When the Path Ends at a Cliff

Sometimes you want to be a successful entrepreneur. You want to have a family. You want to have a farm. Several paths can take you to your final goal. There isn’t just one road that gets you there. Several roads will get you a family.

Sometimes it’s a road that goes wrong. Sometimes it’s a road you followed with real conviction that it was the good one. Maybe it stops. There’s nowhere left to go. Maybe it ends at a cliff, at the edge of a drop. And that’s the moment you stop, take in the view, and find another road.

Again: do not go gentle into that good night. Keep going with passion. Keep seeing the good side of things. If the road ended at a cliff, enjoy the view, look around, be grateful for how far you walked, be grateful for the road up to there, and take the next one, all the way to your final goal. That’s how it works. You’ll always reach your destination if you have conviction.

But you don’t need to jump off the cliff to try to reach the other side, or to check whether there’s a road down there. The road is almost never down there. If you have to go all the way back, go back. You already know the way. You already know where you came from. You remember where the forks were. You know that maybe north has nothing left, so you head west. Just don’t lose the passion for exploring.