Today I had a million things to do.
Well, not quite one million. More like 999,999 – including conjure up a blog post when, to be honest, ever since Wednesday’s tragedy I have been at a total loss for words.
Instead, I decided to share some quality time with my 12 year old son. Just the two of us.
Instead of his typical conversation of video games and Star Wars, my son surprised me with a completely unexpected topic of conversation. He wanted to discuss his future vocation.
He began by telling me that instead of a scientist, he now wanted to be an entrepreneur. But what really took me for a loop was when he asked me if I would still be proud of him if he failed.
I told him that there has never been a day when I wasn’t proud of him and I can’t, for the life of me, ever foresee one.
He asked, “What if I tried, but ended up becoming a janitor and living in your basement?”
I explained to him that if he was a janitor, living in my basement while pursuing his entrepreneurial vision, I’d be even more proud of him than had he given up on his dream by taking some meaningless yet cushy corporate job.
Taking a janitorial job in order to support your vision is not called, failing. It is called persevering. And it is the most important ingredient to success.
My only advice would be what my mom gave me when I took a stab at cocktail waitressing the summer before my junior year of college: “wear gloves when cleaning the tables.”
49 blog posts down – 316 more to go…