How to be an original

Originals are dissenters who are uninterested in the current state of affairs. They have the creativity and daring to structure and pursue their own paths. They are amazing individuals who move the world. They are inventors, businesspeople, scientists, authors, painters, musicians, and leaders of political movements.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an original. So were Leonardo Da Vinci, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. Originals, however, are not just world-famous people who revolutionized their domains. There are those whose names would be unknown to most but their contribution to humanity will be forever etched in people’s memory. The book Originals: How Non-Conformists

Change The World by Wharton professor Adam Grant explores how innovators view the world with new lenses and share with others their accomplishments. It posits that success in one area does not guarantee success in another, and hubris often muddles one’s outlook. It also talks about the feared “middle of mediocrity,” or what the author calls “middle status conservatism.” The more familiar you are with a particular domain, the less creative you are.

Grant assaults the hypothesis that maverick innovators are all daring, young risktakers, rolling out one incredible concept after another. In truth, they are habitually precautious late adopters. Their masterpieces materialize — often unacknowledged by their creators — because of the utter volume of average work they generate along the way. They “procrastinate strategically” — testing and refining different possibilities — before making breakthroughs. Other key takeaways from the book cover these concepts:

• There is an element of genius in every person. There is a song inside everybody’s heart that the world has never had a chance to listen to and maybe, if nothing is done, will never get to be heard altogether. That is what the world sadly loses every single day when people accept the conditions they are living in by choosing not to act on the springs of ideas that incessantly visit them.

• Originality is not the domain of the blessedly talented but of individuals who have simply refused to embrace the status quo. Celebrated businesspeople like Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are not typically predisposed to risktaking, despite the popular view of the swashbuckling entrepreneur. Picasso did not generate consistently better ideas than his artistic rivals but just maximized his output, and with it the probability of striking gold every so often. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech was a synthesis of last-minute scribbling and on-the-spot improvisation, not a meticulously prepared draft. You need to champion the thought of “nurture over nature” as a determinant of talent. A person’s ability is not innate but a product of experience.

• People who choose to champion originality are the ones who propel people forward. Their inner experiences are not any different from your own. They feel the same fear, the same doubt as you. They believe that calming down isn’t the best way to manage anxiety. That venting backfires when you’re angry, and that pessimism is sometimes more energizing than optimism. What sets them apart is that they

take action anyway. They are not afraid to face the risky business of going against the grain. They know in their hearts that failing would yield less regret than failing to try. George Bernard Shaw declared, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” • Instead of banking on a single idea, your wisest move is to bet on a whole portfolio of ideas. Blindly generate novel ideas and gather more feedback from fellow creators to hone your vision about which ones might prove useful. You’ll be able to see more clearly, but you’ll still be making one-eyed gambles. In 2013 alone, over 300,000 patents were granted in the United States. The chances that any one of these inventions will change the world are tiny. Individual creators have far better odds over a lifetime of ideas. When you judge their greatness, you focus not on their averages, but on their peaks. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams proclaimed, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

• In some circumstances, leaving a stifling organization can be a better path to originality. The best you can do is voice your opinions and secure your risk portfolios, preparing for exit if necessary. If your bosses evolve, there’s a case to be made for sticking around and speaking up. But if they don’t, and your audiences lack the openness to consider a shift in direction, you might find better opportunities elsewhere. Mistakes you regret are not errors of commission, but errors of omission. If you could do things over, you would censor yourself less and express your ideas more. Speak the truth to power. “Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds,” Albert Einstein once said.

• Good things come to those who wait, and for experimentalists. The more experiments you run, the less constrained you become by your ideas from the past. You learn from what you discover in your audience, on the canvas, or in the data. Sprinting is a fine strategy for a young genius, but becoming an old master requires the patience of experimentation to run a marathon. Both are paths to creativity. Yet if you aren’t stuck by a bolt of insight, slow and steady experimentation can light the way to a longer stretch of originality. You need timing, strategic procrastination and the first-mover advantage. “Experimentation bolsters the resolve of the relentlessly curious, the constantly tinkering, the dedicated tortoises undaunted by the blur of the hares,” Daniel Pink said.

• Finding the right mentor is not always easy, but if you find

a good one your originality is assured of nurturance. But you can locate role models in a more accessible place: the stories of great originals throughout history. Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by Gandhi, as was Nelson Mandela. In some cases, fictional characters may be even better role models. Growing up, many originals found their first heroes in their most beloved novels:

Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, Ender’s Game and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves have protagonists who exercise their creativity in the pursuit of unique undertakings.

Undoubtedly, the next generation of originals will draw inspiration from the Harry Potter series, which is brimming with references to original accomplishments. Potter is the only wizard who can defeat Voldemort. With his friends Hermione and Ron, he learns unique spells and invents new ways of defending against the dark arts. Spirits of children rise when they succeed, and they are crestfallen when they fail. Along with giving a generation of children role models for originality, JK Rowling embedded a moral message in her novels.

Recent studies show that reading Harry Potter improves children’s attitudes toward marginalized groups. As they see Harry and Hermione face discrimination for not having pure wizard blood, they empathize and become less prejudiced toward minority groups in their own lives. Instead of causing you to rebel because traditional avenues are closed, the protagonists in your favorite stories may inspire originality by opening your minds to unconventional routes.

• Shapers are independent thinkers: curious, non-conforming and rebellious. These are qualities on top of being driven and imaginative. Think of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. They practiced nonhierarchical honesty. And they acted in the face of risk, because their fear of not succeeding exceeded their fear of failing. The greatest shapers don’t stop at introducing originality into the world. They create cultures — not cults — that unleash originality in others, cultures that encourage dissenting opinions, and where devil’s advocates thrive. Ralph Waldo Emerson averred,” In fact, the only sin which we never forgive

each other is difference in opinion.” • Originals embrace the uphill battle, striving to make the world what it could

be. This is opposed to the traditional thinking that in the pursuit of happiness, many choose to enjoy the world as is. By struggling to improve life and liberty, the originals may temporarily give up some pleasure, putting their own happiness on the back burner. And that brings a different kind of satisfaction. Becoming original is not the easiest path in the pursuit of happiness, but it leaves you perfectly poised for the happiness of pursuit, as you manage anxiety, apathy, ambivalence and anger. Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who does feel afraid, but conquers that fear.”

An original is a thing of singular or unique character; a person who is different from the rest in an appealing or interesting way, an individual of fresh initiative or inventive capacity. That’s precisely why originals cost more than imitations.

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George Bernard Shaw said, ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’