Respect Thy Path.

A few weeks ago, I read a post that my friend, Lisa (from Synergy Impressions Photography) wrote on her blog (which you can read here, I recommend you follow it). I'll share one of my (many) favorite parts from the post:

Yesterday, I witnessed a long standing goal of mine suddenly become a tangible reality as I unlocked the photo studio yesterday. I sat for a quiet moment and thought about how much work, time, fear, challenges, growth, learning curves, technical purchases, new information and continued inspiration the last few years have afforded me... I smiled. "I reject your reality and substitute my own."

It was one of those things that I could relate to only in my own, seemingly trivial moments: when I held my first Dash & Cooper shirt. Seeing all the core Foundry guys present at the U of U Board of Trustees annual meeting. The post-presentation dinner at Winter Strategy Conference.

To understand the full meaning of aforementioned moments, you'd have to walk a few months or years in my shoes. I think that everyone, on some level, can point to a few experiences in their life and say that is was then - for a brief moment - that they had arrived.

I don't mean "arrived" in the sense that Corporate America's proverbial marketing department has convinced most consumers of their arrival (hint: involves some combination of the following: zip code, location of bank account, tax bracket, vehicle, any membership that has the name "elite", "premier", "gold" or "platinum").

I'm talking about the people that have decided to, as Lisa put it "reject the idea of walking in the grass next to the path most are travelling."

The whole of society makes it easier to buy one's way out of a problem or discomfort - that includes taking a job where you work within tightly defined guardrails. In fact the academic literature has shown that the self-employed, on average, make less than their corporate counterparts. Given that your income is higher and you are largely hedged against the downside risk of making your own decisions it's not hard to understand why that path Lisa talks about is so well worn.

It also helps explain why the seemingly trivial (getting keys to a photography co-op, holding a shirt), means a lot to those who walk in the grass: getting that stuff done is really hard work. The learning curve is steep and long. It involves more sacrifice than you usually think you can make. It affects your personal relationships, your financial situation and requires you to dig ever more deeper for energy, creative intelligence and emotional fortitude.

It's easy to scoff about how easy it is to run a cafe until you actually attempt to do it. It's easy to complain about the price and quality of something purchased by a non-mulinational company until you've actually attempted to deliver it better and cheaper.

Which is why I respect anyone who continually gets up and goes to the whiteboard after a failed business venture: they are doubling-down on their decision to walk in the grass. I may not understand the space you are operating in but I respect thy path. Because once you've tasted the infrequent, punctuated upside of making your own decisions and the constant feeling fear and ambiguity become normal, you can never return to the well-trodden path with guardrails.

There is no stronger drug than pointing to something and saying "I made that." It's a reality that no one can refute or take away from you.

As for having a sense of "arrived", I've defined it as any time that I am able to notice the length of grass beneath my feet and the distance between my and the path that most are traveling. For I too reject the reality society so readily spoon feeds the masses and substitute my own.