Over Your Head?
So, recently I've been thinking about projects being too large for the person trying to complete them.
We are constantly bombarded by the stories of persons overcoming all odds and sacrificing everything for their vision, which then returns their investments either monetarily or abstractly. Those persons are awesome and all, but I don't think that they really reflect the fear or the reality of taking on someone larger than one is.
None of this is to suggest that we should stay within the world everyone can see. We need the artists who ignore their parents' pleas to get a functional degree. We need musicians who hear a song before they can pinpoint a single note. We need authors who can paint our world with words of power and stories of clever truth. That vision and the accompanying struggle to bring it into this world are necessary to us. Everyday I remember this.
But there is still a point where that vision isn't brought to this world, when the project is simply too big. This realization is actually new to me. I stood next to my arsenal of success stories of others to shoot down anyone who would back down from their vision. To me, it was do or be weak. Giving up was a kin to loosing a part of self. Now I see that not everything works like in the stories. There simply is not enough time or enough money or even enough vision for every good idea to become a good reality.
There must be some line though. On one side, you gave up too soon. You didn't know if it could be done yet. You should have waited. On the other, you have given up too much, and you should have seen this end long ago. There is only a small space of respectable retreat. Who gets to decide where that is? Is it the visionary? Is it the family? Is it society? When is the rags part of the rags to riches story? When is someone diluting themselves?
I haven't encountered this dilemma. Part of me hopes that I never will, but then part of me wonders that if I never struggle for a dream, can it be said that I tried to do something great, had a dream, or was even human at all?
We are constantly bombarded by the stories of persons overcoming all odds and sacrificing everything for their vision, which then returns their investments either monetarily or abstractly. Those persons are awesome and all, but I don't think that they really reflect the fear or the reality of taking on someone larger than one is.
None of this is to suggest that we should stay within the world everyone can see. We need the artists who ignore their parents' pleas to get a functional degree. We need musicians who hear a song before they can pinpoint a single note. We need authors who can paint our world with words of power and stories of clever truth. That vision and the accompanying struggle to bring it into this world are necessary to us. Everyday I remember this.
But there is still a point where that vision isn't brought to this world, when the project is simply too big. This realization is actually new to me. I stood next to my arsenal of success stories of others to shoot down anyone who would back down from their vision. To me, it was do or be weak. Giving up was a kin to loosing a part of self. Now I see that not everything works like in the stories. There simply is not enough time or enough money or even enough vision for every good idea to become a good reality.
There must be some line though. On one side, you gave up too soon. You didn't know if it could be done yet. You should have waited. On the other, you have given up too much, and you should have seen this end long ago. There is only a small space of respectable retreat. Who gets to decide where that is? Is it the visionary? Is it the family? Is it society? When is the rags part of the rags to riches story? When is someone diluting themselves?
I haven't encountered this dilemma. Part of me hopes that I never will, but then part of me wonders that if I never struggle for a dream, can it be said that I tried to do something great, had a dream, or was even human at all?