Everyone knows the story of Icarus. He flew too close to the sun because of hubris and fell to his death. That’s how the myth gets told in a nutshell these days. And it's often been passed down as a warning against ambition. A lesson about knowing your limits.

But that’s not the full story.

In the original version, Daedalus, Icarus's father, didn’t just tell Icarus not to fly too high. He also warned him not to fly too low. If he flew too close to the sea, the water would drag him down. The point wasn’t to avoid risk. It was a lesson about balance. About awareness. Not about fear.

Over time, though, the tale was flattened. We kept the part about the sun. But the part about flying too low is rarely told. So all that's left is the warning: don’t fly too high or you’ll get burned.

That’s the deception.

Somewhere along the way, we became convinced that the greatest danger in life is making a mistake. That playing it safe, following the rules, and avoiding failure is how we survive. That’s how we stay whole.

But it’s a lie. A beautiful, seductive lie. One that trains us to believe that smallness is safe.

That’s not safety. That’s stagnation. That’s hiding.

I know that space well.

I stayed small for a long time. I played it safe, avoided risks, convinced myself that caution was wisdom. I thought if I could just avoid mistakes, I’d be okay. But the longer I waited, the heavier the silence got. Safe started to feel like lost.

The few times I let myself stretch, everything changed. It was uncomfortable, sometimes even painful, but it woke something up in me. I started to see that growth doesn’t happen in the knowing. It happens in the doing.

Now I know what it’s like to build things I believed in, things that were bigger than me at the time. And I know what it’s like for it all to fall apart. But every time, I come back clearer. Stronger. Wiser. A little closer to the version of my life I continue to aim for.

The greatest trick ever pulled is convincing us that playing it safe is better than making mistakes.

Being ambitious and making mistakes are how we grow. They sharpen us. They show us who we are when “the script” falls apart.

I'm done with the lie.

Send it their way. It might say what they’ve been needing to hear.

Don’t let the next one slip by.

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