You Get What You Want

[Martin Hash]

Tomorrow, my wife & I are going to Peru for a month for the birth of our first grandchild from our youngest son. He sent me an email yesterday continuing an esoteric discussion we're having about statistics. Last night, my wife, oldest son, daughter & I went to see "Blade Runner 2046" on Tightwad Tuesday. We talked about comic books & old music in the car on the way there; everybody chiming in obscure stuff that most people would think was weird.

Today I received an email from a friend of mine, same age, engineering & management career, who moved to San Jose last week, away from his family, for a CIO job managing over 800 people, where he'll be pulling down the big bucks.

I thought about both situations & similar comparisons with other people, and came to a very insightful conclusion: you get what you want, not what you aim for. Since forever, I've wanted family, travel, and personal fulfillment, which required tens-of-thousands of decisions, small & large, along the way, none of which were ever vocalized or otherwise acknowledged. During all that time I had convoluted detailed plans that never materialized into much, at least as far as most people are concerned, but thinking about it, I got what I wanted. My friend basically gave up his family for prestige & money - that must be what he wanted. I wonder what his aims were?