Pushing Open the "Narrow Gate": Building a "Super Individual's" Independent Survival Model in the Society of the Spectacle

Introduction: The NPC Awakens – What I Need Is Not a Job, But a Mode of Independent Existence

Recently, a realization has grown increasingly strong within me: what I fundamentally need is not a job, but a mode of independent survival.

For a long time, we've implicitly accepted "employment" as the primary (if not sole) path to existence. Yet, looking back, I've felt like I've constantly been an NPC in someone else's storyline, passively executing tasks within a preset framework. This is unacceptable.

Yes, I must change; failure to change means death. Time may stretch, but I must alter this trajectory. I need to carve out more time for myself to explore areas of genuine interest and initiate a "second curve" in my life. Regarding my current job, I will consciously conserve mental energy and reduce its "cognitive load." Every single day, I must dedicate time to building my independent survival model.

The Allure of the "Solo Company": Lost in the "Spectacle," or Seeking Authenticity?

Coincidentally, the concepts of "solo company" and "Super Individual" are currently in vogue. Many aspire to them, as they precisely tap into a collective desire of our era: to escape the standardized workplace, reclaim personal narrative sovereignty, and achieve an independent mode of living. This includes myself.

However, the more popular a concept becomes, and the more people follow suit, the more we need to maintain a sense of Rationality. Have you ever considered: when the "solo company" itself becomes a celebrated "spectacle," what might be hidden behind it? What would a "common person"—someone with limited skills, who, when asked, "what else can you do?" simply doesn't know—truly experience if they impulsively launch a solo company?

We often see "Super Individuals" showcasing their polished lives on social media: sunny beaches, exquisite breakfasts, freelance freedom, world travel, various salons and public speaking engagements. These meticulously curated images themselves seem to become tempting commodities, drawing us to aspire, imitate, and even consume related courses or services.

Yet, the truth behind the glamor —such as the blogger's anxiety to maintain their image, the pressure of traffic acquisition, the team operations potentially hidden behind content, or the non-replicable initial conditions—is often concealed.

What is the truth? What complete struggles and unmentioned pitfalls would an ordinary person experience—someone whose skills are not easily transferable (like a "veteran coder" in a traditional industry) and who is "locked down" by economic realities—if they, simply driven by a desire for freedom, dive headfirst into the "solo company" wave? Few seem to articulate this systematically.

This, precisely, is a quintessential characteristic of the "Society of the Spectacle."

Guy Debord, the French philosopher, revealed in his book The Society of the Spectacle that capitalism exercises invisible control through social relations mediated by images (the "spectacle"), continuously dissolving individual resistance and reshaping social order.

Under this mechanism, our very perception of "profession" itself becomes a symbolic spectacle created by society. The deeply ingrained question in our hearts, "What else can I do if I don't do this job?" often implicitly means: my personal value seems to be solely determined by a series of predefined professions or roles offered by society.

From the moment we choose our major and enter society, the employment skills we acquire seem geared towards industrial assembly lines, mass-producing "cogs." Our subjectivity is subtly dismantled by society. Society constructs a series of symbolic spectacles that confine our perception of professional possibilities within the existing social division of labor or established job titles. For instance: waiter, programmer, operations specialist, graphic designer, salesperson, designer, purchasing agent, and so on. Unconsciously, we comply with the "profession-identity" chain preset by society. Our social identity, our social labels, seem only available within society's existing scripts. And without a social label to fit into, we would feel lost, experiencing a profound crisis of meaning. This, to a great extent, severely limits our imagination.

Reclaiming the Essence of Creation: Lifestyle Entrepreneurship Centered on "Me"

Perhaps, we need to peel back the layers of the "spectacle" and return to the essence of the "solo company."

I believe that a solo company is essentially lifestyle entrepreneurship. It primarily concerns how you choose to be (exist), and only then, how you choose to do (work). It's an exploration of existence that deeply integrates work and life, a renegotiation and creation of the individual's relationship with society. At its very core, it always revolves around how "you" as an individual create value.

Therefore, forget the static concept of "profession." Nearly every job title you can conceive of today may become obsolete with the advancement of technology and the changing times. "Creation," however, is an eternal capability. It's about how you extract your unique life experiences—your past, your interests, your professional skills, and those things that allow you to fully immerse yourself and lose track of time in flow states. Find it, refine it, and then share it.

Haven't found that one thing that ignites your passion to the point of obsession yet? That's fine too. To experience, to collide, to experiment, and even to fail—these are all forms of creation in themselves. But the key is, you must act. As I often remind myself: Don't go searching for your mission and passion, because they are often made through action, not found through searching. This is the core essence of Self-Drive within the Zenvel philosophy.

The Logic of Value Exchange: Solving "My" Problems to Liberate More "Mes"

Humans strive to imbue life with meaning, but we also share common needs and desires (such as for freedom, a sense of value, and connection). These collective aspirations converge to form a kind of collective unconscious. The concepts of "solo company" and "Super Individual" have, by chance, been pointed towards paths to a freer lifestyle for individuals, thus resonating widely.

This implies that your problems and confusions are very likely not isolated; they might be systemic, not solely belonging to you, but rather experienced and expressed through you. And you, fortunately, have perceived them.

Since a "solo company" is about commercial survival, then money is an equivalent of value. Ultimately, this is a question of how you exchange value with the world. The answer might be simple: Solve a problem, and distribute the solution.

And the protagonist in this process must be you. How do you first solve your own problems, and then share and convey that solution (whether it's a product, service, or content) to help more people who are in a similar situation as you? The deeper I think, the stronger this intuition becomes:

The problems I face are not entirely unique to me; they are likely systemic. There must be a significant portion of individuals currently facing similar circumstances as I am. My obligation is to solve my own problems and then share the solutions to liberate more "mes."

This, perhaps, is the most authentic and sustainable starting point for a "solo company."

The "Super Individual's" Systemic Challenge: A Betrayal of One's Own DNA

If we define a "Super Individual" more specifically in operational terms, it would roughly be: an individual possessing the full operational capabilities and corresponding economic output of a small company.

For an ordinary person to become such an individual, they typically need to be able to transform their knowledge or skills into replicable products or services, and establish a relatively automated operational system (including customer acquisition, delivery, payment processing, etc.), ultimately achieving sustainable income independent of single platforms.

Each of these steps presents immense challenges: how to productize? How to automate? How to consistently acquire customers? 99% of people will likely get stuck here. This demand for "full-stack capabilities" far exceeds the expectations that traditional education systems and social divisions of labor place on individuals.

From a capability structure perspective, a "Super Individual" needs to simultaneously manage at least four core functions: Product, Traffic (Market), Operations, and Delivery. This is a multi-threaded, cross-domain processing capability, which is, to some extent, "anti-human nature." Most of us are more accustomed to solving "deterministic" problems along "known paths," much like a "single-function module" in factory settings.

To connect so many different aspects requires immense willpower (Self-Drive), astute decision-making (Rationality), efficient execution (Order), and a tolerance for risk. This is not merely a challenge of skills, but profoundly a challenge to mindsets and cognitive inertia. Human cognitive inertia seems to be a survival strategy hardwired into our DNA, whereas becoming a Super Individual is akin to a "betrayal" of one's own default settings.

Perceiving and breaking through one's habitual patterns is like completing an upgrade of one's own operating system. This is difficult, requiring continuous reflection and deliberate practice, but it is a long-term mandatory course on the path to true independence. This is precisely the core area that the Zenvel system aims to explore and empower.

The "Narrow Gate": Pushing Inward, Breaking Free from the Spectacle's Constraints

So, this challenging path to becoming a "Super Individual"—if it sounds so difficult, why choose it?

Perhaps, we can liken it to a "Narrow Gate." It points not just to the scarcity of capabilities, but more profoundly to the freedom of breaking free from the spectacle's constraints.

This metaphor originates from André Gide's novel, Strait Is the Gate:

Strive to enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I regard "Super Individual" and "Solo Company" as a "Narrow Gate" not only because they demand a higher combination of individual capabilities, but more so because this path is essentially an inward exploration and an extension of oneself. On this journey to authentic self-realization, it cannot be precisely predicted externally; there are no clear maps or standard answers, and even the definition of "success" must be written by yourself. On this path of being "uniquely you," there's truly no one competing with you. Thus, it is a narrow gate—only you can define its existence, and only you can forcefully push it open from within, breaking free from society's predetermined "possibilities" for you.

As the saying goes: The difficult path is never crowded.

The Narrow Gate is a door pushed open from within; what lies beyond, no one can tell you in advance. But walking through the Narrow Gate might be the only chance for ordinary people to break free from preset scripts and claim their autonomy. Finite games emphasize winning or losing within competitive boundaries, while infinite games pursue "continuation" and the expansion of boundaries. Pushing open your own Narrow Gate might just be the start of your infinite game, leading to a broader, more authentic freedom. Perhaps then, you'll discover that the "Narrow Gate," seemingly confined by the spectacle, is not so narrow after all.

Conclusion: Breaking Free from the Cogs, Building a Mode, Becoming Your Own Scriptwriter

Why does society seem not to encourage, and even subtly restrict, the widespread emergence of "Super Individuals"?

A deeper reason is that if everyone could easily become a self-sufficient Super Individual, the power mechanisms of the Society of the Spectacle would completely collapse. It is precisely through this pre-designed institutional framework that "most" people are designed to be orderly platform plugins or social cogs. This might also be one of the deeper reasons why many feel their skill structures are singular and not easily transferable.

Understanding this is not about opposing anything, but about making a clearer choice for oneself—no longer being content as an NPC, but becoming the scriptwriter and protagonist of one's own story.

What you fundamentally need is not a (better) job, but a mode of independent survival.

And the first step to building this mode might be to return to that most fundamental question: How do you solve your own problems, and then share that process and solution to empower more "mes" who are exploring alongside you on this path?

This, perhaps, is the beginning of pushing open that "Narrow Gate" and setting that "flywheel" in motion.