Why Zero Filter Isn’t Real Power

Real talk. When you start making real money and having real success, something sneaks up on you. You get a little cheeky. A little brash. You start feeling like freedom means you can say whatever the fuck you want to say to whoever you want to say it to. The thought is, I built an eight-figure or nine-figure business. I earned the right to talk however I want.

And honestly, for a while, I bought into that.

I thought freedom meant zero filter. If someone pissed me off, I let them have it. If something annoyed me, it came straight out of my mouth. And I justified it by calling it confidence or authenticity or “not caring what people think.”

But I’ve been rethinking that.

Because if every time someone annoys you, you have to react… that’s not freedom. That’s compulsion. That’s slavery. You’re not choosing your response. Your emotions are choosing it for you.

Lately, I’ve been training myself to do something different. When someone’s being a dipshit or doing something really dumb, I don’t immediately unload. I actually let out a small, audible chuckle…just enough that I can hear it myself. Nothing dramatic. A subtle, barely-there laugh. Kind of a low-key, Beavis-and-Butthead-meets-toned-down Peewee Herman moment.

That little laugh is my signal to myself: you’re not obligated to react.

And that’s the shift. Real freedom isn’t the ability to say whatever comes to mind just because you can get away with it. Real freedom is having the power to control what comes out of your mouth and deciding when, how, or if it even needs to come out at all.

Ironically, the more success you have, the more disciplined you need to be with that. Because the ability to restrain yourself, even when you don’t have to, is a much higher form of freedom.