The choice that matters

It was one of those monthly dinner meetings at the Band of Angels some time in 2008. I have to say that the entire experience was humbling, to say the least. Almost everyone I met there had a series of valued accomplishments and not surprisingly, everyone was extremely nice.

I had the opportunity to listen to one of the long-time band members David Burwen. Burwen’s talk was titled “The Path Less Traveled” — about his circuitous route to the Band, lessons learned from angel investing, and his interest in traveling and social entrepreneurship. Burwen is a respected Angel in the valley and his story was inspirational not only in terms of his success stories in business. His philanthropic activities (such as adopting a village in Nepal and running a school there) touched my heart.

At the end of the talk, Burwen put up a quote that sums up a great strategy for young professionals (and others too).

“When deciding among opportunities, choose the most difficult path”

– Buddhist quote

Seems counterintuitive at first. But think about it. When you are young, you have all the energy in the world. Wouldn’t you want to put it to work and extract the maximum out of yourself and “become” something?

Everyone knows that experience matters and the experience that you get with the difficult path will make you better than a person who has taken the initial few years nice and easy.

The big question always remains. That question is…