It’s been a hard year.
Over the past several months, we’ve been faced with challenges that none of us have had to deal with before. All of a sudden, everybody’s lives have changed dramatically.
We can’t celebrate special occasions with loved ones out of safety reasons. Many of us are struggling to cope with a mix of emotions, such as fear, sadness, and loneliness. It feels like everything is just hanging in the air, full of uncertainty.
When will it end? And what do we do in the meantime?
The easiest and most obvious answer is: wait. Wait. That’s a heavy word.
How to Start Over Again After a Bad Ending
In 1914, a massive fire burned through Thomas Edison’s life’s work.
The flames engulfed five city blocks in New Jersey, including Edison’s lab complex. Fueled by chemicals, flames licked the sky at 100 feet high. The firefighters fought the fire from a nearby building called the Battery Factory, which had been built with his durable Edison cement and produced batteries for experimental vehicles.
Nikola Tesla, a rival inventor, heard the tragic news. He sent his condolences in a telegraph: “As one of the millions of your admirers, I send you my sympathy. It is not only a personal and national loss, but a world loss, for you have been one of its greatest benefactors.”
Newspapers ran articles on the story, clamoring about how the fire was the worst thing to happen to Edison, who was 67 years old at the time. Was this it for him? Was this how he would see all his hard work go down?
The Matthew Effect: Why Small Initial Differences Lead to Large Gaps Later
How would you help someone who is struggling in school?
Imagine you meet a high school student. The person doesn’t seem particularly enthused about school or learning in general. They struggle with understanding concepts in their classes, and their friends also don’t care much for school.
The sad truth is that a student’s fate is set in stone as early as first grade.
The Entrepreneurship Myth: Scalable vs. Non-Scalable Professions
Entrepreneurship. The word itself sounds magical. It conjures up all sorts of wonderful images. You imagine yourself coming up with a brilliant idea, building a great product, and resting on your laurels for eternity. You can earn more income without putting in extra effort.
Employee. What does that word feel like to you? Words such as “bland”, “unimaginative”, and “restrictive” come to mind. You picture someone breathing down your neck, telling you what to do.
Not only does being an employee sound unappealing, but there’s a ceiling to your earning potential. As an employee, your salary is fixed. Yes, you get raises, but they’re fixed and ultimately decided by someone else.
And what about professions that charge hourly rates? A consultant may earn hundreds, even thousands by the hour, but the consultant is still limited by something finite: time. At some point, the person’s earnings are capped by the number of hours worked. The moment the person stops working is the moment money stops coming in.
The relationship between time and earnings is the difference between scalable and non-scalable professions.
Adversity Reveals Your True Character
There is a well-known fable from Aesop concerning an ant and a grasshopper. You may have heard of it:
One fine summer day, a grasshopper was hopping about, happily chirping along without a care in the world. An ant passed by, bearing a large ear of corn to its nest.
As the grasshopper continued singing and dancing, it watched the ant scurry back and forth, carrying large burdens on its back. The grasshopper couldn’t understand why the ant would toil on such a beautiful day.
The grasshopper teasingly asked the ant, “Why not come and sing with me, instead of working so hard?”
Sylvester Stallone On Fighting for What You Want
It was the early 70s, and things were looking bad for Sylvester Stallone.
Stallone was broke, out of work, and struggling. To make ends meet, he stole his wife’s jewelry and sold it. He soon found himself sleeping at the bus terminal in New York City for three weeks.
The worst was yet to happen.
Stallone realized he didn’t have enough money to feed his dog. Out of desperation, he took his beloved dog to the local liquor store and sold it to a stranger for 25 dollars. He walked away, crying.
How did things get so low?
If You’re Not Successful By a Certain Age, Does That Mean You’ll Never Be Successful?
Do humans have a sell-by date? Is there an age at we should give up?
At a certain point, we begin to shed expectations. We receive a few harsh life lessons, see our peers settling in, and receive critical feedback from friends and family. After feeling the squeeze of everyday pressures, we wonder if it’s time to start being realistic.
No more fun and games. No more daydreaming. We need to accept things as they are, like it or not.
If you’re thinking this way, there is an incredible essay that Oscar-winning director Ang Lee wrote in 2006 on his “never-ending dream”. Here is a translation of that essay:
5 Everyday Facts About Life That Are Unfair (Which We Need to Accept)
Fairness is subjective.
When things are going smoothly, everything seems fair. You’re riding high on the clouds, soaking in all the wonderful things life has to offer. But once you hit turbulence and rough storms, you start to feel everything turn against you. It all just feels so…unfair.
The thing is that life operates on its own terms, not yours. And while you might not like those terms, that’s the way things are. Rather than refusing to accept their existence, it’s better to acknowledge them and keep moving forward.
Bad Things Happen When You Ignore Warning Signs
In January 2002, a lone man predicted a natural disaster that would impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Local expert Dieudonne Wafulah had been studying Mount Nyiragongo, a volcano in Congo, for 15 years without pay. He tracked the activity of Nyiragongo and another nearby, smaller volcano for signs of change. Although his equipment had been stolen and vandalized over the years, he persisted in his work.
Then, he saw it. Based on the patterns Wafulah witnessed, Mount Nyiragongo was about to blow. There had been a series of tremors in the earth some months before. Black smoke rose from the mountain. The lava pool inside the crater had shifted and was getting higher.
8 Subtle Signs You’re Settling for Comfort Instead of Embracing the Unknown
Does it ever feel like you’re waiting?
Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the fog to clear, so you can see what lies ahead. Waiting for the moment the pieces come together, culminating in the perfection you spent your entire life waiting for.
If you’re still waiting, here’s news: you’re wasting your time.
Waiting is dangerous. It gives the false illusion that if you’re patient enough, time will reward you with everything you hoped for. It causes you to sit there and let things fall into place rather than doing something yourself.