“It was still the Wild West in those days, the Far West.… It was a land of vast silent spaces, of lovely rivers, and of plains where the wild game stared at the passing horseman. It was a land of scattered ranches, of herds of long-horned cattle, and reckless riders who unmoved looked in the eyes of life or of death.
“In that land we lived a free and hardy life, with horse and with rifle. We worked under the scorching midsummer sun, when the wide plains shimmered and wavered in the heat; and we knew the freezing misery of riding night guard round the cattle in the late fall round-up. In the soft springtime the stars were glorious in our eyes each night before we fell asleep; and in the winter we rode through blinding blizzards, when the driven snow-dust burnt our faces.…
“We knew toil and hardship and hunger and thirst; and we saw men die violent deaths as they worked among the horses and cattle, or fought in evil feuds with one another; but we felt the beat of hardy life in our veins, and ours was the glory of work and the joy of living.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Doesn’t that just take your breath away?
How many times a day do you feel “the glory of work and the joy of living?” Probably not enough.
We live in times when we have the basics of life. And so we turn our attention to security, comfort and pleasures.
As a society, we naively over-protect our children and try to legislate away all danger.
Instead of giving a boy a BB gun and sending him out back to shoot tin cans off a stump, we suspend him for pointing a finger gun at a classmate.
Many children are no longer expected to walk to school. Or even take the bus. Their parents feel the need to drive them everywhere.
I remember a cousin explaining the baby-wipe warmer she had on her changing table. “Would YOU want a cold wipe…”
Hmm. None of my babies seemed to care.
I used to go swimming with a friend who had a pool. If the water was too cold, he wouldn’t go in. I didn’t care. I was just happy to be there!
There’s a downside to too much comfort, predictability and ease.
To truly ‘live’ we must put ourselves in situations that test us. That challenge and scare us.
As entrepreneurs we have the opportunity each day to make a bold and scary decision. To push ourselves today to take a step that yesterday we never would have considered. And to then follow through.
It’s unlikely that you will risk your life today while roping cattle. Or anything like it.
But wouldn’t it be thrilling if you were?
Enrich the conversation by adding your comment below.
Dov Gordon
PS – Are you in the New York area? I’ll be in NY in a couple of weeks and I’d love to meet you. Go here for the full story.
