By the Ocean
Sunny 68 Degrees
6:21 a.m.
Earl Nightingale knew. This from his article titled, Following the Follower:
“Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind the other.
Jean Henri Fabre, the French entomologist, once led a group of these caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot, so that the leader of the procession found itself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming a circle without end or beginning. Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path.”
This is what humans do. This is what we’re trained to do. Stay in line, follow the herd, do what everyone else is doing.
If you’ve ever tried it, you know it eventually leads to misery. To a weird form of death while the physical body is still alive.
This type of behavior in the business world is why so few people succeed. I’m not sure there’s a place for you if you live by compliance in thought, word and deed. If that’s how you operate, there’s nothing unique of value to offer to anyone else for which you could receive too much money. It’s not really that complicated.
The reason to step out of line isn’t because you’re trying to be difficult, it’s so you can see clearly enough to make a change in case the person in front of you is about to walk off a cliff.
I tend to associate only with the people who step out of line. The ones who see a future different than what is being fed to them, the ones who start walking in that direction, despite the price they pay to do so.
Success is not about luck, it’s a choice you make. To either follow the beat of your own drum or not and to make the best of what you discover when you see where that path leads you.
I don’t know if people who do this are born that way or if something makes them that way.
I didn’t start out this way, I had a shitload of conditioning to crawl out from under before I even realized that the way I was living wasn’t for me. I didn’t come to follow.
I imagine many of you reading this have had similar experiences.
I’ve been a pretty meek and mild guy up to this point in my life. But given the nature of our times, it seems the world needs people willing to shine brightly more than ever. So I’m trading in a bit of meek and mild for direct and bold.
And I made something to help people who are on a similar journey. It’s something that will remind you, each and every month, how to stay free of the conditioning, how to follow your own path, how to build success without regard for how you’re “supposed to do it.” It will help you think deeply and also offer extremely practical advice about how to build your business differently…and better.
If you’re not here to follow, then you can find the details here.