A Tour of Tigers

TIGER ONE:

Are you trying to Grow a business, Build a career, Overcome an obstacle?

“Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.” – Joan Wallach Scott

Ferocity is a wondrous tool.

STOP. Read no further

1.   if you are proud of your passivity,

2.   if you are offended by reading a vulgar word (as opposed to seeing it represented by a first letter and a series of dashes,)

3.   if you are angered by your own mortality.

TIGER TWO:

“When the stars threw down their spears and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” – William Blake, (1757-1827)

Yes, Blake was right. He who gently made the lamb made the tiger also.

Ah, ferocity is a wondrous tool.

Pursue your goals with ferocity and singularity of purpose.

TIGER THREE:

When you choose a goal to pursue, do you ask, “Is this a mountain I’m willing to die on?”

You should. For we begin to die the day we are born.

“I used to stop for a long time in front of the tiger’s cage to see him pacing back and forth. I liked his natural beauty, his black stripes and his golden stripes. And now that I am blind, one single color remains for me, and it is precisely the color of the tiger, the color yellow.” – Jorge Luis Borges

With every exhalation, we die a little. A moment is gone, a precious grain of sand from the tiny hourglass of life.

Each of us chooses the path we will walk, the mountain on which we will die. Have you chosen yours?

TIGER FOUR:

“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)    

A man kills a tiger from a distance. But a tiger kills a man face to face, looking into his eyes, saddened by what must be done to survive.

I used a shotgun to kill a little bird on a snowy day when I was eleven. Then, as I looked down from Mount Olympus at the shattered angel in his crystal tomb, I covered him with a tear and swore that I would hunt no more until little birds were given shotguns.

Yes, Tiger, you will make mistakes and have regrets.

But you will also make a family and have a life.

TIGER FIVE:

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river that carries me away, but I am the river; it is a tiger that mangles me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, alas, is real; I, alas, am Borges.” – Jorge Luis Borges

With every step we take we reach a point of no return, and wonder what might have been.

Am I trying to bring you down? No, I’m trying to stimulate you, wake you up, raise you from your stupor.

The grains of sand are falling, friend.

TIGER SIX:

“There’s a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that; you pay with your soul. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don’t have the nerve to star in their own fucking movie, let alone direct it.” – Tom Robbins   

TIGER SEVEN:

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. It is yours.

Roy H. Williams