An article I first posted in 2015 to an ICT forum.
Are you familiar with 'empty tile syndrome'? It's basically a mindset that convinces you that your life would be so much better if you had "that one missing thing". In my case, I've always been jealous of people who went to Harvard. Those of you who were at the recent ICT boot-camp might recall how during my talk I [extemporaneously] mentioned seeing a fellow High School graduate on the T. He went to Harvard; I went to BU. I was unemployed; he was carrying the book "What Color is Your Parachute". I admitted feeling schaden-freude. That's because in my mind Harvard would have changed my life in so many ways. It was the missing piece (tile) that would have launched me to greatness. Flawed thinking. We always think the other road would have been better. Recall how the grass is always greener---somewhere else. And here's further evidence how you just never know----Following the ICT conference I checked LinkedIn to see how that guy's career turned out. I found nothing. So, I did a Google search. And I found obituaries from 4 years ago. He died after "a long struggle with cancer." I've admitted I was jealous of his life. No, I was jealous of what I imagined his life to be. Do you think I'm jealous now? Reminds me of Woody Allen;'s joke about the two women at the restaurant. "The food here tastes terrible!"' Says the first woman. "And the portions are so small"' says the second. Allen says "That's life." But, once in a while we should pause to consider---some of the food does taste good. And maybe, just maybe, the food on the other person's plate tasted worse than yours, and even more, his portions were smaller.