Monday Musing: Courage

Cake by Bethany at Simply Decadent

On Friday evening, I went to a viewing party to watch two episodes of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" that featured my friend Mark. If you're wondering if you saw him, he was the guy that looked exactly like the guy on this cake. He was also the most entertaining contestant of the week, hands down. Mark's television appearance included such comments as, "If you're going to be rich, you gotta look good" and other gems that make daytime television into true entertainment. 

Afterward, I asked him what he learned. "I learned that I should go with my gut. It turned out I was right for every question that I skipped or walked out on. [Editor's note: In the new version of Millionaire, the three life lines are two opportunities to skip a question and one opportunity to ask the audience.] It's about having confidence in what you know and what you think you know. Courage is hard, but good things can come from it."

There you have it. To win a game show, you need courage. That in itself would be good advice for all of those times that one might end up on a nationally televised game show, but then he made the kind of big thought leap that I love. He pointed out that courage is also the basis of all positive social change. Nothing has ever happened to change the world that didn't start with courage. Rosa Parks needed courage to stay seated on the bus. We tried to think of a solid exception. Are there major social movements that don't start with courage? We couldn't come up with an exception, and didn't really want to. Our conclusion is that the world changes because of people with courage. Thanks, Mark. Incredible insight. 

Today, cultivate courage in whatever experiences you have. Once you know yourself to be courageous, you have the tools to make a change when the opportunity arises.

By the way, Mark did well but he did not become a millionaire. He answered eight questions correctly to win $45,500. He chose not to answer the ninth question, and walked away with half of his "bank," for a total of $22,750. An incorrect answer would have caused him to walk away with only $1000. [As I said above, the rules are all different than what you may remember.]

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