Diggin the Wall Street Journal

I'm either getting old or the Wall Street Journal is getting better writers, or both.  The other day en route home on the subway, I was trying hard not to read it over the shoulder of the man sitting next to me as there were headlines such as Beijing to Reopen Tibet for Tourists After Unrest that peaked my interest.   Gotta go catch my opera...will write more soon.  Okay - that was a long opera - it was beautiful, meditative and repetitive.  When I closed my eyes, I tend, as in most operas I've gone to, to bob my head around in a beautiful attempt to stay awake.  But the voices are so peaceful, so wonderfully sonorous, so soothing.  I do know that Satyagraha made a powerful and lasting statement to this psyche - and that is why I pay to sleep, er, meditate, er sleep? in elaborate performance halls.  And why I like to sing people to sleep m'self...

On to the Wall Street Journal...The wonderful man sitting next to me, saw my interest and after I told him that I would pick one up on my way home, gladly handed me his WSJ.  SCORE.  Thank you to kind strangers who love to share information.  I was very impressed by an article in its Health Journal by Melinda Beck titled "If at First You Don't Succeed, You're in Excellent Company."  In the article Ms. Beck talked about how some of the most successful people in the world have what was first described by Stanford University psychologist as "self-efficacy."  She said, "self-efficacy differs from self-esteem in that it's a judgment of specific capabilities rather than a general feeling of self-worth."  She goes on to explain that people with high self-efficacy "succeed because they believe that persistent effort will let them beat the odds."

I understand this because persistent effort is the only thing that helps me beat the odds.  Ms. Beck cites examples from Thomas Edison who said about inventing the light bulb: "I didn't fail 1,000 times.  The light bulb was an invention in 1,000 steps."

I like to see myself the way Edison saw the light bulb, as an invention, in infinite steps.  I've already achieved what I thought unimaginable.  Yet, I am still alive.  That's freedom. 

Comments

[Andree Stolte]

Hi Kristina, y
our friend Andree asked Warren Buffett a question last week at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha

read my letter to the Wall St. Journal at the end of the comments