I feel like a lot of people have some deep reason for why they aspire to do great things. Maybe, they’re trying to prove their dad wrong. Or right. Or, they came from extremely humble beginnings, and feel that they have a duty to go back and save the people that helped them escape. Or, they came from extremely wealth, and have generations of ancestors to live up to.
I think I’ve always struggled to tell this part of my story. Because I don’t come from a rich background, or a poor background. I didn’t go to an elite school, or have some traumatic event that struck me when I was young, driving me onwards. The place I come from is on the upper end of average. A neighborhood on the edge of the 26th largest city in America, with decent public schools, two (married) parents (a teacher and a finance manager), who raised me with no pressure to accomplish anything great, but provided lots of support at key moments that made me who I am today.
But somehow, out of this fairly innocuous beginning, I have some unbridled desire for greatness.
I could go into detail about how this actually came about, but that’s now what I want this (short) essay to be about. Instead, I wanted to talk about how I’m able to lean into this story for motivation.
Because I was given such an open life, this means that everything I am, everything I chose to be, was my own choice. I was not forced into this by my environment. As my friend Spruce would probably say, I “derived motivation from first principles”. Out of a blank canvas, I decided to shoot for huge stuff.
This gives me a certain strength. Before, I felt somewhat attacked whenever I heard some incredible story where someone came out of really rough conditions to end up where they are. But with this mindset, I’m able to create this uniqueness in my story, despite my totally non-unique beginnings.
It’s sorta like how, there’s an idea, and it’s opposite, but there’s nothing that’s exactly in between, because the thing that’s exactly in between is actually significant to the idea, since it’s the thing that’s exactly in between.
It really doesn't matter if one's dad is right or wrong. One has to do the right thing, what ever that is for oneself!