You can be anything you set your mind to do.
What a ridiculous statement. Anyone who I hear utter this statement immediately looses credibility with me.
You cannot be anything you set your mind to. Reality will get in the way. I think viscerally we really know this, so the statement is actually discouraging in and of itself.
I learned as a young person playing sports I wasn't ever going to be the winning center on an NBA team. I am only 5' 7" tall. It won't work. Early on I decided not to waste my time on that goal.
I learned as a young person I will never be a starting NFL lineman, or even a starting college lineman, I just didn't have the gravitational enhancement needed for the job.
When I present the Success Pyramid, the first level, the base of everything, is having the mental and physical characteristics to do what you want to do.
If you are blind, you won't ever be a 747 pilot for United Airlines.
I will never give birth to a child. I will never have the preciseness necessary to be a heart surgeon.
If you don't like sitting in a small room helping old people hear you won't be any good at fitting or selling hearing aids.
When I graduated from college with my MBA I took a job working functionally as a financial controller. OK, I had my MBA, I knew the accounting, I could technically "do" the job. But it wasn't a good fit. I am not a super anal get every million dollars to the penny kind of a guy. I don't see words that are misspelled, and misplaced, in a document I write. Lawyers do see every grammatical mistake and are not capable of reading past them. One mistake and they weren't able to use the document. I drove myself nuts trying to track every penny. I burned out. At the time I was very discouraged, I didn't know why. Later I learned it wasn't that I was dumb, or incapable, but the job just didn't match me. I didn't have the mental characteristics for that kind of position. No one told me. I felt unsuccessful because I really worked very hard and didn't succeed. No matter how hard I worked, that job wasn't going to work out.
Anyone can do something great. You can do something great. Identify your gifts and use them to the max; don't waste time on things you cannot in reality ever do.
I do hope this helps you.
Rick
