I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure; try to please everybody. – Herbert Bayard Swope
Los Angeles has over 30000 miles of paved roads. As bad as traffic is, you can traverse the whole city in one day, but if you had to take each and every last path possible not only would you not be able to do it in one year, you would not be able to do it at all.
But why would any sane person even think of doing that you ask? Well, the absurdity of the act might be apparent when it comes to traversing a city, the exact same thing happens when you try to please everybody.
There are many paths you can take on your journey to success. Some are shorter, some are lengthier, some are cheap and some present a “toll”. Choose whichever you want, but the choice only has meaning if it feels right to you. You might feel like you “got lost” sometimes, and sometimes that might actually be the case. No worries, that’s the beauty of it, no matter how long you spend on “the wrong path” you can always veer course and correct your bearings so long as you are aware if it.
There might be plenty of right and wrong paths for you, but all are useless if they don’t feel right. So when you make your choice, make it with yourself in mind first and the people around you second.
Life truly is like a journey, and I like to think of it like a train ride. It begins the moment you are born and it ends when you die. Along the way you stop at different stations and people get on and get off. No matter how long those people spend with you on your journey, in the end no one could ever spend as much time on it as you. So why worry about it? You’ll be fine.