How to put a dent in the universe
“You become the average of 5 people you surround yourself with” — Jim Rohn
Have you heard of mirror neurons?
Mirror neurons make us unconsciously adapt to the behavior, beliefs and the thought process of those around us. Most of the desires we have are not even ours but we unconsciously borrow it from our surroundings and or they are driven by the need to dominate the social multi-player game. These social inherited desires form hazy layers over our true desires and hence we need to peel these desires the way we remove layers of the onions to find its core.
Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. — JK Rowling
Social animals like to think that they are independent decision makers and aren’t influenced by any external factors, but that is an overestimation of our originality.
Humans decide the age to get married or the field of their study by observing people around them. Because of our desire to be part of a community and fear of being left out, we comply with requests and reasons which make us look good in the eyes of others and all of this happens subconsciously, making us think that we decided for ourselves.
By being busy looking around as to what other people are doing and how we can be better than everyone around us, we only push forward the status quo and not change it.
We have to invent a new game and master it — Reid Hoffman
We invest our energy into the games which are already out there in the universe and we adapt ourselves to it, but what if you could create your own game, one whose rules are influenced by each individual’s own personality.
The experience, inclinations, weaknesses, and strengths that I possess will be possessed by no other being ever and this remains the same for you.
Our DNA, music, and contribution are as unique as the sound of each note in the piano.
What if you could create a game by combining your own inclinations, desires, strengths, weaknesses, and experience? This game would be truly your creation, no one will be able to copy it and it will be something that only you will be able to pull off as it will be your extension in the world.
How much energy would it save for you as you wouldn’t need to compete with anyone?
Will that game transcend the status quo or mesh new colors in the fabric of the cosmos?
How to create original work?
Are you familiar with the below comic strips?
If you aren’t familiar, the above comics is called “Dilbert” and its creator is Mr. Scott Adams. The anecdotes of the comic will haunt you in corporate meetings and make you secretly laugh.
Apart from the amazing comics Scott created, he also shared his personal philosophy on creating original work or on becoming the best in the world at what one does.
The chances of anyone becoming the next Usain Bolt, Virat Kohli, Mozart or maverick computer programmer are almost little to none.
It’s super hard to become the best in the world at one thing considering the amount of time it requires one to put in, competition in the given field and the single-minded focus it requires.
Maybe you can pull off to be the next Usain Bolt, but for many like me and Mr. Scott Adams who desire to be the best in the world at something and don’t have what it takes to be the next Usain Bolt, there is another path that Mr. Scott Adams suggests and it isn’t a hard work free approach, but seems more realistic and less risky.
Mr. Scott Adams has some corporate experience and is equipped with descent sketching and humor skills. He combined his corporate experience with his sketching and humor skills to create Dilbert. Dilbert is an original work of Mr. Scott Adams, no one can create Dilbert the way Mr. Scott Adams does combining his unique skills and experiences.
Escape competition by authenticity — Naval Ravikant
Another example of the same applied philosophy would be the creation of the popular grocery delivery app “Instacart”. Instacart was founded by Apoorva Mehta and before founding Instacart, Apoorva used to work as a supply chain engineer at Amazon and also had some experience in building software products.
Apoorva combined his knowledge of creating software products with skills of supply chain engineer to make it hassle-free for consumers to receive grocery at our home within 30 minutes.
What are your different skills which you can combine? What art awaits you? Let me know in the comments below.
