Anything and Everything

Some people confuse “anything” with “everything”

Some people confuse “anything” with “everything,” and while they’re busy doing everything they don’t do anything.  “To be successful,” told me Daniel Gelbart last weekend, “you have to do only one thing at a time. No-one ever succeeded—” “Multitasking?” I interject.  “Yes.” 

And it’s true.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too; you can’t do everything. 

We live in the land of opportunity, a place of possibilities,
and that “you can do anything” and “anyone can be anything” mentality is a foundation for our society.  It’s crucial, and I’d argue that the ideals of individual liberty and equal opportunity – which so strongly define the ideology of this nation – are in large part responsible for the vast possibilities one can find here.

But at some point “equal opportunity” and the “you can do anything” mentality developed into an overwhelming breadth of choices and possibilities, the probability that if you choose any one thing, you’ll miss out… on developing to your full potential, on the love of your life, on the ideal career.  And so we stopped choosing.

And there are so many choices to make, so many options these days.  We have to choose.  We have to learn how to choose.  Because el que abarca todo aprieta nada – he who tries to grab everything holds nothing (proverb), and while you can do anything, you can’t do everything, and if you do try to do everything or keep all your options open, keep all the doors ajar, you’ll end up doing nothing, forming no real, meaningful ties, building a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything.

Some people confuse “anything” with “everything.”