven by ego. Ego to build something that lasts generations. Ego of “being better than others” because I can achieve things others can’t. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a legit reason and it’s just a wonderful life to be ambitious and powerful. But the darker reason of ego driven is not something I value. Also, it’s actually exhausting to do all these. Yes, there is a lot of power in achieve such goals, but you get tied down to so many things. It’s hard to take vacation, it’s impossible to switch off. So what if you have power and money, one is still slave to the global responsibilities and material goods. Is this a wrong way to live life? No, not at all. But personally, I’ve outgrown this system. I’m building my own now.
I’m doing a balance of documenting and writing, not for my future biographers, but for me to read my old thoughts, as I do occasionally. I’m going to do things to allow for freedom, and if it reaches the legacy goal, as the ambitious Lisa is still always inside me, so be it. It is a balance because I know how to get there, it’s just a decision of want.
Freedom
Being a practical dreamer, it means my next company is focusing of commercials first, then niche domination. Perhaps I was luckier earlier on. It’s good timing again, and I’m going to be a second mover first. It’s strange because I applied a lot of these principles and did the right things. My flaw is in the inability to be flexible fast. Things are changing now. Tools are improving and I’m more equipped with skillsets too.
Still a lot in my head, but I’m going to take time to iron them out, together with wine nights and long chats. But now that I have the right direction — freedom, everything will fall into place easily, for I’ve started from nothing many times before. I’m excited to see this new chapter begin. 2 years ago, I have a feeling life is going to change quite significantly in 2026. And it’s slowly unfolding.
Excitement, fear, curiosity. All the fun emotions!
Love,
L