Altruism— sacrificing yourself, or your dreams, for others— is a pyramid scheme.

Let’s play the sacrifice game:

You sacrifice your opportunities to be happy for someone else. They learn from you, and sacrifice their happiness, in turn, for someone else. It spreads like a meme, and continues generationally, everyone sacrificing their chance at happiness and self-actualization for everyone else. When, eventually down the line, does someone actually get to be happy?

It’s a happiness Ponzi-scheme.

Choosing to believe that “what makes you happy” and “what’s right” are mutually exclusive is not a sustainable emotional business model.

If you’re too much of a coward to bravely pursue your dreams, don’t use your friends and loved ones as an excuse to hide from your fear of failure. If it were left to them, not a one of them would want to be the reason you didn’t pursue your dreams and live a happy life— and in your heart, you know it. So don’t use them as such an excuse against their will.

“Thousands would escape from slavery, who now remain, but for the strong chords of affection that bind them to their friends.”

 -Frederick Douglass, escaped slave.