Be incredible
Elon Musk is unusual. His adventures with PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Twitter, etc has stamped him as "incredible". But few of us are ever "incredible" in that manner. Sure we each have our moments - perhaps those are our 15 minutes of fame - but very few of us can sustain that momentum.
There is a paradox here. Most people are actually incredible in some sense of that word; but, many of us seek to simply belong not to be a "standout". To be genuinely "incredible" a person must be able, and willing, to create an idea that can stand apart from mainstream thoughts. For example, the invention of the "Vacant" or "Engaged" lock on public toilet stalls was a simple idea that came from a person who was tired of having to knock on doors to find an empty stall. Was that person incredible? Is that idea incredible? Yes and yes.
Dr Edward De Bono, through his books and at in-person seminars, taught me that being creativity is a disruptive act. I recall how he had a full auditorium, around 2,000 people, predicting the next number in what seems to be a series or a dedicated pattern. Everyone is happy to declare that the next number is X but it turns out to be Y. We are shocked. What is happening? De Bono explains that he never told us this would be a series or a pattern; yet we all assumed that would be so once a sequence formed. It turns out that the X is us and the Y is the incredible version of us. Elon Musk is a Y.
I believe you can be a Y. Perhaps your version of Y will not be as large as the one for Elon... but who knows, right?
I know for sure, and certain, that if you continue to perfect being an X then you can never become a Y. Those who look, and act, like a Y have faith in "what can be". Those who look, and act, like an X retain their faith in "what is". Thus the real difference between X and Y is that the former is all about the "status quo" and the latter is all about the "creative or destructive power of change".
You can be creative: you can be incredible. You can be a Y.
Richard
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