One of the first video games to really blow my mind was Contra. The Nintendo classic came out when I was just a kid, but in modern culture it’s more famous for its cheat code than the actual gameplay. That’s because once you learned that infamous code, you were basically unstoppable. You could beat any level, no matter how difficult it was under normal circumstances.

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It was also one of the first times that I was exposed to the actual concept of invincibility. And for anyone that played under those cheat codes, you’ll probably remember that after a few gameplays, the game became less fun.Once you’d beaten every level with the cheat codes, what did you do next? You went back and tried to beat it without the code!

That’s because what Contra taught us at the earliest ages was that the fun was in overcoming the challenges, not avoiding them.

So stop looking for the cheat codes and shortcuts to life. Enjoy the ride, use a turbo boost here and there, and beat each level as it comes....To read more stories and insights like this check out "The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change."