Hope is the mark of inaction. Hope is what you have when you can do nothing: when people are sick or dying, when you're a captive. In those times, hope can sustain us, a rope tied to a rock that we grip to keep the river from overwhelming us.

But those times are rare and extreme. If you have ways to act and you choose to hope for something to happen, you throw away your power to command yourself, for a lottery ticket chance that maybe what you want will happen anyway.

Don't hope. Don't wait. Go out and do something.