Today's Draw: Warrior Princess from Tarot of the Sidhe. How big is your vision? Is it bigger than your fear? What buy-in do you need to start creating meaningful change in this world? Or is that not your trajectory in this lifetime?
The Warrior Princess or Page of Wands is one full of youthful exuberance. She is bold and free spirited and sometimes reckless. The words on the bottom of this card are Gift of Courage. I was in a conversation last night about Steve Jobs' life and death and the whole idea behind being the person in this quote, taken from the Apple Think Different ad:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
For all the people who see themselves in these words, how many have the courage to live them? We're socialized to blend. Obey. Agree. And while some may privately, safely toy with rebellion, how many have the courage to put yourself out there, come what may? To risk rejection and ridicule? Throughout history some of those people were committed to institutions, pushed to the fringes, laughed at. Thinking the world is round when anyone can clearly see the sharp edge of a flat earth? Preposterous!
It takes courage to believe in yourself more than you believe the opinions of others...more than you care about what others think. It's easy to be a Steve Jobs when you're already a Steve Jobs. But it's harder when you're a nerd playing with computer parts in a garage with your geek buddy. Do you think those two were snagging the chicks back then? Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in 1976! 1976!!!!!! Other people were talking about a future of personal computers back then, but they weren't making them and programming GUIs before GUIs existed. Other people thought of computers in terms of word processing. But Jobs was envisioning a worldwide web of collaboration back when computers still ran on punch cards. Back then, there was a general belief even among computer people that these machines wouldn't be for the average Joe. And look at us today. We're increasingly wired to smaller and smaller machines. His vision made that happen, not just in a single lifetime, but in a generation. It took the horseless carriage more time to seep into the mainstream.
But would it have ever happened if he and Woz thought, "we're just kids. Nobody will take us seriously. If we fail, people will make fun of us."? My guess is they didn't even go there. They ignored negative noise, focused on the noise of their vision and took the risk of looking foolish. They believed in themselves more than they believed the words of others. And here's the thing, lots of people who feel the same way ARE crazy. They ARE barking up the wrong tree. But that's not a good enough reason not to move forward with something you passionately believe in.
I've said it before on this blog and I'll say it again. The people who have what you want and accomplish what you want to accomplish succeed because they're willing to do something you're not willing to do. And more often than not, that thing is taking a risk. And taking a risk often means putting ego aside and taking the chance you'll end up embarrassed and ridiculed. In fact, fear of ridicule is just not even a consideration for those people. They're more focused on the vision than they are on the noise around them.
So where do you sit on the continuum? Are you comfortable where you are? Would you only be happy if you changed the lives of billions? Or is it enough to change the trajectory of just a few? Don't misunderstand...while I believe everyone CAN be a change-maker, I don't think everyone needs to be or should be. I mean, we all make change in small ways every day...in our families and among friends. But I know extending my ambition beyond those bounds is something important to my path. How about you?
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