The secret of life.

Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander:

Ben Zander: A few weeks into the first year of the giving the A experiment, I asked the class how it had felt to them to start the semester off with an A, before they had had to prove themselves in any way. To my surprise, a Taiwanese student put up his hand.

“In Taiwan,” he explained, "I was Number 68 out of 70 student. I come to Boston and Mr. Zander says I am an A. Very confusing. I walk about, three weeks, very confused. I am Number 68, but Mr. Zander says I am an A student . . . I am Number 68, but Mr. Zander says I am an A. One day I discover much happier A than Number 68. So I decide I am an A."

This student, in a brilliant flash, had hit upon the “secret of life.” He had realized that the labels he had been taking so seriously are human inventions—it’s all a game. The Number 68 is invented and the A is invented, so we might as well choose to invent something that brightens our life and the lives of the people around us.