BEHIND THE ZENS

Most art is created alone in a dark room. It’s thankless work. It’s like doing spec work constantly with the hope that, one day, it will pay off. If creatives needed approval from others to begin, they would never start (and some brilliant creatives never do start, sadly). Instead, artists know that it’s a necessity to approve of themselves, to believe in their work and, as equally important, to believe in the process. Creatives know that chasing approval will always prolong the work from ever leaving their minds, so they simply learn to give themselves the permission they may desire from others.

The sheer willingness to hand over so much of a 24 hour day, almost all the waking hours of your life, to your profession, and to pour your existence down the compassionless siphon of professional development, is a remarkable thing. Japanese lawyers identify themselves almost wholly through their occupation; their professional and personal pride is the same.

from Japans 105-hour work week

In Japan, the white-collar workers could spend almost every waken minute on their jobs. 4 to five hours of sleep is not unusual. 

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-7zAkwAOYg)

Robert Waldinger is the forth director of the longest experiment on happiness through out history. Since the beginning of the 20th century, this project have followed 600 men, to find out what makes you happy.

80% of the participants claimed that one of their largest life goals was to get rich. 50% said that one of the biggest goals was to become famous.