soxiam

risk vs. remarkable

this ain’t about what’s good or bad. i just see these two things as… well… two different things. and by the looks of most stuff i read these days they’re apparently the same thing. take more risks! leave your fucking job! you can’t succeed without failing! all fine points, to a degree, in the right context, when it leads to something more than just a regurgitated punchline. call it my o.g. way of thinking but it all seems too black & white to me, as if nothing you do qualifies as taking risks if it doesn’t cost your corner office. and i guess that’s fine except i don’t think one should confuse that with or dismiss other fine qualities that makes a person remarkable.

once, so the story goes, steve jobs recruited john sculley from pepsi by saying “do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life or do you want to come to apple and change the world?” in my opinion, sculley should’ve stuck with selling soda and potato chips. he was damn good at it. computers? not so much.

once, so the story goes, i was asked if i liked my job to which i answered “i’m better at this than i’ve ever been at anything else in my life. but i wonder if that’s also a trap keeping me from trying something different.” for the record i’ll probably throw it all away if i could be a zookeeper. but i don’t know if i’ll be any good at it.