Out of line

So I went to lunch today with a couple of guys I used to work with. On the way I asked them “of the people you know, whom do you know who is successful?” I suspect their answer is typical of a large number of folks. One settled on himself being successful and the other settled on his mom and dad. As the conversation went along, I encouraged them to work out the definition of success. Starting with the basics, such as food and shelter and moving on towards safety and a reasonable amount of security and some happiness. “Fair enough”, I thought. But I prodded a bit more, and asked them going beyond people they knew personally, who did they think was successful. Here the answers diverged and caused me to think “How does that work?”

Ashton Kutcher was the answer from the one who esteemed his own self successful. I had to inquire about whom we were talking. Turns out he is an Actor, Model, Producer, Writer and ex-Cherio-Dust sweeper for General Mills. A biochemical engineering student that dropped out to start a modeling career, he was so poor that he traded his own blood for money before his rise to fame. But then what happened? In his words, “I don’t believe that old cliché that good things come to those who wait. I think good things come to those who want something so bad they can’t sit still.”

The other answer? Warren Buffet. The same one that spent $25 with a friend on a used pinball machine. The year was 1945 and within months they owned 3 machines in different locations. He then spent the next 25 years learning and growing in the investment world. In 1952, he was an unknown man in Washington D.C., ariving at GEICO’s door on a Saturday, knocking until he was allowed in by a janitor. It wasn’t for another 18 years that he became the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. A student of the Dale Carnegie public speaking course, he now spends 12 hours a week playing the card game, Bridge.

What followed was an interesting the observation of the first friend. “Out of line”, he declared. Indeed, both of these found a “different way”. in the words of Robert Frost:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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