Wall-Starers vs Wall-Breakers

2019.10.30 — Thoughts Afloat

Photo by Dmitry Bayer on Unsplash

Today’s Thoughts Afloat comes thanks to this quote from Randy Pausch:

“Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

When faced with problems (walls) — situations which require creation of a new protocol, rather than falling back upon a previously established one, there are two buckets people can fall under based on how they respond:

1. Wall-Starers and
2. Wall-Breakers

Wall-Starers

• can look at the wall;
• can describe the wall well;
• can explain why it should not be crossed;
• can offer many (almost every) way why crossing it will not be possible and
• on many occasions recruit others to do the same and stay safe.

Wall-Breakers

• can pick out the cracks in the wall;
• can find, if not many, at least one way how they could try crossing it;
• are okay with momentary discomfort and “un-safety” (not danger);
• have a burning desire to want what is on the other side or
  have a burning curiosity to see what is on the other side;
• are not always certain their efforts will be successful but are at least willing to try.

It usually takes one “breaker” to make a difference amidst many “starers”

Now think about this:

The number of walls that needed to have been broken, but still remain intact, because the “breakers” were quelled by the “starers”.