Money doesn't get you happiness, but it sure buys things that do.

I remember my times in college as a computer science student. For the better part of it, I lived with my family, making barely enough at my internship to buy a couple of games on steam and pay for my food at college. I was unmotivated, quickly gaining weight, underperforming in class, and whatever attempts I made to get fit ended in failure. I was depressed and I didn't even realize it, addicted to a cheap pay to win MMO I sank all my leftover money into.

That was my life a year ago. And for perspective, I have been lurking TRP for around two years now. I knew my life was shit, and probably the one thing that kept me going was knowing I was "redpilled". I knew why girls didn't want to talk to me despite my rather good looking face: bad hair, fat body, old clothes, no job, no car, no confidence, nothing. To think that at one point in my life, my idea of a good life was to work 9 to 5 and make just enough money to play my videogames. Hell, at least when I was a beta loser chasing some 6/10 chick that was banging college students back in highschool, I had dreams and aspirations. I had become jaded and empty.

Here's the thing I finally came to understand. When getting by is your most important goal, everything else just fades away. How can you follow any of your passions, dreams and hopes, if you can barely support yourself? That shit sucked the life out of me.

And then I graduated.

I was working 8 to 5 for some local company here in Brazil. I was making somewhere in the realm of $866 a month. I was at work when I suddenly felt this urge to browse Linked In. I found a guy I knew from California had just joined a startup a couple months ago.

A big risk, I'm sure. But what exactly had I to lose?

I didn't even have to think twice to contact this guy, and lo and behold I landed a $70k/year job just like that. Here in Brazil, that puts me in the top 10%. I thought I had lucked out back then, that I just landed jackpot to even have an opportunity like this, but when I went back next year to see if I could recruit some of my excolleages, none of them wanted in despite the 6x~ boost in salary. I asked why: they were afraid their english wouldn't be enough, that they wouldn't last long, that they would have to work harder, that it was risky. What if the company failed? I hadn't just been lucky, the market is flooded with companies looking to recruit globally. Our own company here has had a ton of trouble hiring people, not enough decent candidates. And for one, I finally understood why.

Yesterday, I finished my 6 month long project, my home office: http://i.imgur.com/bAeOhK6.jpg

Here's the exact same room last year: http://i.imgur.com/ecNni1S.jpg

Keep in mind all of this stuff costs exactly 2x in Brazil compared to the US. My coworkers are still in the same place, working on 5+ year old computers and 19 inch monitors. And today, I'm shifting to my next long term goal: a BMW X1.

And here's the part that's most surprising. This entire project had risen my motivation through the roof. Getting all the parts, assembling it, doing business with all these people, making new contacts to find someone who could get things done the way I wanted it to. I'm an entirely new person because of it, getting setup like this took more than just money.

It's reflecting in my everyday life too. I hired a personal trainer, and I've made incredible progress since the year began. I can lift 130 pounds, that's when I realized that shit, I can finally toss a girl around if I want to. Next goal: 220 pounds, my current weight.

I took dance classes, and I can finally feel confident when on my feet while music is playing. I'm taking singing lessons, my voice sounds deeper and clearer when I speak. I bought a hair cutter, so I can keep my hair at the same height as my stubble all year round. I bought nicer clothes, and a nice watch. I bougy a nice speed bycicle to exercise and move around in.

All this stuff took money to achieve. More than I'd like to admit, but my life is so much fucking better for it. I got so much stuff going on with my life right now that I don't have time to think about women, and that's only made it easier for me to deal with them. I still got much progress yet to make still, but I got a solid base of operations, a good amount of momentum and plenty of time. I'm considering moving to a different city in the next couple of years, a town where there's tons of german-descent women and low crime rates. Once I get the car, that's my number one goal, and getting it done is going to be a ton of fun.

Don't lose sight of your dreams guys, if you think they are impossible, then it's time to turn your life around. This isn't even TRP, it's the American Dream.