How much inspiration is needed to pursue your dream?
I don’t really care if you read this. I’m feeling inspired and will keep writing articles and post interesting things. It’s funny to think of it this way, but many of my articles feel like journal entries. I write down my thoughts. They’re basically unrefined and raw. It’s difficult to know where they’ll go, or how they’ll end. What if I was literally writing a journal, but somehow I had no idea that the entries were being broadcast to the whole world? That would be crazy. Maybe that’s what its like to write a book. But in this sense, part of me doesn’t care if anyone thinks these posts are interesting. But of course I really hope you do find this interesting. Helpful even.
So anyway here are my thoughts as of today: even if these articles and posts don’t make their way into anyone’s mind space, it doesn’t matter, this is therapeutic for me to write and express myself. It’s also practice in a way. But I do want to do something outstanding, something extraordinary in my life. I am not just a cog in a corporate gear (an affirmation). Maybe this is (currently) just a simple blog based on a (currently) simple man’s thoughts. But these posts will hopefully be a stepping stone to something bigger. A drop in the ocean that builds and creates a tsunami halfway around the world. And who knows? This blog may very likely be available to everyone for the rest of time on some server in “the cloud”.
What do you think it takes to be memorable? I’ll bet most people will probably only be instrumentally memorable for about a year after they’ve passed away. Future family generations will remember your name for 50 years, probably even 100 years. But they sort of have to keep track of the family tree, don’t they?
But what do you think it takes to be memorable outside your family for 50 years? In the year 1970 (roughly 50 years ago), Wikipedia lists Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Charles de Gaulle, Abraham Maslow, Sonny Liston, Napoleon Hill and Bertrand Russell among around 200 notable figures that passed away that year.
What about 100 years? In 1918, Anwar Sadat and Czar Nicholas II and his family were among the names of the deceased for that year.
500 years? 1000 years? I didn’t recognize any of the names of the deceased in 1518, but one entry caught my eye: apparently several people passed away due to a dancing mania that lasted for weeks in Strasbourg, France. They literally danced until they died. For 1018, I didn’t recognize any of the names, but Wikipedia lists six people (all political rulers of some sort) that died in the year 1018.
A cog in the corporate gears would be lucky to be more than just a name remembered by their descendants. Cogs get used up, worn down. They serve their purpose and are then discarded.
As I write this, the movie Shawshank Redemption comes to mind. Great movie. And that rock hammer that Andy Dufresne used to chisel his way out of wrongful imprisonment. That metal rock hammer was totally worn down by the time he got out. They found that hammer in the pond at the end of the long drainage pipe outside the jail where Andy discarded it. But I’ll bet that if Andy found that hammer several years after he dug his way to freedom, he’d have more appreciation for that hammer than a CEO has for lifelong employees.
Who among the world today do you think will be remembered for 100 years after his death? Bill Gates? Warren Buffett? Steve Jobs? Elon Musk? Donald Trump? Barack Obama? A US President raises an interesting point: simply being president guarantees some place in history. Doesn’t matter if you’re a good president or a bad one. A president’s entire story will be available for the rest of time. And only time can tell whether the president was good or bad.
There are probably a million stories worth knowing about leaders from history. I recently watched a documentary about Commodus, the only son of Marcus Aurelius. Pretty good production really. Roman Empire: Reign of Blood basically showed how Commodus never really grasped what leading a nation was all about. Long story short, he actually led the Roman empire for a relatively long period, but obsession with his own legacy, his desire to be well-liked, and his heightened sensitivity to any criticism ultimately led him to fail in spectacular fashion. And now Commodus, who died 1,826 years ago, is remembered mostly for ushering in the fall of Rome. He was featured as a pathetic and spiteful tyrant in the academy award winning movie Gladiator in the year 2000.
I want to do something good, something truly memorable and valuable. I want to put my mark on the world. I want my children’s children’s children (etc.) to not only remember me, but be proud to have me in the family. I’d like to write something profound. They say that there’s artwork inside everyone. So I keep writing these entries. Thankfully, it’s a safe space that no one’s really paying attention to.