No Regrets

I'm one of those people who tends not to look back. What's done is done. You can't change it. And if it was something great - like finishing a marathon or acing a plum assignment - it's yours. You own it and no one can ever take it away from you.

So when I'm asked, "What do you know now that would have been helpful to have known then?", I think my answer is "nothing".

Now that sounds very elitist, very smug - as if I were the smartest kid who ever came to New York City to become rich and famous. I did neither as it turned out - but I had a wonderful and also a terrible time being young in the most exciting but also the most cruel city in the world. And I wouldn't trade a moment of it. Well - maybe one moment. Or two.

The thing is - if I had KNOWN how the world works and how hard it is to change or even influence it, would I even have tried? Would Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or even Steve Jobs have had the entrepreneurial spirit to "just do it" had they known how hard it would be to move on to the next step? And the next? Would Richard Branson have tried and failed several times before he finally started Virgin Records? Would anyone take a chance on trying anything if he or she knew all the consequences?

No - I think it's no accident that great things are attempted and sometimes accomplished by the young. Certainly in my case I was just too stupid to think I would fail. That there would be danger lurking around that dark Manhattan street corner or that if there was - I couldn't deal with it. And while I was learning about life and work - I just "stumbled" into the profession I grew to love. Journalism. Because someone said, "try this", and I said "why not".

When you're young you're invincible. You have no concept of real failure. Or of getting physically hurt. Or of NOT trying out an idea that's just burning through your brain. You don't set limits. You don't SEE limits. You just go out and do it. How many of us more experienced "adults" still do that? Act on a whim. Embrace new ways to do old things. Plunge head first into something we know nothing about. Do or say something "stupid" which may turn out to be (in hindsight) the first step on the road that leads to success.

Would that road have been easier to navigate had we known how to avoid most of the pitfalls? Sure. But would we have taken a chance on that little winding path off the main road just because it looked interesting?

Thank you - but I'll keep my muddled youth. I loved dancing up Central Park South in my bare feet. Not knowing or perhaps not caring that there were bits of glass and metal and the other detritus of a dirty city on that sidewalk. I never invented an electric car or a Macintosh or a social network. But I tried things women didn't try back then. Just barged ahead. Because I simply didn’t know a woman couldn't do it.