Simplicity, Productivity and the 2 Giants

You don’t need to live a grandiose, hedonistic lifestyle in order to be ambitious. In fact, there are many people who live simpler lifestyles and are still very accomplished and productive.

For example, Emily Dickinson lived a relatively simple life. She spent much of her time in isolation from the world, mainly communicating with others through letters. However, she was a prolific poet and wrote over 1,800 poems in her lifetime. Her work is now celebrated around the world.

On the other hand, Mswati III, the king of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), lives a lavish lifestyle. He has 20 wives and over 200 children. He also owns a fleet of luxury cars and a private jet. However, he is not as well-known as Emily Dickinson. He is often criticized for his lavish spending and his lack of concern for the welfare of his people.

These two people are very different, but they both achieved great things in their own way. Emily Dickinson achieved fame and recognition through her poetry, while Mswati III achieved power and wealth through his position as king. However, it is clear that it is possible to be ambitious and successful without living a luxurious lifestyle.

Now, tell me, which did more in terms of influencing the world: an esoteric, eccentric poet, or a less-known, less-cared-about dictator that even Kim Jong Un is more familiar to the “common” human?

Whether Dickinson was ambitious or not, what matters is that her writings, which were massive in proportion, had much greater power on the world throughout history than Mswati III will probably ever have, both in his lifetime and beyond. Perhaps, ultimately, he will be remembered but as one of the many modern dictators that have ever lived, not necessarily more than that, governing a country that is slightly smaller than Israel, which have obviously granted much more to the world than the former.

And indeed, it is often specifically because of a simpler lifestyle, that can make you more accomplished, because living more simply often means that you have both more time and energy in your hands, of which you can use for greater productivity.

Therefore, if you have ambitions that require a great amount of work and effort, I suggest you to consider living more simply, so there would be less distractions around you, wasting your already-limited lifespan.

Final Note: No offense was intended to Eswatini citizens during the writing of this article. The usage of the Eswatini's monarch was merely used as an example to a claim.