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Phillip Berry | Orient YourselfAuthor: Phillip Berry Orient Yourself
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First Mover or Fast Follower? There are Always New Edges to Explore.
Sunday, 2 August, 2026
This week-end, my five-year-old grandson, Fulton, decided he was ready to ride a bike. I can’t really speak to his decision process. From my vantage point, there was very little forethought, discussion, preparation, practice, or arm-wrestling with doubt. He literally got on a bike and started riding it. There was some faltering uneasiness and the necessary cycles of finding his balance, but in very short order and with zero fanfare, he was riding circles around our cul-de-sac. Of course, this spontaneous feat was not really spontaneous – he had been working on it for a long time in how he played, practiced balancing, and developed his own confidence in things unknown. Ultimately, he just decided he could, so he did. How did he get to that decision? Long before he had come to the decision, and confidence, that he could ride that bike, he had seen his older siblings doing it. From early-on, he knew it was possible. Following this thread a bit further, one can easily argue that much of the daring, confidence, and apparent fearlessness, that has marked his young life stems from his birth order and the efforts he has made over his five years to keep up with his two older siblings. As number three, he has been given the great freedom of knowing with absolute surety the many things that are possible. In 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, Naval Aviator Pete Mitchell is tasked with preparing a team of “Top Gun” pilots to complete what looks to be an impossible mission: destroying a heavily protected nuclear site, deep in enemy territory located in a mountainous crater, and guarded by missile batteries and “fifth-generation” fighters. None of the pilots is able to complete the test mission within the time and terrain parameters until Mitchell shows them it is possible. Since the beginning, human trailblazers have tested the limits of the possible in all spheres of human endeavor. From crossing the Atlantic, to running a four minute mile, to breaking the sound barrier, to acing the SAT, and on to putting a man on the moon, human progress has been marked by the firsts necessary to show the rest of us the way. However, none of it was spontaneous and the paths to all firsts are marked by failure and the learning necessary to make the leaps. But, once we see it can be done, the universe opens in new and often surprising ways. There is an incredible freedom that comes with the breaking of what previously looked like a barrier. The mind suddenly stops asking if a feat is impossible and shifts to wondering what else is possible. It’s no longer about the crazy idea of sitting on a little seat wondering if one can balance between two wheels while pedaling. In the knowing we can, we begin to think about where we might go and how fast we might get there. We are liberated to imagine to the next barrier…and beyond. The curious thing about progress and innovation is that it is never in a flash of individual brilliance or a vacuum of independence. Forward motion is cumulative. Sure, there are moments of insight and discovery, but they always begin where some other insight or discovery led. There was always a first barrier broken before we were led to the next one to be conquered. There is great freedom, and comfort, in recognizing the cycle of human progress. Those limits we see might not be as far off, or as scary, as we first think. Those changes on the horizon might not be as radical or the demands of change as painful as we may fear. It’s unlikely you can remember a time when you didn’t know how to ride a bike. Or when you couldn’t talk. Or when you couldn’t walk. Those leaps of development that we now accept as part of growing-up were once unimaginable. At least until we heard or saw someone else doing it. This week, take a look at those places you fear to tread, those thoughts you hesitate to think, or those dreams you resist dreaming. Sometimes the truly crazy thing is closing our eyes to the possibilities for which we were made.
