Why is it that our society clearly celebrates the chance takers, yet we rarely encourage one another to take chances–especially those people closest to us?
Almost all your favorite artists quit the traditional to pursue their dreams. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college to pursue their passions. Regardless if you wanna be in art, or film, or accounting, or a pro athlete, the story is the same.
Go tell your husband that you’re quitting your well paying job to pursue a career in video and film. Or go tell your parents you’re dropping out of college to pursue photography full time and see what they say.
I’m not saying quit your day job on the spot. But I do find it strange that our culture by-and-large celebrates those people who have taken non-traditional paths to success, but yet it rarely encourages people to take those same paths when success is only a distant dream.
What is wrong with us?
Take that chance. And encourage others in your life to do the same.
I’d love to take that chance. It excites me to think about it. The problem comes down to keeping the house and putting food on the table if I jump and break. We will leap anyway.
I think people are like sheep’s, and mostly only thinking about the money. If i ask some co students why there are studying that one particular study they don’t even know, they only know that it pays well.
People don’t find their passion any more and follow it… we aren’t taught that. We are taught to go to college, get a well paying job, and live the “dream”. Living in debt for the rest of my life with “stuff” (i.e., a house with a 30 year mortgage, a new car, a boat, etc…) is not the dream, but merely a distraction. I’ve started getting rid of a lot of stuff that consumed tons of my time and required lots of maintenance… I now use that time to pursue my passion of filmmaking. It’s awesome and invigorating. No debt, I enjoy life and everything around me, and I’m happy. Try it. You won’t want to go back.
Encouragement to pursue ambition is something I feel strongly about and the best I can offer those with whom I come in contact. I often ponder how individuals readily put their faith in any and everything other than themselves to their bidding, when, really, it is exclusively their selves that have the power to bring goals to fruition. No one can do it for you, and it is my faith that a human being striving in pursuit of a clearly-defined goal must succeed. (Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and see where that line of thinking takes you; incidentally, I’m probably riffing Earl Nightingale just a little bit here.) I encourage others to pursue their dreams, taking care to remind them not to be disheartened by fear of the unknown and failure, because, ironically, fear is OK if it doesn’t paralyze you, and failure is just a stepping stone to success.
This is relevant reading for anyone interested: http://cdixon.org/2010/09/12/getting-rejected/
There’s someone who touches on this topic and is acknowledged for it around the globe: Sir Ken Robinson. Check out his book “The Element” for a very interesting read where he touches on famous celebrities taking the path they were meant for, to do something they had tremendous passion for.
It goes without saying that we should all build a career out of something we have intense passion for, as it’s only that subject that will keep ourselves happy. Tie into that the example of the founder of LA’s SodaPopShop (search for his video on youtube) and you’ll see what I mean.
I suppose as long as it is just you affected by your decision then of course people should be encouraged to pursue their dreams. If you have a family, children and so forth who would be directly affected by your choices to quit everything and go with your heart, then I guess that would be unfair on them. Many people have dreams of things and for every person talented enough to ‘make it’ there will be a thousand who share the same dream but have no fundamental talent and will most likely fail. If you fail on your own terms and are the only one left to deal with the consequences of your choices, then of course go for it. If you involve others who never asked for that and whose lives become affected to their detriment then I think that is wrong. By the time most people are in a financial position to pursue a dream they usually have ties and I imagine it is the responsibility weighed against the risk to people they love, where most people find the difficult balance.
Yep Anabelle, that’s where I am now. Taking a chance when I was 22 would have been easy. Now, at 38, with a small family and all the associated responsibilities… not so easy. BUT… I am taking the chance… I just can’t be reckless. At 22 I could have been somewhat reckless and threw myself at this. Now… it’s much, much slower and much more difficult to allocate time for all the things in my life. When I say “yes” to something I am saying “no” to something else. My “yeses” have to count and my “no’s” can’t cause harm to my family.