What If You Didn't Need Money
Who are you when you're not chasing?
Knowing how much you guys depend on my lovely Substack articles for your weekly sanity—yes, I’m delusional like that—I told myself I needed to start writing them on Thursday nights.
But when I tried last night, the spirit of sleep enveloped me. It abused me. It captured me sef. The very moment I placed my index finger on the keyboard to start typing…
BAM!
It was like someone dropped a whole bag of Dangote cement on my eyelids. My blanket overpowered me, my bed sheet welcomed me, and the night breeze started whispering sweet nothings in my ear. The next thing I knew, it was 6AM, and my mum was tapping me to come open the gate so she could go to work.
Now, you may ask: why is it so important for me to write my Substack on Thursday night? After all, I post on Fridays, I’m on holiday, and technically I have all the time in the world. Well… not exactly.
First, school is starting soon (hopefully). Last semester, my Fridays were relatively free, but this session might not be the same. I’m just preparing ahead.
More importantly, I recently got a part-time job that swallows up my Friday evenings. That means posting every week is harder, hence the decision to write on Thursdays and post Fridays.
In theory, it was a good plan. A responsible plan. A plan to benefit everyone involved.
But my subconscious had its own plans that it did not inform me of beforehand. And here I am now: Friday afternoon, trying to juggle writing this Substack (something I enjoy) with serving customers at my job (something I enjoy… considerably less).
And in the middle of this chaos—balancing passion and performance—a question popped into my head:
What would you be doing with your life, if money wasn’t in the picture?
A couple of months ago, I was walking from the cafeteria to class after eating jollof rice that did not agree with my digestive system. My stomach was staging a coup d’état, but as a true African man, I soldiered on. I wasn’t about to let bowel movements be the reason I missed attendance.
To distract myself from the biological warfare inside me, I decided to listen to a podcast. After a few minutes of contemplating between FK & Jola yapping on I Said What I Said and Trevor Noah on What Now, I chose Trevor. I decided it’d be best to laugh at people’s life problems when I was done handling my own (ISWIS fans get what I’m talking about).
Trevor was talking about how much the world changed since Covid, especially in America. He complained that since lockdowns ended, people have gotten too attached to their jobs, as if trying to make up for lost time. Now, jobs have become such a huge part of people’s identities that they barely know themselves outside work.
He said you can even see it in the way people greet each other. Nobody asks “How are you?” anymore. Instead, it’s:
“So… what have you been up to?”
At first glance, it seems harmless. But think deeper: that tiny shift is basically a warning label that says—
Who you are is no longer a product of what you value.
Who you are is a product of what you do.
And if we’re being honest, the two statements aren’t really that different. The difference lies in one word: value.
When humans first started practicing labour, it wasn’t to amass wealth. It was about survival. Plant crops, rear animals, hunt bushmeat—do whatever you need to eat.
But then we created something called money. First cowries, then gold, then paper, and now decentralised tokens on a blockchain that you may or may not be convincing your uncle to “just invest small” in.
At first, money was just a tool for exchange. But slowly, it escaped the marketplace. It became more than a tool; it became a badge, a divider, a symbol. Eventually, it stopped being the way we exchanged value and became the way we determined it.
That’s the catch: when I say who you are is what you do, what I really mean is who you are is what you value. But somewhere along the line, we all started valuing money. And since the only way to get more money is through what you do, your job became your identity.
Slowly, everything became buyable. Your success in life, your seat in church, and your place in society were all attached to a price tag. And as the price tag became heavier, the burden of your profession became more profound. Your choice of career was no longer a means for survival, and it slowly even transitioned from being a product of what you value. Instead, it was just another attempt to amass, to attain, to accumulate until the veil that separated who you are from what you do seemingly became transparent, before fading to nothingness.
Do I hate capitalism? No, or at least don't think so.
I'm studying Economics, I invest in the stock market, and I hope to be an entrepreneur someday, so it’d be pretty weird if I did. I don’t hate the system; I hate what we turned it into. I hate the fact that we measure happiness in dollars and progress by how high you’ve climbed the corporate ladder.
Jobs, careers, degrees, they’re noble, sometimes even fulfilling. The problem isn’t chasing; the problem is losing yourself in the process, such that what you were once chasing becomes the entirety of who you are.
So here I am—writing this article while side-eyeing my actual job—wondering what I would be doing if money wasn’t in the equation. Maybe I’d still be writing, but without the guilt of knowing customers are waiting for me. Maybe I’d be sleeping, without my mum banging on my door at 6AM.
I'd most likely just spend all my days in a library surrounded by a world of books, and knowledge, and wonder. Because that's what I really enjoy doing: learning—capturing the essence and history of mankind and the universe within the expanse of my mind.
That's what I value.
The question is:
What about you?
If money wasn’t in the picture, what would you actually be doing with your life? Ask yourself, honesty, earnestly. And when you find it, don't leave fulfilling that dream, pursuing that passion or being that person up to time and chance. Seize every opportunity to discover who you are, and to find what you value (whether that's family, or community, or just making noise). Choose to be more than just a job, a career, a degree. Choose to be more than what you do.
Choose to be unapologetically and exhaustively YOU.
.
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Btw, I saw one of my wanderers a couple of days ago, and the person called me a— this is me quoting—“Genius.” I kinda just smiled and looked away but I promise super grateful for each and every one of you that take time out of your schedules to read the nonsense that goes on in my head. I promise I wanted to say thankyou but social akwardness just got the better of me 😂.
We just hit 50 subscribers, wanderers!!! I love each and every one of you and I can’t wait to see you next week 🫶
Thank you for sharing the nonsense in your head!
I think you taking time out to write and post these (even when you have your real job to do) is something to appreciate.
Well done 🫰🫰