DavidBenfield.com

I did fairly well in school. Well, high school at least. While not anywhere near the top of my class, I was at least taking more AP classes than anyone else. I went to a private Christian school grades 1-4 and Government school the rest of the way. The sum of the content of all my courses maybe have been adequate to get into a good college, but the real life lessons I learned have crippled me all these years. It was never so apparent until I read this quote in Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow:

“Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in first grade. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in. The safe thing to do was color inside the lines, don’t ask too many questions in class, and whatever you do, be sure your homework assignment fits on the supplied piece of white card stock.

We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades), and work every hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Noboday standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus.

Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best way to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people (like your boss?), and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.”

I was the good boy b/c I conformed. I stayed in the lines and didn’t stand out. I learned those lessons fast and they have been detrimental to my life and particularly my career. I was created to walk a different road, and am only now getting around to realizing it’s ok to do that.