I had a meeting with a bunch of players in a venture I have been working on. We were talking about what roll I could play and I expressed that I could be good at 1 thing but I really don’t like to do it. I am good at another thing that I actually enjoy, and that was the roll I was leaning towards. An old number cruncher laughed at me and said “I like to play guitar, but you don’t see me doing it for a living….” I looked him in the eye and said “You don’t play guitar for a living because you don’t have talent and you have never done the work to develop it as a skill. It’s not my fault you gave up and went to work. It’s not my fault you hate the world because you can’t do something you even like for a living.”
I don’t have the audacity to be upset with the world or ask somebody to pay me to do something I haven’t done enough work to not suck at or something I have zero talent to do. I respect myself enough to do things I like to do, which tend to be things I am actually good at doing. I also respect other people’s money enough to work hard and stay in my lane with work so I can provide a service that has value to the marketplace.
When you are a miserable due to giving up on the dream, that is your deal and you are just an asshole if you take your failure out on the world around you. If you think anyone owes you because you quit, you are wrong. The misery that you made is what you deserve.Everything you get is due to your actions or inaction.
Let’s say you gave up already. You just bumped into this article and you feel like a failure. It’s not where you are right now that will define you, it is where you end up. You can get back in the game at any point and start living according to your dreams, wishes, wants, skills, and talents. If you are willing to do the work and stay grounded with self-awareness, you can create a life by your design. It is never too late to start, it is not over until you quit completely or you are dead.
Misery is a choice. Everything is a choice. Somebody posted on my social feed, what about juvenile leukemia? OK, kids don’t give themselves cancer. But we all have choices in how we live no matter what the world throws at us. Kids are really amazing and resilient. Kids with cancer still find a way to smile and have hope. These kids are dying or going thru horrendous treatments to live and they still find ways to be happy. So many of us are totally healthy and gifted but live as if we have a terminal illness, when in reality it is just a job we hate.
Have some respect for the real terminal patients and live your life the way they can’t.
It’s not over, go live your life. Stop coasting, stop complaining, and stop wishing. Make it or take it, that’s it, no other real choice of value exists.
Brian Wright
www.brianwright732.com