Why Happy People have Terrible Lives.
The story of Jim and Tim.
It’s the year 2082, Jim is lying on his deathbed and contemplating life. He was born in 1995 and saw most of the 21st century. He witnessed Netflix, Elon Musk and the Pandemic of 2020. He was a star Youtuber, who spent most of his life playing video games and making money on Twitch. He is unhappy with his life and fears his death, sadly death has engulfed him.
Then there’s Tim, he’s also dying and thinking about his life. He was born in 1995 and was a freelance writer. He wrote for blogs and magazines, his niche was ghostwriting articles, he has accepted death and embraced it with open arms.
What made the difference in their lives?
Jim’s Story.
Jim started on YouTube in 2010, he streamed Call of Duty actively and built an audience. By the age of 22, he was earning upwards of $550,000 and did what made him happy. He played video games and drunk Kool-Aid, he never really left his room.
He had a terrible social life, none of his girlfriends would stick, but he was content with having friends with benefits, it was easier and less painful. Jim had lived his life doing what’s easy, he bought a self-driving Tesla Model X purely so that he could sit back and relax during commutes.
By the age of 30, he married another streamer but that relationship didn’t last, it was too difficult to manage. Jim didn’t want to marry again.
By this time, streaming had become mainstream and Jim wasn’t making the income he used to. Using his connections in YouTube, he was able to secure a job as a senior stream analyst, a business analyst for the gaming community. At the age of 35, both of his parents sadly passed away. His coping mechanism was alcohol, it was cheap and readily available. It made it easy to become happy again, it was his escape from the real world.
His house was empty, no wife, no kids, no parents. Bored and with a 7 figure income, he partied every night. Instagram models, YouTubers and streamers were at his house during the parties.
Jim was now in his middle age and couldn’t party as he used to, what’s a man got to do then? He tried dating but it’s too boring, he even considered adopting a child, but who would raise a child? It’s too difficult and less rewarding.
So he bought a red Ferrari 488 spyder. Chicks dug it, and he was having the time of his life again. Suddenly at the age of 54, he collapsed. All the alcohol, women and cars had left him very ill.
The doctors recommend exercising and staying sober. Screw that, who wants to do that? Jim took a drug and his body was healthier, it’s 2049, you could do whatever you wanted. The drug made him happy. He could live for 32 years with ease.
He got dependent, took too many pills and collapsed again. This time, he wouldn’t survive. Lying on his deathbed, he has the realisation that he has lived a crappy life. He is scared and lonely. The Grim Reapers’ coming to take him away.
Jim was bouncing between highs, girls, cars, alcohol and money. He never experienced the effort it took to raise a child, his ex-wife was boring, commitment meant to struggle and struggle sucks, but it makes you stronger, it gives you fulfilment and inner peace. Jim never attained peace, he was filling in voids with objects and escaping his problems.
Tim’s Story.
Tim wanted to be a rapper, he thought it would be cool. He could write some really good lyrics, but he couldn’t rap.
So that’s how his freelancing career started, he ghostwrote raps for MCs and got paid $2000 per song. Soon enough at the age of 24, he graduated with a degree in marketing. He worked for a couple of years at an advertising agency, but couldn’t find the same fulfilment that came with writing, so he quit. Tim’s decision to quit angered his parents, what was he going to do now? He only had last months’ paycheque.
He started to write freelance and was successful, he built up a clientele and after 4 years was earning $50000 a month from his diverse network. He was 31 and had been dating this girl called Shelby for 5 years, tonight was the night, he was going to pop the question.
They’re at a posh restaurant, there’s a band playing Oh! Carol and he slides a Cartier diamond ring, “will you marry me, Shelby?”
She agrees and they got married on the 1st of July 2026 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. A few months later, Shelby was expecting a child, sadly, Tim had to trade the Maserati convertible for a boring Mercedes SUV. Painful but necessary.
They have a boy, named Luke. Raising Luke was not easy but to his credit, he put in the effort to be a good boy, that’s because Tim and Shelby tried hard to be good parents.
Their family was smart with their finances, Tim had leveraged his experience to create a writing company, he had invested in the stock market and also had a college fund for Luke.
He had his ups and downs with Shelby, they weren’t perfect, but they completed each other, they understood that the other person had flaws and they learnt to live with each other’s shortcomings.
Luke had graduated from college and was a full-time stock analyst, Tim helped his son navigate adulthood. They argued but Tim always found a way to get his point across.
Having invested smartly and built a strong business, Tim could retire. Building a business was tough, late nights and long hours but Shelby always supported him, she was an accomplished YouTuber who had built a strong channel over the years and became one of the legends of YouTube.
Her niche wasn’t the most exciting but she helped people and gained a lot of satisfaction from providing value to her viewers, she understood the struggles of building a successful channel and was compassionate whenever someone was faced with problems she once had.
Tim didn’t have the most exciting life, he wasn’t happy all the time, there were struggles, peaks and valleys but he smiled gracefully through each hurdle. He wasn’t living for happiness, he was living for fulfilment and satisfaction. Happiness was a by-product, so was money and success.
What can you Take Away from this?
We live in a world where we are frequently exposed to the extremities of human existence. You see people with six-packs and Ferraris but you also see the homeless guy down the street. We follow trends and new diets, there is no end to the short term highs. Happiness is promoted, it’s become the goal of our lives.
Don’t look to live a happy life.
Live a fulfilling life.
You have to go through all the emotions and struggles that come with life, there’s nothing wrong in feeling like shit. If you were happy all the time, you’d be a lunatic.
Nobody looks back on life and wishes that they played one more game of FIFA, they look back at the meaningful and tough situations that they conquered, to have truly lived, you have to go through some dull and lifeless experiences.
I’m going to leave you with a quote:
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.- Carl Jung