Burning One's Ships

David Weinberger has posted a rather alarming piece of information: A Boston Globe article entitled "It's the 'pure entrepreneur' who often leads the way". Now, the reader might be wondering why I would find such an article alarming... Well, firstly, because I've taken a bet, and dropped out of college this semester. The reason being that I didn't want to miss the unusual opportunities of these times. A semester of college would literally mean that thousands of people would shoot ahead of me in terms of their ideas and knowledge -- and we can't have that. So every time an article like that gets published, I know that a few more people are going to become convinced, like me, that it's now or never if you are going to try to catch this approaching wave. In other words, thanks for the additional competition, Boston Globe.

However, secondly, and more importantly, it was the last line of the article that alarmed me, "Everything is possible. Not a bad aphorism for the start of a new year."

Indeed everything is possible, including my entrepreneurial experiment ending with me being a 30 year old assistant manager at Burger King; with the rest of my life spent wondering why I didn't see the value of a college degree. On the other hand, I consciously modeled my decision after a Spanish Conquistador named Hernando Cortez. The moment that Cortez set foot on the new world, he burned all of his ships -- and as a result, his men were well motivated. Similarly, I find myself unusually motivated at the moment.