One thing I feel most passionately about: love of invention will never die.”
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Prelude at the Theatre,” 1983
Both these quotes are powerful enough that they warrant a separate blog post, but I decided to include them together because invention without execution (and vice versa) results in nothing. I know a person who might be reading this who thinks of him/herself as a visionary inventor. To be honest, I think of him/her more of a loser who loves frittering his/her time away building unrealistic sandcastles in the sky.
His/her main problem: inability to execute, follow through, and get projects (or anything in his/her life for that matter) off the ground. Your great idea is worth nothing if you are too lazy to do anything about it. You cannot get credit as being a great inventor simply by thinking of random things out loud and then proclaiming random preposterous things like, “I basically invented the TV, I invented the car, I invented this and that.” That is all nonsense. (Please stop talking to me, you’re a waste of everyone’s oxygen supply)
Ideas are worth a dime a dozen. In today’s age, whatever you can think of, odds are someone else has already thought of it too. The question is, how fast can you move to gain first mover advantage?
I hate ranting, and don’t like being overly negative. Negativity begets negativity — Law of Attraction. Then why am I writing about this here? To remind myself that I never want to become like this sorry and bitter loser. Bad examples can serve as valuable lessons to others. I’m thankful for knowing this person. He/she has helped me define who I don’t want to be.