Seth Godin’s podcast, “Akimbo”, is one of the few podcasts I listen to weekly.
I like his philosophies about a) picking yourself and b) changing the culture.
But I don’t agree with his advice to a caller whose 8 year old child was not picked for the school play for the second year running. The caller is worried that the child will go through primary school without ever participating in a school play.
When she posed this question to Godin in this week’s podcast episode, I instinctively told Godin not to tell her to have her child start her own play.
This is what he told her and I expected this as I heard him giving this advice in the past when someone was “not picked”.
I don’t believer this is good advice for a number of reasons.
Firstly, being in the school play with your classmates is its own reward and thrill. Stqarting your own, and not having your friends and classmates, is not the same thing.
Secondly, what do you do if you are not picked for your school sports team? You can’t start your own.
Or if you can, you cannot compete in schools’ competitions.
Sometimes, I believe the lesson is you will often not be picked, even if that is what you would like. And you will get over it and recognise that life brings setbacks.
They are not life defining setbacks and do not define who you are. But maybe the lesson is not a bad one to learn at 8 years’ old.