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Biting Off More Than I Can Chew.
One of my earliest memories as a child dates back to a summer I spent in the Philippines. I was riding a big wheel around the complex my relatives lived in and like many kids my perception of my own awesomeness was majorly skewed. You see, I thought I was really fast on that big wheel. I would run up to it, jump on and pedal like a mofo. Since the tires were plastic, my little legs would spin the wheels around for a bit before they found traction and propelled me forward. In my head this meant I was fast. Real fast. Gone with the wind fast. The Roadrunner’s feet always spun around in place for a few seconds before he zoomed away from the Coyote right?
I didn’t think anything could catch me. Not even my cousin’s 3 vicious dobermans. Anyone with half a brain can see what a major clusterfuck this is heading towards. Positioning my big wheel in the perfect place for an exit strategy, I picked up a couple of rocks to toss at the dobermans. What can I say, I was a jerk of a snot sometimes. Awesomeness came with age.
Emitting an obnoxious roar that only little boys can, I reared back for a throw. I chucked pebble after pebble at the dogs to get a rise out of them. And once they took notice of me, oh man… it was on. I leaped onto my big wheel, spun the tires as fast as my little legs could spin them…. and got no where. No where. 0-3feet/second in about 30 seconds. I was screaming my head off as I rolled slowly down the street with the dobermans running alongside me growling and snapping away. Lucky for me, my cousins came rolling by on real bikes to save me.
I didn’t really have a moral to this story, but here I go pulling one out of my ass.
When you’re younger, biting off more than you can chew comes naturally. It’s how you learn. You stumble, you fall, you fail and more importantly – you learn. That’s how you learn basic skills like riding a bike. Swimming. Hotwiring a car. Kidding about the hotwiring. Sort of. Hopefully as you grow older you don’t lose that propensity to bite off more than you can chew. Not only is it how you learn, but it’s also how you grow as an individual. Character is forged in the fires of these challenges. If you don’t learn to mitigate and accept risk you’ll make about as much progress forward as Hellen Keller on a bicycle.
In case you haven’t guessed it, I’m a huge proponent of biting off more than you can chew. I feel like if you don’t, you risk stagnating. Color me diarrhea red, but stagnating in any manner blows. Personally, professionally, emotionally, mentally – if you’re stagnating in it you’re blowing something. Biting off more than you can chew, reaching beyond yourself, kicking the ladder out from under yourself – doing these things forces you to improvise, think quickly, innovate. If you can be smart about it, and if you’re lucky – you may find yourself replicating that success. When you think about it not only does this method apply well to you as a person but it lends itself well to business too.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison
Impromptu Introduction.
It’s definitely painful watching myself at this juncture. I’m making it a personal goal to improve vastly by being more diligent with this facet of self-improvement.
I’ll allow myself to speak for myself:
Clean slate.
I’ve struggled for years trying to find my voice on topics that I care about. I would write under different pseudonyms on different blog sites. Writing about whatever came to mind. I wrote about dating, tattoos, musical tastes, love, etc. etc. With my own personal site I’ve been locked in an endless debate with myself. Do I just put it all out there? Do I try to stay more professional? Should I only talk about web development? How personal do I really want to get?
It took me a while to realize that the answer to that question is the same answer as the question: “In Empire Strikes Back, what substance was Han Solo frozen in?”
Confused? The answer: “Who gives a shit.”
I’m just a guy trying to make the best of what he’s got. Playing the cards I’ve been dealt, I’ve managed to work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever known at some of the bigger companies you may have heard about. I’ve laughed at stupid jokes and been laughed at for making stupid jokes. I’ve loved and I’ve lost love. I’ve gained many friends and lost quite a few along the way. Somewhere in there I’ve managed to cofound my own company WebMocha. I’m always down to listen to a friend in need and I constantly remind myself to keep my own promise to look back and offer a helping hand to those I can.
It’s a crap ass world if you choose to look at it that way. Like many of you, I fight the good fight daily to refuse to see it in that light.
I want to get better at documenting my opinions on things because I’ve got awesome opinions. Just a few of the many things you can expect my opinions on : self-improvement, technology, my dogs, nature, endurance events, crossfit, movies and society in general. I won’t claim to have all the answers to success in all these realms, but I want to document my approach to them so that maybe somewhere out there someone can avoid the mistakes I make and share in the successes I do find.
So here we go.
