Thriving...in Spite of It

From the first time we climb into the swing, or stare up at the tallest slide on the playground, we begin to explore--and find--our limitations. Regardless of our most adventurous early experiences, it seems some of us begin to set our own safe, boring boundaries after a couple of failures, or falls, and scraped knees or injured pride tend to dictate whether we like to soar or tiptoe, for the rest of our lives. I used to be a swing-jumper. The higher the better. But somewhere along the way, around 6th grade, when I was teased and tormented for being a "goody two-shoes," belittled for lack of beauty, and taunted about my bargain-store clothing, I lost my nerve---my sense of adventure was bruised, dulled, and lost for awhile. I picked up a profound axiom from a most unlikely source lately --a comedy...A salesman for Google was trying to convince the owner of a thriving little mom-and-pop pizza place to step into the digital age by getting his business on the map---literally-...