But I am wondering.
See, I get the distinct impression that the stories of people that achieve
their dreams are presented like they won the lottery. It just took a lot of luck. In some cases, it took a heck of a lot of
work, but also a lot of luck. I’ve heard
many celebrities glibly say how lucky they are to do what they do. But the premise I want to question is: was it
luck?
Luck has that unfortunate connotation that the outcome is in
the far end of the statistical distribution of outcomes. Oh crap, my mathematician is showing…maybe a
picture will help:
Now I’m kinda guessing at the relative positions of these
things, but I think you get the point.
If it takes luck, it just ain’t happening to normal people. And if it ain’t happening, why bother?
So I am beginning to think that the real reason that so few
people (relatively speaking) achieve their dreams is that few people are
trying. As much as we think that the
dream achievers are just lucky, for many of them it took persistence, patience,
and skill to get to the point that luck took over. And if luck didn’t shine on them at that
point, eventually it would. So I really
think in the grand scheme of things, luck isn’t a factor to consider. I believe that you have to be fearless.
But my goodness, who am I to say anything about being
fearless and achieving dreams? After all
I still work in a cube. Well, I may not
have a story akin to being discovered as an artistic talent, but I do have two
short personal stories about how being fearless helped a dream come true. Or at least to get a good outcome.
The first is a rather recent occurrence. Earlier this year, the company I work for replaced
the manual paper towel dispensers in the bathroom with automatic towel
dispensers that operate when you wave your hand in front of a scanner. More hygienic I believe. I didn’t really mind the change but there was
a little bit of a learning curve. Something
like, “Where’s the scanner?”
However, recently I noticed the dispenser getting a little
sluggish. No, not just a little – a lot
sluggish. Like it was slowly going to
sleep. Or very bored. I concluded that the thing must be battery
powered because if it had direct electricity, I am sure that it would not be as
sluggish. In any event, I figured it
needed batteries. So I thought of
speaking up for the little guy since he has no voice.
I was a little nervous, which might seem silly to you. See I’m scared of what people might say or
think about my ideas. The idea that I
had was very simple: a sticky note on the dispenser that read as follows:
“Feed me batteries, please.”
I thought that it would be a good laugh for anyone annoyed
with the sluggish machine and, maybe, the janitor would get a clue that the
batteries needed to be changed. But I felt
a little scared to do something outside of the box. So after a quick pep talk with myself, I put
the sticky note on the towel dispenser.
Later that day, after the janitor came by to clean the bathrooms, nature called. When I visited the bathroom, to
my amusement, my sticky note was gone. Either
the janitor tossed it away with little regard to its contents or the machine
was fixed. And to my further amusement,
it was the latter! The paper towels came
out with extreme vigor just like when it was first installed.
I have to admit that this story is trivial. But for me, it was a little scary. And by being fearless, I got a good outcome. One other quick story:
There was a boy who stood in front of his exhibit at a
science fair. He was bored out of his mind. Set up next to him, there was a girl who sat in front of her exhibit. She was bored out of her mind as well, but he didn’t know
it. Eventually they found out that they
were both bored, so they chatted and kept each other company. It was getting towards the end of the day, and
most of the judges were gone. But they had to stay stationed in front of their
exhibits in the off chance some judge would show up. At this particular fair there were students
from elementary school through high school.
The boy thought of an idea that would be a laugh.
“Hey why don’t we go pretend to be judges, you know, for the
little kids,” he suggested.
Without hesitation, “Sure!” was his new comrade’s reply. This took the boy by surprise, because he
would often come up with ideas but never follow through with them. He would think it an idea, play with it a little
and then let it die.
“Really?” he said trying to find his way out of the skit.
“Sure!” So with a
little hesitation and really poorly honed thespian skills, the boy and girl
spooked a couple of kids by pretending to be judges. They probably didn’t really fool anyone, but it was fun nonetheless. And thus began a beautiful friendship. In fact, that is exactly how I met my future
wife. And I bet that if I, Sven Edsson,
did not rise up to the challenge of being a science fair judge, I probably
would not be married right now to this wonderful woman.
Until next time, I hope everyone has a lot of luck and wins
the lottery every time. As for me, I’m
going to work on not being scared.
“Fear not, for
I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened
thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my just one hath upheld thee.” Isaiah 41:10 (Douay-Rheims)
God bless,
Sven
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