William Wu Personal Blog

Here is a nice little children’s story called Goose by Molly Bang. 

It is a story of a little goose who had to leave home to find out what no one could teach her.

“On a dreadfully dark and stormy night, an egg was blown right out of its nest.  It rolled and rolled and rolled down a deep deep hole, until it landed in a den of woodchucks, where a baby goose hatched out!

That baby goose was adored by her new brothers and sisters and by her new momma and poppa, who taught her everything they thought a youngster should know.  And that little goose learned very, very well.

But the goose was often sad.  She felt different from everyone else, and nothing could make her feel better.  Her family tried to make her happy, but they couldn’t.  Her friends tried to make her happy, but they couldn’t. So the goose set off into the world to see what she could figure out by herself.

Things only got worse – and worse.  All alone, the goose felt sadder and sadder.  She was so lonely, she didn’t notice where she was going.  She lost her footing and fell!  Down, down, down she dropped, falling toward the ocean below.

Fighting to stay aloft, she flailed and flapped her wings, and found out – she could FLY!
So she flew and flew and flew, all the way home. 

You know, that goose surprised everyone, especially herself.”

Many entrepreneurs are like the goose in the story.  Startups are a different breed than your typical established large companies.  Too many startups want to mimic what big companies do and, statistically speaking, most big companies are somewhat mediocre and slow to innovate.  The people and policies that work for big companies are often the things that work against startups.  Startups must find their own ways to succeed, although this is often hard and challenging.  On the other hand, entrepreneurs must realize that the best platform to stand on is your own two feet and the best hands to work with are your own hands.

Although the goose succeeded to discover herself pretty much by accident, at least she was not afraid to venture out to find her own path.  Many people are not very successful in life because they happen to be most afraid of taking risks.  They have made themselves failure proof.  They know they can not fall from the bottom, so this gives them a false sense of security they want.  The fact is, taking a risk is little risk at all, and it is a chance you give to yourself.  If you take it, you will either be successful or be wiser assuming you have the courage and faith in your ability to learn.

Of course the aimless way the goose used to discover herself is not the best way, smart entrepreneurs can do better than that.  They are smart enough to know that taking risks does not have to be super risky since there is a fundamental difference between foolhardy and taking calculated risks.  If you have faith in your own ability to learn from mistakes, you will be able to plan for the consequences just in case that it does not turn out your way. When you learn from your failure, they pave new ways to success. 

Andre Gide, a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947, once said, “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of shore for a very long time.” The value of your goal is the path you take to reach it. The rockier the path, the stronger you’ll grow.  Move forward.  Take Action.  Learn to learn.  As Maxell Maltz, an Americans motivational author, put it, “The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognize your own worth.”

Warren Buffett once spoke at the University of Washington, “Everybody here has the ability to do anything I do and much beyond.  Some of you will and some of you won’t. For those who won’t, it will be because you get in your own way, not because the world doesn’t allow you.” 

You can either get in your own way or succeed on your own way.  The choice should be clear!