Smash Mouth has been stuck in my head (and my playlist). Here’s why:
The quest for significance.
Most of us are on a life-long quest for significance.
We are desperate for some meaning that outlasts us, some great reason for why we are here.
Most of us never make that kind of meaning.
Sorry.
I hate to break it to you, but very few people are actually remembered for more than a couple of generations.
How many historical figures can you name? How many presidents?
Right. Presidents. And you don’t even know their names.
You pretty much have to be Alexander Fleming accidentally discovering penicillin or Marie Curie (a woman!?) daring to don a lab coat to be remembered.
An unusual person doing an unusual thing that turns out to be immensely important. And you’d better be doing it at the precise moment that history is prepared for it.
Good luck with that.
You can’t control the outcome.
The fact is, you don’t get to decide if what you do in your lifetime will be considered cosmically significant 100 years from now.
But you DO get to decide what you’ll do.
You don’t get to decide if you’ll stand out. That’s for others to decide.
But you do get to decide to DO SOMETHING that’s worthy of your greatness.
Do great work.
I spend a lot of time thinking about what I need to do to make sure my business continues to be personally fulfilling, and it always comes down to this: do great work.
As long as I’m doing great work, it’s worth it. Because the work is how I make my meaning.
And so, Smash Mouth:
“So much to do, so much to see, so what’s wrong with taking the back streets? You’ll never know if you don’t go. You’ll never shine if you don’t glow!”
You don’t get to decide what your legacy will be, but do get to decide to go for the moon. If you want to.
I know I do.