Can’t wait to try the Eagles MoFi Vinyl/CD test you described. At the end of the piece, you mentioned SACD. I have an SACD player and you might have one as well. Many high-end Sony Blu-Ray players will also play SACDs.

Super-Audio Compact Disks (SACD) were made only by Sony. They were meant to replace CDs and they were indeed way better sounding. They used a technology called Direct Stream Digital (DSD), which is a 1-bit system with an ultra-high sample rate of 2.8224 MHz, 64 times higher than a CD’s rate of 44.1kHz. It’s difficult to measure how this system differs from regular PCM digital audio used by CDs, but most engineers are of the opinion that DSD is equivalent in quality to PCM digital using a 24-bit, 88.2k sample rate.

I know that’s a bit wonkish, as Paul Krugman would say, but let’s put it this way: SACDs sound a fuck of a lot better than CDs. And I’d love to run a comparison of DSD to vinyl.

Best,
John Boylan

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As president of ABC Records, Herb Belkin knew the product he manufactured was junk. At the height of the vinyl crisis, they were ripping out latches and pressing records on melted down plastic raincoats. When he heard his young kids in the back seat of the car arguing about which friend had the better servants, he knew it was time to leave town and he ended up in cozy Sebastapol, CA running Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. From the moment they unleased the Original Master pressing of the Supertramp album, discerning ears everywhere took notice. Their “Abbey Road” was an audiophile landmark. You have not lived until you’ve heard their pressing of Queen’s “A Night at the Opera.” At one visit to their office, I noticed a turntable rolling over and over the same album. Turns out they were testing the pressing by playing it continuously for ten days. Herb passed years ago and the label has been rescued from bankruptcy by people who believe in the MoFi tradition. But there is a reason record collectors pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for original pressings of the Original Masters series.

Joel Selvin

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You nailed it in the PS Bob. The vinyl – when mastered all analogue – always wins for the reasons you stated. The SACD is great – much better than the cd – but the vinyl still wins.

Merck Mercuriadis

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I was in need of a laugh this afternoon, and you certainly provided it with your line about, ‘you have to be an electrician these days to listen to music’, too true! In between internet speeds for streaming, hardwired gear in the house and the outdoor system, my system in the office, it drives me round the bend!  I’d decided to streamline our systems, guess what? After much hair pulling and forelock tugging, I caved and called a specialist, ends up he’s an electrician who tells me all he does now is home systems, no more power points for this bloke, it’s just figuring out the wiring, he was as cool as they come and had the whole place rockin’ in three hours, bravo you major electrical legend!

Chris Grierson
Melbourne Australia

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All new vinyls released these days are produced from digital copies of the masters. You are listening to digital ALL THE TIME unless you listen to a disk produced in 70s. What you are hearing is the mastering differences.

Riza Pacalioglu

Ex Abbey Road Engineer

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I’d just like to point out that nowadays vinyl masters, cd masters, and streaming masters are all made independently. There is no one master anymore. The mastering engineer who does the vinyl is often a different person from the engineer who does the digital. That said, before even adding your equipment into the equation you’ve already got 3 objectively different masters, each with their own flavor. The purpose of this is to get the most out of each medium.

And yes, good speakers are good, but even the best speakers in the world will sound different in every different room you put them in. If you really care about this kind of thing it’s a good idea to treat your room and/or run something like Sonarworks to get an accurate picture. You can do this to headphones too.

My best,

Egan Frantz

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Hahaha that was funny! The better the system the bigger the CD/vinyl difference. The SACD makes it smaller but the vinyl still has a relaxation thing and digital is “noisier” (to the brain and that’s what produces the listening fatigue. You can listen to vinyl for hours with no fatigue

Michael Fremer

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Vinyl from 2010-now is a scam. A beautiful sounding (at times) scam but a $ play by artists. The jump the shark moment for me was when I was in the check out line at Whole Food and instead of chocolate bars tempting me it was a $35 vinyl of Bryan Adams “Reckless”. This was the day after my girlfriend went to Fleet Foxes at the Palladium and brought home a quad disc Vinyl of their latest album which cost her $55 at the show. Want to be annoyed? Try having Sex while having to get up every 2 songs to flip the record. If the Stones can sound 10x better and still have 6 songs on a side then they could as well. Don’t give me the 180 gram crap. Yes it potentially sounds better but a WAV file still sounds better as it sounds EXACTLY how it sounded to the artist when they left mastering. That’s what I want and I don’t want to pay 15k for a needle which is the price quoted to me at Ahead Stereo on Beverly when I walked in and asked them how much a needle would cost to make Ok Computer translate exactly as it sounded to the band in mastering.

Michael Patterson

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Oh yes Bob I have an OPPO BD-83 – plays anything thrown at it dvd-a sacd Blu ray audio PAL/NTSC – they don’t make them anymore but you can find used ones on ebay, the best part of this machine is the d/a converters and the fact that you can turn off the display to decrease noise, I’d recommend one, although the transport is a bit dicey, they figured out that problem with the later models

Marc Federman

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Bob you’re gonna get a lot of vinyl geeks like me loving this review. I agree vinyl is a bit of a pain but when I have the right vinyl, on the right turntable playing through the right speakers and amp, it is bliss. My gear is mostly mid-fi compared to yours and my favourite combo is my Dual turntable with my Sansui amp, there is something about that idler wheel sound. You have a very nice turntable must sound amazing?

I listen to a lot of my music though my computer but when I want to have some fun I fire up one of my three turntables.

Doug Gillis

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I have been playing vinyl on a hi-fi system for over 40 years; as soon as I could afford quality equipment. You are right it all depends what your playing it on! The market is flooded with cheap record players, which you can plug into your system…….There is also the big question of the vinyl boom; was the original recording an analog recording (AAA)? There is so much vinyl out there that is digital recorded, which defeats the purpose!

My brother (Tim Hinkley, Van Morrison, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Alvin Lee, Jody Grind etc) and I have formed a record company, Reel Analog Records. Our intention is to release vinyl from the original analog tapes, cutting to the master with no digital interference.

Perhaps you would like a copy of our first release, “The Scrubbers Vol I”. An album recorded in Steve Marriott’s home studio? There is some controversy regarding this recording as the tapes went missing and a track ended up on a Humble Pie album…….. I have attached the press release for your info.

Kind regards,

Chris Hinkley

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Thanks for another great article Bob. If you own a Sony BluRay player there is a pretty good chance it will play SACD. I didn’t know this until I discovered it by accident recently when for some reason I played my dual layer copy of Stones’ High Tide and Green Grass.

Even Brande

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I do have an sacd player and the sound is far superior to cd and vinyl. The sacd reproduction is much closer to actual instruments. I suspect that an sacd reproduces a much broader range of overtones. I’m surprised that with your upscale rig you don’t already have an sacd player with HDMI.

Edwar Bogan

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I’m not sure vinyl is a fetish but it is a bit addicting. When I was a young man I absolutely loved going to record stores and flipping the bins. I was into “alternative” music mostly and I discovered a lot of cool bands just from looking at the covers- they didn’t play most of this stuff on the radio. I grew up in Seattle and my friends and I discovered the early “grunge” bands this way before that genre existed. I bought the very first Nirvana album, Bleach, on black vinyl for less than $20, I remember seeing the limited white vinyl version for $40 but thought that was way too much money, I just wanted the music. I think the last record I bought a few years later was Nirvana Nevermind.  Around that time vinyl was disappearing and I happily stocked up on hundreds of CDs instead.

Then about six years ago, my daughter started getting into vinyl. She was a teenager at the time and her friends were buying records and cassette tapes again! When she told me this,  I found a couple milk cartons of my old vinyl records in the basement and hauled them out to show her my collection. The memories came rushing back and I suddenly realized I really missed my old vinyl records!  There is something about holding that piece of artwork in your hand, and reading the liner notes while you listen. So I went out and bought another record player and found a vintage stereo system, and started collecting again.

Collecting vinyl nowadays is more expensive, especially for the limited edition, colored vinyl, 180g weight version. But I think the collectibility is also a huge part of the appeal, especially when you realize that the record you got for $49 sold out quickly and is going for $120 online. It is definitely addictive that way. By the way, my original Nirvana Bleach album has sold on Discogs for as much as $400 but the white version usually sells for twice as much (lesson learned, always buy the limited colored vinyl!). And my first press Nevermind has sold for as much as $2,000. I am a music lover, but I now buy limited re-released versions of records that I already own, just because they are so cool. So I guess it’s not just about the music.

Ian Wilson, vinyl addict

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I got both of the new Eagles albums on MOFI One step vinyl – today!  Haven’t listened yet but I will on my cabin system tomorrow.  I have most of these special editions, including Donald Fagan The Nightfly, Marvin Gaye, SRV, and Simon and Gar.   They are all incredible and I highly suggest you find any you can and buy them!   They are the best music you will likely ever hear and what is that worth??

Steve Miller

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Still have my SACD, another Sony format failure, but I love jazz on SACD – Charlie Byrd Trio is one my personal faves.

Good write up, Bob… I am always a sucker for  geeky audiofile shit.

Chadd Barksdale

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Get an SACD player.  You’ll be amazed at the difference

Cheers
Kieran Stafford

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Awesome! It’s always a pain configuring sound equipment but the payoff is those joyful moments immersed with sound. I still have SACD on one of my high end DVD players.

Blake Einhorn

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Use a quality DAC for the digital and it will surpass vinyl.  You are comparing a CD player to a turntable that is twice the price. Plus, get real speakers.  Computer speakers of any type don’t cut it.  Look at companies like Schiit Audio and Spatial Audio Labs for great gear that won’t bankrupt you.  Eagles in hi-res played on a good system is outstanding. Silent background, no snap, crackle, pop.

John Seymour

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Because you asked.

One of my DVD players (a Sony) plays SACDs. I have around 25 discs. They sound good. What kicked it off for me was the excellent SACD reissues of ABKCO’s Rolling Stones albums.

Harold Bronson

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Yes, vinyl requires effort. I will always contend that digital is the fast food of music; analog is the home-cooked meal. There is a place for both, but at the end of the day, which would you rather consume? It is why people will spend four hours preparing a meal that is eaten in twenty minutes.
That digital fatigue is music being pieced together from ones and zeros. Trust you ears. They know the difference, even if you can’t actually hear it.

Dave Recamp

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I find it surprising that nowhere in your lengthy post do you mention the importance of using a top quality cartridge when playing vinyl. You are right that good speakers are important but the cartridge is what defines the sound. Sound quality is determined there. I’m surprised you don’t know this.

C Hoff

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I do have SACD player and CDs.  It’s a great format and Sony Blu-ray players typically can play the CDs. Stones and Dylan catalogs were not enough to convince the masses to jump in.   There are still new releases periodically.   Check out Intervention Records.  The Flying Burrito Brothers first two and The Church Starfish. Great adds to the SACD collection
Dan

Dan Timmons

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Nothing like vinyl and the proper gear.  In my home office, I have a Technics 1200 turntable into a Marantz 2250B receiver straight into JBL-100s speakers.   Both the Marantz and the speakers are restored.

The sound is so rich, so 3-D, tons of bass with no sub woofer, highs like cymbals are super crisp, etc.  It FEELS like you are in the room with the musicians playing.  Friends bring their vinyl test pressings over to listen on my session as the sound is so pure.

Total cost, roughly $3K.  Best money I  ever spent.  Well, the extra money I spent on my Fosgate audio upgrade in my Subaru is a close second…

David Weitzman

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Hi Bob, I do have sacd. For me the biggest difference between the two is multi channel. Some people don’t even like it. It’s all in the mix. For example Dark Side of the Moon is done splendidly. Jeff Beck Blow by Blow, not so much. There are guitar solos coming from the rear speakers. I like my sound stage to be in front. It’s a matter of taste.

For sound quality I don’t think you’d hear much difference. SACD has been around about 20 years. It never caught on. These are just my opinions. Enjoy the vinyl. Its great. Russ Wilson

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I’m stunned. You don’t have an SACD player? To my ear, they sound the best. You get all the clarity of digital, but with the warmth and punch of analog. Seriously, with your HiFi set up, you NEED an SACD player. To preview, find Hotel California on Apple Music and make sure you’re all set up to playback 192/24 and that’s what an SACD disc will sound like (mostly, an actual disc might be even better).

Love your writing!

Jeff Shattuck

PS – Get an SACD player.

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I’m happy this tech stuff makes you happy. And I’m impressed at your knowledge of it all.
My best moments listening to music happened on cars and on beaches and bedrooms with a.m. radios or low budget record players. But I get it. I’ve played on and produced records and spent thousands of hours in recording studios. It’s delightful when you can hear it all as intended. But back in the day, the big studios would have a low-reach radio transmitter that you could hook up your mixes to, so you could go out to the parking lot and sit in your car and hear what it sounded like in real life.

C’est la vie…..

Wally Wilson
Nashville

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Yes! An old OPPO BDP.  Still working, ’tis wonderful for the SACDs I have.

Brandy Gale

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I enjoyed your comments regarding the Mofi 1-Step Eagles release. While I haven’t heard this particular release, I own a few others (Monk, Mingus) and their sonic quality is mind blowing.

But you’re totally right in saying that the whole premium vinyl movement is a fetish. While I stand alongside you in the minuscule percentage of listeners who listen critically on a home rig (VPI table, Sumiko moving coil pickup, McIntosh phono preamp and integrated amp, Dynaudio speakers), I’m not blind to the fact that the whole thing is a bit crazy – especially in this age of digital streaming convenience.

From a sheer production standpoint, premium vinyl is profoundly antiquated and nearly impossible. To achieve the sonic greatness that vinyl is capable of, there are so many spots in the chain for things to go awry. It really embodies the “weakest link” analogy in every sense. Starting with a well-engineered recording and mastering to getting a well-cut lacquer and then the metalwork (plating, stampers, etc) to the vinyl compound, manual pressing, cooling, sleeving, storage and transport. It is a minor miracle to open a jacket and remove a record with zero issues. There are only a few plants that are capable of consistently achieving excellence – with many more startups who’ve chased the vinyl goldrush without the experience and equipment to deliver quality wax. And don’t get me started on colored vinyl.

But I find the physical activity of listening to vinyl at home tremendously satisfying. During Covid, my record collection provided me the musical connection I was missing from the live experience. The immersive sound of a well-tuned stereo reproducing a beautifully recorded performance transported my mind to concert halls, small clubs and recording studios without leaving my listening chair. It’s not the same, of course, but it’s damn great in its own way.

Regarding formats, I think they all have their place. Vinyl is for critical “active” listening. Well-mastered CD/SACDs on a quality player (which I have) provide a near-identical sonic experience and can be had far cheaper and without the production variables inherent in vinyl – but not nearly as fun. Digital & streaming for discovery, portability and unreleased live recordings.

In an age when there’s never been more competition for our entertainment bandwidth, vinyl is an inconvenient and strangely satisfying investment. Part of what makes it so great is that it’s not so easy to get.

Thanks again and maybe see you back at Middlebury Snow Bowl someday!

Billy Glassner

Big Happy Dinosaur

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There is a lot to unpack here Bob but the test you tried to perform between vinyl and CD has way too many variables to really shine a light on the debate. That being said, from a strictly frequency standpoint, vinyl will never be able to compete in the bass department with CDs.  That’s why the remastered versions of all the old greats, like the Beatles and the stones, gives the opportunity to remix the low end (kick and bass).  On vinyl you generally have to low cut mixes anywhere from 60-100 to get a clean translation to vinyl.  The records would literally be destroyed by the lathe if you tried to cut the low end levels we’ve come to expect in music today.  Did someone say sub bass? Now there are tools that can be used to increase the upper harmonics of the bass so that they can be experienced through vinyl or smaller speakers that can’t reproduce low sounds. Also as far as loudness, and it’s personal preference if it’s a good thing or bad thing, vinyl will never be able to approach the loudness levels and limiting we’ve come to expecting today’s music.  It’s not just a loudness level either, it’s the sound and vibe of digital brick wall limiting.  As far CD quality vs HighRes (anything above 16bit / 44.1 for the sake or argument), the highres files will definitely sound better but again, there are so many variables and you need a system that is sensitive enough to really represent and display the differences between say 96 and 192. Whats your DA converter? What’s your preamp? Is your room treated and tuned? Are you using further software to flatten the frequency response? What is the frequency response of your record player vs your CD player? Cables? Speakers? Etc. And your 750 dollar CD player might not be a great quality benchmark

Also any record that you listen to today has almost certainly gone through multiple conversions between analog and digital, whether that’s through the recording process, the mixing process, or the mastering process.  There are obviously records where that might not be true but I would imagine a lot of this “reissued, remastered” vinyl isn’t being made directly off the “master tapes”.  As for CDs sounding this way or that way, it’s all in the recording, mixing and mastering.  Anything can sound like anything. It’s just vibrations and electricity and zeros and ones.

Anyway. Just some thoughts to bounce around.

-jonny wexler

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You don’t seem like a shed guy.

Tom Quinn

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Bob:  is this a Larry David/Curb Your Enthusiasm episode pitch?

Burt Berman

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I would have hung myself with my bathrobe belt before going thru all that.

Steve Lukather

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I have superior equipment but I can’t operate it. Do you do house calls?

Bill Siddons

Eagles

There was something wrong.

You’ve got to be an electrician to listen to music these days, assuming you don’t take the easy way out and just listen on your phone, which is surprisingly good.

My desktop Sonos app would only see the Sonos system in the house, not the Sonos system in the shed. The music was streaming on the Playbar in the bedroom, what was wrong? After realizing I was seeing the wrong Sonos system, we’ve got two, don’t ask why, it’s historical, I kept resetting the app but I could never log in to the right one, the one in the shed. Tearing what little hair I have out for forty five minutes I ultimately realized my iMac in the shed was on the wrong wifi network, it had defaulted to an inside network as opposed to the much faster one created by the Orbi mesh network, which technically isn’t mesh, but is actually a bit better, not that it’s cheap.

Damn.

Not only did I switch to the Orbi network, I deleted the networks generated by the main router. So no default could happen, so it would be all Orbi all the time.

But I still could not get music on my stereo system. The TV system in the shed worked fine, but not the stereo, what was up?

So I disconnected the Bridge attached directly to the ethernet cable twice, but that didn’t work, but then I remembered there was a Bridge hidden on the stereo rack and I unplugged and replugged that and voila! I can hear music! But then the desktop app asks whether I want to update it and I’m worried it’s going to install the new app which won’t work with one of my old Bridges but I took the risk, and it all worked. I need everything to work. Of course I could have just used the iPhone app, which was up to date and worked fine, but I’m a stickler, I get satisfaction when everything works right, it makes me feel good, it’s that extra one or two percent that gets you to the ultimate, which was what I was trying to achieve listening to this new MoFi Ultradisc vinyl Eagles album, but…

It sounded great, but it sounded slow.

I’d opened the package and the album was on two discs, which surprised me, because it’s barely thirty seven minutes long, but I thought this was just to ensure the ultimate sound, but then, wondering if the turntable was on the fritz, I decided to look, was the vinyl 45RPM? Well, I had to unscrew the turntable compression disc to look and it was, problem solved, or was it? I didn’t see any buttons, could my turntable even play 45 RPM?

I fired up Safari and went to the EAT website. Found the manual. Turns out it can, you’ve got to use a special tool to move the belt to a wider spot on the idler wheel. A SPECIAL TOOL? Where in the hell was that? In storage somewhere. But then I decided to take the risk, I’d already removed the compression disc, now I had to remove the vinyl record and the mat and the plinth and I looked at the belt and decided a round pen should work, and it did, flawlessly, so I put it all back together and the music was playing at the right speed and it sounded INCREDIBLE!

Too often CDs are too bright, there’s no bottom, certainly on the original ones. But just to make sure the vinyl was superior, I pulled up the MoFi CD, I was stunned, the bottom was right there, it sounded…just about as good?

I was completely flummoxed, in this vinyl era, with the craze in full force, shouldn’t the vinyl be a revelation?

So I started to A/B. Over and over again.

Then I realized I had to break out the headphones.

Now I’m using a $1300 EAT turntable, a $750 Sony CD player wherein the disc moves, not the lens, and it’s got its own disc weight and…through the speakers my mind is doing tricks, I decided to go closer, I decided to connect the top of the line $2000+ Sennheiser headphones, and then I started A/B-ing again.

And the CD and the vinyl sounded remarkably similar. But did this make logical sense? The original recording was analog, shouldn’t the vinyl reproduce the music better?

Turns out it did.

On the vinyl the you can hear the bass guitar, you can almost see Randy Meisner picking out individual notes. I kept going back and forth, it was definitive.

And the vocals seemed just a bit more separated and pristine on the vinyl. But really the difference was the background vocals, on the vinyl they were actual people, not just a sound.

But let me reinforce, these two sound sources, the vinyl and the CD, were REMARKABLY similar. The average person would never be able to pick one or the other on a consistent basis, never mind the volume level adding in an extra variable.

So, now since I’d dedicated all that time getting my Sonos system up to speed earlier in the week I decided to stream via Amazon Music HD, CD quality, and it sounded very good, but when I dropped the needle on the vinyl once again you could hear the difference, so…

I emphasize the price of the tools I was using because most people don’t invest this much in their stereo equipment, and inherently get inferior sound.

Then again, there are people who invest a vast multiple of what I’ve got, the tweaks, who are accused of liking the equipment more than the music. And I’m sure this MoFi stuff would sound better on their systems, but…

The floor was shaking. The music was enveloping the complete room. It was up front and center, dominant, it was not a playlist streaming on crappy speakers in the background and I thought of how in the seventies getting closer to the sound was every fan’s dream. And the truth is when you hear Don Henley sing “Witchy Woman” via 45 RPM vinyl you’ll have an experience you can get nowhere else, it’s definitely him, inside the speakers, but…

Do you want to change sides every two tracks?

Do you even want to fire up the big rig? I’ve got to turn on the amp. I’ve got to hit the right source button after the protection circuit does its bit, the phono preamp is on all the time, but I’ve got to turn on the turntable, go through the rigamarole of dropping and screwing down the vinyl and then drop the needle…

Playing a CD is a bit easier.

But the modern way…you just push a button, it’s fast and easy, anybody can do it, even a baby. Turns out convenience is a key selling point. It’s what killed piracy, Spotify, et al, were just so much easier.

And computer music started out sounding inferior, but now you can get CD quality files, even better, and if you’ve got the right playback equipment…

In other words, vinyl is a fetish.

But I was excited breaking the shrinkwrap. I loved opening the box and going through its contents. This is an old world experience, today everything is on demand, the goal is to own nothing. Do humans have an inherent desire to own things, does it speak to something inside our brains? Or is it about feeling superior because you’ve got something nobody else has?

So if you’re on a quest for the ultimate sound, akin to what we were once on in the seventies, buy the vinyl and take a listen. But don’t bother unless your equipment is superior, you won’t hear the difference, which is why the #1 investment you should make is in your speakers. First and foremost your headphones. AirPods are great for walking around, but for critical listening you need something much MUCH better. Or you could start from scratch and invest in speakers and amplification and a way to get the music to them, a turntable, CD player and a Sonos Bridge system.

But the truth is I do almost all my listening at home via my computer speakers, a three-way Genelec system that costs a bit over $1500. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! You’ll never be able to go back to the crap speakers of yore, you’ll wince when you hear the cheap stuff.

But there is a law of diminishing returns.

If you want to get really close to the music, buy the MoFi Eagles CD. If you want the ultimate, if you need the ultimate, buy the vinyl, but you’ll need to be very hands-on, you’ll have to get satisfaction from the vinyl experience otherwise it’s not for you.

I’m still listening… 

P.S. Now I’m reconsidering. While writing this I listened to the entire Eagles CD. And when I was done with it my ears felt fatigued, I decided to drop the needle on the vinyl once again, and it just had a different feel, and there was just a little more definition to every element, and air between them. The bass on the CD was mushier than the vinyl. Maybe it’s the difference between people and machines, analog and digital, vinyl is a pain in the ass but the more I listen to the vinyl the better it feels, it feels human, my ears are definitely not burning out on it. God, it sounds like there’s a band inside the speakers, I can see each individual player, I can pick out their sounds…

P.P.S. I was listening to the CD layer of the MoFi Eagles disc. There’s also an SACD layer, but I don’t have an SACD player, do you?

James McMurtry has a great new album “The Horses and the Hounds” that addresses the world from an adult perspective. We discuss the life of a modern troubadour, releasing music to generate publicity and ticket sales, for McMurtry it’s all about the live show. Despite being self-deprecating, James oozes with insight. This is a chance to get into the head of one of our foremost singer-songwiters.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/james-mcmurtry/id1316200737?i=1000536376920

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

Don’t let people tell you what to do.

There will come a time in your life where your significant other, maybe even someone you respect, will burn out on your vision, which may be faltering to boot, you must not do it their way to salve their anxiety, you must do it your way, otherwise you’ll have regrets.

What is your way? You’ll find out. It’s got to do with feel. Something innate in humans. Trust your inner tuning fork.

I’m not saying to dismiss the advice of your parents growing up. They have more experience than you do. You play their game while you live in their house, I’m sure they tell you that all the time, “as long as you’re under my roof, eating my food…”

But there will come a time when you separate from your parents.

Oh, education. If you’re reading this it’s probably done, but education is important, not jumping through hoops but learning things. Never drop out of high school, today you’re a pariah. And go to college, not for what you learn in class, but for what you learn outside of class, with the people. Which is why you should go away to school, not be able to come home to your parents on weekends, it’s part of growing up. Oh, in addition while you’re at school you’ll realize all the opinions of your parents are not necessarily right, you’ll no longer respect them in the same way, but they’ll always be your parents.

If you’re lucky, they’ll pay for college. I’d tell you not to borrow money for college, but that’s complicated in today’s world of income inequality. But you don’t want to be beholden to the bank, you want to be free to graduate and go your own way, kinda like Stevie and Lindsey, they kicked around quite a long time before they got hooked up with Fleetwood Mac.

So when you graduate from college…

Don’t follow the track unless you want to. You learn great stuff in business school, but if you never want to be in business… Then again, everything is business. But the truth is most everything you learn in business school takes place outside of the classroom. On trips. Oh, that’s another thing, never be a skinflint, it’s a loser’s game. Spend to have the experience, you might never get back there, you might never have the opportunity again. But business school is about making friendships that you leverage in the future. Is that who you are?

Then again, everything is about relationships. You need friends to make your way, to have a fruitful life, to get ahead. But don’t subjugate your personality to get what you want. And one thing you’ll learn is everybody is replaceable, that exec you were kissing the butt of to get a better gig? They’ll retire, or get fired, and they won’t mean anything to you anymore.

Or you could become a professional, a doctor or a lawyer. That was the baby boomer ethos, before bankers and techies made more money. You can go to law school and never practice law and be a winner anyway, because you will learn the game, you will understand the game, and that will pay dividends. But if you go to law school take and pass the bar. Not only for the respect of others, but the key to winning in life is finishing, completing, you never want to quit unless you’re banging your head against the wall ignorantly and can’t see the landscape for the trees.

So, you can be somnambulant, think you’re winning by being a banker or a businessman, but the truth is these jobs take up all your time. You make a ton of bucks, but you may be outside the world you want to live in. The world is full of frustrated doctors and lawyers who really want to be artists. Amor Towles sacrificed decades in finance before he felt comfortable being a writer. He ultimately won, but he lost all that time, and most people can never recover.

It’s almost impossible to do one thing in life. It takes focus, and dedication, and the boasting and posting about it is irrelevant, especially in a world where everybody is hyping themselves. Want a full life? Do the work, keep your head down, people will notice, you’ll be building trust and credibility that you can’t see that will pay dividends down the road.

But if you go down the road less taken people aren’t gonna like it, they’re not gonna be supportive, because you’re attempting to be free while they’re stuck in the game, too scared to take a risk. And when you fumble, because you’re inventing the game as well as playing it, they’re going to put you down, laugh at you, tell you to wake up and fly straight.

And maybe you should. Your heart will tell you to.

But maybe you won’t. Maybe deep in your heart you’ll know the right path for you. It won’t be clear and it won’t be easy but you can see the starting point and you can put one foot in front of the other and try to make your way. And no matter what anybody says, everybody writes the script of their own life. The game is never the same. Everything is constantly changing. So the wisdom of the past may not apply tomorrow.

So if you’re going your own way you have to sacrifice. And that’s really tough in our consumer society, especially as those playing the traditional game start going through the game of LIFE. They’ll be getting married, buying a house, having children, and you’ll appear to be stuck in the same place. And you might be stuck for decades. But if you complain about being stuck, you’re done. If you don’t have the backbone to continue on your own path, stop, immediately, it’ll never work.

And if you have college debt and a spouse and a house and children you may not be able to achieve what you want to professionally. That’s okay if family is the most important thing to you, but if it’s not, you’re ultimately gonna regret it.

So you’ll look for role models. Forget it. Not only is everybody’s path unique, everybody is different. Your skills are different from another’s. You’ll only win if you bet on your skills. Which means play to your strengths, which may be different from your initial desires. It takes a while to figure it out, but you can, because you don’t want to have any regrets.

But life happens, and you’ll find yourself making commitments and getting off the path. Beware. Just because everybody else is doing it that doesn’t mean you should. And the truth is you can live without anything other than food, water, shelter and friends, everything else is superfluous.

And if you do all the above, maybe you’ll wake up in your forties or fifties or even sixties and it will all come together. Ironically, when your old compatriots are getting divorced and hate their jobs and are just waiting for retirement.

Then again, don’t expect kudos. If you can’t pat yourself on the back, you’ll never win. And just so you know, the exhilaration of winning, the good feeling, lasts a very short time, and then you’ve got to do it again, resting on your laurels is ultimately soulless.

As for money… There’s always someone with more. And once you have enough it becomes a competition. There’s nothing wrong with money, but just don’t let it overshadow your dream.

So when you get to the end you’ll still have regrets. Tons of them. You’ll have sacrificed so much. You’ll lament what you’ve lost. What you’ve missed. But what you will have is yourself and your mission, and those are enough to keep you company, to keep you whole.

And never complain about your mission or tell people how hard you’re working. Nobody cares, especially if there’s no tangible success. You’ve just got to keep on keepin’ on.

Bottom line, you don’t want to play the coulda, shoulda, woulda game. You don’t want to look back and say if only you took the risk. You’re gonna lose on a regular basis, you just want to do your best not to lose where it’s important to you.

And only you can judge your path. And only you can judge your success. If you’re doing it for others, stop, you must do it for yourself.

Everybody will tell you to do it differently. Your parents, your teachers…they’ll tell you to conform. Ironically, it’s those who do best in school who do worst in careers. They’re all about jumping through hoops, pleasing some entity, they don’t think for themselves, they just follow the path blindly their entire lives not realizing the joke is on them.

So you’re gonna be different. And you might give up opportunities. You might pass up money. You know why you’re doing it, nobody else might.

And there’s a good chance your parents will never be satisfied with whatever you do.

And there are spouses who waver. They’re supportive and then they get frustrated. Try not to be involved with someone who puts you down. But it’ll be hard when you stick to your guns and don’t sacrifice. Compromise everywhere but where it’s important to you.

And don’t listen to anybody, nobody really knows. That person who made a billion? They might be a great salesman. Are you? There’s nothing wrong with being a crappy salesman, just don’t make it the focus of your life. Everybody who has won wants to tell you how to do it. They write books. And if you read them it’s a good way to lose. Because once again, you’re not them.

And you’ll find your goals keep changing. Once you wanted to be president, now you ask yourself why anybody would want to be president. Once you wanted to be a professional athlete, but very few of them have a successful retirement, they just keep talking about the games they played in the past. Once you wanted to be famous. But that’s not enough. The fame must be the byproduct.

So I’m just telling you one thing. LISTEN TO NOBODY! Everybody will tell you what to do. You’ll be overwhelmed, you’ll have a hard time starting, never mind staying the course. And nobody knows where all the rocks in the river are, no one knows all the pitfalls, everybody’s adventure is different, and the goal is to get to the end and feel proud that you did it your way. That’s what’s satisfying, that’s what makes a life complete.