Drive

I was reading another Stephen J. Gould's books these two days, when I came across an observation he made about the great people he knew. He said these people shared one characteristics: that they were all so committed to what they were doing that they would labour long and hard to accomplish their goals. He was saying that innard intelligence and lucky circumstances ranked lower than having the drive to succeed.

Being the biggest underachieving person in the world, I totally agree with him. It is very difficult to have a different opinion. It is very difficult to oppose the prevailing wisdom. It is very difficult to defend a different position. It is very difficult to create something out of nothing. It is very difficult to convince myself that my own ideas are worth something. It is very difficult to not agree with other people when they think my ideas total bunk; and who do I think I am anyway. It is very difficult not to think that I am over my head with all these things that I think should change.

Actually, nothing of these difficult things faze me at all. I am not being arrogant; I simply know that I have always had weird ideas. That I don't think in the same way as other people even since I was a small kid. My problem is that I do not have the drive to do the deeds; especially if there is no deadlines looming.

When I was writing my two books, I had to write 13 to 14 pages every day to meet my deadlines, imposed by myself. I had no problem finish writing both books, even though only one of them has been published.

The drive to think through ideas is much harder, as you can imagine. To be able to do that anyway, I resolve, is what I am going to do from now on.