Every day we get to choose the way we will live our story. Michael Heppell calls this brilliance: ‘brilliant people have a range of tools to move forward in a number of different ways.’* Chip Anderson calls this genius, the ability to pour ourselves into doing something amazing.
“Our real purpose is to contribute to the planet so that it is a safer and happier place to live.”**
What Chip Anderson calls genius, Brian Eno sees playing out together as scenius: “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each others’ work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.”^
I think of these people as idea pilgrims. These pilgrims don’t make their way to a well visited site; they are looking for the idea no-one has had before, appreciating the ideas people have had are their resources. Eno, in his scenius, is describing a band of pilgrims.
‘Please stop waiting for a map. We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.’^^
(*From Michael Heppell’s How to be Brilliant.)
(**Founder of the Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus, quoted in Steve Chalke’s Being Human.)
(^Brian Eno, quoted in Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work.)
(^^From Seth Godin’s Poke the Box.)