This is a continuation of a post I made earlier about how failures are "non-narratable"-- i.e. stories our culture does not allow to be told.
As I said in that post, there are exceptions. But even a book talks about failure still has passages like this:
One
of the best entrepreneurs I have ever known is a friend and business
partner of mine..... In describing what an entrepreneur does, he said,
"There are three parts to putting a business deal together. One is
finding the right people. Two is finding the right opportunity. And
three is finding the money." He also said, "Rarely do all three pieces
come together at the same time. Sometimes you have the people, but you
do not have the deal or the money. Sometimes you have the money, but no
deal or people." He also said, "The most important job of an
entrepreneur is to grab one piece and then began to put the other two
pieces together. That may take a week or it may take years, but if you
have one piece, at least you gotten started." In other words, an
entrepreneur does not care if two out of three lights are red. In fact
an entrepreneur does not care if all three lights are red. Red lights
to not prevent an entrepreneur from being an entrepreneur (Kiyosaki, Before You Quit Your Job xx-xxi).
See
what I mean? Thou shalt go for it, regardless. If you are the real
deal, you won't fail. Of course, I realized that my complaint is not
very realistic. Naturally, the people who are successful write books
and the people who are not successful do not. If they did write books,
and no one would want to publish them because no one would want to read
them. I realize that. I guess what I'm driving at is the implicit
assumption that dreams and passions are meant to be followed regardless.
But
the only people who get to talk about the subject are people who have
succeeded because of their dreams and passion. The people who failed
and whose failure was a disaster for those who depended on them don't
get to talk. (Unless they want to comment here, on this blog post!)
I
know exactly what I want to do, but even in my most generous
calculation it doesn't look like it would be lucrative. (Maybe $3,000 a
year, in a good year.) And that doesn't seem fair to my spouse. On
the flip side, my spouse would probably be doing something very
different and equally non-lucrative if it weren't for me! And so we are
responsible instead. And we count our blessings, which are many, but
we still wonder.
So when is it selfish to follow your
dreams? If I reject the absolute idea that dreams must always be
followed, on one hand, and also the idea of that one must wait until
there is absolutely no risk until pursuing one passion, at what point
does the dreamer get the green light? My beloved and I actually have a
little joke about this. He says, "When the house has paid off and we
have $100,000 in the bank. Then you can start." But the interest from
$100,000 would not replace my salary....
Ergo for right
now I will be grateful for my good job and the security which it
brings. I'll be glad that my spouse and I can discuss finances and
dreams. I will hope and plan and take some little steps in the
direction of what I want. And I am going to try not to live only in someday.
But in the back of my head there will always be the reckless voice that
wants to just take the plunge and worry about the consequences later,
like the typical heroine in the American Entrepreneurial Fairy Tale.
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