If you’re reading this, you’re an artist. Maybe you don’t use paper or computers or canvases. Maybe you use spreadsheets, chemistry vials, or even weights and treadmills. Whatever the medium, the reality is that we’re all artists. And we’re all artists because we’re in the business of creating. Each in our own unique way.
I was reminded of this as I was reading the book “Soup” by Jon Gordon.
The book itself is a very low level introduction to culture change and organizational development. It’s a book high on ideas, low on concrete ways to implement them. (But it went on to sell approximately elvenenty million copies, which is approximately eleventy million more books than I’ve sold.)
But I digress.
What I want to focus on is a quote from the book, which highlights two different “soup” makers. One is a Grandma, who makes the world’s best soup at her little restaurant. She is wise and savvy. The other is the newly appointed CEO of “Soup, Inc.,” the not so tasty soup-in-a-can manufacturer.
So what advice does Grandma give to the CEO? It’s simply this: who stirs the pot matters.
Grandma reminds the CEO (and us) that it’s our uniqueness as an individual that matters when we work. We can receive the same training, the same education, the same opportunities, yet it’s who we are that determines the output of our work. I know this is true, because I experience it daily working with managers and sales people, and designing training. Each person who enters my training programs receives something different out of it. Each one interprets the new information in their own way, and adopts the pieces that best suit their style and personality.
But they can only do this because I am bringing my own interpretation and views of I-O psychology to the training.
Who stirs the pot matters.
And this is why I create. This is why I’m willing to put up with frustration, stress, and obstacles. Because of all the millions of aspiring writers, of all the thousands of organizational consultants that exist in the world, I am unique. Just like you are unique.
Of course this means our uniqueness comes with a price: it’s more than a waste not to use those talents, it’s wrong.
Imagine if Albert Einstein sat on his talents. Or Steve jobs. The Beatles. Even the guy down in accounting who’s a whiz with numbers. Now imagine what the world would be like if everyone lived up to their billing as an artist. Imagine how tasty your burger from McDonald’s would be. Imagine the detail with which your taxes would be checked (okay, maybe that’s not a talent we want lived up to!). Imagine the cures that would be created. The songs that would be sung. The children that would be loved.
If you sit on them, you are depriving the world of your own brand of brilliance. We all can’t be the next Steve Jobs or the next Beatles or Albert Einstein. But we all uniquely contribute to the world, and to the people around us.
So go out, be the artist. Be the creative person you were designed to be. Just don’t sit on the sidelines, because that’s pretty selfish.
Photo Credit: Chris Metcalf
About Eric Barrett
This part: “Imagine how tasty your burger from McDonald’s would be. Imagine the detail with which your taxes would be checked (okay, maybe that’s not a talent we want lived up to!). Imagine the cures that would be created. The songs that would be sung. The children that would be loved.”
Gave me such shivers! (Even the part about McDonald’s, and that’s really saying something…)
I am definitely going to have to look up that book, it sounds excellent!
Outstanding work always draws attention. That’s especially true in areas where no one else wants to excel or currently is standing out. The more we live up to our potential, the more we can be outstanding. Even at McDonald’s. :)
Even at McDonald’s! Maybe especially at McDonald’s.
I love your article, Eric. I just came across a quote that reminds me of what you said - “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what make you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman. I agree with you - everything we encounter is that much better when people pour their whole selves into creating it. Beautiful article.