The self-help guru walked up to me and asked, “what would you do if you could do anything, anything at all, and knew you couldn’t fail?”
I looked at him, thought for a bit, and shrugged.
“How can you not know?” he asked. “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
My face was blank. I really didn’t know.
His look was intense; he demanded an answer.
“I would,” I said, “just live, I guess.”
His furrowed brow showed displeasure, but how could I tell him what I didn’t know?
“Have you no goals? No aspirations? Haven’t you thought about your purpose here on Earth?”
I could find no answer.
“With an attitude like yours,” he said, “you will never amount to anything. How can you live your life without a goal, without a purpose?”
I wanted to ask if all that was important: goals, aspirations, purpose… But the way he said it I figured it must have mattered quite a lot to him. I decided not to ask, seeing how intense he was.
“Do you want to die a statistic?” he asked, but before I could answer him, he continued, “Do not waste your life, son. Dream big goals; achieve big things. Do not waste your time here on Earth!”
I did have dreams. I dreamt of my cat, growing old with me, surviving beyond his life expectancy.
Donn, fragments 
The age of the guru has passed. Especially this guru. I do believe I have a different opinion than this man does on what exactly is “wasting”. I assume from the information I am given here, that this is a man who misses the little delights. Things have to be monumental and huge. Life has to be a series of explosions of confetti. Thank God I’ve no expectations like that. He should sleep in, have slow sex, take a meandering walk holding the hand of his loved one to the local farmer’s market, there purchase a sack of fruit for lunch. . . . . . .
you see where I am going here. This man ought to follow LIFE a little bit. His control over it is merely illusion. ENJOY.