Post date: May 24, 2011 1:25:17 AM
Which is better: To charge ahead towards your goals regardless of what other people think, or to avoid conflict by conforming to ideas held by people you care about? Surely in certain situations both can be done. In order to do breakthrough work, though, a distinct choice is often required.
As a friend of mine often quips: Would you rather be right or happy?
Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy" and lived his old age in house arrest for his ideas on heliocentrism. The Wright Brothers were called "Fliers or Liars" in the press even after flying over Huffman Prairie in 1905. Women in Saudi Arabia are arrested if they "act like men" by trying to drive on public streets. Every day people determine that the world is not good enough unchanged, stop conforming, and cause themselves grief as they try to improve the world.
I would rather be right. I want to be like the great people of history. I have decided to charge ahead. Perhaps I will add momentum to changing the world for the better.
I invite you to think with me. Enjoy.
All great truths began as blasphemies. -- George Bernard Shaw