Did you ever notice that some people make it look so easy to be an original? They live and breathe originality. It seems they’re firmly rooted from within themselves, have clear defined opinions on a lot of matters and stand firm when facing resistance. They’ve got so much going for them it seems. Enviable, isn’t it?
the true originals
Some people – the true originals – make it look like it comes naturally. They are who they are, and that inner certainty is the pillar of their existence. They have their opinions, they know their talents, they’re convinved that they’re an important addition to the world, and they stand firm when people or society try to convince them otherwise. They are the authentic originals, the ones that were born with it, and that developed into the superstars they are.
We find them so inspiring that, we’re even ready – happy even – to watch a commercial that features and celebrates them, even more than a dozen years after the commercial first aired. The commercial I’m referring is “This is for the crazy ones” by Apple:
The short clip shows you a myraid of originals, people that made an impact on the world, in their own crazy and special way. Apple wants you to think different, but doesn’t tell you how to do that. And in the face of so many people that seem out of reach, their message to think different also seems out of reach.
the original in you
All the people in the video are well known, they’ve made a name for themselves by doing things that stand out from what is expected of people. And for all of them it looks like it comes naturally to them. Richard Branson has always been a rebel and was destined to become one of the richest people in the world (it seems). Einstein looks like a natural, genius like that must’ve been there all along. And the same can be said of Picasso, Jim Henson, Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan …
But we can’t all be the Picassos, Bob Dylans or Einsteins of this world. Besides talent and ambition, you’d also have to be lucky enough to be in the right circumstances to rise to the top. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers shows this in a compelling way. The people in the video had those talents and ambitions, and they also had the right circumstances to rise above themselves and above the rest of us.
But being an original is not about rising to the top, it’s not even about rising above yourself, it’s simply about just being you. And that last part is hard enough for a lot of people, because it takes guts to become an original, and to keep on being an original.
For most people being or becoming an original is a process of change and uncertainty. It takes guts to discover your true self. It takes guts to discover and identify parts of you, that aren’t real. It takes guts to let go of the habits and attitudes that are fake, that are simply there due to societal pressures, because “you ought to behave like that”. It takes guts to ask for feedback and opinions. It takes guts to accept failures. It takes guts to claim the successes.
And in all those steps you have to expose yourself, your vulnerable self, the part you’ve been protecting for so long by not showing it to the world.
And you know what … the more biographies I read, the more I discover that those processes are just as present in a lot of the people that we see as the natural originals too. But it’s this myth of the natural original that stops people from exploring their own originality.
But it is a myth.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I dunno. Maybe we’re ALL “natural originals.” We just need to unlearn that we’re not.
I think that we’re all born originals, but we learn to behave in ways that are not connected with who we are. Reconnecting to that originality is the foundation for letting go of behavior that’s not “ours”.
It is enough that our parents did not know better, it is enough that we went to school and colleges, it is enough that we wanted somewhere to fit and be accepted, it is enough that we have followed a regular path of maturing and growing up into mediocrities.
So it’s time for WAKING UP! We all can do much better and make a difference!
I remember reading somewhere that as you mature you become more of who it is you were meant to be. Perhaps that is because with maturity we learn not to care so much what others think of us, or desire for us, but rather what we need and desire for ourselves. We re-learn our originality.