I learned that the man who wants to achieve must give up many things — society, diversion, even rest — and must find his sole recreation and happiness in work. He will live largely with his conceptions and enterprises; they will be as real to him as worldly possessions and friends.

I learned that the man who wants to achieve must give up many things — society, diversion, even rest — and must find his sole recreation and happiness in work. He will live largely with his conceptions and enterprises; they will be as real to him as worldly possessions and friends.

NIKOLA TESLA

How badly do you want it?

Are you willing to sacrifice a giant chunk of your life to achieve it?

If so, you will be branded a workaholic. You will clearly miss out on a chunk of your life. You will continuously be driven by forces that even you do not understand. But they are as unmistakeable as they are unavoidable. They summon your focus, seek your continuous attention and drive your imagination to heightened levels of frenzy.

They visit you in your dreams, give you new perspectives that your waking, conscious mind has not considered, drive you to write things down in the middle of the night, or the second you get out of a shower, or while you are driving.

The process of achieving is steeped in sacrifice. It is a life that is forged out of inner forces and creative demons taking control of your overall being. So its appeal is more limited than the prospect of living a balanced and predictable life whose potential for overall happiness might appear more alluring to most.

The life of an entrepreneur gives you introduction to far more diverse people over the course of a lifetime. In your journey you cross paths with the entire spectrum of humanity, each giving a unique color and flavor to your encounters, many of whom leave you with a lesson in their wake. The positive lessons inspire, the negative lessons teach. Each deliver additional layers of support that reinforce how and why you have chosen this journey. Each build you in their unique fashion, helping you to hone in on your greater internal being.

Edison was promoting direct current (DC), while Westinghouse was promoting alternating current (AC). Direct current runs continually in a single direction, like in a battery or a fuel cell, while alternating current reverses direction a certain number of times per second and can be converted to different voltages relatively easily using a transformer. The brilliance of AC was that you could send it long distances, bring the voltage down via another transformer station, and distribute it as needed out into the surroundings. After Tesla demonstrated his AC motor in 1888, Westinghouse bought up Tesla’s AC patents and hired him so he could commercialize the motor. Once Tesla had solved the problem of creating a motor that could operate using AC, then it was clearly the superior tech.

You find yourself in many lonely moments, with only your conceptions and enterprises to engage you. They do replace many of your worldly possessions and friends. So if you are choosing a life journey that reflects these options, you would be well-served to see the huge lifestyle disparity at the outset and continue to evaluate how you want your time on this planet to be spent, prior to opting for a journey of this magnitude.

It most certainly comes at a price. And hopefully, if you are luckier than Nikola Tesla, some egomaniacal monster will not usurp and then trade upon your surname to name their own product in the future.

Happy Saturday!

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