Trapped genius

It wasn’t always like this. There wasn’t a cell we were locked in to begin with. But as we grew up, chains started pulling us down, door started closing, boxes started fitting us in. Here’s the secret. Within each one of us there is a creative genius. We might not believe it, but that does not change the fact it’s there.

Have you ever wondered why it’s easier for us, mentally, to fail in a game than at work? Why it’s safer? Or why it’s easier to get creative in a game than in relationship? Games, just like life, work, relationships, have rules. And in games, just like in life, work, relationships, you can fail.

My bet is that what keeps our creative genius in chains is the fear that we’ll fail. And the rules… well, they are all made up. Useful maybe, but made up. Within their set rules, games make it easy for us to fail. Most times, you need to fail a lot in order for you to get better. And when you do succeed, it feels awesome, right? But then again, why wouldn’t it be the same in life, work and relationships?

There is this story I love. I’m not sure where I picked it up. It’s a story about pots. An arts teacher splits his class in 2. He tells the first half of the class that for their grade, they need to make their best pot. He tells the other half that they need to make as many pots as possible, and choose the best one to be graded. At the end of the semester, most of the pots of the first half of the class are… average. Sure, some have bells and whistles, but it’s mostly average. However, the second half of the class is where magic happened: they have much much better pots, as they’ve explored different shapes, techniques, materials and maybe made say 30 pots each, allowing them to experiment, learn, iterate. Compared to the first half of the class, would it be fair to say they have failed 29 times? Or would they say…. we played until we found something that worked?

Which takes us the question… what is failure for? Maybe it’s for the creative genius within to awaken. If only we’re ready to rewrite the story we tell ourselves.