Today's Globe and Mail has a story on Mélanie Watt, who "was going to write about Scaredy Squirrel, who is kinda nutty. And she was going to make it good.
Of course, she didn't know how good. She didn't know it would win several awards. She didn't know it would be translated into six languages. Or that Scaredy Squirrel would be so popular, she would write another one, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, and then another, Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach, due in March, 2008."
These true life stories of success in the face of long odds are so great. Some of the common threads I see in similar tales:
- a passion for something, even though others may not share your perspectives or commitment
- persistence: it really does seem that making good things happen is a longer term process, with first tries, learnings, second tries, more learnings, etc.
- luck: we all need it from time to time, and it seems to come more often at the famed intersection of effort and determination.
So what's your "crazy dream?" What is it you want to do more than anything else, even though it's obviously 'never going to work,' or 'will happen to someone else but not you?'
Maybe 2008 is the year to start thinking about how to tap into your secret obsession.
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1 comment:
Hi Mark,
I found your site through an article on workplace depression.
I am not depressed.
The answer for me was to find my passion and change jobs. At the age of 51 I became a kindergarten teacher! I get to laugh and play every day!
The children, though challenging in many ways (sociallly, academically,behaviourally), keep me happy. It was the change I sorely needed in my life, surviving a bitter divorce. Do I make a lot of money? No.But the joy I find in my job and at my workplace with fine, funny, hardworking people has been the Rx. I needed.
Keep encouraging people!
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