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1 common thing Highly Creative People have
Society doesn't want you to figure it out
Highly Creative People have 1 thing in common.
It’s allowed them to:
Revolutionize their fields
Become a definitive authority
Bring immense positive change to humanity
Make a ton of money
But first, we need to understand why few have seen it.
We live in a world of narrow specialization.
If you grew up in the US education system, you’ve probably asked or been asked these questions:
“What looks good on college applications?”
“What classes are good for this major?”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“How will the gym help your career?”
These questions (though harmless on the surface) narrow down your life to certain “things” that society has deemed should be a priority, mainly, your career.
They confine you to a certain outcome or set of outcomes.
What happens once you figure out what looks good on college apps?
You ignore everything else.
It’s like you’re whittling down pieces of yourself over time.
And it’s not just in your career, but your personality too.
You’re either introverted or extroverted.
You can be the fat kid. Or shy.
You choose or they choose for you. Once that happens, you’re expected to play that part. If not, you get ostracized.
The overall message society sends you is:
To live a “good” life, you have to put yourself in a nicely shaped box.
But to the most Highly Creative People, that’s the exact opposite of how to live a good life.
And the reason why we scratch our heads looking at the world’s most Highly Creative People, it’s because we see them through this lense.
The reality is:
Highly Creative People accept and funnel all of their interests.
A Tale of 2 Legends: CEO & Astronomer
In this era of specialization, when you hear someone’s job, like “doctor,” you automatically think he does “doctor” things at work.
When it comes to these two guys, however, you’ll see that’s not the case.
iCEO
I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics. I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.
Steve Jobs was a massive weeb.
Just kidding...not really though.
As a child, he developed an interest in his friend’s mom’s Japanese art collection.
This bloomed into an obsession with Zen Buddhist philosophy around simplicity and minimalism.
He spent 7 months in India seeking enlightenment (spoilers: he didn’t find it) and made regular trips to Japan.
Jony Ive, chief designer of Apple, said this about him:
One thing most people don't know is that Steve Jobs is an exceptional designer.
After he dropped out of Reed College, he stuck around for a little bit. As the story he goes, he took a calligraphy class.
None of this had any hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.
And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.
If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would never have multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
None of these interests were “practical,” yet when you look at Apple today, you can see the typography, the minimalist design, and the great marketing.
As CEO, Steve Jobs didn’t just do “CEO things,” he channeled all his experiences, “practical” or “impractical” into a synergy that made him quite unlike the others.
He funneled design, Zen Buddhist philosophy, marketing, and all sorts of things into being CEO of Apple.
He accepted his unique nature.
The Art-stronomer
Galileo Galilei was not only a man of science, but also an accomplished artist with a keen eye.
For thousands of years, everyone thought the moon was perfectly smooth.
But when Galileo looked up at it in 1609, he saw quite the opposite.
What made him different?
25 years before, he was studying art at the Florentine Design Academy.
He was recognized by the world’s best artists as a master of perspective, (in art, it’s a way of representing 3D on 2D surfaces).
What would be just a nice hobby today and questioned by others on its practicality was crucial to his observation of the moon.
He sketched exactly as he saw it and studied it for months. Based on the way light interacted with its surface, he was able to determine that it was mountainous and had craters, just like our own surface.
Only an artist keen to these details is capable of that.
Galileo funneled his art, math, and scientific skills, and with that, gave birth to the field of modern astronomy, and some even say he fathered physics.
The Great Myth of the 21st Century
Specialization is like a memetic virus that’s crept into every aspect of life.
Steve Jobs or Galileo didn’t “settle for one thing,” they channeled their many other things together.
It’s time to embrace a new way of thinking about ourselves.
One that celebrates our unique interests, talents, and most importantly:
Fosters curiosity.
Curiosity is your bridge to boundless energy to fuel a fulfilling life.
For a life well lived is one where you are given the opportunity to do, learn, fail, and ultimately: evolve.
Put another way, the most common trait among Highly Creative People isn’t even about creativity, but of self-acceptance.
Just tell them I’m being an asshole
See ya’ll next week.
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