The amusement park mirror

[Bill Glasheen]

Very interesting how this topic has evolved.

Almost all people have the need for social skills and an ability to work with groups. Heck...even the unibomber used technology and society to deliver his anti-technology terror.

I'm a bit blessed, but I worked to get where I am. As a professional scientist, I am paid to be different and think out of the box. But I had to enslave myself to an academic system for a good deal of my younger life to earn the qualifications I now have that gives me my freedom.

For those that are trapped and enslaved in rigid systems, there is a way to a better place. It doesn't mean chucking things completely though. It just means breaking out of the comfort zone that has enslaved you. When you get down to it, most of those chains are self-imposed: mortgage, car loans, lifestyle, debts, etc. It is possible to break from the pack and form a new one or work with other packs, but it means FIRST not enslaving oneself, and then having the courage to face greater uncertainty.

I'll never forget the conversation my oldest sister had with me, recommending I "cut my losses" when things were looking bleak with my Ph.D. However, I made it. Only 3 out of 30 made it in my class, and I was the first my advisor had graduated in a decade. Yes, most dreams fail; many wolves that break from the pack will perish. But some wolves find a way to succeed. And I might add that my success did NOT come from being the smartest in my class.

My brother similarly reinvented himself. In his mid forties, he chucked a comfortable life with Merck as a salesman. He was one of several people that took advantage of a rare path that allows someone to "read the law" rather than go to law school. He ended up taking more law school classes than the average law student, and managed to work as an apprentice on the side. In the end, he passed his Bar exam with an extremely high score. No, it was not easy. I didn't see him much for those years. But now he has his own practice in Court Square in downtown Charlottesville. The smartest thing my brother did that allowed him to be where he is now is NOT letting himself get trapped in the typical spending and lifestyle patterns of his generation. Now, he calls his own shots. And yes, I am proud.

- Bill