Success: what price will you pay?
March 22nd, 2013 by Bob Bly
The question that has always vexed me most is when a subscriber
writes and asks:
“Should I become a freelance copywriter?”
“Should I start an Internet marketing business?”
“Should I [fill in the blank here]?”
Now, if you ask me HOW to do these things, I can give you some
solid guidance.
But if someone asked me SHOULD they do this or that, I used to
throw up my hands and say – “How can I tell you that? It’s
entirely up to you!”
However, when I was reading the New York Review of Books
(3/7/13, p. 46) last week, I came across a quote in an article
by the late Isaiah Berlin that I think gives a useful answer to
the question of “Should I?”
Berlin wrote: “One chooses as one chooses because (1) one knows
what one wants, and (2) is ready to pay the price.” (I added the
numbers.)
As for the first reason, (1) choosing because “one knows what
one wants,” I would argue that you already know what you want or
you wouldn’t be asking me if you should do it.
Conversely, if you have spent years thinking about a thing and
have taken no forward action, you probably don’t want it that
badly.
It reminds me of a story about Mozart.
Supposedly a young man in his late teens or so approached Mozart
and said “Maestro! I want to write a symphony! Please, please
teach me how to write a symphony!”
Mozart looked him over and said “You’re too young to write a
symphony.”
“But Maestro Mozart, you wrote a symphony when you were twelve
years old,” the teen pointed out.
“Yes, but I didn’t have to ask how!” Mozart replied.
If you really want to do a thing, you will pursue it and do it.
If not, then not. You won’t have to ask me or anyone else
whether you should.
The second part of Berlin’s statement says that you will choose
something if you are (2) “ready to pay the price.”
This price may be:
** Long years of education, practice, or apprenticeship before
attaining your wish.
** Facing the possibility that, after all that time and effort
and investment, you may not succeed.
** Taking a financial gamble as you invest in your new venture
or dream – a gamble you could lose.
** Sacrificing time with family, leisure time, and other
activities in the relentless pursuit of your vision.
** Risking the disapproval of friends and family who do not
support you in your quest and say you are foolish to do it.
** Becoming so successful that you alienate those friends and
family members who are less successful and resent your
accomplishment.
** Taking so long to reach your goal that by the time you
achieve it the other pleasures of life have passed you by and
now you are too old to enjoy your success anyway.
If after reading the above list with your eyes wide open, you
agree that these are prices you are willing to pay to achieve
your dreams — then I encourage you to go full steam ahead.
On the other hand, if you quiver with fear after reading this
list or want to put your head under the covers, you may not have
the constitution required for entrepreneurial or artistic
ventures or similar grand aims. And perhaps you are better off
staying where and as you are.
One other observation: a psychologist once told me people do not
take action until the pain of their current condition – whether
poverty, boredom, fear, or unhappiness — exceeds their fear of
change.
I think his observation is right on the money.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 22nd, 2013 at 10:10 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 2nd, 2013 at 10:39 pm
“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”
Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
April 5th, 2013 at 8:46 pm
Excellent post, this statement is the best way to put it. , “if you have spent years thinking about a thing and
have taken no forward action, you probably don’t want it that
badly.”
July 4th, 2013 at 9:19 pm
Filtering: This is something that will catch their eye, may stop what they are, at the very
least take advantage of local business online advertising to promote
their businesses.
September 14th, 2018 at 2:11 am
Get help with file explorer in windows 10,many asked how do i launch “file explorer” so that is very simple to solve this problem,first type in search box “file explorer” and click the right side option and select the pin to start.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:18 am
If you’re looking for the latest and best gadgets launched in India that … 5. Asus Zenfone 5Z. Best new gadgets. With the new Zenfone 5z
November 3rd, 2018 at 3:10 am
The content bring great value for readers. I can’t stop reading news in this site everyday gmail
February 20th, 2019 at 9:54 pm
I am glad to see this brilliant post. all the details are very helpful and useful for us, keep up to good work. cool math games
April 5th, 2019 at 1:25 am
I Agreed 100% with the statement ‘success is what price will you pay’ In 2017 we joined Crop’s group of companies and because of our quality products today Crop’s UK is one of Europe’s largest family-owned growers of frozen veg and fruit.
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:55 am
FundYou is a crowdfunding platform, where creatives and entrepreneurs can get funding consulting and run funding campaigns for their projects.
July 15th, 2019 at 5:12 am
Nice
https://www.yesallabout.com
July 31st, 2019 at 6:46 pm
nice article dude
https://couponspirit.com/spirit-airlines-coupon/
August 3rd, 2019 at 8:54 am
Thank you for taking the Whataburger Customer Survey. We value your candid feedback and appreciate you taking the time to complete our survey.
August 6th, 2019 at 12:22 pm
9 Reasons Why You Need a Pantyhose Right Now. bloglovin.com/@mariyama5. Bloglovin’ works best if you switch to our Android app.
August 7th, 2019 at 1:52 am
The Third Eye Photography For the Best Candid Wedding Photographer in Bangalore, You will surely fall in Love with our …
http://thethirdeye-photography.com/
October 14th, 2019 at 5:51 am
All our hearts are filled with unfulfilled desires. We crave for things, which are sometimes beyond our reach as either they are too costly for us or we simply cannot have them like our secret crush, a job which doesn’t come to you despite all the hard work or even good marks in an exam.
Read more Strongest wazifa for hajat
November 26th, 2019 at 2:03 am
whataburger survey
Thank you for taking the Whataburger Customer Survey. We value your candid feedback and appreciate you taking the time to complete our survey.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:26 am
These roblox music ids and roblox song codes are very commonly used to listen to music inside Roblox. You can find out your favorite roblox Song ID from below
http://robloxmusicidd.jouwweb.nl/
May 10th, 2020 at 11:53 am
That’s why we have come with a variety of best laptop for quickbooks. Here, you will get the top rated 10 products which are too good in performance and response. These laptops are based on working people in mind, where you can perform multitasking without getting fed-up with it.
December 1st, 2020 at 12:35 am
In this article, we’ve crafted some great customer satisfaction survey examples that will help to make customers happy. Stick till the end!
https://takesurveys.onl/
December 13th, 2020 at 9:53 am
Hi Nice Post,
Now a days education is very costly, but people can learn spanish langauge online with very best price, utterbug is providing the resources for learn spanish online with very less fee.
December 17th, 2020 at 9:43 am
I am so glad to talk about this article. It is incredible stuff. And I remember another website that’s related to this.
December 28th, 2020 at 4:02 am
The requirement for trellis copywriters is just great right now and growing. https://www.cbdcatalogs.com A freelance copywriter is more of a wonderful career. It’s not difficult to be a copywriter, but very few people seem able to successfully develop a career from it.
January 2nd, 2021 at 8:10 pm
In order to write an essay, I also had to ask someone there to write essays for me, but then, so that there was no one to ask, I found this site https://makemypapers.com/ on which any written work is done
January 4th, 2021 at 11:59 am
I am so glad to talk about this content. Your writing skills are incredible. It’s pretty good. Please don’t stop sharing this type of standard content(https://bestvrheadset2021.com/). I am also sharing a small piece of content that your audience
January 18th, 2021 at 12:58 pm
Nice Post,
Keep it up always.