Sometimes The Bad Guys Win
“You must be that little Spanish brat I taught a lesson to all those years ago. You've been chasing me your whole life only to fail now? I think that's about the worst thing I've ever heard. How marvelous.” Count Rugen, as played by Christoper Guest, The Princess Bride
On New Year’s Eve, I saw a good deal of social media posting decrying 2018 as many things: a dumpster fire, a garbage heap or rock bottom, among other negative things. Not a single one of them had good things to say about where we have come as a world in the last year. It’s easy to get bogged down by the trappings of negativity and worry. I know that I have let myself do that on many occasions and 2018 was no exception. Frankly, it happens to the best of us.
Look at our friend Inigo Montoya as mentioned in the quote above from The Princess Bride. He spent his whole life training to avenge his father and then in the crucial moment of his journey, where he finally meets the evil man he’s been chasing all those years, it appears that he will fail.
It’s easy to find ourselves in the same place as Inigo Montoya. Imagine instead of avenging your father, it was a college degree that didn’t turn out to be what you wanted to do with our life. Or a failed marriage that you had put so much time and love into. Or maybe it’s a dream job that didn’t turn out to be so dreamy. All of those things can be soul crushing… but none of them should be journey ending. Back to that in a minute.
Let’s talk about bad guys… They exist in this world and there are a whole lot of them. Sadly, they win quite often. We see these people in both politics and business, but I don’t even want to try and tackle politics here so let’s talk about business instead. We’ve all worked with them, the bad apples that seek to do only what helps them, forsaking all others in an attempt to gather power and wealth. And the smart bad apples succeed in this consistently. Why are they able to succeed while being so unethical? That’s a pretty simple answer: ethical and legal are two very different things.
Someone in the right position with too few scruples can find themselves wildly successful when they ignore ethics and just go for the gold. So where does that leave those of us that believe in doing what’s right? I’m sad to say, not always in a great spot. So many times movies show us how the whistle-blower wins the day and takes down the big evil corporation with the help of Julia Roberts and everyone celebrates. While that happens sometimes it is certainly not the norm. On the contrary. you may very well find yourself punished for standing up for what is right.
But just because the bad guys win doesn’t mean that has to define you. Not at all. Likely, it is not the end of your journey, only a fork in the road. It’s funny because that phrase, a fork in the road, is meant to explain that we have two options from which to choose. In actuality, a fork has three or even four tines and that’s a lot more descriptive of what we find in life. When one chapter of our life closes, we have multiple choices on where to go from there.
Back to our friend Inigo Montoya. He didn’t lose that day. Things were grim, but he had a mission and he stuck to it. That’s right, he knew what he needed to do and he did it all the same, even when there was a huge chance of failure. The story would have ended quite differently if he hadn’t made the decision to press on and fight for what he knew what was right.
That my friends, is the exciting truth of the bad guys winning. It usually isn’t permanent. Eventually, every bad guy knows deep down that it won’t last forever. Truths can come out. Dynasties can fall. Regimes can crumble. But even if they don’t, your story doesn’t have to be tied to theirs. You can move forward on your own. You can choose a new fork. Hell, you can choose a whole different utensil if that’s what you want.
You do you.
Choose your path and fight for it. Every single day. Help others when you can. Accept their help when you need it. Don’t worry if you get bogged down with negative emotions. Feel your feelings. And when you are ready, press on. The journey is long and you’ve still got plenty of time to get to your destination.
-Jason