Marry a rich girl.

"Marry a rich girl," he tells me. "Some of my friends who moved to this country worked in hotel bars, spending time with rich people. They dress like rich people, even though they don't have money in their pockets. They found rich women to marry, and now they're rich. I move to this country, work in a grocery, spending time with poor people. I dress like a poor person. I marry the cashier who is poor, so I am poor."
"Do you have a plan to get out of poverty?"
"To get rich, I would have to leave my wife and children to find a rich woman. Of course, there are things more important than money."

This is the life wisdom the taxi driver imparts.

We are all playing a role in this life. Sometimes it's a different character we play with certain people: we are one "self" when we're with family, another with friends, another at work, another when we feel judged or lesser than someone else, another on our first date with a new person. How many "self"s do you play?

Part of the process of growing up, becoming "comfortable with yourself", or maturing, is trying on enough outfits and personas to understand which fits you. Eventually, you learn to custom tailor your character to line up precisely with your values. It's quite a feat when fully achieved, pretty much a superpower. I'm sure you've encountered at least a few fully-cohesive characters, people who are simply magnetic because they are who they choose to be, they're fully present, 24 hours a day.

The opposite of this is the person who reacts to everything, real or imagined, living in the past or future. It's: the crazy person on the subway who shouts out at tormentors who are no longer there, the person in a groggy daze just going through the motions, and the person who constantly misinterprets everything said or done toward them like they don't deserve what they already have. We all fall into these patterns of being from time to time. The secret is- realize you've been asleep, reward yourself for realizing it, and come back to the present.

The Taxi Driver gives us this gift- if you wish to be/have/do something you can't/aren't yet, fake it 'til you make it. And even then, all you need is love.

And whether you marry a rich girl along the way or not, enjoy the ride.