Jason

My professional philosophy is to live at the edge of your
abilities as often as possible. This is
not a call to reckless behavior. It's a
mantra of perpetual improvement. When we
allow ourselves to be challenged we have an opportunity to explore both our
strengths and weaknesses. By living at
the edge of your abilities you allow yourself to co-exist with the possibility
of failure. It's in those moments we
find out we are. Do we really want the
goals we share with friends and acquaintances?
What would happen if you had no choice but to succeed? While not the inspiration for my philosophy I
identify with a scene in the film "Gattica".
It's set in a dystopian future where parents can negate the birth
defects their unborn children if they can afford very expensive gene therapy. The protagonist of the films parents
determined his brother was a better choice.
As they matured they'd swim into the ocean until one conceded
defeat. As he was not genetically
enhanced our hero was always the first to return to shore. One evening the swim went much differently he
not only outswam his brother, but saved him from drowning. When his brother asked him how he'd won, he
responded "I didn't intend to leave anything for the trip back". Though extreme I would say that this is an example
of living at the edge of one's abilities.