Excellence in any enterprise is a noble goal.
However, with the world so full of problems, with new ones materializing everyday, is excellence the cure for society’s ills?
When studying the lives and achievements of the heroes of the past - the ones who kickstarted the great scientific, technological, and artistic revolutions of antiquity - you’ll find that they weren’t renowned for merely being excellent at something - they were renowned for being different, for daring to challenge the status quo and go where others dared not.
If you want to learn what it takes to attain more than just superiority, perfection, and mastery, to really stand out from the rest and the best, then read on and discover how you can blaze the trails others didn’t even know existed.
Excellence is Great for Stability, but not for Innovation
Excellence is ubiquitous in society, so much so that, for many, it’s become the primary goal of child rearing, religion, education, the arts, employment, etc. To a certain extent, this is perfectly understandable; we need excellence when it comes to hiring people for highly specialized roles, for a safe and functioning infrastructure, in our justice system, and in many other areas of our daily lives.
In short, we need excellence to serve as the bedrock of a safe and reliable society.
However, when it comes to inventing a better future for all, it’s not excellence that greases the wheels of innovation - it’s risk, audacity, and singularity that will wrench humanity from the clutches of technological and creative mediocrity, and launch us into a fate of possibility and opportunity.
In the Edge.org article, “Excellence”, mathematician, economist, and Managing Director of Thiel Capital Eric R. Weinstein outlines his case against excellence as the foremost objective of science and technology:
Within the same century, we have unlocked the twin nuclei of both cell and atom and created the conditions for synthetic biological and even digital life with computer programs that can spawn with both descent and variation on which selection can now act. We are in genuinely novel territory which we have little reason to think we can control; only the excellent would compare these recent achievements to harmless variations on the invention of the compass or steam engine.
But can our culture of subdued greatness foster a more roguish way of thinking?
The outlook is grim.
Currently, our society is built around training people from a young age to excel in school, to excel in a specific discipline, and to make a comfortable living excelling in a specialized field. And while this is certainly not an ignoble way of life, it’s one that is inimical to renegade thought, as it trains us to conform to a homogenous, static way of learning, doing, and living.
Dive into Failure, Because that’s What Everyone Else Tries to Avoid
Humans are designed to fail because we are too curious and inquisitive a species not to.
Because of this harsh fact, everyone who’s ever lived as failed at something. We all hate failing, and, therefore, the vast majority of us do our best to avoid failing. And in our civilization of regular perfection, striving for excellence means constantly working towards reducing failures, mistakes, and risks.
However, since the masses are too busy operating in the world of the familiar, most people aren’t doing anything of any real global impact, like deleting cancer, forging utopias, and generally pushing humans headlong into a more intoxicating future.
By staying away from risk, uncertainty, and discomfort, we’re robbing ourselves of the opportunity to break new intellectual ground and acquire heretofore undreamt of insight. So if you’re someone interested in breaking the future and and replacing it with something better, below are a few steps to get you started:
Stop Treating Mistakes as Taboo
Whatever your endeavors are - whether they’re creative, technical, professional, etc. - avoid the tendency to regard errors and stumbles as something to be avoided. No matter what you do, there will be the ever-present risk of failure and embarrassment.
This is totally normal.
Trying something new and untested invites the possibility of loss, but since you know that it will happen, stop running away from it and accept as necessary for advancement.
Record the Progress of Your Endeavors
When undertaking any task, it’s important to constantly record what worked and what didn’t. It’s not enough to simply not be afraid to fail; you must track what you failed at and why you failed, as this is the most effective way to ensure that you can make progress going forward.
Confronting your mistakes missteps requires considerable moral courage, as no one likes to admit when they’re wrong. But if you want to move towards your goal, it’s imperative that you continually take note of defeats.
Stop Chasing Success - and Start Chasing Wisdom
The average person generally picks something to be won or achieved as a goal in their chosen endeavor. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with choosing this path, there’s no denying that for those eager to upgrade the world, simply striving to achieve something is simply not enough.
Rather, aspiring innovators should aim to learn as much as they can during the process of achieving their goal. What those who try to avoid failure don’t realize is that failure is where the most important lessons are, where the most forbidden insights are waiting to be gained.
Broaden Your Definition of Possibility
Most people aren’t inherently creative in their day to day lives, and while it’s true that some people are just more creative than others, it’s still possible to for ordinary folks to cultivate a more visionary mindset to make them stand out from the crowd. In fact, with some practice, the average person can learn to search for demiurgic solutions for pervasive problems.
The key is to expand your definition of what is possible.
One of the things that separates creative people from the rest of the unimaginative masses is the ability to establish connections between two or more disparate ideas. Many of the brilliant innovations that are becoming more commonplace began as the marriage between concepts that bore no relation to one another. Computers inside automobiles? Self-driving cars. Electronics and fashion? Wearable tech. It’s these types of ideas that only a few years ago people thought were the stuff of science fiction, but because their originators had the ability to possibility where others didn’t, that are now impacting more and more people.
When watching a movie or reading a book that seemed to be about one thing on the surface but was really about something else, we marvel at the artist and their raw, uninhibited genius for connecting two disparate thoughts. For the artist, however, someone who revels in contradiction, taking one thing and relating it to another is second nature; for them, making the step from one idea to another was the obvious course of action.
If you want to learn how to close the seemingly wide gap between completely different things, and from that connection open up the vistas of possibility for everyone behind you, check out the tips below:
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As you look at the world, learn to recognize patterns across disparate sectors. The average person ignores the possibility that two unrelated things can be brought together to make something meaningful, so stop being an average person and make that connection!
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Don’t be afraid to question, and even doubt, your dearly held assumptions and worldviews. Creative people are constantly pivoting on their values and ideas, because doing so is what leads to new discoveries, so hold back when it comes to challenge your beliefs. Be brave in your self-scepticism!
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Constantly look for ways to improve your life, your surroundings, your career, the world around you, etc. Remember, innovation begins when we ask ourselves, “how can I do this differently?” Even far-fetched solutions to problems can lead to ideas that are well within the world of practicality. Hunt down inspiration!
Are you the type of person to question norms? If you are, you might be the entrepreneurial type. Click here to learn more about Entrepreneur DNA.
Don’t Let Your Lack of Qualifications Stop You from Greatness
If you want to do something groundbreaking, then you’re already unqualified for it, because if others have done it already, then it’s not groundbreaking.
However, being unqualified to build, create, effectuate, and inspire something historic should not stop you from setting out to build, create, effectuate, and inspire something historic. In fact, it should incentivise you take on the burden of discomfort and discovery with gusto.
If you still don’t feel motivated to tackle a seemingly impossible task, then take a look at those who have accomplished the impossible and examine the failures they’ve experienced throughout their lives leading up to their achievements - you might be surprised at their failure:success ratio.
When setting out to change the world despite a dearth of skills and knowledge, keep the following bits of advice in mind:
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True innovators are test pilots for the future, always trying something new that comes with the risk of failure, maybe even fatal failure. However, embracing these risks is necessary to traverse the landscape of unknown territory.
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With adventure comes risk, with creation comes mistakes, with new knowledge comes new ignorance. The more we learn about the world, the more we realize how much we don’t know about it, how little control we have over it.
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Diving into the unknown unprepared and reveling in discomfort without amenity is what every great adventurer does. But while doing so invites danger, it also opens up the possibility of returning with the gift of wisdom to share with the rest of humanity.
Overpromise - and Overdeliver
From a young age, most of us are taught to underpromise (to be “realistic” in our goals and endeavors) and overdeliver (to put in extra work and exceed expectations).
This is wrong.
If you really want to make a difference in the world, to influence generations of people to follow in your footsteps, and to inscribe your name in the book of history, then you have to promise a world and deliver a universe.
True innovators, you see, are the ones who promise to achieve one massive task, and exceed that already lofty expectation, proving that the insurmountable is, in fact, quite surmountable. Most regular people believe that the lesson of the story of Icarus is the danger of over-ambition, but true innovators believe that the lesson is to build better wings.
However, as you might have guessed, overpromising and overdelivering is not an easy endeavor, nor is it something that, even when achieved, is easily replicable. It’s a mission that comes with the guarantee of repeated failure and constant risk. However, because “fortune favors the bold”, it’s a mission that comes with a higher chance of far-reaching impact. Thomas J. Watson, the former chairman and CEO, had this to say on the matter:
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
Remember, the fearless architects of our society - the artists, the inventors, the engineers, etc. - created and built and struggled on the foundation of trial and error. If it worked for them, why not give it a shot?
How You Can Start Overpromising and Overdelivering Right Now
Getting started on living your life as a rogue thinker isn’t as hard as you might think, but it does require plenty of practice. If you want to infuse your endeavors with a bit of intellectual derring-do, begin by putting yourself in a constrained situation (a deadline, limited resources, self-imposed obstacles, etc.) and use only your cunning and wit to solve a problem.
This process can be applied to nearly any type of endeavor - creative, technical, professional, whatever. The goal is to constantly give yourself a difficult task, do it, then make it harder, then do it. Even if you fail ten times in a row, try it ten more times, and even more times after that, until you’ve changed the world for the better.
Just Do Something Big - and Become a Legend
One of the most common characteristics that history’s greatest innovators shared was a perceived touch of madness. Whether this was because they actively chose to rebel against reality’s rules or because they truly were damaged people (or some combination of both), there’s no denying the fact that it’s the outsiders, renegades, heretics, and weirdos who blaze new trails for others to follow, and the commoners and mediocrities who sit and merely watch.
So if you’re enthused about the idea of setting out to fix humanity’s problems but are concerned about the possibility of people telling you’re crazy for even trying, don’t be. There will always naysayers and teetotalers who abstain from drinking from the fountain of unpredictability, those who will tell others to stay far and away from the peril of accidental creation.
Because that’s the magic and mystery of innovation in its purest form - diving into the unknown, doing what are others are afraid to do or what they haven’t even thought of doing because reality told them it wasn’t possible.
If you need a little more motivation to take on the impossible without fear of rejection, ridicule, and accusations of mania, remember these wise words from the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
You’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
The world is waiting for you to save it.
So do it already.
And become the legend you were meant to be.
