I happen to know this for a fact. Let's take a look at a few of them.
Take E.Z. Million. No, that's not a joke, that's his real name. I'm not sure what to make of Elmer Zen Million. His website is awkward, but not totally embarassing (unless you're a Reddit commentator). His politics are kinda comically right-wing, but he doesn't appear to be espousing anything hateful. In general, he just seems like a fiscal conservative who's maybe a little too involved in OU football (and trust me, that is about as common as breathing down here).
Guy's like E.Z. give me a happy feeling. I'm happy because this guy clearly gets it much more than I do: Life is short, at least try to do something. And so here he is, trying. Million is doing the things that every good citizen knows ought to work. He's running for office, he's writing letters, hell, he's even started a website to try to get his message out there.
However, he's clearly out of his element in some of this. A guy like Million can't spend the time or acquire the expertise necessary to win one of the higher political positions. Considering the guy's age and his expertise, his website isn't an embarrassment (certainly better than 95% of what's on MySpace), but even he must realize that it is pretty antiquated.
My point is that the guy is unafraid of failure. EZ might not succeed, but it sure beats sitting around and not trying.
Myself? Oh, I'm mostly afraid. I'm too scared to put my name out there with my beliefs. A lot of times I'm too scared to really act on my beliefs myself. Why do you think this whole blog is written from anonymity? Why do I continue to do science?
I know lots of people who aren't afraid of being associated with their beliefs though. These are people who do things that aren't always 'normal'. Most people tend to view people who do 'weird' things as sorta crazy. E.Z.'s a perfect example of this. Check out the comments by this guy. He seems to be disbelieving that a guy with that name even exists, and that his attempt to actually do something is just comical.
I told some friends of mine about my buddy B. B bought a diesel car and then put in a system so that he could run the thing on veggie oil. There's a lot of risk involved in this kind of decision.
The diesel he bought was pretty old and had a lot of miles, so right off the bat there's a fair number of people who think that must mean it isn't a valuable asset. Then there's the reality of collecting veggie oil from businesses, and storing it and even filtering it. There's also a fairly difficult (to me anyway) process of actually installing the conversion kit.
There are, in summation, a million risky things about this. Many of my friends started in on the typical road of pointing out all the oddness in this kind of endeavor. Not everyone, and not necessarily all being negative either.
But the reality is that people can always come up with good reasons why not to do something. Somethings too risky or too expensive or too time consuming or too smelly or too likely to make the neighbors look at you funny.
It's kinda like getting a dog. Any rational person could look at the situation and realize there's never a good time to get a dog. I mean, dog's are expensive and they're messy and they need constant attention and that's just going to take time away from other things you should be doing.
These facts are always true.
But they are not what should go into decision making.
Sometimes, you just have to realize that what you want is not ridiculous, and that the little obstacles that you have to overcome in order to have the things you want are part of the joy of life.
I think the xkcd webcomic does a great job of making this point. Take a look at some of these comics: here, here, and most vehemently here. The guy who writes xkcd believes that we should let the familiar constrain us, and we shouldn't let the expectations of others constrain us. If we do that we're just going to end up unhappy.
I have another friend M. M builds stuff. He built a overhead rack to hang pots and pans from out of a ladder. He built some endtables out of stone and branches. He built a secret, James-Bond style trapdoor in his basement. The guy is a 2nd year hospital resident and he's built more useful stuff in the past year than I have in my entire life. Considering he works 80-100 hours a week, some people think he's a little weird for spending his 'free time' putting together secret doors in his house.
My friend K, who came down and stayed with us for a couple of days, is also one to just go do it. I have a fantastic picture of her after she jumped in a lake after a fishing trip. Everyone else (including me) was way too cool to do so, but damn it looked like fun.
E.Z. probably isn't going to get elected, but that doesn't change anything. The guy isn't afraid to try, and frankly, I find that kinda inspiring.
