“If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
These words simply mean that if you can do something better than other people around you, not just those in your neighbourhood, even though you live somewhere remote and hard to get to, people will put in a lot of effort to get to you. Specifically, this refers to making a path through the woods, often done by beating down the shrubs and plants until they can be walked over.
Every field you can ever think of there is hierarchy of competence. This is a pyramid, the top of it – which is occupied by the masters, is about five per cent or so and below that is the rest. The rest is made out of good, just good, average, less than average and incompetent. What really separates the top from the bottom ones, I hear you ask?
Well, to me, the main reasons for one not to reach the top are:
• chasing too many rabbits
• chasing the wrong rabbit
Chasing the wrong rabbit is like unrequited love, it’s hell. All you do is spend your days thinking and chasing someone who will never think of you nor chase you back. You’d do anything for that person, and they’ll do nothing for you. Someone once said that unrequited love is like waiting for an airplane at a train station. This is choosing a wrong career, the one not suited to your highest strength, and staying at the bottom of that career’s hierarchy for the rest of your working life.
