Originality is Bliss...

Starting something new isn't easy. In fact, it takes a fair amount of guts and guile to go it alone, into the unknown and just see what transpires. But it also is not more than what it is.

As I was compiling some of Brandon's quotes during interview for research purposes, I examined more closely a statement from him to Journalist John Little that always has resonated with me as profound:

"We reduce ourselves in a certain point in our lives to kind of solely pursuing things we already know how to do. You know, because you don't want that experience of not knowing what you're doing and being an amateur again."

For me, reading this quote when I was 15 was something of a marvel. While my teenage brain could certainly process the words in theory, the wisdom of these words, I wasn't able to fully digest what Brandon was saying and to fully appreciate his words until I was an adult. I doubt Brandon himself had much concern or thought that some random teenager would read his words and become affected by its meanings, but the nature of what he was eluding to - doing an experience that you never had done before, you do find out what you are capable of achieving. It is a lesson that almost everyone can relate to. 

Too often in life people judge achievement and success on everything working out to plan. However, how often do dreams happen just the way we have planned them in our minds? Very rarely. And if the dreams we did plan for don't come true, is that failure? People generally have very narrow views of what failure and success is. If a dream ends, people deem that a failure when people should be valuing an experience based on growth and what quality it has brought to their lives. Sometimes too other dreams develop when we start progressing through this thing we called life, just like John Lennon said "life is what happens when you are making other plans". 

Success is in the eye of the beholder and how you deal with both success and failure also can tell you what kind of individual you are. The notion of what failure and success is was something that Brandon also had considered:

"When you come against the limitations of your will, your ability, your natural ability, your courage, how you deal with success - and failure too for that matter. And as you overcome each of these barriers , you end up learning something about yourself."

Brandon made a very interesting observation, that being that many people will achieve what is very easy for them to do, opposed to taking any kind of risk. By not seeking to enrich their life by new experiences, people have limited their life to experiences they know, life becomes very safe. Failure is not always something not working, it may also be a dream that we deem unreachable and we go for an experience that is "safe" instead of becoming all we can be. Dreams without action are in fact just daydreams, but dreams with action that are uniquely ours, can be the kind of success that Brandon talked about, and what I feel is very achievable in each of our lives. 

To be original you only have to be yourself, not an extension of someone and then acknowledge 'you' in your own dreams and life. We don't live for others, we live for ourselves (if we really want to be honest) and those experiences that give our lives growth and purpose. Without considering your own dreams and what you want for your own life, none of us can truly become a success. I learned a longtime ago that individuality and being original was the only way you can live an authentic life. Even if at times people may not understand what you do, by believing in yourself and developing in your skills, then trusting in what you create, you can only ever be a success. Without even recognizing who you are and why you do what you do, are you even an individual anymore?

Don't do what is safe, believe in what you dream and then make sure it really is what you want - not what you think you should have or caught up in another's identity. Remove all other beings from those dreams and look at yourself, only then you will begin to see the bigger picture. So many people hurt themselves and hurt others because they don't like who they are, or they blame others for their own failures. Take responsibility and live the life YOU want - perhaps that is what Brandon was saying. By becoming a "child again", as Lee said, you really are learning more about who you are, and who you aren't, and you will know then if your life is a success because you tried, or a failure because you played it safe. 

Be an original and pick out your cloud!