I know this guy named Mick at work. He's a goofball most of the times, but that's just his way of ensuring that your guards are low when he wishes to teach you a thing or two about life and design. He obviously knows more about leading without authority than I do. But, this entry is not about him. As it is with all my entries, this entry is about me, me, me and the me. The world revolves around me, and I'd like to keep it that way as long as I don't get too dizzy. ^^ Urm.. now, where was I going with this... Ah, yes... Mickey.... Yeah, so, from time to time he sends random links my way (either personally or as part of a mass e-mail), and I tend to make a point to read each and every one carefully (because they're not random.. well, most of them aren't, heh heh). One of the links he sent out recently pointed to this entry by John Maeda. The entry, at least to me, is about the two step process to realizing your dream. The first step is to lie to yourself for just the right amount of time to get yourself to bring what you truly believe in to life. The second step is to then stop lying to yourself at the right moment, so that it can be real for the rest of the world and not just you. This two step process is hard. There's a lot of balancing that needs to happen to excute the two steps. One of these days I'll actually be in a state of mind where I can talk more in depth about this topic, but for now I just wanted to comment on the following quote I found on John's entry:

Lying tends to get you into trouble.

I don't know about you, but the statement rings very true to me. There are two reasons why that one sentence resonates so strongly with me. One, because I'm doing a lot of reflecting these days about how I've lived my life so far. I'm going to turn 30 this year, so it's been a lot more intense than usual. Second, I've learned throughout my life that the only time I experienced a growth spurt was when I lied. Pretty freaky, no? If I wanted to paint a nicer picture of myself I might be tempted to say that it's not when I lied, but when I got myself into trouble, but I dunno... If i think hard about what had happened to get myself into trouble, there was usually a lie involved at some point in time.

The farthest back I remember is when my parents were deciding whether to move our whole family to China or not. Moving to China wasn't a simple decision. First of all, it meant that mom and I had to live in Beijing while my dad lived in DaLian (there were no internationl schools in DaLian that I could attend) It also meant that I had about 6 months to get my Enlglish from 3rd grade level to 8th grade level. That was what was expected to pass the entrance exame given by the International School of Beijing. Given how poorly I was doing at school, it was most definitely unclear to my parents whether I could achieve that goal or not. The risk was pretty high. Spending the next 6 months studying English meant completely giving up on school work. There was simply not going to be enough time in a day to do both. That meant that if I failed the entrance exam I would be 6+ months behind in school work. I absolutely hated the Corean education system, so falling back a year was something that I dreaded even thinking about. So I looked mom straight in the eye and told her that I could do it. I lied, and now I was in deep deep trouble. I had basically committed to achieving something I had no idea how to. I'm not going to claim as if I had really jumped 5 grade levels in 6 months, cuz that would be another lie. But, thankfully I did pass the exam. Moving to Beijing absolutely changed my life. Experiencing life as a foreigner in a country transitioning from communism is not something you can buy with money. Befriending North Corean students? Virtually unheard of as a South Corean. Starting and leading a rock band, and realizing that all it takes to start someting is a little bit of creativity and a lot of will power? Priceless. Learning to look at things from an international perspective (not policitally, but culturally) by making friends who come from just about every little inch of the world? Pure bliss. All this began with a lie. It's about time I lied once more. What do you think? ;)