Ideas Are Cheap

I am what psychologists would term a left-brain person – I think better in images, I'm highly capable of creative thought, and I have good linguistic and descriptive ability. I am also wildly curious and explorative. I am gifted with a strong and pervading imagination which I have thankfully cultivated to a significant degree over the years. (The downside is that left-brain people also suck at Math and numbers.)

As such, I have never been one to see the world as it is. Instead, I have a natural tendency to imagine the world as it could be. This capacity became useful starting my days in university when I realized that I could easily generate unique ideas. The world, to me, was like a canvas and my mind a brush with which I could paint whatever I wanted.

I meshed myself into my imagination to such an extent that I began to believe and identify with the wild ideas I invented in my mind.

It took a brush with reality a few years later to realize that no matter how grand and colorful they were, they remained just that – ideas. And it takes more than just ideas to move the arc of reality.

Reality rewards action.

It does not matter the least bit, I came to realize, how brilliant my ideas seem to be. Anybody with a brain can have ideas. Every recluse and never-do-well in the market has ideas. The village laze-around can amaze you with ideas on how the economy should be run better. Ninety-nine percent of the ideas you hear will be garbage, of course, but to their owners, they are not.

Even the one percent of ideas that have the potential to change the world are just that – ideas.

This realization forced me to always take my ideas, however good I think they are, with a grain of salt. At the same time, I developed a respect for an individual’s capacity to make an impact and influence the world. This we are not born with - it is a discipline that we have to cultivate over the years.

Every inborn ability remains latent unless it is activated through effort.

That is why it is called potential – it is energy at rest. We can admire it and praise it, but potential helps no one as long it remains just that.

Once put to work, however, potential becomes current – the stuff that gets things done. It becomes Power.

People with a high creative intelligence, and who tend to be generally smart, particularly need to be deliberate about becoming useful and effective people in practical ways. They tend to be high in the personality trait called Openness, which means they seek out new experiences and are restless. They crave the excitement of the next new thing, the next exciting idea. That is why they also tend to score poorly on the personality trait Conscientiousness, or the capacity for focused, goal-oriented behavior, and stick-ability.

These are people who effortlessly come up with new ideas but also helplessly hop from one project to another. They dip their hand in every pot but never settle down and get anything done. In their career, they will get bored with their work in a few months and begin looking for the next shiny thing. With time, they lag behind the less creative people who have real grit and steel to get things done.

It was not until I was twenty-six that I saw the damage that such restlessness and idea worship was causing me. While everybody else could see my hubris, I adamantly believed the lies I told myself about brilliance and ideas.

The truth was that I was out of touch with reality. I even read some fancy books and learned cute facts which I used as crutches to prop up my false sense of idea-superiority. My life was one big castle in the air.

I needed to come back to earth, put my feet firmly on the ground, actually get some work done, and make real progress. I was not special simply because I had some fancy ideas in my head.

Of course, we need the wildly creative people. We need the idea seeds who see the world as it could be; eke, what future would we have to live for if the visionaries were not among us?

However, intentionality and effort are also necessary. Creativity alone is not enough. Ideas without real effort are like birds with clipped wings. Potential without work is hapless.

Highly imaginative and creative people can learn to have one foot in the future and the other firmly in the present.

Change the World?

My imagination and curiosity further led me to the romanticized ideal of ‘changing the world.’

Early in my twenties, I still held onto a belief that my destiny would somehow shift the very foundations of the world. Now past my mid-twenties, this pompous belief has morphed into a more concrete and practical conviction. This is one of the hallmarks of growing up and coming in touch with reality.

Until I let the part of myself that viewed reality through the lens of a savior complex, I could not effectively appreciate my practical capacity for making an impact.

I had to come to terms with my limitations before I developed respect for my potential.

When I stopped trying to save the world, I began to appreciate my capacity to impact it.

It further gave me a clearer view of myself concerning the work I was setting out to do. The desire to ‘change the world’ inherently implies a messianic self-identity that stands in the way of growth.

However, I realize that while I am naturally gifted with certain abilities, I am laughably incompetent and insufficient in others. This perspective shift instantly awakens me to the enormity of the task of growth ahead of me.

Perhaps, then, the goal is not to change the world, but to change myself. A philosopher noted that it is harder to change self than it is to change the world anyway.

I believe that there is a type of person I can become for whom impact and influence are inevitable. There is a set of habits and disciplines that can set one on the general direction of their destiny such that failure becomes impossible and impact inevitable.

Perhaps it is possible to change the world.

But before that, I have to accomplish the painful task of changing myself.