I was just reminiscing how my life changed when I turned 14.
Up to then I was always driving people crazy with my question:
WHY!!!!!
Suddenly I discovered another version of it:
WHY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
And that opened up worlds I had never even known existed!!!!!!!!!!
It all starts being driven by an idea! The beginning of an adventure!
I described this adventure to the neighbors I had invited for coffee.
Seated around the table, I asked each one what were their dreams.
Most of them answered, "Adventure....Travel!"
Then they turned to me and asked what were my dreams.
For a moment I was speechless.
I didn't know what to say.
and then I had the answer.
"I don't have any dreams," I told them.
"I have ideas.
And the moment I have an idea that drives me,
I gear into action...and make the idea happen!
The realization of the idea might take.. one day...one year...several years.
And those are my adventures!"
But there is something very different about this kind of adventure.
The adventure lies not in achieving the idea,
bu in the "struggle" to achieve the idea
once the idea is achieved "why/why not" is once again in operation
and a new adventure begins!
(I must confess: there are small ideas that also drive me -
like learning how to wash glasses to make them sparkle!
That's a mastery which still escapes me.
I'm afraid it's one of those adventures that may take a lifetime to make happen!)
Now there's nothing unique about having a great idea.
Everybody has ideas.
Great ideas.
All realizable.
Nobody has a great idea which isn't realizable.
But most great ideas are never realized.
It means changing the frame in which we live
So what's so difficult about that ?
We all live in a frame.
And in that frame we have content.
If something doesn't work, we change the content.
That could be a big deal, but we do it.
But what if changing the content doesn't work?
And we have to change the very frame in which we live!!!!!!!!
It means we "have to cross the line" into the unknown.
And "therein lies the rub!"
Just the thought of crossing the line
causes great anguish, turmoil...and fear:
"Never been there. Never done that. No guidelines. Outside the approval from my group."
Scared Shitless!!!!!!!
And with good reason.
Stepping across the line is like going into a room full of fog.
You can't see the ceiling.
And you can't see the walls.
The first reaction?
Paralysis!
The second reaction?
Panic!
But if you stick it out,
The fog begins to lift.
And as the fog begins to lift you begin to see the ceiling and the floors,
And you begin making connections.
And the new configurations open up your mind to new possibilities and new solutions.
YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Look Ma, it's me, your daughter Hortense, I'm flying high!!!!!!!!!!!!!|
And then you cross the next line into the next room and.....
ANOTHER FOG......
OMG!!!!!!!!!
But now there's a difference.
NOW YOU KNOW THE DRILL!
AND YOU'RE HOOKED FOREVER!
Postcript:
The more original the idea, the more the terror we feel of being an imposter.
We are tormented by the feeling that famous people "never" feel like an imposter.
They must feel they belong.
"Who do I think I am thinking I can make an original idea happen!"
Ed Catmull, head of Disney - Pixar. has had 15 movie successes in a row.
Toy Story was his first one.
And every time he has felt the same terror:
The terror of being an imposter.
What Ed Catmull does in his book, Creativity Inc, is put an end to that misconception,
That the famous never feel like an imposter.
"Terror" is what he has felt before every one of his 15 hits.
To paraphrase Ed Catmull in his book Creativity Inc.,
'It's like pummeling at 90 miles an hour in a dark tunnel, holding on for dear life,
and praying there is light at the end of the tunnel."
That feeling of "terror" in creating Toy Story, didn't stop Ed Catmull from creating each of the next 14 hits!
...ife
