Why Do Some Go Where Others Have Not and Never Will?

Some climb mountains because they are there. (It's almost a meme….) but not everyone…..

Think about this: Those who go into the absolute unknown have different motivations. If I don't know what's there...if I can't see where I am going...if I have no visibility as to my direction...if my journey has no clear horizon and my GPS isn't tracking…then what drives me? 

Let's go further down the rabbit hole....(It could be scary.) In a world where so much of what we do and where we go is meticulously planned, put into calendars weeks before it occurs, calculated to within fractions of inches, and timed to within milliseconds....where we can search and find comments and advice on just about anything, the notion of just taking off into the void seems almost...absurd. 

And yet something….

• Drove pre-historic humans to leave their caves and venture forth beyond the shelter of what they knew.
• Drove our ancestors to leave the terra firma (their worldview) and sail alone into unknown waters.
• Drove Copernicus and Galileo to leave the security of facts everyone "knew" was true and bravely wander in the lonely and dangerous wilderness of discovery.
• Drove Marconi, Ford, and Edison to think beyond what was…by imagining what wasn't.
• Drove da Vinci and Michelangelo to create for the future by breaking up with the past.

Think on it even more…Most of these explorers, searchers, creators, originators, initiators, and innovators had no idea of what they would really find, where they would really end up, or where they were really going. How many of us would have followed them? How many of us are ready to follow now? 

In fact, many of the above started one way and ended up going another way. Their peers didn't understand them, and occasionally, they were hounded for merely daring to think about the journey. 

So where does that leave us?

Finally, consider this: What drove Albert Einstein? What made him a genius, a font of new and innovative thinking, and an icon for originality still today?!? Listen….

“I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.” —Albert Einstein 

Clearly, he was clever, and clearly he was gifted. Yet curiosity was what Einstein valued most. It's what he saw as the core of his success. 

What drives you? Are you ready to take the leap, to explore, and to leave your comfort zone? Let me know. How do you see the quest? Where should it lead? 

Would you have recognized that the television would become ubiquitous, or would you have been of the belief (as the New York Times was) that TV would never take off? Do you follow the DIGIBABBLE lemmings or take your own path? 

Do you agree with Einstein?

Remember that GE thought the Walkman would never take off, and some thought the computer was a business novelty.

What would you have thought? Would you have seen the Walkman? The computer? Whatever….Truth is, the business of ideas is the most valuable place to be…Big ideas come from people who think big, and people who think big are explorers and take risks and...you get the picture. SO?!?!?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?