do you ever wish you would have taken a different path in your life?
 

i can easily imagine just how different things would have been if i'd made some different choices.

NEVER look back

i enjoy looking back, for better or worse.

Not really, im happy where im at right now and have bigger plans for the future. Although sometimes i do stop and think about how the smallest actions can completely change where we end up

no doubt. the smallest actions and decisions seem to have such huge influence on where you end up.

ripples in a lake, pebbles in a stream.

Nah.

http://www.art.net/TheGallery/calm/a...20Traveled.gif

I get freaked thinking about how little incidental things can reshape your life.

For example:

If I had not stoped and picked up a Time Magazine issue back in 1984 at the newstand on Van Nuys Blvd. at 2 AM I would not have seen a small article talking about a new telecom service called 976 numbers and I would have not gotten into pay-per-call when I did.

Then I would not have ended up getting inot the 900 biz.

If I not gotten into the 900 biz then I would not have done a business deal with the owner of Chippendales to do their Romance Fantasy Line.

Then I would not have met a girl I dated who was working there who ended up working at Saks Fifth Ave.

If I hadn't met that girl who next worked at Saks I wouldn't have met my ex-wife who was working at Saks too who I went out with after I broke up with the girl who had been working at Chippendales.

If I hadn't met my ex-wife my son wouldn't be here right now.

So it becomes absolutely mind boggling to think I would not have had the son I have if it weren't for that one simple decision to stop at a newstand in Van Nuys at 2 in the morning one night 20 years ago.



:helpme

theres a few things i would have done differently.
one of them, doing good in high school and going to college.

You ever watch the movie Family Man with Nicholas Cage? I often feel like his character did, especially around Christmas time. The way my life is leading right now, I see myself ending up being financially secure but being rather lonely and isolated. The creation of my business has been great and possibly the worst thing that I could have done to my social life. Talk about a cross road in your life but to be honest, I'd rather not think about the what-if situation.

WG

I would of gotten into Internet Porn in 1996.

WG, you and i need to get together at some point. i know exactly what you mean, though in different terms.

Yeah, I get the same impression from your posts you know what I mean.

WG

damm KRL, I probably know the exact news stand you're talking about...the one near Ventura Blvd?




anyways, yes, I think about this a lot...lately even more...



I'm not anywhere near where I want to be and when I asked myself the other day 'why the fuck not!?" the answer was simple...no good reason, so I've begun to take the steps I need to go in the direction I want...



amazing that it took me so long to wake up, or rather re-wake up

Ditto here, but of the other gender.

Yep, it's natural to be contemplative and introspective. Wondering how alternative choices would have turned out. I feel fortunate that I don't have any major regrets yet. I could have much more of a social life like I had before getting online, but I couldn't have both (social life and decent income) regardless of any choices available to me at that time. I think I made the right choice. I'd rather have finances than be the life of the party and have to go home broke. I know what that's like. At least with finances you can meet people if you choose to.

sooo much loneleness


GROUP HUG

I don't really have regrets. After all, I made the choices they weren't made for me. It's not so much a matter of regret as "what if" or "what if not".

i certainly wasn't trying to address regrets. just looking back on decisions made, and how radically the smallest of them may have changed your life, forever.

Yes, but all you can do is learn from it and move on. Dwelling won't get you anything but depressed.

nope.. because it has been a long and tiring journey i'm finally at the point where i'm satisfied with my life. It took a bad marriage and losing the majority of my family over the last ten years but if things were any different i'd probably be miserable.

For me it's too difficult to compartmentalize. I can't seem to remove the decisions from their effects. It's interesting in itself to wonder "what if" or "what if not" but they always lead you to think about what would have happened would be better or worse "if" you had done one thing or not done it.

you're scaring the shit out of me.

I am happy - but - I did think about draggin gout the ol dhigh school yearbook the other day - I wonder why?

Once. I was heading out of the bar, and the chick that was bartending called me back in, don't remember why. Anyway, after listening to her for a few minutes I left.

One minute later I was being pulled over, and eventually arrested (not alcohol related).

If I had left when I initially tried, me and them never would have crossed paths.

Well, KRL's post made me think that if I had not put out that small fire in the driveway 31 years ago, I most likely would have led an entirely different life . . . probably would be dead by now.

Fire, good. ugh

I wish I hadnt ate that burrito earlier today.

I've been all over the world ...

done business with (just about) every major player in this biz since 96 ...

met the woman of my dreams last year ...

bought a great fuckin' house ...

and had a baby 4 months ago :)

(plus a 36 chapter BOOK worth of shit in between :winkwink: )

I wouldn't change a damn thing!

:Graucho

awesome


congrats man :thumbsup

Every second is another moment closer to death.

I used to look back more but now I'm too busy living for the moment.

there are no wrong steps. side steps. back steps. baby steps. yeah. but no wrong steps.

so just keep walking. that is, when you get your footing back :thumbsup

Thanks, Scott!

:)

Don't get me wrong though, brotha - I've made a ton of mistakes and bad decisions ... and i've done some fucked up shit and fucked up shit has happened to me ...

but I wouldn't change any of it - because I wouldn't have ended up where I am today ... and I've learned great lessons from it all, and for that I'm thankful.

I know I'm a fortunate man and I don't take any of it for granted!

:winkwink:

I'll always wonder if not apply to be a trashman was a mistake.



Er, kidding!

KRL, as always, enjoy reading your posts ... and Quiet's questions. Makes one do a lot of pondering ... especially those little moments that led to the next and the next and any change at any point would have produced a completely different result.

every day

That's an interesting way to look at life for sure. Don't necessarily like thinking about death much though, personally!

:)

I grew up in the projects and was raised by a single mother on welfare.

For me, I look back to see how far I've come. I don't dwell on it, but it's my reality check.

... and I've lived for the moment for many years ... MANY YEARS!

Today I live for my family

:winkwink:

me too

We've all got an appointment with the grim reaper.

My life's ambition is simply to enjoy life as much as possible and work as little as possible.

I was born to take it easy.



:glugglug

I've thought about the same kinds of chain reactions and wondered where I would be without them.

But even more mind boggling than that is to picture that if you hadn't stopped at that newsstand, your life would be different and you would probably be looking back at a completely different random thing, thinking how weird it would be if that had never started a chain reaction.

The possibilities are endless, and no matter how you end up, you would always be able to look back and get freaked out. It would just be about having missed completely different things.

I'm still young, so I'm facing those decisions now. Right now I'm thinking about going back to school full time. I'm still 50/50 though because even though I never plan to be workin for the man, I still want to get out there and learn as much as I can. 3-4 more years of school is a lot of time though, I'm just trying to figure out if it will be worth it.

Not only have I thought about what if I made different choice. I've also thought about what if I was a bit older or a bit younger. If I had been a little older than I was in '96, I 'may' have got online sooner catching the beginning of the dot com wave. Some things just are out of your scope. For instance kids being born now, can never catch the dot com wave, the same way we couldn't catch the Gold Rush. It's just not within their time frame.

That would be a very long story, but to live in the past is time waisted building tomarrow.

So in short.

No.

Now if I could roll back time in hindsite well I bet we all would have our fantasies.:glugglug

As much as I've hurt and been hurt, seen and done, and regretted in my life, I've learned from all of the steps I've walked on my personal path. Had I not been through all that I've been through, I wouldn't be the person I am today, and though I didn't like myself then, I do now.

Though there are some times when "I wish to God I didn't know now all the things I didn't know then...."

Oh yeah, one last thing. If I knew now what kids are able to get away with, I would have done a lot more when I was a kid. You're just too young to know though:)

I rarely spend time thinking back, maybe a few times in the year like holidays makes you think of things with or without friends and family. Looking to the future is where it's at.

In the end, the only things I regret and look back on with remorse is hurting those I cared about.

"Yesterday don't matter if its gone."

So far my only regret is not starting sooner. :2 cents:

The last few years have been a flurry of change for me, but I always go back and think about opportunities missed and the "what if" scenarios...

Doesn't bother me though, still plenty of paths ahead to choose.

Yes. I took the road more travelled and instead of becoming a file clerk like I always dreamed I became a pornographer. ;)

Google-king, :winkwink: and everone else sharing the same feelings..

There are plenty of us who feel the same, I for one can't help it sometimes.
But I agree with previous posters in that dwelling won't get You anywhere..
I also strongly believe that there are both positive & negative things in both
every decision and the results thereof.

So I always LOOK, really hard if necessary, for the positive stuff and
make sure I don't think/worry TOO much about the "bad angles".

Whenever You feel too much like You haven't made the right choices etc.,
You're basically just ignoring the "bad angles" of having gone the other way or
made other decisions.. both potential and definite results thereof.

It can be hard to look at it this way at times but You have to realise that
what one thinks are unfortunate results of choices made, could as well be there
even if one took a 180 degree turn earlier instead.
Another thing to realise is that what You believe You're missing now as a
result, might just turn up THANKS to the choices You've made...

Just gotta keep the faith in Yourself, keep looking for opportunities now and then
and look positively at things. :thumbsup

Well Said!