Why not you? Why not now?

In Franz Kafka’s parable, Before the Law, a man seeks to access the Law and arrives at a guarded door. The guard tells him he cannot enter but might be allowed in later. The man waits for decades, making multiple failed attempts to persuade the guard to give him permission to enter. Towards the end of his life the man asks the guard why no one else has come to seek entry. The guard responds that the door was only meant for him and now he will be closing it.

The mind boggling thing about this whole parable is the man never once attempted to open the door himself, but instead decided he couldn’t possibly open the door until an Authority gave him permission.

Though it’s not specified, my guess is the real tragedy is that the man could’ve walked through the door at any time if only he’d recognized that the permission he so desperately sought was never meant to come from the guard, but instead himself.

Waiting for the world to give you permission is a fool’s errand.

Of any seemingly audacious task, seriously ask yourself: Why not me? Why not now?