There’s a quote in „Whisper of the Heart” (1995) / „Mimi wo sumaseba” (1995) which I like:
„All right, Shizuku, go ahead and do what your heart tells you. But it’s never easy when you do things differently from everyone else. If things don’t go well, you’ll only have yourself to blame.”
Thoughts on it?
- I remember on class in college, when, at the very end of the course, the last time we would ever have a class with that teacher, the teacher, probably exasperated by my lack of following a set of rules, told me: „Do it like everyone else!”.
- I think the first rule in life should be like the first rule in marketing: „Differentiate yourself!”. Sure, it’s not enough to be different, you also have to be good.
- I like the basic principle of Blue Ocean Strategy (I haven’t read the book) – „The book presents analytical frameworks and tools to foster an organization’s ability to systematically create and capture „blue oceans”—unexplored new market areas.”.
- I have memories in my mind, quite a lot of them, when I tried new things and failed. Annoyed people, upset some people, not getting results, disappointing people, disturbing, never at ease, never at peace. On another hand, sometimes things worked out. Tried, pushed it, insisted, went through the window when the door was closed, coming back. At times, this was successful for me.
- Do I blame myself for failing? Yes! Do I blame myself for not trying? Not so much. And that’s a problem, you see – I tried something, it didn’t succeed, „Ah, you’re to blame”. But the blame should be on not trying, on staying at your place, on not caring enough, on not investing energy, time and effort to change things. I shouldn’t blame myself for not succeeding, I should blame myself for not trying.
- Is Nike’s slogan – Just Do It. – a worthwhile approach? I’m not sure, sometimes you’ll fail, sometimes you’ll go into the red ocean, you can’t go all the time in the blue ocean, sometimes it’s better to just stay put and prepare, rather than just acting, but for most of the times I think yes, this is the approach – act, try, push, not aggressively, not with force, but also not with a weak hand, also not just with the intent. You need to do stuff, fail, take the hard and difficult road, meet some obstacles, and see how you continue from there.
- I believe in a paradoxical solution – I don’t think doing things differently for the sake of it is the optimal solution, all the time. „People eat, I won’t eat. People breathe, I will stop breathing. People do good, I will do evil. People have a wish for the better, they hope, they dream, they love, I will not do any of that. People want to be happy and live 100 years, I will not do so”. It’s not enough to just say „If the majority of people go for X, I will go for the negative X, which is minus X (-X). All the time, I will be opposing the general path”. That’s not a viable solution.
- Sure, you can blame yourself if you take an alternate path and don’t succeed while doing so. That’s the negative part of it. But, on the positive part, you’ll surely be more engaged. If everyone writes a test for an hour in an hour and you only do it in 30 minutes, if everyone checks their answers twice before handing in a test, and you just hand the paper without ever re-reading what you write, if everyone first reads the questions very attentively, while you just right on them, and so on, you’ll likely see two results: you’ll be very attentive when you write, and you’ll be in 100%-engaged mode (1), and you’ll also tend to fail more than the average person (2), but, most importantly, next time when you’ll prepare for a test, you’ll focus more on learning, so you won’t be nervous to just hand in a test (3). I used to do this myself – finish a test very quickly, don’t re-read the questions if I were positive I’d get a good great, even if not a perfect 10, and just leave quickly. Generally, I was in top 5% of people who finished a test quickly, quite a few times being the first to hand in a paper. I did have some poor test results due to this, but they were the rare exception, and most of them I don’t think I would have improved a lot by sitting one hour and thinking of solutions. Interestingly, I learned a lot about doing this about really focusing on things. If I really focused for 30 minutes, or so, later on, in life, I would find it easy to focus on other things. And, also, by working quickly, I generally didn’t have a problem in producing large amounts of outputs in my work life (later one), while in school I rarely if ever had a problem with „not enough time”.
Another quote:
“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask „What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
― Erin Hanson
Another one:
23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
And another one:
The Parable of the Bags of Gold
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
New one:
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
A new one:
Desigur, raţionamentul eroului papinian: îl iubesc pe Hristos — Hristos ne cere să ne jertfim pentru El — care jertfă poate fi mai mare decât a renunţa în veci la El? — să comitem, aşadar, acele crime şi netrebnicii care să ne deschidă cu siguranţă porţile iadului, este cât se poate de logic. Atâta doar că nu este decât logic, prin urmare dement.
Ca însuşire principală a omului, călugării ortodocşi nu socotesc nici bunătatea, nici inteligenţa, nici dragostea, credinţa, răbdarea, evlavia ori sfinţenia, ci dreapta socotinţă, care este o virtute foarte complexă şi greu de exprimat în cuvinte. (Are o formulă tot atât de vastă ca polimerii de bază.)
(source and details »; from Nicolae Steinhardt – Jurnalul fericirii)
