Each one of us is both standing on a mountain and staring at another one. With a little thought, this makes sense, if we just stop pursuing our dreams or working to better ourselves, we essentially stand still at the top of the mountain we build. To be honest, we don’t even need to stop our actions to be continuously on top of a mountain, we’re just always where we are. It’s not deep but true.
Okay, so after one paragraph we’re all together, essentially we’re always exactly where we are and no where different (even after a night at the pub) so let’s move to the next mountain part … so you’re on your mountain and see something worth pursuing. And you pursue. You work; you climb, struggle, leave your job, become 99% leveraged, and continue the climb toward the top of the next mountain.
There’s no illusion that the next mountain is the last mountain; we all know there’s another one hidden by it but have you ever taken a moment to really think about, not just about the next challenge or objective, but where all the mountains in your region are located on the map?
The idea, which I may or may not have correctly/clearly illustrated, is called local optimization. A few weeks ago during a marketing project our professor talked about why each of our groups had such a different result despite applying the exact same techniques (finding optimal price and product offering). Apparently, there was something like 85,000 different possible mixes and it would take about a million years to work all of them out without the help of our Ethics’ professor, so the final result of our work really depended on how lucky (or good) we were at picking the right starting point.
Each group would stand on its own mountain (or valley) and then diligently work to climb the closest mountain; and the work/thoughts to climb the mountain would be tough and the joy of reaching the top (better conclusion) would be refreshing. However, just because we all put the same work into the project some where way ahead and others way behind. Why?
Because some of us started in the middle of the whole mountain and others started near the top. Same work, same effort and at the local level the same result – success but on the global level the results were very, very different.
Often, like our marketing assignment luck is a big factor in the local /global optimization approach but others, like where to go to school, who to be employed by in the beginning of your career; where you will spend your time & effort are all very much up to each and everyone of us.
Each mountain is worth climbing; all the energy is worth expending for the right cause. However it is essential to know all mountains are not equal.
Comments