"Do as you're told."
That was my moral code for the majority of my life. When other kids broke the rules, I gasped in horror. Okay, maybe not gasped, but I tried my absolute best to do what I was told at least 90 percent of the time.
On life's great scale, people who break all of the moral rules fall below the "line of success." Those who steal or cheat or harm get punished, and rarely lead the best lives. I didn't want to have a terrible life, so like a good upstanding American I followed all of the rules. I did my homework, tried not to lie, and made it home by curfew. Like the good rule follower I was, I graduated high school, headed to college, and got onto the path of law school. Following the rules should give me the life I wanted. Right?
Wrong. What I have found to be true is that successful people (people who are happy with what they do) are the people who didn't follow the rules. People who said no to "good enough," and went outside the lines that society drew for them. Definitely don't break the law, those rules are there for a reason, but break the rules that you set for yourself. The earth is full of people who followed their own rules of who they decided they should be, but there are also quite a few successful people who broke out and took the risks that paid off. Look at Mark Zuckerberg as a shining example of breaking the rules. One of the first versions of Facebook was initially shut down by Harvard because it overloaded their network. He later went on to drop out of Harvard and became one of the most successful people of our time. Beyoncé probably never imagined that going solo after leaving Destiny's Child would be good for her career, or that she would go on to be named #21 on "Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women in the World" list.
You could go to school, get that job you kinda wanted, take two-week vacations and retire. The better option, in my opinion, is to find a career path that doesn't feel like work and that you don't need a vacation from. Be bold and brilliant and have the courage to go off the path and reach for higher. If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, what would I wish that I had accomplished? Whatever the answer to that question is will be the very thing I get to work on right now. I have always wanted to learn to ride a skateboard so maybe I'll try that this weekendMoving to a new city or applying for a position you think is a little out of your league might not be easy, smart, or expected, but it absolutely could change your life forever. It worked for Lizzie McGuire!
