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When I was thinking, "This is what I want to do. How do I get the resources to do it?" I was pulling my hair out.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

Everybody makes mistakes, that`s the way we learn to avoid what not to do.  Look to Thomas Edison`s path to inventing the light bulb for inspiration...


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Matt,
That`s actually a far deeper observation than most people contemplate. It speaks to the fundamental differences between eastern and western culture and civilization. It`s the difference between Buddhism and Judeo-Christianity. And it`s the difference between active and passive lifestyles.

Your proposal is to "find yourself" caught up in a river and allow yourself to be swept along. The key is to stay afloat, stay alive, and to avoid struggling against the current. Wherever you wash up, that`s a good location. In many ways, it`s the way of the Tao.

Previous to that, you were thinking that you wanted to cross a river and get to the other side. A particular location on the other side. That means struggling against the current, swimming strenuously, and making certain assumptions about the environment on the other side.

I`ve thought about it a lot. I don`t like the idea of just wandering along, ending up somewhere and deciding to be happy wherever that happens to be. Nor do I like the idea of knocking one`s self out fighting a raging current.

What I`ve concluded is that you make the river work for you. Instead of plunging into the river directly across from your intended destination, you first walk upstream as far as necessary to counteract the effects of the current. THEN jump into the river.

As you swim with the current, nudging along and across the water, the current carries you downstream. By the time you successfully reach the other side, you`re pretty much right where you want to be.

When you think about it, the inventory of "what do I have" fits this metaphor nicely. It only includes the force of the river itself as part of your overall inventory.

And when you split apart the metaphor, I`ll suggest that the "river" and currents of that river translate to the market, and existing market forces.

I like that. I suppose the best course of action depends on circumstances. In my case, I no longer have job security. I need to get somewhere, anywhere but where I am. Pretend that on my side of the river is a forest fire. If I spend too much time walking upstream, I`m going to burn. Anywhere is better than where I am, be that right across the river or across and twenty feet downstream. I think your approach is a nice middle ground. On one hand, you don`t want to waste energy in a lost cause of fighting a raging current to get directly across the river. If you let the current take you to the other side gradually, you use less energy, and once you`re there, it`s a lot easier to walk back upstream on land than it is to swim upstream. So you get to the same spot in the end, with less energy. The latter is bootstrapping, and it`s good for the metaphor because you`re walking on the other side of the river, with boots on. Your proposal is just as good, but it requires more knowledge of the realities of life to accomplish. Whereas in my situation, I get to my destination by happenstance and slowly build up as fate allows, the entrepreneur in your situation needs to know how the current will move him so that he can position himself further upstream. It`s like playing a game of pool/billiards - a game I`m not very good at. I aught to practice my geometry.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

To further take this analogy in different directions, I also thought about your particular version.

What does it really matter whether or not you walk up the riverbank on this side, or on the other side? If you swim across the river, arrive downstream, then, in relative safety (from the forest fire), you can walk upstream over there.

The key is intent.

The way you first presented it, you`re suggesting that intent has no real place in life. It doesn`t matter whether you get one place or another. Wherever you are, that`s just fine, and you`re there. That`s the Tao or Zen system coming out of eastern philosophy.

But I`m saying that intent matters. Not only that, but deliberate intent matters. Yes, the forcible application of effort toward a specific intent can often lead to frustration. But that`s not necessarily a reason to abandon entirely the whole concept of intent.

So the problem becomes how to hold onto an intent (a specific goal), yet not get wiped out swimming totally against the currents and forces of life.

Another thing to keep in mind is adaptability. It`s not impossible that where you arrive after crossing the river could indeed be a very cool place. It could be better than what you thought you saw before plunging into the fray. That`s adaptability.

All we know is that a river exists (life). It has many forces that vary in strength and direction. We also know that each of us has our own personal energy, our own skills, and our abilities.

We can choose to never try to cross the river, living in familiar comfort in the towns that spring up on one side of that river. Or we can choose to adventure, searching out new goals and ideas.

In some historic times, events lead to catastrophes for the towns along the sides of the river. Floods, fires, earthquakes (metaphorically speaking) can wipe out our comfort zone. We either have already learned how to swim, in which case we must cross the river; or, we haven`t ever tried swimming. In that case, we often perish.

The major question is always, "What do I want out of life?"

Some people say they want everything always to stay the same---safe, comfortable, with no surprises. Others say they want adventure, risk, drama and rewards.

If we really wanted to push the analogy, then in your circumstances, you also could become a firefighter. You could stay where you are and learn how to save the towns threatened by the fire. :-)

Realism is all well and good, but you have to be very careful that you don`t confuse it with Pragmatism. In the latter, "whatever works" is the moral "good." That leads to some really serious problems.

On the other hand, to practice realism you have to answer the age-old question of exactly what is real? And that`s where philosophy has utterly caved in over the past several centuries.