Having the nerve not to do
Good things don't always need you to do something; sometimes, it requires you to do nothing.
You buy a stock. It falls immediately. Then it rises up past the buying price. What do you do, leave it be or sell it immediately?
Far too many books have been written about winning the hard fight. Overcoming the impossible. Almost everything you will read will goad you towards action. Will be about what someone did.
Read the biographies of Steve Jobs, Mahatma Gandhi, Richard Branson, etc. It will always be about what they did.
It was inspired a culture of action as opposed to reflection. Activity instead of productivity.Â
Almost nothing is written about the fight not fought. Not because of cowardice but because it was the right thing to do.Â
Go and look up how many books you can find on Wars that were fought and now how many books can you find on wars that were avoided.Â
Apart from the Cuban Missile Crisis, there would be few. Had the missile crisis turned into a war it would have been a stupid war. A war that should not have been and was rightly avoided. We at least know about the Cuban missile crisis. How many such instances would have been avoided during the Cold War?
Have you ever found a book that compiles all the acquisitions not done? Acquisitions that would have been catastrophic to the buyer. We all know the names of the CEOs who undertook great acquisitions. Nobody would be able to recall ONE who rightly avoided them. Books are written about the successful rocket launches, not about the launches that were cancelled and rightly so.Â
Heroes are always projected as doers. Sometimes heroes are heroes because they had the nerve not to do.
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What we think, we become ~ Buddha