Happiness is a healthy disregard for the impossible
When I was a student at the University of Michigan, I went on a summer leadership course. The slogan was “a healthy disregard for the impossible,” and it’s an idea that has stayed with me ever since. It may sound nuts, but I’ve found that it’s easier to make progress on mega-ambitious goals than on less risky projects. Few people are crazy enough to try, and the best people always want to work on the biggest challenges. We’ve also found that “failed” ambitious projects often yield other dividends. Believe it or not, the technological innovation behind AdSense, which, as I mentioned earlier, has paid out over $30 billion to partners, was the result of a “failed” more ambitious project to understand the Web. The team failed at understanding the Web, mostly, I think, because they were distracted by their work making advertisements amazingly relevant. -Larry Page
I attended a presentation at my job on last week. I listened intently to a three hour presentation by Scott Regan Founder and CEO of ACHIEVEIT on how to bring WOW into our organization and lives. It made me think about a lot of things but mostly I left with the thought to how do you balance the act of having a ‘healthy disregard for the impossible’ and crazy. I have not settled all of those thoughts yet but one thing that I am certain I am ready to embark on some of my dreams! The impossible is possible.