I'd rather live with false hope than with false despair.

This has been my motto for many years now. In the past, when I got an idea, I used to bounce it off a few friends to see if it had some blatant flaw that would prevent it from succeeding. What I found is this: People can almost universally find something wrong with any new idea.

They weren't bad people, and I'm not saying they were bad friends. The real problem is that civilized people are taught from childhood to supress our adventurous natures and always opt for the safe path. So, even an idea like let's go to the beach gets responses like: "well, that's a long way to drive, what if it's cold and windy, and I might get sunburned..." In my opinion, the inability to take a risk and smile in the face of potential failure is the attitude that is making us miss our own lives. Sometimes the best times we remember are the birthday parties that turned into disasters and the campout where all the matches got wet and the time we got stuck at the same party with our evil ex-girlfriend.

I've heard it said that successful businesmen are merely businessmen who are better at starting unsuccessful businesses. It almost never happens that the great giants of commerce got that way on their first business. Great success is almost never born out of starting a new business to do the same old things in the same old way.

So how then should we live? I don't know about you, but for me, I am tired of always taking the safe route and missing out on the adventure that is life. We only get one shot at life. I'm not saying we should toss our lives to the wind, but it's not something that should be enshrined in a glass case either.

Mud. Rain. Fun. Flat Tires. Love. Empty Bank Accounts. Frustration. Unexpected Triumphs. Despair.

Life is meant to be an alloy of tough, hard things and bright, shiny things. It is sad to live with nothing but struggles. It is equally sad to live with nothing but ease. In your struggles, do not lose hope. In your triumph, do not lose humility. Whenever you hit the ground, start a new foundation. Don't be afraid to build too high.