If you’re simply following [shortcuts] you probably won’t get anywhere interesting. It’s the detours that pay off.*
Seth Godin

you might prepare for your central mission in life by doing other things that may seem entirely unrelated, and how necessary this may be**
Rebecca Solnit

At a point in my working life, when my contemporaries
were stepping into yet another role of
great responsibility, or more,
I found myself stepping into a quieter role,
Less public.
I didn’t know it at the time,
But there a different future
would begin to emerge.

‘Homo non proprie humanus sedsuperhumanus est’ –
which means that to be properly human,
you must go beyond the merely human.^

*Seth Godin’s blog: Actual shortcuts often appear to be detours;
**Rebecca Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses;
^Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses.