Words that inspire: I’m helping to build a cathedral

It surprises me how often we hold ourselves back until we have no choice.

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Three guys laying bricks are asked why they’re doing it. The first guy says, “I’m doing it for the wages.” The second guy says, “I’m doing it to support my family.” The third guy says: “I’m helping to build a cathedral.”

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Put your dream in a lockbox, go out and make Fuck You money, then come back to the lockbox and pick up where you left off. I met plenty who tried, but none who succeeded.

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Seek out that at which you might fail. And just keep going. Take more risk. Plow ahead.

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Is it better to succeed at something you don’t really believe in, or is it better to fail at something you really do believe in?

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Our fears should be attacked, not run from. From our deepest wounds come our greatest gifts.

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The things we really want to do are usually the ones that scare us the most.

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Usually, all we get is a glimmer. A story we read or someone we briefly met. A curiosity. A meek voice inside, whispering. It’s up to us to hammer out the rest.

 

*Quotations above are taken from Po Bronson’s “What should I do with my life?”

** Painting “Sketch to the portrait of a builder” by Kazimir Malevich

From Mark Twain’s “What is Man?”

There have been innumerable Temporary Seekers after Truth—have you ever heard of a permanent one? In the very nature of man such a person is impossible. However, to drop back to the text—training: all training is one or another of OUTSIDE INFLUENCE, and ASSOCIATION is the largest part of it. A man is never anything but what his outside influences have made him. They train him downward or they train him upward—but they TRAIN him; they are at work upon him all the time.