• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Dan's Daily

  • Blog
  • About
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Blog / We prefer possibility

We prefer possibility

Dan Cullum · Nov 8, 2021 ·

Founder of Product Hunt, Ryan Hoover, shared a passage from the book ‘The Courage to be Disliked’, and it struck a chord.

“I have a young friend who dreams of becoming a novelist, but he never seems to be able to complete his work. According to him, his job keeps him too busy and he can never find enough time to write novels, and that’s why he can’t complete his work and enter it for writing awards. But is that the real reason? No! It’s actually that he wants to leave the possibility of “I can do it if I try” open, by not committing to anything. He doesn’t want to expose his work to criticism, and he certainly doesn’t want to face the reality that he might produce an inferior piece of writing and face rejection. He want to live inside that realm of possibilities, where he can say that he could do it if he only had the time, or that he could write if he just had the proper environment, and that he really does have the talent for it. In another five or ten years, he will probably start using other excuses like “I’m not young anymore” or “I’ve got a family to think about now.”

It got me thinking: What dreams do I really want to pursue? Where am I choosing to “live inside a realm of possibilities”? And what am I going to do about it if I encounter an answer I don’t like?

Blog

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up via Email

Recent Posts

  • Spin
  • A system to get things done
  • Waiting in line
  • Lord of the Rings marathon
  • At first

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • January 2019

© 2025 Dan Cullum · Log in