The world belongs to those who, before others, make different choices. Now, to choose is already a way of thinking. To live ahead of one’s time is first to learn to think differently. To get ahead, you must read what others do not read, go where they do not go, and speak with those to whom nobody speaks.
To anticipate is to dominate. This lead is not easily acquired, because it requires three things: developing beliefs opposed to those of the masses, accepting being right when the rest of the world is wrong, and acting consistently with these convictions at all times. To get ahead and stay ahead, you must turn discomfort into a habit: regularly doing what others do not dare to do.
Learning to leave the beaten path means accepting to leave the mental highways of the majority to explore new inner routes. This implies feeding oneself with ideas foreign to one’s usual environment, experimenting with some of them, and honestly observing their effects, as a researcher would do in a laboratory. It is, in fact, a scientific method applied to one’s own life. Those we say are “ahead” are, most often, those who have come closer to the truth earlier than others. A forerunner cannot, in the long run, be further from the truth than the crowd; they simply shorten the distance to it, notably by spending time with those who have already partially discovered it.
Our distance from the truth is explained in large part by the early indoctrination to which we are subjected. From childhood, a multitude of limiting beliefs settle within us and gradually obstruct our access to reality. Religions illustrate this paradox well: they often carry a core of truth, but the systems of worship that surround them have, over time, been shaped to govern the masses, distorting the original message. The great monotheisms, when they elevate their foundations into untouchable dogmas, shut the door to criticism and allow fanaticism to flourish. In such systems, thinking — and even more so, thinking differently — becomes a subversive act. That is why any corrupt power, whether religious or secular, strives to silence free thinkers. Thinking is a lethal weapon against any order founded on fear and servitude. But authentic thought requires a double effort: the courage to break free from imposed certainties and the humility to recognize that truth is a never-ending quest.
Courage seems to come in two main forms: physical courage and moral courage. They interact and sometimes reinforce each other, but it is not uncommon for one to be overdeveloped at the expense of the other. Physical courage appears when one accepts to risk one’s bodily integrity by facing a tangible danger. Moral courage, on the other hand, is measured by the ability to face risks weighing on one’s reputation, material comfort, status, or symbolic security. Strengthening courage, in both forms, is above all a matter of exercising it. It means acting despite the grip of immediate fear — the one that seizes us at the moment of decision — and despite the anticipatory fear of the consequences that will follow.
The difference between a scholar and a sage lies less in the quantity of their knowledge than in their relationship to experience. The scholar houses countless ideas in their mind; the sage cultivates only a few, but each has been sifted through the filter of lived experience. The sage is the one who has embodied the truth rather than leaving it at the stage of a mere object of intellectual contemplation.
Among writers, the most unfortunate may be those who were right too early, to the point of remaining unreadable to their own contemporaries. From this angle, wanting to be visionary or avant-garde ultimately amounts to choosing solitude as a companion. Yet this condition is not without its benefits: there is scarcely a deeper joy than living as close as possible to the truth. Fortunately, being an entire generation ahead is still a rare phenomenon, which limits absolute isolation. A lead of ten years over one’s time is already prodigious and can become a source of many opportunities, depending on the field in which it is expressed.
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