A Philisophical Opinion "Not all opportunities are equal"

"Not all opportunities are equal"

I sometimes wonder how my choices lead me to the events which I am currently in and whether my thinking will lead me to success. I will start out with a story.

During one of my vacations, I was able to have an intellectual conversation with one of my friends. We'll call him Leeroy. Leeroy is a genius. He is at the top of his class, and truly intelligent. I have met few truly intelligent people of his caliber in my life. How do I know he is a genius? Smart people never truly show that they are smart. They can learn anything and find few subjects a challenge to learn. They have a genuine interest and ability to absorb information at an instant. They would never call anyone "stupid" because deep down they know the statement itself is "primitive". They are also generally pretty humble because even if you have the ability to absorb information at an instant, you can't possibly know everything. I admire Leeroy very much. He has a sense of humor that is clever and is logical about all his conclusions. Most of all he is able to make sense of an idea I might convey even when all the details aren't there. I am a man who explains ideas in a broader light, and with little detail which therefore is usually misunderstood. One day I decided to ask him about measuring opportunity cost.

After talking to Leeroy about career choices, it seemed he was set on learning the specific skill of computer programming.

"Are you aware that if you choose this specific career path that you miss out on all the other career paths?" These are the things that I always think about. You can always switch or go back later, but not if you take into consideration that there are windows of opportunity throughout time which would allow a maximum learning capacity. For example, if you choose to learn a language when you are young it is much easier than learning it when you are older. If you choose to be athletic since you were four you would have it much easier than when you start at 15.

Overtime our bodies and our minds age and we lose the opportunity to hone in on specific abilities. If you choose just one, that would mean you may lose the a plethora of abilities on the other. I have always known this and as a result, I choose to spend my time looking for the ones that would be applicable to the most opportunities in the future. Here's the hard part. How do you know which skills will be applicable to the most opportunities in the future?

Let's say I decide to specialize in becoming a doctor. People who become doctors practice memorization skills, and all the scientific critical thinking. They are highly valued for the difficulty of expertise and value to society to prolong life. But what is the true cost of becoming a doctor. You spend years in medical school which means you will miss out on certain events in life. You might spend less family time. You might get fat as a result of stress. You might not have the time to go camping, or computer programming. You might lose sleep. You keep telling yourself this is worth it, it will pay off later. You meet specific doctors that might put you in a cynical state of mind. You learn people don't take care of themselves even when doctors try to help.

When you graduate, being a doctor might be the only thing you are capable of because you've neglected certain parts of your life. Or not. You decide you are going to try something else. You're in your 40's now and realize being a doctor for the past 20 years didn't make you happy. Remember when you wanted to become a master in a martial arts style? Remember when you wanted to be a Race car driver? How about an actor? (Ref. Ken Jeong). Well now you can do these things with the addition of so many years of becoming  If you don't have any other obligations that hinder you from the test of time.

You become an actor. A pretty good one too. It makes you wonder, what it would have been like if you became one early on, you might have even gone further than you are today. But instead of going out there and discovering all your abilities, you just decided to stick with one for that 20 years in becoming a doctor. See where playing it safe gets you?

Is it a matter of luck when it comes to finding out what your good at? The most successful people in life don't play it safe. They don't just do the most acceptable things. They take risks, they discover, and they are constantly learning different things, until they find out the one thing they want to do. For some people this is something they cannot live without once they've discovered it.

Maximize your opportunities. Learn as much about the world as you possibly can before you decide to commit yourself. There is an amazing opportunity for success out there. But unless you develop the skills to meet those opportunities, you can't take them.

Power is the ability and will to do what others can't. Not everyone is born with certain opportunities. Therefore I find value in taking the opportunities others wouldn't or couldn't. I find value in the opportunities that grant me even more opportunities. I don't find value in being limited to one or a few. Most of all...this is a leap of faith.

After my talk with Leeroy, we both agreed. It is not measurable the amount or cost one opportunity may have over another. It is subjective, infinite and it is out of our control to know the exact future which lies ahead for each path that we take. You can either choose to take the path that so many people have gone before, or you can take a chance. Take a path that might seem stupid to most, but just may end up giving you something that no one might ever possess. The higher the reward the higher the risk.

The best achievements are planned out, but cannot be predicted. Failure is expected, but never aimed for. Danger is invited, but never expected to arrive. This is purely just my opinion.