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We all know what people’s opinions are, but what the heck is a Zimbabwean Dollar? Let me explain.
The Zimbabwean Dollar is a currency used in Zimbabwe (Mind-blowing, I know!) up until 2009, when hyperinflation caused the currency to lose value so much, that it reached denominations of up to $100 trillion (that’s 100 with 12 zeros! I just learned that!) banknotes. At the time that same $100 trillion banknote was worth just USD 0.40, which made the Zimbabwean dollar one of the lowest valued currencies in the world, until it was eventually abandoned completely. At some point, Zimbabwe’s central bank could not even afford the paper on which to print these worthless trillion-dollar notes!
Now what is the connection between this valueless currency and people’s opinions? Well.. in many cases people’s opinions are just like the Zimbabwean dollar. There is so much of them, yet most of them are not worth much. And just like some currencies are worth more than other currencies, some opinions are worth more than other opinions.
It’s also a term that I’ve adopted to describe people, places and things that are average in nature, baseless and available everywhere (i.e. nothing extraordinary), in other words there are so much of them that they hold no value, significance or importance in my life.
Picture a cliche with two legs that can walk. Sometimes that cliche can take a human form or the form of an malicious opinion or judgement that is thrown at you out of envy and a desperate cry for help and attention.
These days, it seems like EVERYONE has an opinion on EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Every person is an expert on everything and anything (or claims to be so). In the age of social media, the human ego has been magnified to unimaginable proportions. Everyone thinks their opinion is valid and important (including myself ahahah). We have so much information available at our fingertips, we are bombarded with it everywhere from every angle, advertising, social media, family, friends, enemies, that random dude that I keep on seeing in the gym who always has to comment on my squat stance, and everybody else. Everybody claims to be an expert and sometimes it is so difficult to sift through all this junk information and find the information that is true and of value to us, the information that will make our goals possible.
Jesus said that the truth will set you free (not an exact quote from the Bible, so don’t quote me on it) and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentence even outside of the realm of religions and the divine. You don’t have to delve deep into any religion to understand the truth of that statement. So what isn’t the truth (what is the opposite of truth? Falsehood? OK. Falsehood.).
Falsehood and false information will enslave you and take your liberty away. False information about life, success, health, relationships and false information about you (gossip behind your back and unwanted opinions etc.) will make you a slave to society, silly social constructs and understandings of life and other people’s drama, BS and self-imposed limitations, that they are eagerly trying to impose on you. In other words, the world has a number of Zimbabwean Dollar printers who give you the wrong information and when you reach out your hand to take dat cash money (or opinion), you become a slave to it and other people’s BS.
Zimbabwean Dollar printers?! Who are they? Haters, doubters, naysayers (which sometimes includes the people who love you the most), self-proclaimed and self-appointed experts. Let’s take a recent example.
I learned that I “have an attitude problem” and that I “think I am better than everybody else”. What’s funny about comments like these is that they usually come from behind your back. It very likely that they came from a self-proclaimed and self-appointed Sami Wehbe expert and I have met many of those. I am sure you have too. Enemies, friends, family, employers, sometimes even random people who have no significance whatsoever in your life. Sound familiar? Self-proclaimed arm-chair experts who in your entire X years of existence made a judgement about you, your capabilities and your whole life and what’s possible for you based on the the meager amount of time they have known you.
Do you want to see these people in action? I dare you to set yourself targets higher than those of the people around you and watch what happens. Work harder than everyone around you and watch what happens! You will shine so brightly that you leave the herd of Zimbabwean Dollar printers in the shadow, in the dark. Then that herd starts throwing labels at you, because that is the only thing that they can do from in the sad, dark, depressing and isolated place that they are in.
The bigger the things you do are, the more judgement and labels people throw at you. Work harder than everyone around you, set your goals higher than the people around you and suddenly you “have an attitude problem” and “think you are better than everybody else”. Ask me. This is something that I learned about myself from the self-proclaimed and self-appointed Sami Wehbe experts. Who are these people? I don’t know their names but I know exactly who they are. It starts with a big L. Can you guess the word? (LOSERS!) Lovely people, who are dissatisfied with themselves and the lives that they lead. They are people who have given up on themselves, their ambitions and the dreams that they had growing up. They are complacent people who feel threatened by those younger than them, by those with higher energy than them, by those who remind them of all the short-comings in their character and their lives. They feel threatened that someone with energy, drive and ambition much higher than they can possibly fit into their thick heads will one day take their spot, their throne, their position. If you are really all that, how can it be that you feel so easily threatened by someone with an attitude problem and an ego problem? The better question to ask is, who is the one with the ego problem in this situation? Is it the one trying to improve their life, their position, themselves? Or is it the person who feels threatened by the person with the “attitude problem”?
The quickest way to see if someone’s opinion holds any value for you is to ask yourself the question, ‘What is the intention behind this statement?’. ‘What is this person trying to do with this statement?’ ‘Are they genuinely interested in me doing well in my life or improving what I am doing or are they saying this out of envy, maliciousness, jealousy, a wish to see me fail etc.?’ If it is indeed coming out of malevolence, then you know what to do with that opinion!
Don’t take it. Don’t trade your time, efforts, thoughts for that worthless piece of **** (I mean currency!). Throw that opinion right in the trash, where it belongs (or create a podcast episode out of it, like I did!).
However, what if the opinion/criticism is coming from a place of love? The person who made that comment or has that opinion genuinely wants you to do well in your life? Well in that case, put your ego aside and analyze things objectively. Could it be that this person has a point and I should listen to what they have to say? In this case, the opinion is actually valuable (and definitely not a Zimbabwean Dollar!). Ca-ching!
Listen to this podcast episode to learn more!
Much love and respect to you all! Thank you for reading!
Sami