Sep
09
Fear, Failure, Opportunity, Success, and Po Bronson
Because I’m the type of person who gets my wisdom from Starbucks:
“Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”
– Po Bronson
It’s tragic that instead of this being required curriculum at every school in the country, we have to read it on coffee cups.
I think people learn a lot more from places other then school then they would taking 2-6 years of college.
Personally, I didn’t graduate high school and I run my own business and live from my own online income supporting myself and my girlfriend/soon-to-be wife. So I say “fuck school” :)
Killer quote. It’s going on the mirror tonight. :-)
Schools are changing, but very slowly. Until them, take your kids for coffee!
Love it!!! Every high school graduate should have to recite it upon graduation.
I have been locked in that prison – but luckily I escaped before I got too old. Now I’m back in college again, but I still get some of my best wisdom from starbucks cups
Thanks for sharing that – I often find myself getting wisdom when I’m out and about. I just had a conversation the other day about how school didn’t prepare me for fear, failure, success and opportunity – none of the things I deal with now. With school budget cuts going on now in my town maybe there is an opportunity for a new kind of schooling!
Sometimes it didn’t start out as the wrong thing. Sometimes it was something whose time had passed but somehow (by habit, personal esteem/identity, or external influence) the option to move on got lost in translation. Being an attentive and engaged parent to children under 18 is definitely appropriate but not so much at 21, or 41, or whatever.
And not all schools are bad, but all schools are attached to their traditional ways of operating which includes vague promises that if one enters, follows the rules, then one can aspire to success upon which the American Dream is built. (I don’t know upon what the Canadian Dream is built.)
Christine Kane ran a two-part post on “Creating College” this week that I found myself murmuring “amen” to. When I was in university from 2002-05 I was amazed at the tunnel vision so many 18-21 year olds had bought into. “I have to get good grades and get out on time in 4 years.” “I don’t have time for an internship or semester abroad.” “Once I’ve graduated and get a good job I’ll have money and time to do what I want.” They are so wrong on all counts and they looked worried all the time like 80 year olds.
You know, there is ALWAYS a back door. Sometimes you just have to kick it down and bust out.
There…that’s from a successful high school drop out who knows how to change careers when she wants to… I guess we do have a few things to teach the graduates.
Great quote but given some of the large scale Starbucks store closures, he may have been drinking his own KoolAid, er low-fat, decaf Macchiatos.
Naomi,
Po Bronson wrote “What Should I do with my life?” and if you haven’t had a chance to read it, you should definitely check it out. (Do a google search on the title and you can find his site with excerpts).
It’s one of those books that I recommend all the time – it won’t answer the question for you, but it will definitely make you think.
It’s not about the money or the title or the power – they’re all nice things, but ultimately hollow unless you’ve got the passion and relationships to go with it.
What a great quote. I know too many people who are locked in forever.
Not me tho’. I will be flying by the seat of my pants for the duration. :)
If I had read this in school, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
Hey Naomi:
Actually there is an effort ongoing at some small colleges to teach courses in failure. It is becoming rather apparent that we are living in a society, at least in the States, that is becoming adverse to failure.
The one I teach, Wisdom of Mistakes and Failures, is based in part on a book by Michael Gelb, “More Hands Than Balls.” An interesting read on mistakes, failure and juggling.
College teaches you how to be an employee, period.
It’s so twisted that most are brought up to believe that going that route is the safe, secure way. Get the degrees, be a good corporate drone, minimize risks and live happily ever after. Venture out on your own and risk failure after failure–ooooh, that’s too scary, why would anyone want to do that?
Bronson’s quote is a perfect example of why you WOULD want to do that–because that deadly mix he refers to is much more frightening.
Having been both a failure and a success, I would like to propose that Bronson’s quote is utter bullshit.
Sure you can get locked into the wrong kind of success. But it’s just as easy — in fact way easier — to get locked into the wrong kind of failure.
Shoot for success. It’s highly underrated.
After 27 years I went to college for the first time…only lasted for a year. But what a mind expanding year…I discovered a whole new world out there and it taught me to ask more questions (my friends loved that one), read more books that I wouldn’t normally think of and to appreciate even more what’s in front of me. Now that doesn’t mean I still don’t reach out for the brass or silver ring in my case.
The moral of the story (to borrow your words) is that I don’t think, actually I know, that I would have appreciated the quote by Po Brosnon when I was 27 years younger. I probably would have muttered something like…let me have the “praise and money and opportunity” first then I’ll tell you if it’s dangerous. I think it would be better served as a comment on the bottom of the college or university diploma!