EXCEPTIONal

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. -“The Road Not Taken” poem by Robert Frost

“Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.” -Edward Albee, play The Zoo Story

If you do enough digging and really learn their origin story, you will find that most, if not all of the people you admire, were willing to take the road less traveled. They didn’t follow “the wisdom of the crowd.” They didn’t try to fit in. They fit out. They took risks. They sacrificed. They believed and bet on themselves. They moved forward even when there was no light in the distance. They were willing to be the exception.

If you want to be or do anything exceptional, then you have to first be willing to be the exception.