All Out or Nothing?

Ever since I read the Icarus poems, the question has been bothering me: do you go all out, or stay safe?

When I was 3, my grandfather had just finished lighting a candle and blew out the match. At that age, the only thing I wanted to do was to be considered old enough to light a candle with a match by myself. I felt so ready to hold a match and put my hand forward to grab the match so that I could light it again. I went ahead and put my finger right where the flame had just been much too fast for anyone to stop me. I got a nice surprise when I realized that the fire being out doesn't mean the match was cold already.

I took a risk, and I suffered consequences, it's a different story that I didn't have the knowledge to act reasonably. But taking risks is essential yet damaging anyway you look at it. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk definitely didn't get where they are today without taking risks, they have had pitfalls and wins, but because of their risks, they found out what they wanted to do with what they have.  

Risks like the one Icarus took can be damaging to life and living in safety also won't let you get the full experience of making the mistake either. I would rather touch the match and learn the dangers of fire than go without ever experiencing pain my entire life. Because isn't that the point of life, to live and learn to pass down the knowledge? Or is there something we aren't considering?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breaking Gender Stereotypes

     I chose to answer number 6 in the book. A popular Bollywood movie I've watched called "Dangal" follows the life of the Olympic athlete, Geeta Phogat and her father. Before she was born, her father (who made it to national level wrestling but didn't have enough support to make it to the international level) hoped for a son who would fulfill his dream of getting India's first gold medal in wrestling. But instead he got 4 daughters. He gave up all hope of his dream because he agreed with the stereotype that girls shouldn't play sports and especially ones that have a more masculine atmosphere such as wrestling. It wasn't until he witnessed Geeta and her sister beat up two boys - both older and taller than them - that he realized wrestling was in their blood. So he starts training them to be professional wrestlers. This part was already breaking so many amazing boundaries because this was 1990s in India (when many people weren't used to females doing ...
Read more

10 Year Syllabus

There are some unusual titles in this list. While following it, I also made some rules for myself so that I don't get discouraged to stop reading them. The most important of them being to read in no specific order, to give myself an illusion of choice, because we all know being forced to do something never allows us to enjoy the activity. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell My dad read this book and recommended me to read it when I was older. Blink goes through the thought process of untrained minds and almost trains the reader as the book progresses. I tried reading it when I was 11 and put it away due to the sheer complexity. I'm pretty sure this book will have a lasting impact on me, so this is the one I'll try to read the earliest to benefit the most. The Little P rince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry After having taken French for 4 years, I think it is very disappointing that I haven't read the most notable French novel. I watched the movie...
Read more