I've Stopped Fearing Failure and Success
How Alice's Adventures in Wonderland taught me an important lesson
I’ve been reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Doing so has made me realize that success and failure essentially lead to the same outcome.
That outcome is a desire to go somewhere else. Because of that, it actually doesn’t matter if I fail or succeed.
Confused? Let me explain further.
If I am currently not “somewhere” I will be motivated to pursue a goal so that I can be“somewhere.”
By pursuing that goal, I will either:
Fail and decide I don’t like that “somewhere” and try to go “somewhere” else.
Succeed and decide to go “somewhere” else anyway. Being in the same “somewhere” for too long gets boring and soul sucking.
In other words, I will inevitably end up “somewhere” regardless of success or failure. The moment I arrive at that “somewhere” I will want to leave that “somewhere” and go “somewhere” else.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.
“Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. “Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
It sure seems like madness to me, but what’s the alternative?
I can at least find meaning in the madness and live morally.
Thanks for reading! If you want to be a part of my “mad” goals, contact me. I’m looking for:
People who want to take free Spanish lessons
People who want to teach Spanish or French for me
Anyone interesting. I want more interesting people in my life
I want to date and eventually get married. Know anyone cool in Calgary? Lol.
Anyone interested in being a part my mad business goals of:
Creating an accelerated teaching program that guarantees conversational fluency in 6 months
Starting a language revitalization business
Starting an entertainment company
Starting a soft-skills consulting agency
Starting a non-profit organization
Starting a business that offers an essential product/service
Contact me here.