Class notes 4

Maybe you’ll try but fail. That can be devastating. The failure might hurt a long time. Or the failure
might turn out to be an overall okay experience—if someone is there to help you grieve your losses,
or show you how to grow and learn from your mistakes. Or maybe you’ll never start in the first place.
You’re too bewildered to begin, too overwhelmed by the countless options in front of you. It’s like life
is a huge puzzle that’s been dumped out on the floor. You’re staring at two thousand tiny pieces of
blue sky. Where do you begin? Any way you look at it, having a good guide to help you on your way
can save you a heap of trouble, time, emotional energy, and expense. If you’ve got a problem that
needs to be solved, if you’ve got a dream you want to pursue, one of the best ways to start is to ask
someone for help
• See, around the time the guy told me I’d chosen a harder path
by not playing football in community college, a light bulb came
on. I realized there was plenty of advice out there, and
although at the time I didn’t have a strong network of people
who were automatically pouring wisdom into me, I saw how I
could be proactive by reading, researching, reaching out to
people, finding mentors, and asking for help. I made two
pledges to myself. First, I would start on a lifelong quest to ask
for insight into the things I wanted to learn. And second, after I
had learned something, I would pass along that insight to
anyone coming up behind me, anyone needing support and
guidance.