Changing My Mind About Sticking to One Path

For a long time, I thought you had to do one thing, get good at it early and then that's it, you just keep going, that's the only way to win. Then I'd look at people like Tiger Woods or Warren Buffett and think I had really messed this up. They knew what they wanted as kids, I had no clue. I kept trying new things, often repeating things I had done earlier. I always thought I was falling behind.

Sourcing

Then I learned some things about Steve Jobs and his early path. It wasn't clean or focused, and it included some pretty big diversions. He dropped out of college. He traveled through India. He took a random calligraphy class and it turned out to be probably the most important class he had taken. At least, it made a difference in the design of Apple products. So I knew how to look at being an entrepreneur. It isn't really always neat and linear to start, even if someone says they knew what they wanted to do since they were a kid. I like the randomness, how a class he had seemingly no purpose for becoming important, when it was created.

I began to see that in my own world. Things I picked up without thinking, like when I was editing videos or learning basic code, ended up leading to all sorts of unexpected help. It’s not like I learned these things so well, I just dabbled and moved on. But they were still there.

I also noticed that I felt better when I was learning something new. Even if it was something small. Like cooking something I had to google or figuring out how to fix a bike. Those days were longer and my sleep was deeper, like I was awake. Adhering to the same thing all of the time began to be something I deliberately avoided. Even when I was making progress, it felt wrong in my sight.

Now I’m beginning to think I could be right and that drifting a touch of here and there might be part of this. That even random and meaningless attempts of trying something new, also develops something beneath, not necessarily a straight line but still direction. Still a well lived life that adds up.

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