How Fight Club Changed my Life

May 18, 2018

If it’s your first time hearing about the movie Fight Club, you HAVE to fight.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

But it should be.

For one thing, Fight Club is a perfect litmus test. If you find someone who likes Fight Club, then the two of you share a bond for life. Conversely, if you find someone who hates it, then you know that person will never understand you.

Similarly, Fight Club can save you months of probing, uninteresting small talk undertaken in an attempt to find out if that other person is compatible with you. If he or she doesn’t like Fight Club, then you know you can just move on and never bother asking that person out again.

It’s the perfect dating initiation exam.

But that’s not the real reason this movie changed my life. Fight Club made me re-examine everything I ever thought I knew about anything. Like a bare-knuckle punch to my face, Fight Club destroyed every belief I thought was beautiful. And, like the fight club members, I loved every minute of it.

Do you think material wealth is important? Tyler Durden says otherwise.

Do you think your job defines who you are? Tyler Durden says otherwise.

Do you think your life is hopeless? Tyler Durden says otherwise.

Do you want to change the world? In Tyler we trust.

Of course, the way Fight Club’s most important character, Tyler Durden, went about changing the world was horrifying.

Of course, I’d never want to actually be in a fight club.

Of course, Fight Club is dark and strange and violent and funny and optimistic and nihilistic all at once.

What matters is that it made me think. It made me think really hard. And I love that.

It’s the only movie I’ve ever seen that’s better than the book. It’s the only movie that made me want to take a dirty bath and sleep on an old mattress. It’s the only movie that says things like, “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before and nothing you’ll ever see again.

It’s the only movie that’s changed my life.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.