There once was a boy who dreamed big dreams.
He dreamed of going to college majoring in biology with the hopes that he wanted to become a pediatrician. But, failed his first semester of college.
He continued throughout college, but continued to be placed on academic probation.
Though he dreamed, he experienced many failures that prevented him from achieving his dream of just graduating.
What started out pursuing a medical career ended up just a dream towards graduating.
If you haven’t figured it out, this story is referring towards me.
Now, I want to be clear that I didn’t purposefully place myself on academic probation. I tried my best, and due to certain circumstances out of my control it happened that way.
But, throughout my college years I was very observant regarding the word success.
Observing my surroundings, I wondered why is it that there are people out there in the world who don’t attend college, and they are successful? Why is it that there are business leaders, actors, musicians and people who have dreams that don’t make it?
And, those people who work towards their dreams; and win usually don’t have college degrees. Furthermore, no matter how hard a person works it will NEVER work out.
Over these years, I have tried different methods and different programs working towards different goals; but most of them don’t work out. Why?
The nonsensical common answer is it wasn’t meant to be. But, that doesn’t provide a logical point of view. Personally, I have found that the reason why certain things don’t work out is because there is more than one answer to success.
In other words, we let people tell us how to be successful rather than follow our intuition and reflect upon ourselves why we aren’t successful. I have learned a valuable lesson that each of our own experiences will usually never work on other people’s lives. Why? Because our own experiences were made for our OWN. Our own experiences can’t account for all the variables that most people experience. Our own experiences can’t predict or can’t teach others how to live their life. One person’s life doesn’t transcend other people’s lives; otherwise, we would all be successful. In other words, if going to college is the key towards success than why is it that more than 70 percent of university students are in debt; and can’t find jobs?
Just providing one example, our own bias provides a myopic viewpoint towards life.
Artist, Rag ‘N Bone Man wrote a song that provides the depth of tactility that my words provide. That song is posted above.
Sometimes, it is hard to find out our own successful path because we are programmed since birth to want to follow rather than lead. There are many good books out there on the market that teaches people how to reprogram their minds to lead rather than follow. As Dr. John C. Maxwell philosophy states, “Everything rises and falls on leadership”.
It is important to remember that success does have more than one answer. As Steve Jobs quoted, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”.
Learn to innovate. Learn to design. Learn to lead.
This is a principle that I wanted to reflect upon. This lesson is something that I look forward to bringing into the new decade, and leading with it. I hope to lead with the mindset that there is always more than one answer towards success.
An important reflection before I hit 30.
Journal's note: Next week, I will be talking about how water and oil don't mix; and how this metaphor relates to what I have learned regarding business.
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