So I was having one of those typical late night conversations with a really good friend last night and the conversation drifted towards a personality trait that both of us shared, we love the chase more than the catch.
Let me explain, all through my life, I have ended up doing things that keeps me entertained (I am very easily bored), things that bring in some drama, and that usually means chasing something that most people deem too hard to get, but the catch is, it’s not the end result that I enjoy the most, it’s the chase that excites me, the moment I hit the target, there is massive euphoria and then I slowly lose interest.
And last night, in hindsight, I could see how that has influenced so many of my decisions, but a significant and recent one is my decision to startup.
I have wondered many times about why I am doing a startup (Tune Patrol – Listen. Share. Discover), I mean being 22 and from BITS Pilani, there are so many easier things I could have done that mathematically have a better chance of success, and hence in some sense have a better chance of making me happy, but I realized last night that for a lot of people who share my personality trait, happy is not good enough, we crave for euphoria, we are addicted to the chase of the seemingly impossible and that moment of glory, we would any day trade long periods of happiness to chase that short burst of euphoria.
And I realized that there are some very lovable characters that share this trait, my favourite being this guy below.
And, him.
And him.
And, him.
And possibly every character in our cartoons that gave the good ol’ chase.
I have always believed, Wile E Coyote, Tom, Sylvester and a truck load of other such characters would be quite depressed post their success, yes they would have their moment of euphoria, but after that, their lives would lose meaning, I mean WTF will Wile E do after he eats the Road Runner??
This also kinda explains why there are so many serial entrepreneurs, yes they made that gazillion dollar exit, but why are they doing it all over again? Because it’s not the prize that keeps them going, that’s just the euphoria that lasts only so long, after that, they just have to get back to chasing, that’s what they love.
But the downside to this trait is the fact that you might (and probably will) “fail” a lot more than the average person, I mean we all know how many times this has happened..
..but somehow, that seems okay, it’s not that we like to fail, it’s just that it is a possibility that we can come to peace with, it’s a trade off that we are ready to make to chase that moment of unbound positive energy.
Thoughts?