In the final section of his book, Johansson (2006) focuses on realizing creative ideas. Concepts that he covers include persevering in spite of failures, breaking out of one's network, and taking reasonable risks.
As is always my impression when I read this book, I feel like Johansson's goals are questionable. Should a rabbit learn how to swim? To what extent is Johansson's advice just that--encouraging people to live outside of their strengths? At one point, Johansson states:
There is a common notion that Branson’s daring ventures have something to do with who he is as a person. They are part of how he is wired. Taking huge risks is like breathing air for Branson; it’s a behavior that’s possibly in his genes. This notion suggests that there is little we can learn from Branson’s approach to risk taking. All we can do is look at it, shrug our shoulders, and shake our heads at his craziness and then go back to our business. Not so fast (Kindle Locations 2416-2419).
Johansson then goes on to state that by studying such people, we can learn something about taking risk. I don't dispute his underlying point, but I think he is the one moving fast. Why move past this point so summarily? Why not stop and reflect on the extend to which certain creative tendencies are simply a matter of natural strengths? It is not enough to study people who make things look easy. We need to consider more deeply why more people do not (should not?) follow suit. Johansson never really discusses this subject. The above quotation is the closest he gets to such considerations.
However, I really liked a lot of Johansson's ideas. I do think stepping into the intersection includes all of the elements he suggested. He explicitly makes statements that I have found to be true. He states:
If you take a course of action that is widely seen as correct, your reputation barely suffers if you did not make it all the way. If, on the other hand, you proceed in a way that is less understood and fail, it might be tougher to live down because you will be judged harshly. The stigma of failure can be crushing (Kindle Locations 2437-2439).
I feel like I have encountered this phenomenon quite often in my life. It is crushing for me too. In the past, I think I often laid down under others' criticism--surrendered my ground and tried to find a more conventional route. Perhaps I blamed others for being intolerant and myself for not being able to fit in socially. Recently, though, I've been challenged about my behavior, challenged to see it as somewhat cowardly. I think I need to be braver and not blame others for not understanding, but just do what I believe God is asking me to do.
I don't think people should try too hard to be different. It is not God's calling for every person, but if one does have that calling--if, just in the process of being oneself, one ends up at the intersection and everyone is judging you for it, God is calling that person to hold their course. As Johansson notes, great things are often only accomplished by taking risk.
I also liked what Johansson said about risk. He said: [The study] suggests that efforts we take to decrease risks around us, such as making roads safer, amount to little because our behavior becomes riskier to compensate (Kindle Locations 2492-2493).
He proceeds to give several examples, including seat belts and crosswalks. This argument made me smile because I hate the way governments "nanny" people. There are a lot less of these kinds of rules in China. Foreigners are shocked by how messy the traffic is and how there aren't always railings in high places. People do seem to be able to take care of themselves, though. Johansson describes a relationship to deadlines that I found very familiar.
Having more time means taking more time. Having greater experience or better contacts means relying more on them to get things done. It is not that we waste time, money, or contacts, but that we try to do more with the amount that we have. In trying to do more, we slowly begin to increase the risk of failure, until we hit a level we are subconsciously comfortable with (Kindle Locations 2516-2518).
I notice that I do this with my work. Not everyone is wired the same. Some people start working right away, but I always wait until some subconscious switch in my head flips and tells me to kick it into gear. I kind of wish I could start earlier, but maybe that's just the way I am wired--to spend a long time mulling something over before I do anything about it.
Social Justice and Diversity
I think one weakness of Johansson's book is that he does not address this aspect of innovation. A lot of his examples were white men. I don't think this is because white men are inherently more creative than other types of people. There's an aspect of creativity and innovation that owes its fruitfulness to privilege. One has to have resources to be innovative, and some people are able to come by them much more readily than others. I wish Johansson had delved into this question a little deeper. He could have. At least two of his examples were people of color. I wished he had asked them what influence their race had on their ability to be creative. I think they would have had interesting things to say.
