Exploratory Essay
In Adam Grant’s Ted Talk, "The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers", he discusses how to recognize originals and become a little bit more like them. He defines originals as nonconformists. Those people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. Those people who stand out and speak up, as well as drive creativity and change in the world. He focuses on three main points that he notices about originals. He says originals are late to the party, feel fear and doubt, and have lots of bad ideas.
So, what does Grant mean when he says, “originals are late to the party?” Although, procrastinating can reduce productivity, it can actually boost creativity. In a research study that he shared, workers at a company were asked to fill out surveys on how often they procrastinate, and their bosses were asked to rate how creative and innovative they were. The “pre-crastinators” who rushed in and did everything early, were rated less creative than people who procrastinated moderately. This was hard for me to hear because I would definitely consider myself a “pre-crastinor.” I am very task-oriented and love to feel productive, so it will be something interesting for me to try. I need to find the “sweet spot” where originals live. Grant goes on to discuss examples of great originals like Leonardo Da Vinci, who spent 16 years working on and off on the Mona Lisa, and Martin Luther King Jr., who was still rewriting his speech while in the audience waiting to go on stage. Because his ideas were not set in stone, he had the freedom to improvise four words that changed the course of history, “I have a dream.”
According to Grant, on the surface, a lot of original people look confident, but behind the scenes, they feel the same fear and doubt as the rest of us, they just manage it differently. Originals are afraid of failing, but they are even more afraid of failing to try. Our biggest regrets are not our actions, but our inactions, the things we wish we could redo are the chances we didn’t take. We can’t be afraid of embarrassing ourselves or looking stupid, something that I believe our generation struggles with based on the fabricated reality we see on social media. Self-doubt can be paralyzing and lead us to freeze, but “idea doubt” is energizing, motivating us to test, to experiment, and to refine. Instead of saying, “I am crap,” Grant suggests thinking, “the first few drafts are always crap, and I’m just not there yet.” It’s not easy, but it’s all about your mindset. Did you know Chrome and Firefox users significantly outperform and stay in their jobs 15 percent longer than Safari and Internet Explorer users? Grant shares, it isn’t about the browser, it’s about how you got the browser. Internet Explorer and Safari came pre-installed on your computer and you accepted the default option that was handed to you. If you wanted Firefox or Chrome, you had to doubt the default and determine if there was a different option and be a little resourceful to find and download the new browser. An original is the kind of person who takes the initiative to look for a better option. I’m still not sure if I am an original, but I am happy to report that I am a Chrome user.
The greatest originals are those who fail the most, because they are the ones who try the most. They can persevere and accept not being perfect, because you need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones. The first idea is never the best idea. We celebrate Thomas Edison for creating the lightbulb, not the creepy talking doll that came before it. Do you ever wonder why some classical composers have their compositions re-recorded more times? Grant says one of the best predictors is the sheer volume of compositions they create. The more output you turn out, the more variety you get and the better your chances of stumbling on something truly original.
This Ted Talk made me realize that originals are not that different from the rest of us. I always thought that “creative people” or “original thinkers” just had a gift, like creative was one of their personality traits, but they are really just the people who didn’t give up. Maybe they weren’t the first to get the project done, they procrastinated. They doubted themselves but tried anyway. And they failed, but they tried again. To be original, you don’t always have to create something from scratch, you just have to be different and better.
All of the points that Grant brought up prompted me to ask the following questions. How do you find the sweet spot between pre-crastinating and over procrastinating? If you dive into something too quickly, the task doesn’t have the time to be active in your mind, but chronic procrastinators often wait too long, leaving no time to come up with any new ideas. So, how do we determine when to start? Next, I wonder what the relationship is between fear of failure and procrastination? I think it is very common for people to procrastinate because they are afraid to start. Lastly, it seems like many people, including myself, do not consider themselves creative, so I am curious to know what other fears are holding us back from being creative? This is the question I would like to explore as a possible topic for my research essay.