What Is Courage? Kingston’s Journey #119

Those That Step Into The Unknown

A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step is the old eastern saying. In the west it’s referred to taking a leap of faith. With either case, it’s a matter of putting your foot forward first rather then waiting for something to happen. And there is a key difference between them.

Some bystanders that see someone do something that is unorthodox with no clear path to success may call such an individual naïve for going after what they did. But is it really naïveté for being the first one to take a step forward? Is it naïveté for being the one that holds your hand out to shake hands? Can’t such a person cut an angle as they get closer to the problem?

Or is it courage? The courage to be the man in the arena. Courage to tread an unbeaten path where there are so many unknowns. A path that at the time the first steps are taken, doesn’t seem to make any sense.

The Difference Between Courage and Naivete

Because the difference between being naïve and being courageous is this: the former involves believing everything you are told, while the later is a matter of operating on imperfect information. That is the difference. The bystanders and the naïve will idly stand by, hoping that the answers to their problems will be handed to them. While the person whom sticks their neck out is relying on their own wit to figure out a solution to their problem. The courageous are well aware of the fact that they will be thrown in radically different environment. And they are wiling to accept that. Because once they are in that new environment, they will be able to adapt to the eb and flow of wherever they happen to be.

And that is what the majority of people are afraid of. Change. They have their TV, bed and room all in the way they like. But the extraordinary is found in the real of the unknown. And there are fortunes, financial or otherwise) waiting out their.

Kingston S. Lim

October 6, 2021

Lagos, Nigeria