Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.
Madonna
You bore a heavy cost when you were educated in a public education system. It’s sad really, because well meaning people with well meaning hearts convinced and trained you to comply and be part of a machine that really doesn’t take the time to ask or care about who you are or what dreams you have. You were integrated into a system that cares for progress above everything else. You were taught to belong and be graded, to make sure you didn’t get too far ahead and didn’t lag too far behind. You serve as a means to an end, an end decided by someone else and for something other than you.
This is why you always ask for permission. This is why you need constant reassurance. This is why you undervalue what hides inside your mind, because it might not fit, or worse demand a change.
The machine doesn’t like change, which is why it demands permission so that it can get ready, or prevent the change from ever happening. It happens over and over again. It happens in every industry and in every walk of life. Good people with great ideas, trade in their life, for security and comfort, a security and comfort that looks real, but has no foundation and no safety net.
Life is uncertain. It is brilliant, beautiful, and meaningful, but it is uncertain. There are no rules except for the ones we made up, and so because everything is made up, you don’t really have to ask permission. As an autonomous human being, you get to decide which way you go, how you think, and what your’e going to do. Please don’t misunderstand my intentions here. Don’t for a moment think that I don’t support being moral or the laws that have been carefully debated and passed, or believe that democracy and is a mistake. I just know that most of what we do in a day has no moral or social consequences.
We are poor because we always ask permission. We always wait to be chosen. We are afraid to act, to move, to fail, because we’ve been taught not to, and that has to change. History has clearly shown that success belongs to those who take it. It doesn’t matter of you’re a tyrant or a benevolent benefactor; you cannot ask permission of another, you just have to do what needs to be done, and do it without apology.
You were given permission when you were born and how gloriously you undertook getting to know yourself and the world. You got up and failed, fallen, scraped and bruised. No matter. You got up again, and you did it again, and then you were educated, and you traded in your sense of wonder for a full time job. You traded in control of your life for the promise of comfort and progress. You stopped being a leader and resigned yourself to be a follower.
The world needs leaders. Good men and great women to create and lead us to new things. Possibilities that didn’t exist before because you never existed before. You see the world like nobody else sees the world. You have gifts which nobody else has, and you either share them with us, or nobody else will.
If you refuse, nobody is going to make you, but don’t every say you weren’t given wait permission. I give you permission, your DNA gives you permission, the creator of the universe has faith in you and gives you permission to act. So don’t wait another day. It’s your turn. This is your life. Show us what you’ve got.