In Ryan Holiday’s book Courage is Calling he writes, “If we only did what we were sure of, if we only proceeded when things were favourable, then history would never be made. The averages have been against everything that ever happened — that’s why we call it the mean.
We have to remember that these polls, these estimations, these statistical models — these things are static. What they cannot predict for, what they cannot account for, is the individual with agency, the human being who makes events happen rather than simply sitting back and waiting for things to happen to them.
It takes courage to look at the averages and say, ‘I am not average.’ To say, ‘Somebody will be the exception and it may as well be me.’
That’s what courage is. In fact, there is no courage without bad odds, without a willingness to risk losing – the job, the game, the deal, your life. If it was a sure thing, what would be brave about it?
You have to realize that you are not average. You never have been. You are one of one. You have always had what it took to defy the odds.
If you don’t believe that, might you be reminded that your very existence is perhaps the least likely thing to ever happen? The odds of you being born, some scientists have estimated, are in the realm of one in four hundred trillion — but in truth this understates it. Consider everything that had to happen for your parents to meet, for you to survive, for you to find yourself here at this moment, thinking about what you may embark on. You are more than a miracle, you are a miracle on the spectrum of unlikely miracles. Yet here you are.
You’re going to let the fact that unhindered success is rare deter you? You’re going to let the mean tell you what you can and can’t do?”
I needed to read this. And I had to share it with all of you.
You are one of one. You are not an average. You are not the mean. You could be exactly what the world needs when it comes to that thing you do. Don’t let anything stop you. Be brave. And be yourself. That’s the only thing that matters.