At the foot of the unblazed trail

March 21, 2015 6:37 AM

Debono famously said that the measure of a great mind is its ability to generate alternatives. That’s the calling card of every great innovator, artist and thinker. When they see something they don’t like, they create a way around it. They invent their own options. And they believe, against all odds and all evidence, that there will be another path available.

This capability exists at the intersection of stubbornness, vision and trust. Whenever I used to take multiple choice tests in school, I would always try to find a problem with a debatable solution. And I would write a fifth answer below the four given ones, explaining why there was another alternative the teacher hadn’t considered.

Of course, teachers were less than amused with my antics. And I never ended up getting any those problems right.

But what I did get was a lot of practice. I viewed those tests as blank canvases for honing my creative thinking skills and channeling my nonconformist energies. Twenty years later, I now get paid good money to generate alternatives on a daily basis.

Proving, that there’s always another choice you could make besides the ones in front of you. There’s always the path that’s not been taken before. You just have to be creative enough to see it, trusting enough to take it, and stubborn enough never to look back. Even if you’re not sure of the outcome.

The courage to imagine the otherwise is your greatest resource.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you remembering to generate the surplus energy to awaken alternative ways of thinking?

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com