Don’t run to your momma and tell her the experts at KYA said she should buy you a light saber! Everyone knows light sabers don’t exist. Unless you’re a jedi, like we are. And then, they’re only available at ‘Jedis-R-Us’ and they’re very, very expensive.
But if you really wanna become a kick ass ninja business assassin or just get some things sorted out in your personal life, you could do worse than following Yoda’s advice. Perhaps the most important advice Yoda ever gave was this: “Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.” Commit yourself to a path, and get on with it. Run your boats up on the shore of the island of your chosen path and burn them. Most failure comes out of lack of focus or giving up, so don’t TRY doing your thing, just do it!
But Yoda also recognized that commitment has to arise out of a belief in your ability to succeed. When Luke told Yoda, “I don’t believe it,” Yoda replied, “That is why you fail.”
And where does belief come from? It comes from long dedication to the path you’re on. “Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi.” If you don’t like this part of today’s lesson, look around carefully. Do you think the most successful people you read about have followed get rich quick schemes? People like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Donald Trump spent decades working very, very hard in their fields. Even their earliest successes arose out of extreme focus and a good education.
And, finally, stop pretending that the dark side is cool. You’re not really on the dark side anyway, Bucky. Wearing those studded leather bracelets and listening to Pantera once in a while doesn’t give you the power of Darth Vader, it just makes you look childish. You should wear faded robes with hoods like we do! But, seriously, Yoda wasn’t kidding when he explained that the dark side isn’t stronger. It’s “quicker, easier, more seductive. If you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did – you will become an agent of evil.” Do something useful, really try to help people, become a force for good. Keep at it, and commit yourself totally. Let your belief in yourself come out of repeated successes over time, and if you do, you’ll get to the point where you can buy your own light sabers without asking your momma for the money!
