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Guest post today by Jun Loayza! In case you haven’t discovered him on your own yet, Jun is the CMO of Future Delivery, blogs regularly and is part of the Brazen Careerist community. I asked Jun to write about something he is passionate about and I love his perspective on approaching life. I hope this changes the way you approach living.
“My name is Cloud Strife, and I fought against the evil forces of Shinra. I stood against the evil Sephiroth and managed to save the planet by destroying him.”
Yes, I was an uber dork in high school, but living in this fantasy world is just oh so fun. The game that I’m referring to above is Final Fantasy VII – it was the last role playing game that I ever played and truly lost myself in. Playing video games is extremely addicting in our society. We see it all the time with hardcore gamers in World of Warcraft or Starcraft. WoW is so addicting that players have actually died from starvation!
I used to live my life like an NPC (Non Playable Character). We have all seen these characters in video games; they stand around in towns to make the place look more lively and fun. They’re always doing the same exact thing, never progress, and are just bystanders to the actual main story of the game. I was an NPC because I was just on cruise-control with my life. I never really had to try hard to achieve anything because everything just came to me: I wanted to get into UCLA, and I got in; I wanted to become a brother in Delta Sigma Pi, and I received a bid; if I wanted to start dating this cute girl in class, I (usually) started dating her. Because of my easy-going life style and my philosophy of letting things just happen to me, I was a true NPC of my life. I was just watching it go by.
Fall 06 was the turning point in my life. I was interviewing for full-time offers in Consulting and approached the recruiting process with the same NPC mentality. After a few interviews, I started feeling confused because I hadn’t heard back from the companies. I went home one weekend to visit the family and saw the letters on my desk, the letters that you dread as a high school student looking to get into college and as a graduating senior looking to get a full-time job. They were my first rejection letters.
It felt like a ton of bricks had just given me a blow to the chest. I had never felt so useless, unwanted, and rejected. I had been cruising in my life, just letting things happen and never truly taking the initiative to progress my life story.
Do you know how you spot an NPC in real life? Go up to someone and ask them, “What’s new?” If they say, “Same old, same old,” then you just found yourself an NPC.
My life of playing video games, ditching class, and non-stop drinking must be put to a stop now. I turned to my friend and now business partner Yu-kai Chou who had a similar turning point in his life. He advised me, “Why don’t you live your life as if it were a video game?” “What in the world are you talking about?” I asked…
Your primary goal in an RPG (role playing game) is to increase in level, gain new abilities, and become a more powerful player. It’s fun to do it in a fantasy world, so why not do it in real life? You can gain new abilities by learning a new programming language, learning a new language, or reading a new business book. You can gain in your social attributes by constantly networking and joining social networking sites that will increase the variety of your social circles. You can level-up in real life by developing yourself personally and professionally. This is what I decided to do and it has dramatically changed my life for the better.
So what did I do? I gained in my leadership attributes by founding Bruin Consulting and the Undergraduate Case Competition at UCLA. I gained experience points by founding The Veridical Group – a small business consulting firm. I increased my social level by creating a blog and making an effort to meet the blogging community. I turned my life into a video game and made it my goal to constantly keep leveling up in real life.
This life goal has lead Yu-kai and I to found Future Delivery. Our goal with Future Delivery is to help student and young professionals have fun with career and professional development. We recently launched our site FD Career which helps you lead your life as if it were a video game. Every time you gain an internship, get a high GPA, or become the leader of an organization, you gain experience points and level up on the site. As you gain in level, you earn prestige, are rewarded new features and abilities, and gain the ability to recruit with prestigious firms. Yu-kai and I had to go through a huge road block in our lives to reach this epiphany. Our hope is that with FD Career, students and young professionals will realize that leveling up in real life is much more fun and rewarding that leveling up your fantasy character in a video game.
I am Level 34 in real life. What level are you?
Jun Loayza said...
1Hi Dorie,
Thanks so much for featuring me on your site. I hope that my epiphany as a gamer helps out your readers and encourages them to become even more productive with their lives.
Look forward to staying in touch.
- Jun
09/23/08 12:27 PM | Comment Link
Dorie Morgan - Live your life as a hardcore gamer | Living the Startup Life said...
2[...] I was featured on Dorie Morgan’s blog where I wrote about why you should live your life as a hardcore gamer. I write about the epiphany that changed my outlook on life and how I became more productive and [...]
09/23/08 12:46 PM | Comment Link
Steve said...
3Really interesting read. Doesn’t life get exhausting always ‘leveling up’, though? When do you get a break?
09/23/08 1:17 PM | Comment Link
Dorothy said...
4Leveling up is fun! I always get super disgruntled when I level down though. x.x!
09/23/08 1:44 PM | Comment Link
Y Chou said...
5Haha, you forgot that a big part of MMORPGs is to team up with other high level players with different occupations and conquer cool quests. Also, high level characters should help lower level characters level up faster. It’s a lot of fun
09/23/08 2:33 PM | Comment Link
Jeff said...
6In this age of the internet I think Future Delivery is on the cusp of a new kind of networking tool.
09/23/08 3:11 PM | Comment Link
max said...
7when you are in an game you are fearless. you try new things, explore new areas, and the fear of failure is never a real issue. I guess it’s a good way to be.
09/23/08 11:43 PM | Comment Link
Dorie said...
8@Jun – Thanks again for sharing.
I had a college professor who said that because of shows like “Friends” most people went through life thinking they were staring in their own sitcom. Someone else was writing the lines and they were just delivering words when needed. What I love most about the video game concept is that it is active. Even if you are a shy person, by thinking about life as a game, its a little less intimidating.
Now if only there was a way to resurrect in real life too.
09/24/08 8:19 AM | Comment Link
Dorie Morgan’s Rising Up » Awesome Blogger » Navigating Twenty-Something Suburban Life said...
9[...] I am so grateful to be featured by Jun. He’s done a great job with the series so far and I can’t wait to see who he will interview next. Check out the interview here and while you’re at it, check out the guest post Jun shared in September here. [...]
03/31/09 6:09 AM | Comment Link