Extraordinary.

Today, I will tell you a story; an ordinary story of an ordinary boy who lived an almost ordinary life.  He was born smart and exuded it even more in school. Curiosity and support drove him to read, read and read that at 16 he managed to pass Physics and Mathematics University entrance examinations.  This is the part where the story gets ordinary. Reality hit hard after he graduated from college, he couldn’t get a job.  All he wanted was a teaching post at a university. Well, every dream job is hard to find. It must have been a turn down considering he was THE genius since childhood.  After 2 years of unemployment, he got a job, not the dream job but still a job. He worked at the local patent office in Switzerland. He used this opportunity to play around with stuff. That is how he got to unveil the secrets of the universe. This ordinary boy was Albert Einstein.

“Have ambition but not too much, it’ll cost you” We hear this voice of mediocrity from almost all corners of life.  If the boy was not Einstein, this story would have a slightly quieter ending. Some other boy would simply listen to voice of mediocrity, live an ordinary life and leave an ordinary legacy.  Einstein, on the other hand, had passion and ambition.

We look at people like Einstein and think they were either superhuman of some sort or they were more talented. We look at legends like Dr. Ben Carson, Barrack Obama , Bill Gates  and immediately assume these people were born to succeed. They weren’t, they simply realized the power of the human brain and were confident enough to explore it. In short they had ambition and guts to ignore the voice of mediocrity.

I think there is nothing with a little ambition, nothing wrong shooting for the stars. Many will kill your ambition to ‘protect’ you from disappointment. Here’s the somewhat good news, everyone fails at some point and its’ no reason to quit. We might be fragile physically but mentally, we are stronger than we think.  Bring intention to your actions and everything will fall into place. As you keep with 2014 resolutions, hold onto that ambition no matter the circumstance, that’s you make change happen.