Will Hunting didn't know at the time when he solved the math equation that he was more gifted than all the other math students at MIT and more gifted than the professor who posted the equation to be solved. He just knew how to solve the equation. At first reluctant, he laid down the broom and worked it out right there, on the night shift, in the hallway of MIT.
Ironically, this action pitched him into the world of esteemed adademics, which was exactly the world he held in contempt. The audience of the Good Will Hunting movie gains early insight into the depths of his contempt during a bar scene when Will delivers his astonishing soliloquy to the pompous Ivey League Harvard Coed.
Will Hunting loses his fear, loses his anger, reclaims his worthiness and gets the girl. We know through the story line that the girl is already living her life purpose by becoming a doctor and we are left to believe at the end of the movie that Will is finally on his purposeful path, all for a happy ending.
If you haven't seen Good Will Hunting, do see it. And if you have seen this movie, I invite you to watch it again and capture the significance this story has for so many people today. A heartfelt story about losing the fear, losing the anger and daring to believe you are worthy no matter your circumstances or no matter who has tried to make you believe otherwise about yourself, is needed inspiration for so many workers.
A couple of weeks ago I caught a sound bite from the news that said that the jobless rate was the worst it's been in 26 years. I didn't do the math or take the thought any further than that, until I saw a headline in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend that quoted the jobless rate as the worst since 1983. This jumped out at me.
I graduated from college in 1983 and I have no recollection of being aware that the jobless rate in the country hovered near 10%. I'm serious. Admittedly, I was politically impotent at the time and I didn't read the newspaper or listen to news as a college student. But, on matters important to a work-seeking-college-grad, you would think I would have registered something on this, right? Not so.
Within 60 days of graduation, I had been hired by one of the nation's best sales and marketing companies for entry level and relocated to Charlotte, NC. Fast forward to September 2009. How many displaced workers, unemployed workers or new entrants into the workplace are taking their cues from the news headlines and have adopted these as their current work-status doctrine? 'How will I ever find work in this economy'? 'There are ten thousand workers our of a job in my field - how am I supposed to compete with that'? I'll never find a job that will pay as much as I was making in my last job'.
What would the possibilities be if you were unaware of the national jobless rate? What would the possibilities be if you believed that there were an abundance of job opportunities available to you to do the work that you love? What would the possibilities be if you changed your thinking and moved out boldly to claim your rightful place, just like Will Hunting did by solving that math equation?
There are times when ignorance can indeed be bliss.
Marilyn Carpenter is a Business Coach, Speaker and Author. Look for her book –
OPEN SESAME: Why It’s All About ACCESS For The New Worker of the 21st Century
Available September 14, 2009 through Amazon.com.