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The Element

HOW FINDI NG YO UR PASSI O N

CHAN G ES EVERYTHI NG

Ken Robinson,Ph.D.
with Lou Aronica

P EN GU IN B OOKS
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 PENGUIN BOOKS

].H E EL E M EN T

'The Element is another reminder of why Sir Kcn Robinson is one of

America's finest imports. With a crackling wit and a deep humanirl', he
urges us to ignore the naysayers, bypass the crowd, and lind the place
wlere our talents and desiresintersect . . . A truly inspiring book
Daniel H. Pink. author of A \Yhole New Mind

"I'here is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once
unleaslred,can make any vision, any dream, a reality. The Element
captures that force with passion and insight'Tony Robbins, author
of Atuahen the Giant Within: How to Take Immediata Control of
Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial De*in/

A great and inspiring book . . . After tl're first page, you have to abandon
your ego and look lor your orvn gifts and graces'\Tarren Bennis,
airtl-ror of OzzBecoming a Leader: The Leadersltip Ckssir

'Whilc the world is changing faster than cver, our organiz-ations,or-u'

schools, and too often our minds are locked in the habits ofthe past.
'flre result is a massivc waste of human talent. T'heElementis a
passionateand pcrsuasivcappeal to think diflbrendy about
ourselvesand a guicle to facing the future'Alvin Tofller,
aurhor oF F-uturc Shocb and The Third Waut

'ln a time whcn acccpted scientific principles and facts thcmselvcs are
L-eingtossedinto the firc ofcontroversy by sonre, it is timc again, now
more than ever, to educate our educators. In Sir Ken Ilobinson's rich,
dceply entertaining and inspiring new book, he shows us in thc most
intriguing way and with humour and humility how we can look again
at how wc lcarn and how rve teach' Brian Ray, musician

'The Element provides a real platlorm lor our futures; it is essential

reading lor anyone with children, unfulfilled dreams or a life still to live'
Richard Cerver, educational consultant
 'The Element gives you the feeling that all is possible if we dig deeply within
ourselves,using our imaginations and curiosiry'V.idal Sassoon

'W'ritten with passion, humour and eloquence, The Elerrtent shows that
everyone has the ability to achieve their ambitions and demonstrates the
enabling mechanisms to overcome the obstaclesthat stife imagination'
'Va ter ston ei B ooks Qaarte rly

'Robinson emphasizesthe importance of mentors and reforming and transforming

education, making a convincing argument bolstered by solid strategiesfor honing
creativiry. Motivating and persuasive,this entertaining and inspiring book will
appeal to a wide audience' Publishers IVeehlT

'Ken Robinson is a remarkable man, one of the few who really look at and into
you, so he makes you leel at easeand happy. I'm proud to be in his book as one
of the people he feels has attained the Element. Reading his book helps you
pinpoint the searchwe must all make to achieve the best in us'
Gillian Lynne, choreographer for Cats and Phantom ofthe Opera

ABOUT ' T HE AUT HORS

Ken Robinson is an internationally acclaimed leader in creativity, innovation and

human capacity. He has worked throughout the world with governments, Fortune
500 companies, education systems, non-profit groups, cultural organizations and
thought leaders.He was knighted in2003 for his contribution to education and the
arts, and in 2008 received the Benjamin Franklin i\4edal for the Royal Society of
Arts, awarded to a global 'big thinker' who has energized public discourse about
human progress.

His'IED lecture on creativity and education has been downloaded over 3 million
times in 200 different countries (seewwwted.com).

Lou Aronica is the author ofrwo novelsand co-author ofseveral works ofnon-fiction,
including the American bestseller The Cuhure Crtde (with Clotaire Rapaille).
To sisterand brothers,Ethel Lena, Keith, Derek, Ian,
-y and Neii; to our extraordinaryMum and Dad, Ethel
John,
and Jim; to my son, James,and my daughter,Kate, and
to my soul mate, Terry. This book is for you. For all your
many talentsand for the endlesslove and laughterwe put
into eachother'slives.It's when I'm with you and the ones
you love that i really am in my Element.
 Acknowledgments

They sayit takesa village to raisea baby.Rearinga book like this

takesa small metropolis.I know I haveto sayI can't thank every-
one,and I reallycan't.I do haveto singleout a few people,though,
for specialserviceawards.
First and foremost, my wife and partner, Terry. This book
simply wouldn't be in your hands but for her. Its origins were in
an off-the-cuff remark I made at a conferencea few yearsago. I
had just told the Gillian Lynne story,which now openschapter 1
of the book. In passing,I saidthat one of thesedaysI wasgoing
to write a book about storieslike that. IVe sincelearnednot to say
thesethings out loud in front of Terry. Sheaskedrne when did I
havein mind. "S{)on,"I said,"definitelysoon."After a few months
had passed,she started it herself,wrote the proposal,r.vorkedon
the ideas,did someof the initial interviews,and then found the
agent, PeterMiller, who was to help make it happen.\7ith the
foundationslaid so solidly,and the escaperoutesclosedso firmly,
I finally kept rny word and got on with the book.
I want to thank PeterMiller, our literary agent,for all his great
work, not leastin bringing Lou Aronica and me together.I travel
2 lsl-1se much, really-and producing a book like this needs
time, energy,and collaboration.Lou was the ideal partner. He is
seriouslyprofbssional:sage,judicious, creative,and patient. He
was the calrn centerof the project as I orbited the earth, sending
notes,drafts,and secondthoughtsfrom airportsand hotel rooms.
attt Acknowledgments

Betweenus, we alsomanagedto steera successfulcoursebetween

the often comic conflictsof British and American English.Thank
you, Lou.
My son,James,gaveup his precious,final studentsummer to
pore over archives,journals, and Internet sites,checking facts,
dates,and ideas.Then he debatedvirtually everyideain the book
with me until I was worn out. Nancy Allen worked for several
months on researchissuesunder increasinglytight deadlines.My
daughter,Kate,had a wonderfullycreativecollaborationwith Nick
Egan to producea unique \Website that showsall the other work
we'renow doing. Our assistant,Andrea Hanna, worked tirelessly
'We
to orchestratethe myriad rnoving parts in a project like this.
wouldn't still be standing up without her.
As the book was taking shape,we wereextremelyfortunate to
have the wise and creativecounsel of our publisher, Kathryn
Court, at Viking Penguin.Her benign form of intimidation also
ensuredthat we got the book finished in decenttime.
Finally, I have to thank all of thosewhose storiesilluminate
this book. Many of them spent precioushours, amid very busy
lives, to talk freely and passionatelyabout the experiencesand
ideasthat lie at the heart of The Element Many others sent me
moving lettersand e-mails.Their storiesshow that the issuesin
this book reachinto the core of our lives.I thank all of them.
It's usual to say,of course,that whatevergood things other
people have contributed, any faults that remain in the book are
my responsibilityalone.That seemsa bit harsh to me, but I sup-
poseit's true.
 Contents

Achnowledgments uii
Introduction xi

CHAPTER ONE: The Element I

C H AP T E R T 'WO: Think Differently 27
C H A P T ER THREE: Beyond Imagining <)
CHAPTER FOUR: IntheZone B3
C H AP T E R F IV E : Finding Your Tribe 103
'W'hat
C HA P T E R S IX : Will They Think? 132
C H AP T ER SEVEN: Do You Feel Lucky? 156
C H AP T ER E IGH T : Somebody Help Me 159
C H AP T E R N IN E : Is It Too Late? 187
CHAPTER TEN: For Love or Money 207
C H A P T ER E LE V E N : Making the Grade )25

Afterword 251

Notes 261
Index 269
 Introduction

FEw' vEARS AGo, I heard a wonderful story, which Im

very fond of telling. An elementary school teacher was giv-
ing a drawing classto a group of six-year-oldchildren.At the back
of the classroomsat a little girl who normally didn't pay much
attention in school.In the drawing classshe did. For more than
twenty minutes, the girl sat with her arms curled around her pa-
per, totally absorbedin what she was doing. The teacherfound
this fascinating. Eventually, sheaskedthe girl what shewas draw-
ing. \(ithout looking up, the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of
God." Surprised,the teachersaid, "But nobody knows what God
looks like."
The girl said, "They will in a minute."
I love this story becauseit reminds us that young children are
wonderfully confidentin their own imaginations.Most of us lose
this confidenceaswe grow up. Ask a classof first graderswhich of
them thinks they're creativeand they'll all put their hands up.
Ask a group of collegeseniorsthis same question and most of
them won't. I believepassionatelythat we are all born with tre-
mendousnatural capacities,and that we losetouch with many of
them as we spendmore time in the world. Ironically, one of the
main reasonsthis happensis education.The result is that too
many people never connect with their true talents and therefore
don't know what they're really capableof achieving.
In that sense,they don't know who they really are.
xtt Introduction

I travel agreat deal and work with peopleall around the world.
I work with educationsystems,with corporations,and with not-
for-profit organizations.Everywhere,I meet studentswho are try-
ing to figure out their futures and don't know where to start. I
meet concernedparentswho are trying to help them but instead
often steerthem away from their true talentson the assumption
that their kids have to follow conventionalroutes to success.I
meet employerswho are struggling to understandand make bet-
ter use of the diversetalents of the people in their companies.
Along the way, I've lost track of the numbers of peopleI ve met
who have no real senseof what their individual talentsand pas-
sionsare.They don't enjoywhat they aredoing now but they have
no ideawhat actuallywould fulfill them.
On the other hand, I alsomeet peoplewho'vebeenhighly suc-
cessfulin all kinds of fieldswho are passionateabout what they
do and couldn't imagine doing anything else.I believethat their
storieshavesomethingimportant to teachall of us about the na-
ture of human capacityand fulfillment. As I ve spoken at events
around the world, I ve found it's real storieslike these,at leastas
much asstatisticsand the opinions of experts,that persuadepeo-
ple that we all needto think differently about ourselvesand about
what we're doing with our lives; about how we're educatingour
childrenand how we'rerunningour organizations.
This book containsa wide range of storiesabout the creative
journeysof very different people. Many of them were interviewed
specificallyfor this book. Thesepeopletell how they first cameto
recognizetheir unique talents and how they make a highly suc-
cessfulliving from doing what they love.\What strikesme is that
often their journeyshaven'tbeenconventional.They've beenfull
of twists, turns, and surprises.Often thoseI interviewedsaid that
our conversationsfor the book revealedideas and experiences
they hadn't discussedin this way before.The moment of recogni-
 Introduction tcttt

tion. The evolution of their talents.The encouragementor dis-

couragementof family, friends, and teachers.\What made them
forgeaheadin the faceof numerousobstacles.
Their storiesare not fairy tales,though. All of thesepeopleare
leading complicated and challenginglives. Their personaljour-
neyshavenot beeneasyand straightforward.Theyve all had their
disastersas well as their triumphs. None of them have"perfect"
lives.But all of them regularlyexperiencemomentsthat feel like
perfection.Their storiesare often fascinating.
But this book isn't really about them. It's about you.
My aim in writing it is to offer a richervision of human ability
and creativityand of the benefitsto us all of connectingproperly
with our individual talents and passions.This book is about is-
suesthat are of fundamental importance in our lives and in the
lives of our children, our students,and the peoplewe work with.
I use the term t/te Element to describethe place where the things
we love to do and the things we are good at come together.I be-
lieve it is essentialthat each of us find his or her Element, not
simply becauseit will make us more fulfilled but because,as the
world evolves,the very future of our communities and institu-
tionswill dependon it.
The world is changing faster than ever in our history. Our
best hope for the future is to developa new paradigrnof human
capacityto meeta new eraof human existence.\7e needto evolve
a new appreciationof the importance of nurturing human talent
along with an understandingof how talent expresses itself differ-
ently in every individual. \7e need to createenvirenmgnl5-in
our schools,in our workplaces,and in our public offices-where
everypersonis inspiredto grow creatively.\7e needto make sure
that all peoplehavethe chanceto do what they shoulcibe doing,
to discoverthe Elementin themselvesand in their own way.
'Ihis book is a hymn to the breathtakingdiversityof human tal-
 Introduction

ent and passionand to our extraordinarypotentialfor growth and

development.Itt also about understandingthe conditionsunder
which human talentswill fourish or fade.It's about how we can all
engagemore fully in the present,and how we can preparein the
only possibleway for a completelyunknowablefuture.
To make the best of ourselvesand of eachother, we urgenrly
needto embracea richer conceprionof human capacity.'Weneed
to embracethe Element.
 CHAPT ER ONE

The Element

v
TLLIAN \rAs oNLy eight years old, but her future was al-
ready at risk. Her schoolwork was a disaster, at least as far as
her teacherswere concerned.Sheturned in assignmentslate, her
handwriting was terrible,and shetestedpoorly.Not only that, she
was a disruption to the entire class,one minute fidgeting noisily,
the next staring out the window, forcing the teacherto stop the
classto pull Gillian's attention back, and the next doing some-
thing to disturb the other children around her. Gillian wasn't
particularly concernedabout any of this-she was used to being
correctedby authority figuresand reallydidn't seeherselfasa dif-
ficult child-but the schoolwas very concerned.This came to a
headwhen the schoolwrote to her parents.
The school thought that Gillian had a learning disorder of
somesort and that it might be more appropriatefor her to be in a
schoolfor childrenwith specialneeds.All of this took placein the
1930s.I think now they'd sayshe had attention deficit hyperac-
tivity disorder, and they'd put her on Ritalin or something
similar. But the ADHD epidemic hadn't been invented at the
time. It wasn't an availablecondition. Peopledidn't know they
could havethat and had to get by without it.
Gillian's parentsreceivedthe letter from the schoolwith great
concernand sprangto action. Gillian's mother put her daughter
in her best dressand shoes,tied her hair in ponytails, and took
her to a psychologistfor assessment, fearing the worst.
 The Element

Gillian told me that sheremembersbeing invited into a large

oak-paneledroomwith leather-boundbookson the shelves. Stand-
ing in the room next to a large desk was an imposing man in a
tweed jacket. He took Gillian to the far end of the room and sat
her down on a huge leathersofa.Gillian's feet didn't quite touch
the floor, and the setting made her wary. Nervous about the im-
pressionshewould make,shesaton her handsso that shewouldn't
fidget.
The psychologistwent back to his desk, and for the next
twenty minutes, he askedGillian's mother about the difficulties
Gillian was having at schooland the problemsthe schoolsaidshe
was causing. Vhile he didn't direct any of his questions at
Gillian, he watchedher carefully the entire time. This made Gil-
Iian extremelyuneasyand confused.Even at this tenderage,she
knew that this man would have a significant role in her life. She
knew what it meant to attend a "specialschool,"and she didn't
want anything to do with that. Shegenuinelydidn't feel that she
had any real problems,but everyoneelseseemedto believeshe
did. Given the way her mother answeredthe questions,it was
possiblethat evenshefelt this way.
Maybe, Gillian thought, they were right.
Eventually,Gilliant mother and the psychologiststoppedtalk-
ing. The man rosefrom his desk,walked to the sofa,and sat next
to the little girl.
"Gillian, youve beenvery patient, and I thank you for that,"
he said."But I'm afraid you'll haveto be patient for a little longer.
I need to speakto your mother privately now. \Ve're going to go
out of the room for a few minutes. Don't worry; we won't be very
long."
Gillian noddedapprehensively, and the two adults left her sit-
ting there on her own. But as he was leaving the room, the psy-
chologistleanedacrosshis deskand turned on the radio.
 The Element

As soonasthey were in the corridor outsidethe room, the doc-

tor said to Gillian's mother, "Just stand here for a moment, and
watch what she does."There was a window into the room, and
they stood to one side of it, where Gillian couldn't see them.
Nearly immediately,Gillian was on her feet, moving around the
room to the music. The two adults stood watching quietly for a
few minutes, transfixed by the girl's grace.Anyone would have
noticed there was something nxlulsl-gven primal-about Gil-
lian's movements.Just as they would have surely caught the ex-
pressionofutter pleasureon her face.
At last, the psychologistturned to Gillian's mother and said,
"You know, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick. She'sa dancer.Take
her to a danceschool."
I askedGillian what happenedthen. Shesaid her mother did
exactlywhat the psychiatristsuggested."I can't tell you how won-
derful it was," she told me. "I walked into this room, and it was
full of peoplelike me. Peoplewho couldn't sit still. Peoplewho had
to moueto thinh."
She started going to the dance school every week, and she
practicedat home every day.Eventually,she auditioned for the
Royal Ballet Schoolin London, and they acceptedher. Shewent
on to join the Royal Ballet Company itself, becoming a soloist
and performing all over the world. \When that part of her career
ended, she formed her own musical theater company and pro-
duced a seriesof highly successfulshows in London and New
York. Eventually,shemet Andrew Lloyd \Tebberand createdwith
him someof the most successfulmusical theaterproductions in
history, including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.
Little Gillian, the girlwith the high-riskfuture, becameknown
to the world asGillian Lynne, one of the most accomplishedcho-
reographersof our time, someonewho has brought pleasureto
millions and earnedmillions of dollars.This happenedbecause
4 The Element

someonelooked deepinto her eyes-someonewho had seenchil-

dren like her beforeand knew how to readthe signs.Someoneelse
might haveput her on medicationand told her to calm down. But
Gillian wasn't a problem child. She didn't need to go away ro a
specialschool.
Shejust neededto be who shereally was.

Unlike Gillian, Matt always did fine in school, gerring decent

gradesand passingali of the important tests.However,he found
himself tremendouslybored.In order to keephimself arnused,he
starteddrawing during classes. "I would draw constantly,"he told
me. 'And I got so good at drawing that I wasabieto draw without
looking, so that the teacherwould think that I was paying arren-
tion." For him, art classwas an opporrunity to pursuehis pas-
sion with abandon."\7e were coloring in coloring books, and l
thought, I can never color within rhe lines. Oh, no, I can't be
botheredl" This kicked up to another level entirely when he got
to high school."There was an art classand the other kids would
just sit there,the art teacherwas bored,and the art supplieswere
just sitting there;nobody was using them. So I did asmany paint-
ings asI could-thirty paintingsin a singleclass.i'd look ar each
painting, what it looked like, and then I'd title it. 'Dolphin in the
Seaweed,'okay! Nextl I rememberdoing tons of painting untiL
they finally realizedI was using up so much paper rhar rhey
stoppedme.
"There was the thrill of making somerhingthat did not exist
before.As my technicalprowessincreased,it was fun to be ableto
go, 'Oh, that actually looks, vaguely,like what it's supposedto
look like.' But then I realizedthat my drawingwas nor gerring
much better so I started concentratingon stories and jokes. I
thought that was more entertaining."
 The Element

Matt Groening, known around the world asthe creatorof The

Simpsons, found his true inspiration in the work of other artists
whosedrawingslackedtechnicalmasterybut who combinedtheir
distinctive art styleswith inventive storytelling. "\7hat I found
encouragingwas looking at peoplewho couldn't draw who were
making their living, like JamesThurber. John Lennon was also
very important to me. His books, In His Own Write and A Span-
iard in the Worhs,are full of his own really crummy drawings but
funny prose-poems and crazystories.I went through a stagewhere
I tried to imitate John Lennon. Robert Crumb was also a huge
influence."
His teachersand his parents-even his father,who was a car-
toonist and fihnmaker-tried to encouragehim to do something
elsewith his life. They suggestedthat he go to collegeand find a
more solid profession.In fact, until he got to college(a nontradi-
tional schoolwithout gradesor requiredclasses), he'd found only
one teacherwho truly inspiredhim. "My first-gradeteachersaved
paintingsI did in class.Sheacmallysavedthem, I mean,for years.
I was touched becausethere'slike, you know, hundreds of kids
going through here. Her name is Elizabeth Hoover. I named a
characteron The Simpsonsafter her."
The disapprovalof authority figures left him undeterredbe-
cause,in his heart, Matt knew what truly inspiredhim.
"I knew asa kid when we wereplaying and making up stories
and using little figurines-dinosaurs and stuff like that-I was
going to be doing this for the restof my life. I sawgrown-upswith
briefcasesgoing into office buildings and I thought, 'I can't do that.
This is all I reallywanna do.' I was surroundedby other kids who
felt the sameway, but gradually they peeledoff and they got more
serious.For me it was alwaysabout playing and storytelling.
"I understood the series of stages I was supposed to go
 The Element

through-you go to high school, you go to college, you get a

credential,and then you go out and get a good job. I knew it
wasn't gonna work for me. I knew I was gonna be drawing car-
toons forever.
"I found friends who had the same interestsat school. \7e
hung out togetherand we'd draw comicsand then bring them to
school and show them to each other. As we got older and more
ambitious,we startedmaking movies.It was great.It partly com-
pensatedfor the fact that we felt very self-conscious socially.In-
stead of staying home on the weekend,we wenr out and made
movies.Insteadof going to the football gameson Fridaynight, we
would go to the local universityand watch undergroundfilms.
"I made a decisionthat I was going to live by my wits. And by
the way, I didn't think it was gonna work. I thought I was gonna
be working at somelousy job, doing somethingthat I hated.My
vision was that I'd be working in a tire warehouse.I haveno idea
why I thought it was a tire warehouse.I thought I'd be rolling
tires around and then on my break,I'd be drawing cartoons."
Things turned out rather differently from that. Matt moved
to L.A., eventually placed his comic strip Life in Hell with L.A.
Weekly,and began to make a name for himselfl This led to an
invitation from the Fox BroadcastingCompany to createshort
animated segmentsfor The TiaceyUllman Show.Durine his pitch
to Fox, he invented TheSimpsonron the spot-he literally had no
ideahe wasgoing to do this beforehe went into the meeting.The
show evolvedinto a halihour program and has been running on
Fox everySundayfor nineteenyearsasof this writing. In addition,
it has generatedmovies, comic books, toys, and countlessother
merchandise.In other words, it is a pop culture empire.
Yet none of this would havehappenedif Matt Groening had
listened to those who told him he needed to pursue a "real"
career.
 The Element

Not all successfulpeopledisliked schoolor did badly there. Paul

was still a high school student,one with very good grades,when
he walked into a University of Chicago lecture hall for the first
time . He didn't realizeashe did so that the collegewasone of the
leading institutions in the world for the study of economics.He
only knew that it was closeto his home. Minutes later, he was
"born again,"ashe wrote in an article. "That day'slecturewas on
Malthus's theory that human populationswould reproducelike
rabbitsuntil their densityper acreof land reducedtheir wageto a
baresubsistence levelwherean increaseddeath ratecameto equal
the birth rate. So easywas it co understandall this simplediffer-
ential equationstuff that I suspected(wrongly)that I wasmissing
out on somemysteriouscomplexity."
At that point, Dr. Paul Samuelson's life as an economistbe-
gan. It is a life he as
describes "pure fun," one that has seenhim
serveasa professorat MIT, becomepresidentof the International
Economic Association,write severalbooks (including the best-
selling economicstextbook of all time) and hundreds of papers,
havea significantimpact on public policy, and, in 1970,become
the first American to win the Nobel Prizein Economics.
'As a precociousyoungsterI had alwaysbeen good at logical
manipulationsand puzzle-solvingIQ tests.So if economicswas
made for me, it can be said that I too was made for economics.
Never underestimatethe vital importanceof finding early in life
the work that for you is play. This turns possibleunderachievers
into happy warriors."

Three Stories, One Message

Gillian Lynne, Matt Groening, and Paul Samuelsonare three

very different peoplewith three very different stories.\fhat unites
 The Element

them is one undeniably powerful message:that each of them

found high levelsof achievementand personalsatisfactionupon
discoveringthe thing that they naturally do well and that also ig-
nites their passions.I call stories like theirs "epiphanystories"
becausethey tend to involvesomelevelof revelation,a way of di-
viding the world into beforeand after. These epiphaniesutterly
changedtheir lives,giving them direction and purposeand sweep-
ing them up in a way that nothing elsehad.
They and the other peopleyou'll meet in this book haveiden-
tified the sweetspot for themselves.They have discoveredtheir
Element-the place where the things you love to do and the
things that you are good at come together.The Element is a differ-
ent way of defining our potential.It manifestsitself differently in
everyperson,but the componentsof the Element are universal.
Lynne, Groening, and Samuelsonhave accomplisheda great
deal in their lives.But they are not alonein being capableof that.
\Why they are specialis that they have found what they love to do
and they are actuallydoing it. They havefound their Element.In
my experience,most peoplehavenot.
Finding your Element is essentialto your well-beingand ulti-
mate success,and, by implication, to the health of our organiza-
tions and the effectiveness of our educationalsystems.
I believestrongly that if we can eachfind our Element,we alL
havethe potential for much higher achievementand fulfillment.
I don't mean to saythat there'sa dancer,a cartoonist,or a Nobel-
winning economistin eachof us. I mean that we all havedistinc-
tive talentsand passionsthat can inspire us to achievefar more
than we may imagine.(Jnderstandingthis changeseverything.It
also offersus our best and perhapsour only promise for genuine
and sustainablesuccessin a very uncertain future.
Being in our Elementdependson finding our own distinctive
talentsand passions. \Why haven'tmost peoplefound this?One of
 The Element

the most important reasonsis that most peoplehave a very lim-

ited conception of their own natural capacities.This is true in
severalways.
The first limitation is in our understandingof the rangeof our
capacities.'We are all born with extraordinarypowersof imagina-
tion, intelligence,feeling, intuition, spirituality, and of physical
and sensoryawareness. For the most part, we useonly a fraction
of thesepowers,and somenot at all. Many peoplehavenot found
their Elementbecausethey don't understandtheir own powers.
The secondlimitation is in our understandingof how all of
thesecapacitiesrelateto eachother holistically.For the most part,
we think that our minds, our bodies,and our feelingsand rela-
tionshipswith othersoperateindependentof eachother,like sepa-
rate systems.Many peoplehavenot found their Elementbecause
they don't understandtheir true organicnature.
The third limitation is in our understandingof how much po-
tential we havefor growth and change.For the most part, people
seemto think that life is linear, that our capacitiesdeclineas we
grow older, and that opportunitieswe have missedare gone for-
ever. Many people have not found their Element becausethey
don't understandtheir constantpotential for renewal.
This limited view of our own capacitiescan be compounded
by our peergroups,by our culture, and by our own expectations
of ourselves. A major f'actorfor everyone,though, is education.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Someof the most brilliant, creativepeopleI know did not do well

at school.Many of them didn't really discoverwhat they could
do-and who they really were-until they'd left school and re-
coveredfrom their education.
I was born in Liverpool, England, and in the 1960sI went to
IO The Element

a schoolthere, the Liverpool Collegiate.On the other sideof the

city was the Liverpool Institute. One of the pupils therewas Paul
McCartney.
Paul spent most of his time at the Liverpool Institute fooling
around. Rather than studying intently when he got home,he de-
voted the majority of his hours out of schoolto listening to rock
music and learning the guitar. This turned out to be a smart
choice for him, especiallyafter he met John Lennon at a school
fete in another part of the city. T'hey irnpressedeach other and
eventually decidcd to form a band with George Harrison and
Iater Ringo Starr,calledthe Beatles.That was a very good idea.
By the mid-1980s,both the Liverpool Collegiateand the Liv-
erpool Institute had closed.The buildings stood empty and dere-
lict. Both havesincebeenrevived,in verydifferentways.Developers
turned my old school into luxury apartments-a huge change,
sincethe Collegiatewas neverabout luxury when I lvasthere.The
Liverpool Institute has now becomethe Liverpool Institute for
PerformingArts (LIPA), one of Europe'sleading centersfor pro-
fessionaltraining in the arts. The lead patron is Sir Paul McCart-
ney. The old, dusty classroomswhere he spent his teenageyears
daydreamingnow contain studentsfrom all over the world doing
the very thing he dreamed about-making music-as well as
thoselearning to take the stagein a wide variety of ways.
I had a roie in the earlydevelopmentof LIPA, and on its tenth
anniversary,the directorsrewardedme with a Companionshipof
the school.I went back to Liverpool to receivethe award from Sir
Paul at the annual commencement.I gavea speechto graduating
studentsabout someof the ideasthat are now in this book-the
need to find your passionand talents,the fact that educationoF
ten doesn'thelp peopleto do that, and that it often has the oppo-
site effect.
Sir Paulspokethat day aswell, and respondeddirectly to what
 The Element TI

I'd beensaying.He said that he'd alwaysloved music,but that he

neverenjoyedmusic lessonsat school.His teachersthought they
could conveyan appreciationfor music by making kids listen to
crackling recordsof classicalcornpositions.He found this just as
boring as he found everythingelseat school.
He told me he went through his entire educationwithout any-
one noticing that he had any musicaltalent at all. He evenapplied
to join the choir of Liverpool Cathedral and was turned dorvn.
T'hey said he wasn't a good enough singer. Really?How good
was that choir? How good can a choir be? Ironically, the very
choir that rejectedthe young McCartney ultimately stagedtwo of
his classical
pieces.
McCartney is not alone in having his talents overlookedin
school.Apparently,organizerskept Elvis Presleyfrom joining his
school'sglee club. They said his voice would ruin their sound.
Like the choir at the Liverpool Cathedral,the gleeclub had stan-
dards to uphold. We all know the tremendousheights the glee
club scaledonce they'd managedto keep Elvis out.
A few yearsago, I spoke at a nurnber of eventson creativity
with John Cleesefrom Monty Python. I askedJohnabouthis edu-
cation. Apparently,he did very well at schoolbut not at comedy,
the thing that actuallyshapedhis life. He saidthat he went ali the
way from kindergarten to Carnbridge and none of his teachers
noticed that he had any senseof hurnor at all. Sincethen, quite a
few peoplehavedecidedhe does.
If thesewereisolatedexamples,there'd be little point in men-
tioning them. But they'renot. Many of the peopleyou'll meet in
this book didn't do well at schoolor enjoy being there.Of course,
at leastasmany peopledo well in their schoolsand love what the
education systemhas to offer. But too many graduateor leave
early, unsure of their real talents and equally unsure of what
direction to take next. Too many feel that what they're good at
I2 The Element

isn't valued by schools.Too many think they're not good at

anything.
I've worked for most of my life in and around education,and
I don't believethat this is the fault of individual teachers.Obvi-
ously,someshould be doing somethingelse,and asfar awayfrom
young minds as possible.But there are plenty of good teachers
and many brilliant ones.
Most of us can look back to particular teacherswho inspired
us and changedour lives. These teachersexcelledand reached
us, but they did this in spiteof the basicculture and mindset of
public education.There are significant problemswith that cul-
ture, and I don't seenearly enough improvements.In many sys-
tems, the problems are getting worse. This is true just about
everywhere.
\When my family and I moved from England to America, our
two children, Jamesand Kate, startedat high schoolin Los An-
geles.In someways, the systemwas very different from the one
we knew in the UK. For example,the children had to study some
subjectsthey had nevertaken before-like American history.\We
'We
don't really teach American history in Britain. suppressit.
Our policy is to draw a veil acrossthe whole sorry episode.'Wear-
rived in the United Statesfour days before IndependenceDay,
just in time to watch othersrevelin having thrown the British out
of the country. Now that we've been here a few years and know
what to expect,we tend to spend IndependenceDay indoors with
the blinds closed,flicking through old photographsof the Queen.
In many ways, though, the education system in the United
Statesis very similar to that in the United Kingdom, and in most
other placesin the world. Three featuresstand out in particular.
First, there is the preoccupationwith certain sorts of academic
ability. I know that academicability is very important. But school
systemstend to be preoccupiedwith certain sortsof criti cal analy-
 The Element I3

sis and reasoning,particularly with words and numbers.Impor-

tant as thoseskills are, there is much more to human intelligence
than that. I'll discussthis at length in the next chapter.
The secondfeature is the hierarchyof subjects.At the top of
the hierarchy are mathematics,science,and languageskills. In
the middle are the humanities.At the bottom are the arts. In the
arts, there is another hierarchy:music and visual arts normally
have a higher status than theater and dance. In fact, more and
more schoolsarecutting the arts out of the curriculum altogether.
A huge high school might have only one fine arts teacher,and
even elementaryschool children get very iittle time to simply
paint and draw
The third feature is the growing relianceon particular types
of assessment.Children everywhereare under intensepressureto
perform at higher and higher levelson a narrow range of stan-
dardizedtests.
\Why areschoolsystemslike this?The reasonsarecultural and
historical. Again, we'll discussthis at length in a later chapter,
and I'll say what I think we should do to transform education.
The point hereis that most systemsof masseducationcame into
being relativelyrecently-in the eighteenthand nineteenthcen-
turies. Thesesystemswere designedto meet the economicinter-
estsof those1in1ss-lirnes that were dominated by the Industrial
Revolutionin Europe and America. Math, science,and language
skills were essentialfor jobs in the industrial economies.The
other big infuence on educationhasbeenthe academicculture of
universities,which has tended to push asideany sort of activity
that involvesthe heart, the body, the senses,and a good portion
ofour actualbrains.
The resultis that schoolsystemseverywhereinculcateus with
a very narrow view of intelligenceand capacity and overvalue
particular sorts of talent and ability. In doing so, they neglect
I4 The Element

othersthat arejust as important, and they disregardthe relation-

shipsbetweenthem in sustainingthe vitality of our livesand com-
munities. This stratified, one-size-fits-allapproachto education
marginalizesall of those who do not take naturally to learning
this way.
Very few schoolsand even fewer schoolsystemsin the world
teachdance everyday as a formal part of their curricula, as they
do with math. Yet we know that many studentsonly becomeen-
gagedwhen they'reusing their bodies.For instance,Gillian Lynne
told me that shedid betterar allof her subjectsonceshediscovered
dance.Shewas one of thosepeoplewho had to "move to think."
Unfortunately,most kids don't find someoneto play the role the
psychologistplayedin Gillian's life-especially now. When they
fidget too much, they'remedicatedand told to calm down.
The current systemsalso put severelimits on how teachers
teachand studentslearn. Academicability is very important, but
so are other ways of thinking. Peoplewho think visually might
love a particular topic or subject,but won't realizeit if their teach-
ersonly presentit in one,nonvisualway.Yet our educationsystems
increasinglyencourageteachersto teach students in a uniform
fashion. To appreciatethe implications of the epiphany stories
told here, and indeed to seekout our own, we need to rethink
radicallyour view of intelligence.
These approachesto education are also stifing some of the
most important capacitiesthat young peoplenow need to make
their way in the increasinglydemandingworld of the twenty-first
century-the powersof creativethinking. Our systemsof educa-
tion put a high premium on knowing the singleright answerto a
question.In fact, with programslike No Child Left Behind (a
federalprogram that seeksto improvethe performanceof Ameri-
can public schoolsby making schoolsmore accountablefor meet-
ing mandated performance levels) and its insistence that all
 The Element 15

children from every part of the country hew to the samestan-

dards,we're putting a greateremphasisthan everbeforeon con-
formity and finding the "right" answers.
All children start their schoolcareerswith sparklingimagina-
tions, fertile minds, and a willingnessto take riskswith what they
think. \fhen my son was four, his preschoolput on a production
of the Nativity story. During the show,there was a wonderful mo-
ment when three little boyscameonstageasthe Three'WiseMen,
carryingtheir gifts of gold, frankincense,and myrrh. I think the
secondboy lost his nerve a little and went out of sequence.The
third boy had to improvisea line he hadn't learned,or paid much
attention to during rehearsals, given that he was only four. The
"I
first boy said, bring you gold." The secondboy said, "I bring
you myrrh."
The third boy said, "Frank sent this."
\7ho's Frank, you think? The thirteenth apostle?The lost
Book of Frank?
\What I loved about this was that it illustratedthat, when they
are very young, kids aren't particularly worried about being
wrong. If they aren't sure what to do in a particular situation,
they'll just havea go at it and seehow things turn out. This is not
to suggestthat being wrong is the samething as being creative.
Sometimesbeing wrong is just being wrong. \What is true is that
if you're not preparedto be wrong, you'll never come up with
anything original.
There is a basicfaw in the way somepolicymakers have inter-
preted the idea ofgoing "back to basics"to upgradeeducational
standards.They look at getting back to basicsasa way of reinforc-
ing the old Industrial Revolution-erahierarchyof subjects.They
seem to believethat if they feed our children a nationally pre-
scribedmenu of reading,writing, and arithmetic, we'll be more
competitive with the world and more preparedfor the future.
16 'fhe Element

\7hat is catastrophicallywrong with this mode of thinking

is that it severelyunderestimateshuman capacity"tWeplace tre-
mendous significance on standardized tests, we cut funding
for what we consider"nonessential"programs,and then we won-
der why our children seem unimaginative and uninspired. In
these ways, our current education system systematicallydrains
the creativityout of our children.
Most studentsneverget to explorethe full rangeof their abili-
tiesand interests.Thosestudentswhoseminds work differently-
and we're talking about many studentshere; perhapseven the
majority of them-can feel alienatedfiom the whole culture of
education.This is exactlywhy someof the most successfulpeople
you'll evermeet didn't do well at school.Education is the system
that's supposedto developour natural abilitiesand enableus to
make our way in the world. Instead,it is stifling the individual
talentsand abilitiesof too many studentsand killing their moti-
vation to learn. Theret a huge irony in the middle of all of this.
The reasonmany schoolsystemsare going in this direction is
that politicians seem to think that itt essentialfor economic
growth and competitiveness and to help studentsget jobs. But the
fact is that in the twenty-first century,jobs and competitiveness
depend absolutelyon the very qualities that school systemsare
being forced to tamp down and that this book is celebrating.
Businesses everywheresaythey needpeoplewho are creativeand
can think independently.But the argumentis not just about busi-
ness.It's about having liveswith purposeand meaning in and be-
yond whateverwork we do.
The idea of going back to basicsisn't wrong in and of itself, I
also believewe need to get our kids back to basics.However, if
we'rereally going to go back to basics,we need to go all the way
'S?e
back. need to rethink the basicnature of human ability and
the basicpurposesof educationnow.
 The Element 17

Therewasa time in our historywhen the steamenginereigned

supreme.It was powerful, it was effective,and it was significantly
more efficient than the propulsion system that came before it.
Eventually,though, it no longer servedthe needsof the people,
and the internal combustion engineusheredin a new paradigm.
In many ways, our current education system is like the steam
engine-and it's running out of steamrather quickly.
This problem of old thinking hardly ends when we leave
school.Thesefeaturesof educationare replicatedin public insti-
tutions and corporateorganizations,and the cycle goesaround
and around. As anyone in the corporateworld knows, it's very
easyto be "typed" early in your career.$Zhen this happens,it be-
comesexceedinglydifficult to make the most of your other-and
perhaps1rus1-gxlgnts.lf the corporateworld seesyou asa finan-
cial type, you'll havea difficult time finding employmenton the
"creative"side of the business.\Wecan fix this by thinking and
acting differently ourselvesand in our organizations.In fact, it is
essentialthat we do.

The Pace of Cltange

Children starting school this year will be retiring in 2070. No

one has any idea of what the world will look like in ten years'
time, let alonein 2070.There are two major driversof change-
technologyand demography.
Technology-especially digital technology-is developingat
a rate that most peoplecannot properlygrasp.It is also contribut-
ing to what somepundits are calling the biggestgenerationgap
sincerock and roll. Peopleover the ageof thirty were born before
the digital revolution really started.tVe ve learnedto use digital
technology--laptops, cameras,personal digital assistants,the
In1s1ns6-xs adults, and it has been something like learning a
18 The Element

foreign language.Most of us are okay,and someare evenexpert.

'W'edo e-mailsand PowerPoint,surf the Internet,and feelwe'reat
the cutting edge.But comparedto most peopleunder thirty and
certainly under twenty, we are fumbling amateurs.Peopleof that
agewere born after the digital revolution began.They learnedto
speakdigital as a mother tongue.
my son, James,was doing homework for school, he
-Vhen
would have five or six windows open on his computer,Instant
Messengerwas flashing continuously,his cell phone was con-
stantly ringing, and he was downloadingmusic and watching the
TV over his shoulder.I don't know if he was doing any home-
work, but he was running an empire as far as I could see,so I
didn't really care.
But youngerchildren who are growing up with evenmore so-
phisticatedtechnologiesare already outperforming teenagersof
his generation.And this revolution is not over. In fact, itt barely
begun.
Some suggestthat, in the near future, the power of laptop
computerswill match the computing power of the human brain"
How is it going to feel when you give your computer an instruc-
tion, and it asksyou if you know what you're doing? Beforetoo
long we may seethe merging of information systemswith human
consciousness. If you think about the impact in the last twenty
yearsof relativelysimple digital technologieson the work we do
and how we do it-and the impact thesetechnologieshavehad
on national economies-think of the changes that lie ahead.
Don't worry if you can't predict them: nobody can.
Add to this the impact of populationgrowth. The world popu-
lation has doubled in the past thirty years,from three to six bil-
lion. It may be heading for nine billion by the middle of the
century.This greatnew massof humanity will be using technolo-
 The Element T9

giesthat haveyet to be inventedin wayswe cannot imagine and

in jobs that don't yet exist.
Thesedriving cultural and technologicalforcesare producing
profound shifts in the world economiesand increasingdiversity
and complexityin our daily lives,and especiallyin thoseof young
people.The simple fact is that theseare times of unprecedented
global change.\7e can identify trendsfor the future, but accurate
predictionsare almost impossible.
For me, one of the formative books of the 1970swas Alvin
Toffler'sFuture Shock.In that book, Toffler discussedthe seismic
impacts of social and technologicalchange. One of the unex-
pectedpleasuresand privilegesof living in Los Angelesis that my
wife, Terry, and I have becomefriends with Alvin and his wife,
Heidi. At dinner with them, we asked if they sharedour view
that the changesnow sweepingthe world have no historical prec-
edents.They agreedthat no other period in human history could
match the presentone in the sheerscale,speed,and global com-
plexity of the changesand challengeswe face.
In the late 1990s,who would haveaccuratelyguessedwhat the
political climate of the world would be ten yearslater, what over-
arching impact the Internet would have, the degreeto which
commercewould becomeglobalized,and the dramaticallydiffer-
ent waysin which our children would communicatewith one an-
other?Someof us might haveguessedone of theseor maybeeven
two. But all?Very few havethat kind of vision. Yet thesechanges
have altered the way we conduct our lives.
And the changesare accelerating.
And we can't sayhow.
\Whatwe do know is that certain trendsindicatethat the world
will change in fascinatingways. China, Russia, India, Brazrl,
and others will play an ever more dominant role in the world
 The Element

'We
economy. know that the population will continueto grow at
'We
unprecedentedlevels. know that technologywill open new
frontiers,and that thesetechnologieswill manifestin our homes
and our officeswith stunning velocity.
This combination of things that we do know-that more
countriesand more peopleare in the game than everbefore,and
that technologyis in the processof changingthe gameitself aswe
speak-leads us to one inescapableconclusion:rn'ecan't know
what the future will be like.
The only way to preparefor the future is to make the most out
of ourselveson the assumptionthat doing so will make us asflexi-
ble and productiveas possible.
Many of the people you'll meet in this book didn't pursue
their passionssimply becauseof the promiseof a paycheck.They
pursuedthem becausethey couldn't imagine doing anything else
with their lives.They found the things they weremadeto do, and
they haveinvestedconsiderablyin masteringthe permutationsof
theseprofessions.If the world were to turn upsidedown tomor-
row, they'd figure out a way to evolvetheir talentsto accommo-
date thesechanges.They would find a way to continue to do the
things that put them in their Element, becausethey would have
an organic understandingof how their talentsfit a new environ-
ment.
Many people set aside their passionsto pursue things they
don't care about for the sake of financial security.The fact is,
though, that the job you took becauseit "pays the bills" could
easily move offshore in the coming decade. If you have never
learnedto think creativelyand to exploreyour true capacity,what
will you do then?
More specifically,what will our children do if we continue to
preparethem for life using the old modelsof education?It's very
possible that our children will have multiple careers over the
 The Element 21

courseof their working lives, not simply multiple jobs. Many of

them will certainly have jobs we haven't conceivedyet. Isn't it
thereforeour obligation to encouragethem to exploreas many
avenuesas possiblewith an eyetoward discoveringtheir true tal-
ents and their true passions?
\fhen the only thing we know about the future is that it will
be different, we would all be wise to do the same.\7e need to
think very differently about human resourcesand about how we
developthem if we are to facethesechallenges.
\7e needto embracethe Element.

What Is the Element?

The Element is the meeting point betweennatural aptitude and

personalpassion.\What you'll find in common among the people
youve met in this chapterand the vastmajority of the peopleyou
will meet in the coming pagesis that they are doing the thing
they love,and in doing it they feellike their most authenticselves.
They find that time passesdifferently and that they are more
alive, more centered,and more vibrant than at any other times.
Being in their Element takesthem beyond the ordinary expe-
riencesof enjoymentor happiness.'$?'e're not simply talking about
laughter,good times, sunsets,and parties. \When people are in
their Element,they connectwith somethingfundamentalto their
senseof identity, purpose,and well-being.Being there providesa
senseof self-revelation,of defining who they really are and what
they're really meant to be doing with their lives.This is why many
of the peoplein the book describefinding their Element as an
epiphany.
How do we find the Elementin ourselvesand in others?There
isn't a rigid formula. The Element is different for everyone. In
fact, that's the point. 'W'earen't limited to one Element, by the
 The Element

way. Some people may feel a similar passionfor one or more

activitiesand may be equally good at them. Others may have a
singularpassionand aptitudethat fulfills them far more than any-
thing elsedoes.There's no rule about this. But there are, so to
speak,elementsof the Element that provide a framework for think-
ing about this and knowing what to look for and what to do.
The Elementhas two main features,and thereare two condi-
tions for being in it. The features are a?titude and passion.The
conditions areltttitude and opportunity.The sequencegoessome-
thing like this: I get it; I love it; I want it; \Whereis it?

I Get It

An aptitude is a natural facility for something.It is an intuitive

feel or a graspof what that thing is, how it works, and how to use
it. Gillian Lynne has a natural feel for dance,Matt Groening for
telling stories,and Paul Samuelsonfor economicsand math. Our
aptitudesare highly personal.They may be for generaltypes of
activity,like math, music,sport,poetry,or politicaltheory.They
can alsobe highly specific-not music in general,but jazz or rap.
Not wind instrumentsin general,but the flute. Not science,but
biochemistry.Not track and field, but the long jt-p.
Throughout this book, you will be meetingpeoplewith a pro-
found natural grasp for all sorts of things. They're not good at
everything, but at something in particular. Paul Samuelsonis
naturally good at math. Others are not.
I happento be one of those others.I was never very good at
math at schooland was delighted to leaveit behind when I fin-
ishedschool.'Sf'henI had my own children, math rearedup again
like the monsterin the movie that you thought was dead.One of
the perils of being a parentis that you haveto help your kids with
 TheElement

their homework. You can bluff it for a while, but you know deep
down that the day of reckoningis approaching.
Until she was twelve, my daughter, Kate, thought I knew ev-
erything. This was an impressionI was very keen to encourage.
'When
shewas little, she'dask me to help if shewas stuck with an
English or math problem.I'd look up with a confidentsmile from
whateverI was doing, put my arm around her, and saysomething
like, "\7ell, let's seehere," pretending to sharethe difficulty so
she'dfeel better about not getting it. Then she'dgazeat me ador-
ingly as I swept effortlessly,like a math god, through the four-
times table and simple subtraction.
C)neday when shewas fourteen,she came home with a page
full of quadraticequations,and I felt the familiar cold sweat.At
this point, I introduced learning-by-discoverymethods. I said,
"Kate, there'sno point in me telling you the answers.Thatt not
how we learn. You need to work this out for yourself.I'll be out-
side having a gin and tonic. And by the way, even when you've
done it, there'sno point showing me the answers.That's what
teachersare for."
The next week she brought me home a cartoon strip she'd
found in a magazine.Shesaid,"This is for you." The strip showed
a dad helping his daughterwith her homework.In the first frame,
he leancdoverher shoulderand said,"\fhat haveyou got to do?"
The girl replied, "I have to find the lowest common denomina-
tor." The father said, 'Are they still looking for that? They were
trying to find that when I was in school."I know how he felt.
For somepeople,though, math is asbeautiful and engagingas
poetry and music is for others.Finding and developingour crea-
tive strengthsis an essentialpart of becomingwho we really are.
til7edon't know who we can be until we know what we can do.
24 The Element

I Loueh
Being in your Element is not only a questionof natural aptitude.
I know many peoplewho are naturally very good at something,
but don't feel that itt their life's calling. Being in your Element
needssomethingmore-passion. Peoplewho arein their Element
take a deepdelight and pleasurein what they do.
My brother Ian is a musician.He playsdrums, piano, and bass
guitar. Yearsago,he was in a band in Liverpool that included an
extremelytalentedkeyboardplayer named Charles.After one of
their gigs, I told Charles how well I thought he'd played that
night. Then I said that I'd love to be able to play keyboardsthat
well. "No, you wouldn't," he responded.Taken aback,I insisted
that i reallywould. "No," he said."You mean you like the ideaof
playing keyboards.If you'd love to play them, you'd be doing it."
He saidthat to play aswell he did, he practicedeveryday for three
or four hours in addition to performing. He'd been doing that
sincehe was seven.
Suddenlyplaying keyboardsaswell asCharlesdid didn't seem
as appealing.I askedhim how he kept up that level of discipline.
He said,"BecauseI love it." He couldn't imagine doing anything
else.

I Want h

Attitude is our personal perspectiveon our selves and our

circumstanc€s-our angle on things, our disposition,and emo-
tional point of view. Many things affect our attitudes,including
our basiccharacter,our spirit, our senseof self-worth,the percep-
tions of thosearound us, and their expectationsof us. An interest-
ing indicator of our basicattitude is how we think of the role of
luck in our lives.
 The Element 25

Peoplewho love what they do often describethemselvesas

lucky. Peoplewho think they'renot successfulin their livesoften
say theyve been unlucky. Accidentsand randomnessplay some
part in everybody'slives. But there's more to luck than pure
chance.High achieversoften sharesimilar attitudes,such as per-
severance,self-belief,optimism, ambition, and frustration. How
we perceiveour circumstancesand how we createand take op-
portunities dependslargelyon what we expectof ourselves.

Where Is It?

Wirhout the right opportunities. you may neverknow what your

aptitudesare or how far they might take you. There aren't many
bronco ridersin the Antarctic, or many pearl diversin the Sahara
Desert.Aptitudes don't necessarilybecomeobvious unlessthere
are opportunitiesto usethem. The implication, of course,is that
we may never discoverour true Element. A lot dependson the
opportunitieswe have,on the opportunitieswe create,and how
and if we take them.
Being in your Element often means being connectedwith
other peoplewho share the samepassionsand have a common
senseof commitment. In practice,this meansactivelyseekingop-
portunities to exploreyour aptitude in different fields.
Often we needother peopleto help us recognizeour real tal-
ents. Often we can help other peopleto discovertheirs.
In this book, we will explorethe primary componentsof the
Element in detail. \7e will analyzethe traits that peoplewho have
found the Element share,look at the circumstancesand condi-
tions that bring peoplecloserto it, and identify the deterrentsthat
make embracingthe Element harder.\7e'll meet peoplewho have
found their way, otherswho pave the way, organizationsthat lead
the way, and institutions that are going the wrong way.
26 The Element

My goal with this book is to illuminate for you conceptsthat

you might have sensedintuitively and to inspireyou to find the
Element for yourself and to help others to find it as well. \fhat I
hope you will find here is a new way of looking at your own po-
tential and the potential of thosearound you.
 CHAPT ER T ' W' O

Think Differently

v
\ f rcr Fr-Eerwoon is one of the most famousand accom-
lVlplirhed rock drummers in the world. His band, Fleetwood
Mac, has sold tens of millions of copiesof their recordings,and
rock critics considertheir albumsFleetwoodMac and Rumoursto
be works of genius.Yet when he was in school,the numberssug-
gestedthat Mick Fleetwood lacked intelligence,at least by the
definitions many of us havecome to take for granted.
"I was a total void in academicwork, and no one knew why,"
he told me. "I had a learningdisability at schooland still do. I had
no understandingof math at all. None. I'd be hard pushedright
now to recitethe alphabetbackward.I'd be lucky if I got it right
going forward quickly. If someonewere to say,'Vhat letter is be-
fore this one?' I'd break out into a cold sweat."
He attendeda boarding schoolin England and found the ex-
periencedeeplyunsatisfying."I had greatfriends,but I just wasn't
h"ppy. I was awareof being squeezedout. I was suffering. I had
no senseof what I was supposedto be becauseeverything aca-
demic was a total failure, and I had no other referencepoints."
Fortunatelyfor Mick (and for anyonewho later bought his al-
bums or attendedhis concerts),he came from a home where his
family saw beyond the limits of what they taught and testedin
schools.His fatherwas a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force,but
when he left the service,he followed his true passionfor writing.
He took his family to live on a bargeon the river Thames in Kent
28 The Element

for three yearsso he could follow this dream. Mick's sisterSally

went to London to becomea sculptor,and his sisterSusanpur-
sued a careerin the theater.In the Fleetwoodhousehold,every-
one understood that brilliance came in many forms and that
being poor at math, or unable to recite the alphabetbackward,
hardly doomed one to an inconsequentiallife.
And Mick could drum. "Playing the piano is probablya more
impressivesignal that there'.ssomething creativegoing on," he
said. "I just wanted to beat the shit out of a drum or somecush-
ions on the chair. It's not exactlythe highestform of creativesig-
nal. It's almost, '\7ell, anyonecan do that. That's not clever.'But
I starteddoing this tapping business,and it turned out to be the
rnakeor break for me."
Mick's epiphanymoment-the point at which the "tapping
business"becamethe driving ambition in his life-came when he
visitedhis sisterin London asa boy and went to "somelittle place
in Chelseawith this piano player.There werepeopleplayingwhat
I now know was Miles Davis and smoking Gitanescigarettes.I'd
watch them and saw the beginningsof this other world and the
atmospheresucked me in. I felt comfortable. I wasn't fettered.
That was my dream.
"Back at school,I held on to theseimaE;esand I dreamt my
way out of that world. I didn't even know if I could play with
people,but that vision got me out of the morassof this academic
bloody nightmare.I had a lot of commitment internally,but I was
also incredibly unhappy becauseeverything at schoolwas show-
ing me that I was uselessaccordingto the statusquo."
Mick's schoolperformancecontinued to confound his teach-
ers.They knew he was bright, but his scoressuggestedotherwise.
And if the scoressaid otherwise,there was little they could do.
The experienceproved extremely frustrating for the boy who
 ThinhDffirently 29

dreamed of being a drummer. Finally, in his teens, he'd had

enough.
"One day,I walked out of schooland I satunder alargetree in
the grounds.I'm not religious,but with tearspouring down my
face, I prayed to God that I wouldn't be in this place anymore.
I wanted to be in London and play in a jazz club. It was totally
naive and ridiculous, but I made a firm commitment to myself
that I was going to be a drummer."
Mick's parents understood that school was not a place for
someonewith Mick's kind of intelligence.At sixteen, he ap-
proachedthem about leaving school, and rather than insisting
that he presson until graduation,they put him on a train to Lon-
don with a drum kit and allowedhim to pursuehis inspiration.
\fhat came next was a seriesof "breaks" that might neverhave
occurred if Mick had stayedin school.Vhile he was practicing
drums in a garage,Mick s neighbor,a keyboardplayernamed Pe-
ter Bardens,knockedon his door.Mick thought Bardenswascom-
ing to teil him to be quiet, but instead,the musicianinvited him to
play with him at a gig at a local youth cl"rb"This led Mick into the
heart of the London musicscenein the early 1960s.'As a kid, I had
no sens€of accomplishment.Now I was starting to get markers
that it was okay to be who I was and to do what I was doing."
His friend PeterGreen proposedhim as the replacementfor
the drummer in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, a band that, at vari-
ous times,includedEric Clapton,JackBruceof Cream, and Mick
Taylor of the Rolling Stones.Later,he joined with Greenand an-
other Bluesbreakers alumnus, John McVie, to form Fleetwood
Mac. The rest is a history of multiplatinum recordingsand sold-
out stadiums.But even as one of the most famous drummers in
the world, Mick's analysisof his talent still bearsthe marks of his
in school.
experiences
30 The Element

"My stylehasno structuredmath to it. I would go into a com-

plete petrified messon the floor if someonesaid, 'Do you know
what a fourieight is?' Musiciansthat I work with know that I'm
actually like a kid. They might say,'You know in the chorus, in
the secondbeat . . . ,' and I'll say,'No,' becauseI don't know what
a chorus is from a verse.I can recognizeit ifyou play the song,
becauseI'll listen to the words."
For Mick Fleetwood,getting away from schooland the tests
that judged only a narrow rangeof intelligencewas the path to a
hugely successfulcareer."My parentssaw that the light in this
funny little creaturecertainly wasn'tacademics."It happenedbe-
causehe understood innately that he had a great aptitude for
somethingthat a scoreon a test could neverindicate.It happened
becausehe chosenot to acceptthat he was "uselessaccordingto
the statusquo."

ThkingIt Allfor Granted

One of the key principlesof the Elementis that we need to chal-
lengewhat we take for grantedabout our abilitiesand the abilities
of other people. This isn't as easy as one might imagine. Part
of the problem with identifying the things we take for granted
is that we don't know what they are becausewe take them for
grantedin the first place.They becomebasicassumptionsthat we
'We
don't question,part of the fabric of our logic. don't question
them becausewe seethem as fundamental,as an integral part of
our lives.Like air. Or gravity.Or Oprah.
A good example of something that many people take for
grantedwithout knowing it is the number of human senses.\When
I talk to audiences,I sometimestake them through a simple exer-
cise to illustrate this point. I ask them how many sensesthey
think they have. Most people will answer fivs-sx516, touch,
 Think Dffirently 31

smell, sight, and hearing. Somewill saythere'sa sixth senseand

suggestintuition. Rarely will anyoneoffer anything beyondthis.
There'sa difference,though, betweenthe first five sensesand
the sixth. The five all have particular organs associatedwith
them-the nosefor smell,the eyesfor sight, earsfor hearing,and
so on. If the organsare injured or compromisedin any way, that
senseis impaired. It isn't obvious what doesintuition. It's a kind
of spooky sensethat girls are supposedto have more of. So, the
general assumption among the wide range of people I ve spo-
ken with over the yearsis that we have five "hard" sensesand a
"spooky" one.
There'sa fascinatingbook by the anthropologistKathryn Linn
Geurts called Cubure and the Senses. In it, she writes about her
work with the Anlo Ewe peopleof southeasternGhana. I haveto
saythat I havea certain degreeof sympathyfor marginalizedeth-
nic groupsthesedays.It seemsas though anthropologistsare al-
waysstalking them-as if their averagefamily unit includesthree
children and an anthropologistwho sitsaround askingwhat they
havefor breakfast.Still, Geurts'sstudy was illuminating.
One of the things shelearnedabout the Anlo Ewe is that they
don't think of the sensesin the sameway that we do. First, they
never thought to count them. That entire notion seemedbeside
the point. In addition, when Geurts listed our taken-for-granted
five to them, they askedabout the otherone.The main one.They
weren't speakingof a "spooky" sense.Nor were they speakingof
some residualsensethat has survived among the Anlo Ewe but
that the restof us havelost. They werespeakingof a sensethat we
all have,and that is fundamentalto our functioning in the world.
They were talking about our senseof balance.
The fuids and bones of the inner ear mediate the senseof
balance.You only have to think of the impact on your life of
damagingyour senseof balance-through illnessor alcohol-to
32 The Element

get some idea of how important it is to our everydayexistence.

Yet most people never think to include it in their list of senses.
This isn't becausethey don't havea senseof balance.Itt because
they ve becomeso accustomedto the idea that we havefive senses
(and maybea spookyone) that they havestoppedthinking about
it. Itt becomea matter of common sense.They just take it for
granted.
One of the enemiesof creativity and innovation,especiallyin
relation to our own development,is common sense.The play-
wright Bertolt Brecht said that as soon as something seemsthe
most obvious thing in the world, it means that we have aban-
doned all attemptsat understandingit.
If you didn't guessright awaythat the other sensewas balance,
don't take it too hard. The fact is that most of the peoplei speak
with don't guessit either.And yet this senseis at leastas impor-
tant asthe fivewe take for granted.And it isn't aloneamong those
we fail to consider.
Physiologistslargely agree that in addition to the five we all
know about,therearefour more.The first is our senseof tempera-
ture (thermoception).This is different from our senseof touch.
'W'e
don't needto be touching anything to feel hot or cold. This is
a crucial sense,given that we can only survive as human beings
within a relativelynarrow band of temperatures.This is one of
the reasonswe wear clothes.One of them.
Another is the senseof pain (nociception).Scientistsnow gen-
erally agreethat this is a different sensorysystem from either
touch or temperature.There also seemto be separatesystemsfor
registeringpains that originatefrom the inside or the outsideof
our bodies.Next is the vestibularsense(equilibrioception),which
includesour senseof balanceand acceleration.And then there is
the kinestheticsense(proprioception),which givesus our under-
 Thinh Differently 33

standingof where our limbs and the rest of our body are in space
and in relationshipto eachother. This is essentialfor getting up,
getting around, and getting back again. The senseof intuition
doesn'tseemto make the cut with most physiologists.I'll come
back to it later.
All of thesesensescontribute to our feelingsof being in the
world and to our ability to function in it. There arealsosomeun-
usual variationsin the sensesof particular people.Some experi-
encea phenomenonknown as synesthesia, in which their senses
seemto mingle or overlap:they may see sounds and hear colors.
These are abnormalities,and seemto challengeeven further our
commonsenseideasabout our common senses. But they illustrate
how profoundly our senses, however many we have and however
they work, actually affect our understandingof the world and of
ourselves. Yet many of us don't know or haveneverthought about
someof them.
Not all of us take our senseof balance or other sensesfor
granted.Take Bart, for example.'W'henhe was a baby in Morton
Grove, Illinois, Bart wasn't particularly actiye.But when he was
around six yearsold, he startedto do somethingvery unusual. It
turned out that he could walk on his hands nearly as well as he
could walk on his feet.This wasn'tan elegantsight, but it did get
him lots of smiles,laughter,and approvalfrom his family. \fhen-
ever visitors came to the house, and at family parties, people
prompted Bart to perform his signaturemove. \With no further
cajoling-after all, he quite enjoyedboth his trick and the atten-
tion it generated-he dropped onto his hands, Ilipped up, and
proudly teeteredaround upside down. As he got older, he even
trained himself to go up and down the stairson his hands.
None of this was of much practicaluse,of course.After all, it
wasn't as though the ability to walk on his hands was a skill that
34 The Element

led to higher test scoresor was marketablein any $'ay.However,

it did do wonders for his popularity-a personwho can climb
stairsupsidedown is fun to be around.
Then one day, when he was ten, with his mother'sapproval,
his grade-schoolphysical educationteachertook him to a local
gymnasticscenter.As he walked in, Bart'seyesbulged in amaze-
ment. He'd never seenanything so wondrous in his life. There
wereropes,parallelbars,trapezes,ladders,trampolines,hurdles-
all kinds of things upon which he could climb, cavort,and swing.
It was like visiting Santa'sworkshop and Disneylandat the same
time. It was also the idealplacefor him. His life turned in that
mornent. Suddenly his innate skills were good for something
more than amusinghimselfand others.
Eight yearslater,after countlesshours of jumping, stretching,
vaulting, and lifting, Bart Conner steppedonto the mat in the
gymnasticshall at the Montreal Olympics to representthe United
Statesof America. He went on to becomeAmerica'smost deco-
rated male gymnast everand 'rhefirst American to win medalsat
everylevelof nationaland internationalcompetition.He hasbeen
a USA champion,an NCAA champion,a Pan-AmericanGatnes
champion, a World champion, a \World Cup champion, and an
Olympic champion. He was a member of three Olympic teams,
in 1976,1980,and l9B4.In a legendaryperformancein the 1984
Los AngelesOlyrnpics, Bart made a dramatic comebackfrom a
torn bicepsinjury to win two gold medals.In 1991,he was in-
ducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame,and in 1996 into the
InternationalGyrnnasticsHall of Fame.
Conner now facilitatesthe passionfbr gymnasticsin others.
He owns a flourishing gymnasticsschoolwith his wife, Olympic
champion Nadia Comaneci. They also own Internrttional Gym-
ndst rnagazineand a television production company.
Athletes like Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci have a pro-
 Dffirently
7'hinle 35

fbund senseof the capacitiesof their physicalbodies,and their

achievements show how limited our everydayideasabout hr'rman
ability realll' 21s.If you watch athletes'dancers'musicians,and
other performersof their classat work, you can seethat they are
thinking, as well as performing, in extraordinaryways.As they
practice,they engagetheir whole bodiesin developingand rnemo-
rizing the routines they are shapingup. In the process,they are
relying on what some call "muscle memory." In performance,
they are usually moving too quickly and in ways that are simply
too complexto relv on the ordinary consciousprocesses of think-
ing and decision-making. Thcy draw from the cleep reserves of
fbelinganclintuition and of physicalreflexand coordinationthat
usethe wholebrain and not only the partsat the front that we as-
sociatewith rationalthinking. lf they did that, their careersrvould
neverget off the ground, and neitherwould thev.
In thescways,athletesand all sortsof otherperformcrshelp to
challengeson]ethingelseabout human capacitythat too many
peopletake for granted and also get wrong-our ideasabottt
intelliger-rce.

How Intelligertt Are Ybu?

Another thing I do when I speakto groupsis to askpeopleto rate

their intclligenceon a 1-to-10scale,with 10 being the top. Typi-
cally, one or two peoplewill rate themselvesa 10. When these
peopleraisetheir hands, I suggestthat they go home; they have
more important things to do than listen to me.
Beyondthis, I'11get a sprinkling of 9s and a heavierconcentra-
tion of Bs.Invariably,though, the bulk of any audienceputs itself
at 7 or 6. The responsesdecline from there, though I admit I
never actually complete the survey. I stop at 2, preferring to save
anyone who would actually claim an intelligencelevel of 1 the
j6 The Element

embarrassmentof acknowledgingit in public. Why do I always

get the bell-shapedcurve? I believeit is becausewe've come to
take for grantedcertain ideasabout intelligence.
\Whatk interestingis that most peopledo put their hands up
and rate themselveson this question.They don't seemto seeany
problem with the questionitself and are happy to put themselves
somewhereon the scale.Only a few havechallengedthe form of
the questionand askedwhat I mean by intelligence.I think that's
what everyoneshould do. I m convincedthat taking the defini-
tion of intelligencefor grantedis one of the main reasonswhy so
many people underestimatetheir true intellectual abilities and
fail to find their Elemenr.
'Ihis commonsenseview qoessomethinglike this: 'We are all
born with a fixed amount of intelligence.It's a trait, like blue or
greeneyes,or long or short limbs. Intelligenceshowsitself in cer-
tain types of activity, especiallyin math and our use of words.
It's possibleto measurehow much intelligencewe have through
pencil-and-papertests,and to expressthis as a numerical grade.
That'-sit.
Put as bluntly as this, I trust this definition of intelligence
soundsas questionableas it is. But essentiallythis definition runs
through much of \Testernculture, and a good bit of Easterncul-
ture aswell. It is at the heart of our educationsystemsand under-
pins a good deal of the multibillion-dollar testing industriesthat
feedoff public educationthroughout the world. It's at the heart of
the ideaof academicability, dominatescollegeentranceexamina-
tions, underpinsthe hierarchyof subjectsin education,and stands
as the foundation for the whole idea of IQ.
This way of thinking about intelligencehas a long history in
'Westernculture and datesback at least to the days of the great
Greek philosophers,Aristotle and Plato.Its most recentflowering
was in the greatperiod of intellectualadvancesof the seventeenth
 ThinhDffirently 37

and eighteenth centuries that we know as the Enlightenment.

Philosophersand scholarsaimed to establisha firm basisfor hu-
man knowledge and to end the superstitionsand mythologies
about human existencethat they believedhad cloudedthe minds
of previousgenerations.
One of the pillars of this new movementwas a firm belief in
the importance of logic and critical reasoning.Philosophersar-
gued that we should not acceptasknowledgeanything that could
not be proved through logical reasoning,especiallyin words and
mathematicalproofs. T-heproblem was where to begin this pro-
cesswithout taking anything fbr grantedthat might be logically
questionable.The fhmous conclusion of the philosopher Rend
Descarteswas that the only thing that he could take fbr granted
washis own existence;otherwise,he couldn't havethesethoughts
in the first place.His thesiswas,"I think, thereforeI am'"
The other pillar of the Enlightenment was a growing belief
in the importanceof evidencein support oF scientificideas-
evidencethat one could observethrough the human senses-
rather than superstitionor hearsay.These two pillars of reason
and evidencebecamethe foundations of an intellectual revolu-
tion that transformedthe outlook and achievements of the \West-
ern world. It led to the growth of the scientific method and an
avalancheof insights,analysis,and classificationof ideas,objects,
and phenomenathat have extendedthe reachof human knowl-
edgeto the depthsof the earth and to the far endsof the known
universe.It led too to the spectacularadvancesin practical tech-
nology that gaverise to the Industrial Revolution and to the su-
preme domination of theseforms of thought in scholarship,in
politics, in commerce,and in education.
The influence of logic and evidence extended beyond the
"hard" sciences.-fhey also shapedthe fbrmative theoriesin the
human sciences,including psychology,sociology,anthropology,
38 The Element

and medicine. As public education grew in the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries,it too was basedon thesenewly dominant
ideasabout knowledgeand intelligence.As masseducationgrew
to meet the growing demandsof the Industrial Revolution,there
was also a need for quick and easyforms of selectionand assess-
ment. The new scienceof psychologywason hand with new theo-
riesabout how intelligencecould be testedand measured.For the
most part, intelligencewas definedin terms of verbaland mathe-
matical reasoning.T'hesewere also processesthat were used to
quantify the results.The most significantideain the middle of all
this was IQ.
So it is that we cameto think of real intelligencein termsof
logicalanalysis:believingthat rationalistforms of thinking were
superior to feeling and emotion, and that the ideas that really
count can be conveyedin words or through mathematicalexpres-
sions.In addition, we believedthat we could quantify intelligence
and rely on IQ testsand standardizedtestslike the SAT to iden-
tify who among us is truly intelligent and deservingof exalted
treatment.
Ironically,Alfred Binet, one of the creatorsof the IQ test, in-
tendedthe test to servepreciselythe oppositefunction. In fact, he
originally designedit (on commissionfrom the French govern-
ment) exclusivelyto identify children with specialneedsso they
could get appropriateforms of schooling.He neverintendedit to
identify degreesof intelligenceor "mental worth." In fact, Binet
noted that the scalehe created"doesnot permit the measureof in-
telligence,becauseintellectualqualitiesare not superposable, and
thereforecannot be measuredaslinear surfacesare measured."
Nor did he ever intend it to suggestthat a person could not
become more intelligent over time. "Some recent thinkers," he
said, "[have affirmed] that an individual's intelligenceis a fixed
quantity, a quantity that cannot be increased.\7e must protest
 Think Dffirently 39

and react against this brutal pessimism;we must try to demon-

stratethat it is founded on nothing."
Still, someeducatorsand psychologists took-and continueto
take-IQ numbers to absurdlengths.In 1916,Lewis Terman of
StanfordUniversitypublisheda revisionof Binet'sIQtest. Known
as the Stanford-Binettest, now in its fifth version,it is the basis
of the modern IQ test. It is interestingto note, though, that Ter-
man had a sadly extremeview of human capacity.Theseare his
words, from the textbook TheMeasurementoflntelligence:"Among
laboring men and servantgirls there are thousandslike them fee-
bleminded.They are the worldk 'hewersof wood and drawersof
water.'And yet, as far as intelligenceis concerned,the testshave
told the truth. . . No amount of school instruction will ever
make them intelligent votersor capablevotersin the true senseof
the word."
Terman wasan activeplayerin one of the darkerstagesof edu-
cation and public policy, one there is a good chanceyou are un-
awareof becausemost historianschooseto leaveit unmentioned'
the way they might a crazyaunt or an unfortunate drinking inci-
dent in college.The eugenicsmovementsought to weed out en-
tire sectorsof the population by arguing that such traits as
criminality and pauperismwere hereditary,and that it was possi-
ble to identify thesetraits through intelligencetesting. Perhaps
most appallingamong the movement'sclaimswas the notion that
entire ethnic groups,including southern Europeans,Jews,Afri-
cans, and Latinos fell into such categories."The fact that one
meetsthis type with such frequencyamong Indians, Mexicans,
and Negroessuggestsquite forcibly that the whole questionof ra-
cial differencesin mental traits will haveto be taken up anew and
by experimentalmethods,"Terman wrote.
"Children of this group should be segregated
in specialclasses
and be given instruction which is concreteand practical. They
40 The Elemcnt

cannot master,but they can often be made efficientworkers,able

to look out for themselves.There is no possibility at presentof
convincing societythat they should not be allowedto reproduce,
although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave
problem becauseof their unusuallyprolific breeding."
The movementactually managedto succeedin lobbying for
the passageof involuntary sterilization laws in thirty American
states.'I'his meant that the statecould neuterpeoplewho fell be-
low a particular IQ without their having any say in the matter.
That each state eventually repealedthe laws is a testamentto
common senseand compassion. That the lawsexistedin the first
placeis a frighteningindicationof how dangerously limited any
standardized testis in calculatingintelligenceand the capacityto
contribute to society-.
IQ testscan evenbe a matterof life ancldeath.A criminal who
commits a capital offenseis not subjectto the death penalty if his
IQ is below seventy.However, IQ scoresregularly rise over the
courseof a generation(by as much astwenty-fivepoints), causing
the scaleto be resetevery fifteen to twenty yearsto maintain a
mean scoreof one hundred. Therefore,someonewho commits a
capitaloffensemay be more likely to be put to death at the begin-
ning of a cyclethan at the end. That's giving a singletest an awful
lot of responsibility.
Peoplecan also improve their scoresthrough study and prac-
tice. I reada caserecentlyabout a death row inmate who'd at that
point spentten yearsin jail on a life sentence(hewasn'tthe trigger
man, but he'd been involved in a robbery where someonedied).
During his incarceration,he took a seriesof courses.\fhen re-
tested,his IQ had risen more than ten points-suddenly making
him eligiblefor execution.
Of course, most of us won't ever be in a situation where
we'resterilizedor given a lethal injection becauseof our IQscores.
 Think Di.lJi'rtttrly 4l

But looking at these extremes allows us to ask some impor-

tant questions, namely, \7hat are these numbers? and, What do
they truly say about our intelligence? The answer is that the
numbers largely indicate a person's ability to perform on a test of
certain sorts of mathematical and verbal reasoning. In other
words, they rneasure sonle types of intelligence, not the whole of
intelligence. And, as noted above, the baseline keeps shifting to
accommodate improvements in the populirtion as a whole over
ti me .
C)ur fascination with IQ is a corollary to our fascination
with-and great dependence on--standardizecl testing in our
schools. T'eachersspend large chunks of every school year prepar-
ing their students for statewide tests that rn'ill determine every-
thing from the child's placement in classesthe fbllowing year to
the amount of funding the school wiil receive. 'I'hese tests of
corrrsedo nothing to t;rke the child's (or tire school's)specialskills
arrd necds into consideration,yet they have a tremcndous say in
rl rc ch ild' s s eholas tic l rrte .
-I-hestandardized test that currently has the most inrp:lct on a

child s academic future in Amcrica is rhe SA'f. Interestingly, Carl

Brigharn, the inventor of the SAI, was also a eugenicist.Ile con-
ceived the test for the military and, to his crec{it, disowned it five
years later, rejecting errgenicsat the same time. However, by this
point, Harvard and orl-rerlvy League schools l-radbegun to use it
as a measure of applicant acceptability. For nearly seven decades,
most American coilegeshave used it (or the similar ACT) as an
essential part of their screening processes,though some colleges
are beginning to rely upon it iess.
The SAT is in manyways the indicator for what is wrong with
standardized tests: it only measures a certain kind of intelligence;
it does it in an entirely impersonal way; it attempts to make com-
mon assumptions about the college potential of a hugely varied
42 The Element

group of teenagersin one-size-fits-allfashion; and it driveshigh

schooljuniors and seniorsto spendhundreds of hours preparing
for it at the expenseof schoolstudy or the pursuit of other pas-
sions.John Katzman, founder of the PrincetonReview,offersthis
stinging criticism: "\7hat makesthe SAT bad is that it has noth-
ing to do with what kids learn in high school.As a result,it cre-
atesa sort ofshadow curriculum that furthers the goalsofneither
educatorsnor students.. . . The SAT hasbeensold assnakeoil; it
measuredintelligence,verified high school GPA, and predicted
collegegrades.In fact, it's never done the first two at all, nor a
particularly good job at the third."
Yet studentswho don't test well or who aren't particularly
strong at the kind of reasoningthe SAT assesses can find them-
selvesmaking compromiseson their collegiatefutures-all be-
causewe'vecometo acceptthat intelligencecomeswith a number.
This notion is pervasive,and it extendswell beyond academia.
Rememberthe bell-shapedcurve we discussedearlier?It presents
itself everytime I ask peoplehow intelligent they think they are
becausewe've come to define intelligencefar too narrowly. We
think we know the answerto the question,"How intelligent are
you?" The real answer,though, is that the question itself is the
wrong one to ask.

How Are You Intelligent?

The right questionto askis the one above.The differencein these

questionsis profound. The first suggeststhat there'sa finite way
ofgauging intelligenceand that one can reducethe value ofeach
individual's intelligenceto a figure or quotient of somesort. The
latter suggestsa truth that we somehow don't acknowledgeas
much aswe should-that there are avariety of ways to expressin-
telligence,and that no one scalecould evermeasurethis.
 Think Dffirently 43

The nature of intelligencehasalwaysbeena matter of contro-

versy, especiallyamong the many professionalspecialistswho
spendtheir lives thinking about it. They disagreeaboutwhat it is,
about who has it, and about how much of it is out there.In a sur-
vey conducted in the United Statesseveralyears ago, a sample
of psychologistsattempted to define ir-rtelligence, choosing and
commenting from a list of twenty-fiveattributes.Only threewere
mentioned try 25 percent or more of the respondents.As one
commentatorput it, "lf we were asking expertsto describeedible
field mushroomsso we could distinguish them from the poison-
ous kinds and the expertsrespondedlike this, we might consider
it prudent to avoid the subjectaltogether."
There havealwaysbeencriticismsof definitionsof intelligence
basedonly on I(], and in recentyearsthey havebeen gaining in
number and strength. '1here'sa range of alternative, sometimes
competing theories that argue that intelligeuce takes in much
more than IQ testscan everhope to assess.
Harvard psychologistHoward Gardner has argued to wide
'Ihey in-
acclaimthat we havenot one but multiple intelligences.
cludelinguistic, musical,mathematical,spatial,kinesthetic,inter-
personal(relationshipswithothers),and intra-personal(knowledge
and understandingof the self) intelligence.He arguesthat these
types of intelligenceare more or lessindependentof each other,
and none is more important, though somemight be "dominant"
while others are "dormant." He saysthat we all have different
strengthsin differentintelligencesand that educationshouldtreat
them equallyso that all children receiveopportunitiesto develop
their individualabilities.
Robert Sternbergis a professorof psychologyat Tufts Uni-
versity and a past presidentof the American PsychologicalAs-
sociation. He is a long-term critic of traditional approachesto
intelligencetesting and IQ. He arguesthat there are three types
44 The Element

of intelligence:analytic intelligence,the ability to solveproblems

using academicskills and to completeconventionalIQ tests;crea-
tive intelligence,the ability to deal with novel situationsand to
come up with original solutions;and practical intelligence,the
ability to deal with problemsand chaliengesin everydaylife.
Psychologistand best-sellingauthor Daniel Goleman has ar-
gued in his books that there is emotional intelligenceand social
intelligence,both of which areessentialto getting alongwith our-
selvesand with the world round us.
Robert Cooper, author of The Other 90%, says that we
shouldn'tthink of intelligenceas happeningonly in the brain in
our skulls. He talks of the "heart" brain and the "gut" brain.
\Theneverwe havea direct experience,he says,it doesnot go di-
rectly to the brain in our heads.The first place it goesis to the
neurologicalnetworks of the intestinal tract and heart. He de-
scribesthe first of these,the entericnervoussystem,as a "second
brain" inside the intestines,which is "independentof but alsoin-
terconnectedwith the brain in the cranium." He saysthat this is
why we often experienceour first reactionto eventsasa "gut reac-
tion." \Thether or not we acknowledgethem, he says,our gut re-
actionsshapeeverythingwe do.
Other psychologistsand intelligencetestersworry about all of
thesesortsof ideas.They saythere is no quantifiableevidenceto
prove their existence.That may be. But the clearfact of everyday
experienceis that human intelligenceis diverseand multifaceted.
For evidence,we needonly look at the extraordinaryrichnessand
complexity of human culture and achievement.\Thether we can
ever capture all of this in a single theory of intelligence-with
three, four, five, or even eight separatecategories-is a problem
for the theorists.
Meanwhile the evidenceof a basictruth of human ability is
everywhere:we "think" about our experiencesin all the wayswe
 ThinkDffirently 45

have them. It's clear too that we all have different strengthsand
natural aptitudes.
I mentioned that I don't havea particular aptitude for mathe-
matics.Actually, I don't haveany aptitude for it. Alexis Lemaire,
on the other hand, does.Lemaire is a young Frenchdoctoral stu-
dent specializingin artificial intelligence.Ln2007, he claimed the
world record for calculating in his head the thirteenth root of a
random two-hundred-digit number. He did this in 72.4 seconds'
In case,like me, you're not surewhat this means'let me explain.
Alexis sat in front of a laptop computerthat had generatedat ran-
dom a two-hundred-figurenumber and displayedit on the screen.
The number was more than seventeenlines long. This is a big
number.
Alexis'stask was to calculatein his headthe thirteenth root of
that number (that is, the number that multiplied by itself thirteen
times would producethe exacttwo-hundred-digitnumber on the
screen).He stared at the screenwithout speakingand then an-
nounced correctly that the answer was, 2,397,207,667,966,701.
Rememberthat he did this in72.4 seconds.in his head.
Lemaireperformedthis feat at the New York Hall of Science.
He hasbeenworking on the thirteenth-root challengefor a num-
ber of years.Previously,his best time had been a sluggish77 sec'
onds.Afterward, he told the press,"The first digit is very easy,the
last digit is very easy,but the inside numbersare extremelydiffi-
cult. I use an artificial intelligencesystemon my own brain in-
steadof on a computer.I believemost peoplecan do it, but I also
have a high-speedmind. My brain works sometimesvery, very
fast. . . . I usea processto improve my skills to behavelike a com-
puter. It's like running a program in my head to control my
brain."
"Sometimes,"he said, "when I do multiplication my brain
works so fast that I need to take medication. I think somebody
46 The Element

without a very fast brain can also do this kind of multiplication

but this may be easierfor me becausemy brain is faster."He prac-
tices math regularly. So that he can think faster,he exercises,
doesn'tdrink caffeineor alcohol,and avoidsfoods that are high
in sugar or fat. His experienceof math is so intensethat he also
hasto takeregulartime off to resthis brain.Otherwise,he thinks
there is a dangerthat too much math could be bad for his health
and his heart.
I havealwaysfelt that too much math can be bad for my health
ancl my heart as well, but for different reasons.Surprisingly,like
me, he did not do particr-rlarlywell in math at school,though the
comparisonsbetweenus end right there. He was not top of the
classin math, and mainly taughthimselfthrough books.
He did havea natural flair for numbers,though, which he dis-
coveredwhen he was about elevenyearsold and which he has re-
fined and cultivated through constantlychallenginghimself and
by developingsophisticatedtechniquesto exploit it. But the foun-
dation of all of theseachievementsis a unique, personalaptitude
combinedwith a deeppassionand commitment. \i/hen he is dig-
ging around in huge numbers to unearth their roots, Alexis Le-
maire is clearlyin his Element.

The Three Features of Human Intelligence

Human intelligenceseemsto have at least three main features.

The first is that it is extraordinarilydiverse.It is clearly not lim-
ited to the ability to do verbaland mathematicalreasoning.These
skills are important, but they are simply onewa)/in which intelli-
genceexpresses itself.
Gordon Parkswasa legendaryphotographerwho capturedthe
black American experiencein a way that few others everhad. He
was the first black producer and director of a major Hollywood
 ThinkDffirenrly 47

film. He helped found Essence magazineand servedasits editorial

director for three years.He was a gifted poet, novelist,and mem-
oirist. He was a talentedcomposerwho createdhis own form of
musicalnotation to write his works.
And he was professionallytrained at none of this.
In fact, Gordon Parks barely attended high school. Parks's
mother died when he was fifteen, and soon after, he found hirn-
self on the streets,unable to graduate.The schoolinghe did get
was discouraging-he often mentioned that one of his teachers
told her studentsthat collegewould be a wastefrrr them sincethey
were destinedto becomeportersand housecleaners.
Still, he used his intelligence in ways few could match. He
taught himself to play the piano and this helped him make
some money to get by in his late teens. A few years later, he
bought a camerafrom a pawnshopand taught himself to take pic-
tures.\(hat he leamedaboutfilm and writing camelargelyfrom
observation,an intense level of intellectualcuriosity, and an
off-the-charts ability to feel for and see into the lives of other
people.
"I just kepton and on," he saidin an interviewat the Smithso-
nian lnstitute, "and I had an indomitablecourageasfar asgetting
started in photographywas concerned.I realizedI liked it and I
went all out for it. Mywife at this time wassort of againstit and
my mother-inlaw, asall mothers-in-laware,wasagainstit. I spent
this dough and decidedto get myself some cameras.That's just
about what happened.I had a tremendousinterestand I just kept
plugging away and knocking at doors, seeking out encourage-
ment whereI could get it."
"My life to me is like sort of a disjointeddream," he said in a
PBS interview."Things havehappenedto me-incredible. It's so
disjointed.But all I know, it wasa constanteffort, a constantfeel-
ing that I must not fail."
4B The Element

Parks'scontribution to American culture is considerable:his

searingphotography,most notablyAmerican Gothic,which juxta-
posed a black woman holding a mop and broom against the
American flag; his inspiredfilm work, including the breakouthit
Shaft, which introduced Hollywood to the black action hero; his
unconventionalprosework; and his unique musicalwork.
I don't know if Gordon Parks ever took a standardizedaca-
demic test or a collegeentranceexam. Given his lack of tradi-
tional education,there'sa good chancehe wouldn't have scored
particularly high on one if he had. Interestingly,while he never
completedhigh school,he amassedforty honorary doctorates-
dedicatingone of them to the teacherwho had beenso dismissive
when he was in high school.Yet by any reasonabledefinition of
the word, Gordon Parkswas remarkablyintelligent,a rarehuman
being with an uncanny ability to learn and mastercomplex and
nuancedart forms.
I can only guessthat Parks consideredhimself intelligent.
However,if he was like so many othersIVe met in my travels,his
lack of formal educationmight have causedhim to rate himself
much lower than he should havein soiteof his numerousand ob-
vious gifts.
As the storiesof Gordon Parks, Mick Fleetwood, and Bart
Conner indicate,intelligencecan show itself in waysthat havelit-
tle or nothing to do with numbersand words.\Wethink about the
world in all the ways that we experienceit, including all the differ-
ent wayswe useour senses(howevermany of those there turn out
'We 'Sfe
to be). think in sound. think in movement.'Wethinkvisu-
ally. I worked for a long time with the Royal Ballet in Britain and
came to seethat dance is a powerful way to expressideasand that
dancersusemultiple forms of intelligence-kinesthetic, rhythmic,
musical, and mathemxll62l-1e accomplishthis. tVere mathemat-
 ThinhDffirently 49

ical and verbalintelligencethe only kinds that existed,ballet never

would have been created.Nor would abstractpainting, hip-hop,
design,architecture,or selFservice checkoutsat supermarkets.
The diversity of intelligenceis one of the fundamentalunder-
pinnings of the Element. If you don't embracethe fact that you
think about the world in a wide variety of ways,you severelylimit
your chancesof finding the personthat you were meant to be.
An individual who representsthis wonderful diversiry is
R. Buckminster Fuller, bestknown for his designof the geodesic
dome and his coining of the term SpaceshipEarth. Certainly his
greatestaccomplishmentscomein the field of engineering(which
of courserequiresthe use of mathematical,visual, and interper-
sonal intelligence),but he was also a cleverand unusltalwriter, a
philosopherwho challengedthe beliefsof a generation,an ardent
environmentalistyears before the emergenceof a true environ-
mental movement, and a challenging and nurturing university
professor.He did all of this by eschewingformal education (he
was the first in four generationsin his family not to graduatefrom
Harvard) and settingout to experiencethe world to usethe fullest
range of his intelligence.He joined the navy, started a building
supplycompany,and worked asa mechanicin a textile mill and a
laborerin a meatpackingplant. Fuller seeminglysawno limits on
his ability to useeveryform of intelligenceavailableto him.
The secondfeature of intelligenceis that it is tremendously
dynamic. The human brain is intenselyinteractive.You usemul-
tiple parts of it in every task you perform. It is in fact in the
dynamic use of the brain-finding new connections between
things-that true breakthroughsoccur.
Albert Einstein,for instance,took great advantageof the dy-
namicsof intelligence.Einsteink prowessas a scientistand math-
ematicianarelegend.However,Einsteinwasa studentof all forms
50 The Element

of expression,believing that he could put anything that chal-

lengedthe mind to use in a variety of ways. For instance,he in-
terviewed poets to learn more about the role of intuition and
imagination.
In his biographyof Einstein,\(alter Isaacsonsays,"As a young
student,he neverdid well with rote learning.And later,asa theo-
rist, his srrccesscame not from the brute strength of his mental
processingpower but from his imagination and creativity. He
could cor-rstructcompiexequations,but more irnportant, he knew
that math is the languagenatureusesto describeher wonders."
When confbundedby a challengein his work, Einstein often
turned to the violin to help him. A friend of Einstein'stold Isaac-
son, "He would often play his violin in his kitchen late at night,
improvisingmelodieswhile he ponderedcomplicatedproblems.
Then, suddenly,in the middle of playing he would announceex-
citedly,'I'vegot it!'As if by inspiration,the answerto the problem
would havecome to him in the midst of the music."
\iZhat Einsteinseemedto understandis that intellectualgrowth
and creativity come through embracingthe dynamic nature of
intelligence.Growth comesthrough analogy,through seeinghow
things connect rather than only seeinghow they might be dif-
ferent. Certainly, the epiphanystoriesin this book indicate that
many of the momentswhen things suddenlycome clear happen
from seeingnew connectionsbetweenevents,ideas,and circum-
stances.
The third feature of intelligenceis that it is entirely distinc-
tive. Everyperson'sintelligenceis asunique asa fingerprint. There
might be seven,ten, or a hundred different forms of intelligence,
but each of us usestheseforms in different ways. My profile of
abilities involvesa different combination of dominant and dor-
mant intelligencesthan yours does.The person down the street
has another profile entirely.Twins use their intelligencesdiffer-
 Think Dffirently 5t

ently from one another, as do people on opposite sidesof the

globe.
This brings us back to the question I askedearlier:How are
you intelligent? Knowing that intelligenceis diverse,dynamic,
and distinctive allows you to addressthat questionin new ways.
This is one of the core componentsof the Element.For when you
explodeyour preconceivedideasabout intelligence,you can begin
to seeyour own intelligencein new ways. No personis a single
intellectual scoreon a linear scale.And no two peoplewith the
samescoreswill do the samethings, shareall of the samepas-
sions,or accomplishthe sameamount with their lives.Discover-
ing the Element is all about allowing yourselfaccessto all of the
ways in which you experiencethe world, and discoveringwhere
your own true strengthslie.
Just don't take them for granted.
 C]HAPT ER. T HREE

T) lr
Deyono rmaglnlng

Tl arrn Rr Nc c or - n i s a n a c c l a i m e da rti s t, b e s t know n for her

H 'painred
I srory quilts. She has exhibited in major museums all
over the world, and her work is in the permanent collcctions of
the Guggenheini Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
and thc Museum of Modern Art. In addition, she is an award-
winning writer, having receivedthe Caldecott Honor for hcr first
llook, Tar Beach. She has also composed and recorded songs.
fiaith's life brirns wirh crcativity. lnterestingly, though, she
{bund herselfon this path when illnesskept her out of school. She
got asthma when she was two, and becauseof this, had a late start
to forrnal education. During or-rrintet'view, she told me that she
felt that being or.it of school with asthma made :r positive difftr-
ence in her developmcnt "becauseI was not around for some of
the indoctrinations, you know? I was not around to be really
formed in the way that I think a lot of kids are formed in a regi-
mented society, which a school is and I guess it has to be in a
sense. Because when you have a lot of peoplc in one space, you
have to move them around in a certain way to make it work. I just
did not ever get hooked into the regimentation. I missed all of
kindergarten and the first grade. By the second grade, I was go-
ing. But every year, I would be absent for at least, I don't know,
maybe two or three weeks with asthma. And I absolutely did not
mind missing those classes."
 Imagining
Beyond 53

Her mother worked hard with her to help her keeppacewith

what shewas missing in school.And when they weren'tstudying,
they were able to explorethe wider world of the arts that existed
all aroundHarlem in the 1930s.
"My mother took me to seeall the great acts of that time.
Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine-all theseold sing-
ers and bandleadersand all those peoplewho were so wonder-
ful. And so thesepeoplewere the oneswho I thought of as being
highly creative.It was so obviousthat they were making this art
out of their own bodies.Ve all lived in the sameneighborhood.
You just ran into them-here they are, you know? I was deeply
inspiredby their art and by their willingnessto giveof themselves
to the public and to their audience.lt made me understandirbout
the communicationaspectof beingan artist.
"I was never forced to be like the other kids. I did not dress
like them. I did not look like them. And in my family, it was not
expectedthat I shouldbe like that. So,it camecluitenaturalto me
to do somethingthat wasconsidered a bit odd. My motherwasa
fashiondesigner.She was an artist herself,although she would
neverhavcsaidshewasan artist. Shehelpedme a lot, but shewas
very keen on the f,rct that shedid not know whetherart would be
a good lifetime endeavor."
\WhenFaith at last begangoing to schoolfull-time, shefound
encouragementand excitementin her art classes.
"\7e had art in elementaryschool right straight through. An
excellentexperience.Excellent.i distinctly recall my teachersget-
ting excitedaboutsomeof the things that I had done and me kind
of wondering,tVhy do they think this is so good?-but I never
saidanything.In junior high school,the teacherdid a projectwith
us in which shewantedus to try to seeit without looking. \7e were
supposedto paint theseflowers in that way. I said, 'Oh my god, I
 The Element

do not want her to seethis, becausethis is really awful.'And she

held it up and said,'Now, this is reallywonderful. Look at this.'
"Now I know why sheliked it. It was freeand it was the same
kind of thing that I like when I seechildren do art. It is expres-
sive;it is wonderful. This is the kind of magic that children have.
Children do not seeanything so strangeand different about art.
They acceptit; they understandit; they love it. 'fhey walk into a
museum and they are looking all around, they do not feel threat-
ened. \Thereas adults do. They think there are some messages
there they do not get, that they are supposedto havesomething
to sayor do in relationto theseworks of art. The children can just
acceptit becausesomehowor other they are born that way. And
they stay that way until they begin to start picking themselves
apart. Now maybeit is becausewe start picking them apart. I try
not to do that, but the world is going to pick them apart and, you
know, judge them this way and that-this does not look like a
tree, or this does not look like a man. \When children are little,
they are not paying attention to that. 'Ihey arejust-they arejust
unfolding right beforeyour eyes.'This is my mommy and this is
my daddy and we went to the houseand cut down the tree and
this and that and the other,'and they tell you a whole story about
it, and they acceptit and they think it is wonderful. And I do too.
Becausethey are completelyunrepressedwhere thesethings are
concerned."
"I think children have that same natural ability in music.
Their little voicesare like little bells that they are ringing. I went
to a school where I did a forty-minute sessionwith each of the
grades,starting with the prekindergarten,going all the way up to
the sixth grade. I did this art sessionwith them in which they
would read from a book and then I would teach them. I would
show them someof my slidesand then I would teach them how
to sing my song Anyone Can Fly.' They just picked that up,
 Beyond Imagining 55

whetherthey werelittle prekindergarten,kindergarten,first grade,

secondgrade, third grade,fourth grade. By the fifth grade,you
arerunning into trouble.Their little voicesareno longerlike bells;
they are feeling ashamedof themselves,you know, and some of
them who can still sing will not."
Fortunately,Faith neverfelt stifled in this way. Sheloved ex-
ploring her creativityfrom an earlyage,and shemanagedto keep
that sparkalive into adulthood.
"I think the minute that I started studying art in collegein
1948I knew I wanted to be an artist. I did not know which road
I would take, how it would happen,or how I could be that, but l
knew that was my goal. My dream was to be an artist, one who
makespicturesfor a lifetime, as a way of life. Every day of your
life you can createsomethingwonderful, so everyday is going to
be the samekind of wonderful day that everyother day is-a day
in which you discoversomethingnew becauseasyou arepainting
or creatingwhateverit is you are creating,you are finding new
waysin doing it."

ThePromiseof Creatiuity
I mentionedthat I like to ask audienceshow intelligent they feel
they are.I usuallyask thesesamepeoplehow they rate their crea-
tivity. As with intelligence,I usea 1 to 10 scale,with 10 at the top.
And, aswith intelligence,most peopleratethemselvessomewhere
in the middle. Out of perhapsa thousand people, fewer than
twenty give themselves10 for creativity.A few more will put their
hands up for 9 and B. On the other end, a handful alwaysputs
themselvesat2 or 1. I think that peopleare mostly wrong in these
assessments, just as they are about their intelligence.
But the realpoint of this exerciserevealsitself when I askhow
many peoplegavethemselvesdifferent marks for intelligenceand
56 The Element

for creativity.Typically,betweentwo-thirds and three-quartersof

the audienceraisetheir hands at this point. \(hy is this? I think
it is becausemost peoplebelievethat intelligenceand creativity
are entirely different things-that we can be very intelligentand
not very creativeor very creativeand not very intelligent.
For me, this identifies a fundamental problem. A lot of my
work with organizationsis about shorvingthat intelligenceand
creativity are blood relatives.I firml1, believethat you can't be
creativewithout acting intelligently.Similarly,the highestfonn of
intelligenceis thinking creatively.In seekingthe Element,it is es-
sential to undcrstandthe real nature of creativity and to have a
clearunclerstanding of how it relatesto intelligence.
In mv experience, most peoplehavea narrow view of intelli-
gence, tendingto think of it mainly in termsof academicability.
This is why so many peoplewho are smart in other waysend up
thinking that they'renot smart at all. 'fhere are myths surround-
ing creativityaswell.
One myth is that only specialpeopleare creative.This is not
true. Everyoneis born with tremendouscapacitiesfor creativity.
The trick is to developthesecapacities.Creativity is very much
like literacy.\7e take it for granted that nearly everybodycan
learn to read and write. If a personcan't read or write, you don't
assumethat this personis incapableof it, just that he or shehasn't
learnedhow to do it. The sameis true of creativity.\When people
saythey'renot creative,it's often becausethey don't know what's
involvedor how creativityworks in practice.
Another myth is that creativity is about specialactivities.It's
about "creativedomains" like the arts, design, or advertising.
These often do involve a high level of creativity.But so can sci-
ence,math, engineering,running a business,being an athlete,or
getting in or out of a relationship.The fact is you can be creative
at anything at all-anything that involvesyour intelligence.
 BeyondImagining 5i

The third myth is that peopleareeithercreativeor they'renot.

This myth suggeststhat creativity,like IQ, is an allegedlyfixed
trait, like eyecolor, and that you can't do much about it. In truth,
it's entirely possibleto becomemore creativein your work and
in your life. The first critical stepis for you to understandthe in-
timate relationship between creativity and intelligence.This is
one of the surest paths to finding the Element, and it involves
stepping back to examine a fundamental feature of all human
intelligence-our unique powersof imagination.

h\ All in Your Imagination

As we discussedin the last chapter,we tend to underestimatethe

rangeof our sensesand our intelligence.\7e do the samewith our
for granted,
imaginations.In fact, while we largelytake our senses
we tend to take our imaginations for granted completely.\We'll
even criticize people'sperceptionsby telling them that they have
"overactiveimaginations"or that what they believeis "all in their
imagination." Peoplewill pride themselveson being "down to
earth," "realistic,"and "no-nonsense,"and deridethosewho "have
their heads in the clouds." And yet, far more than any other
power, imagination is what setshuman beings apart from every
other specieson earth.
Imagination underpins every uniquely human achievement.
Imagination led us from cavesto cities, from bone clubs to golf
clubs, from carrion to cuisine,and from superstitionto science.
The relationship between imagination and "reality" is both
complicatedand profound. And this relationshipservesa very
significantrole in the searchfor the Element.
Ifyou focuson your actual,physicalsurroundings,you gener-
ally assume,I'm sure, that there'sa good fit between what you
perceiveand what'sactually there. This is why we can drive cars
 'l'he Element
58

on busy roads, get what we're looking for in shops, and wake up
with the right person. \7e knou' that in some circumstances-
through illness,delirium, or excessiveuse ofcontrolied substances,
for instance-even that assumption can be mistaken, but let's
keep rnoving forward for now.
\fe know roo that we can routinelv step outside of our imme-
ciiate sensory environment and conjure mental images of other
placesand other times. If I ask you to think of your best friends
at school, your favorite fbod, or your most annoying acquain-
tance, you can do that without having any of thosc things directly
in front of you. T'his processoFseeing "in our mind's eye" is the
cssentialact of imagination. So my initial definition of imagina-
tion is "the power to bring to mind things that are not presentto
our senses."
Your rcspronseto this might very well be, "Duh." J'hat woulcl
bc an appropriate response.but it lrelps make a critical point-
that perhapsmore than any other capacity,imagination is the one
we take for granted most. This is utrfortunate becauseimagina-
tion is vitally ir-nportant to our lives. Through imagination, we
the present, and anticipate the
can visit the past, cor.rtc,mplate
future. We can also do sornething else of profound and unique
significance.
\7e can create.
Through imagination, we not only bring to mind things that
we have experienced but things that we have never experienced.
\7e can conjecture, we can hypothesize, we can speculate, and we
can suppose.In a word, we can be imaginatiere.As soon as we have
the power to releaseour minds from the immediate here and now,
in a sensewe are free. \7e are free to revisit the past, free to re-
frame the present, and free to anticipate a whole range of possible
futures. Imagination is the foundation of everything that is
uniquely and distinctively human. It is the basis of language, the
 Be.yondImagining 59

arts, the sciences,systemsof philosophy,and rrll the vast intrica-

ciesof human culture.I can iliustratethis powerwith an example
of cosmicproportions.

Does Size Matter?

\What'sthe purpose of iife? T'his is another good cluestion.It
doesn'tseemto bother other speciesmuch, but it bothershrlman
beingsquite a bit. The British philosopherBertrandRussellpre-
sentedthis questionsirnplyand brilliantly.lt's in threeparts,and
it's worth readingtwice: "Is man what he seemsto the astrono-
mer, a tiny lump of impure carbonand watercrawling impotently
on a small and unimportant planet?Or is he what he appearsto
Hamlet?Is he perhapsboth at once?"
You'll have to forgive the male languagehere. Russellwrote
this a long tirne ago, when he didnt know people rnight frowtr
upon it later. Russell'sthree questionscapture sotneclf the core
prrzzlessf \Ws51s1n-thoughnot necessarily L,astern-philosophy.
accidentaland meaningless,
Is life esscntially or is it asprofound
and mysteriousas Shakespeare's great tragic hero believedit to
be?I'll come back to l-{amletin a minute. Let'slook first at this
ideaof our inhabitinga smail anclunimportantplanet.
For yearsnow, the Hubble telescope has beenbeamingback
to Earth thousands of dazzling images of distant galaxies,r,vhite
dwarfi;,black holes,nebulas,and pulsars.\fe've all seenspectacu-
lar doctrmentaries about the factsand fantasiesof spacetravel,all
framedwith ungraspable statisticsabout billions of light-yearsand
infinite distances.Most of us now get the point that the universe
is gigantic.\7e alsoget the point that Earth is relativelysmall.
But how small?
It's very hard to get a clear senseof this becausewith planets,
as with everything else, size is relative. Given the immense
60 The Element

distancesbetweenus and the other heavenlybodies,it's difficult

to havemuch of a basisfor comparison.
I wasdelightedto comeacrossa greatsetof imagesthat helped
me get a senseof the relativesizeof the Earth. Someonehad the
bright idea of taking distanceout of the equation altogetherby
plucking the Earth and someother planetsout of the cosmosand
laying them side by side on the foor like a team photograph.In
this way, we get somesenseof the scaleof things, and it's frankly
surprising.Here'sthe first image:

This is Earth, sitting down with someof our immediate neigh-

bors. tVeie looking rather good here, especiallyin relation to
Mars and Mercury. I think too that we're lessworried than ever
about being invaded by Martian hordes. Bring it on, I'd say!
Pluto, by the way,is no longera planet and we can seewhy in this
picture. \7hat were we thinking of in the first place? It's barelya
boulder.
 BeyondImagining 6t

Let's pull back a bit now. Suddenly,the scenarioseemsa bit

lessencouraging.Here'sEarth with someof our largerpartnersin
the solarsystem.

Earth's looking a little less impressivenow compared with

lJranus and Neptune, and certainly in the companyof Saturn
and Jupiter.Pluto at this point has becomea cosmic embarrass-
ment. Still, we'reholding our ov/n--l mean,at leastwe'revisible.
 The Element

\We already know there'smore to the story, though. For in-

stance,we know that Earth is small when comparedwith the
Sun. But how small?Here'show:

On this scale,Earth is the sizeof a grapeseed,and we should

stop talking about Pluto now. But as big as it is, the Sun is far
from the cosmiceiant it seemshere.
 BeyondImagining 63

If we pull back a little more, the picture changesdramatically,

evenfor sun worshippers.

Earth has simply disappearedon this scale,and the Sun itself

is barely a garbanzobean. But even now, we're still comparing
ourselvesto objectsthat are comparativelysmall and closein cos-
mic terms.
64 The Element

Keep your eyeon Arcturus as we pull back just once more to

take in Betelgeuseand Antares.

On this scale,the Sun is a grain of sand and Arcturus is a

kumquat. Antares,by the way, is the fifteenth-brighteststar in the
sky. It is more than a thousand light-yearsaway.Astronomers
would sayit is on[t athousandligheyearsaway.A light-year,you'll
recall,is the distancethat a beam of light travelsin a year.'I'hat's
far. So a thousand light-yearssounds impressive,especiallyif
you're Pluto. But it's actr-rallynot that much in galactic terms.
Compare it with this final image, which is from the Hubble
telescope.
 This is an image of the Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest
galaxiesto our Milky \Way,a near neighbor in the schemeof
things. Scientistsestimate the Magellanic Cloud to be about
170,000 light-yearsacross.Itb almost impossibleto picture the
sizeof Earth on this scale.ks pitifully, unimaginably,undetect-
ably small.
Andyet...
66 The Elemenr

'We can take away some encouragingthings from this. One

is a bit of perspective.I mean, really, whatever you woke up wor-
rying about this morning, get over it. How important in the
greaterschemeof things can it possiblybe?Make your peaceand
move on.
The secondis this. At first glance,theseimagesdo indeedsug-
gest that the answerto Russell'sfirst questionmight be yes.tVe
certainly do seemto be clinging to the face of an extraordinarily
small and unimportant planet. But that'snot reallythe end of the
'We
story. may well be small and insignificant.However,uniquely
among all known speciessn px11[-or anywhere else,to our
knowledge-we are able to do something remarkable.tWe can
conceiveof our insignificance.
Using the power of imagination, someonemade the imagesI
just showedyou. Using this samepower, I'm able to write about
them and have them published, and you're able to understand
them. The fact, too, is that as a specieswe producedthe Hamlet
of which Russellspeaks-as well asMozart's Mass in C, the Blue
Mosque,the SistineChapel, the Renaissance, Las Vegas,the Silk
Road, the poetry of Yeats,the playsof Chekhov, the blues,rock
and roll, hip-hop, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics,
industrialism, The Simpsons,digital technology,the Hubble tele-
scope,and the whole dazzlingcornucopiaof human achievements
and aspirations.
I don't mean to say that no other specieson Earth has any
form of imaginative ability. But certainly none comes close to
showingthe complexabilitiesthat flow from the human imagina-
tion. Other speciescommunicate, but they don't have laptops.
They sing, but they don't produce musicals.They can be agile,
but they didn't come up with Cirque du Soleil. They can look
worried, but they don't publish theorieson the meaning of life
and spendtheir eveningsdrinking Jack Daniel's and listening to
 BeyondImagining 67

Miles Davis. And they don't meet at water holes,poring over im-
agesfrom the Hubble telescopeand trying to figure out what
thosemight mean for themselvesand all other hyenas.
\What accountsfor theseyawning differencesin how humans
and other specieson our small planet think and behave?My gen-
eral answeris imagination. But this is really about the much more
sophisticatedevolution of the human brain and the highly dy-
namic waysin which it can work. The dynamicsof human intel-
ligenceaccountfor the phenomenalcreativityof the human mind.
And our capacityfor creativity allows us to rethink our livesand
our circumslxngs5-and to find our way to the Element.

The Power of Creatiuity

lmagination is not the samc as creativiry.Creativity takes the

processof imagination to another level. My definition of crea-
tivity is "the processof having original ideas that have value."
Imagination can be entirely internal.You could be imaginativeall
day long without anyonenoticing. But you would neversaythat
someonewas creativeif that person never did anything. To be
creativeyou actually have to do something. It involvesputting
your imagination to work to make something new, to come up
with new solutionsto problems,evento think of new problemsor
quesrions.
You can think of creativityas appliedimagination.
You can be creativeat anything at all-anything that involves
using your intelligence.It can be in music,in dance,in theater,in
math, science,business,in your relationshipswith other people.It
is becausehuman intelligenceis so wonderfully diversethat peo-
ple are creativein so many extraordinaryways. Let me give you
two very different examples.
In 1988, former Beatle George Harrison had a solo album
6S The Element

coming out. The album featureda songcalled"This is Love" that

both Harrison and his record company felt could be a big hit. A
common practicein thosepre-downloaddayswasfor the artist to
accompanya singlereleasewith a B-side-a songthat didn't ap-
pear on the album the single appearedon-as added value for
consumers.The only problemin this casewasthat Harrison didn't
havea recordingto useasa B-side.However,Bob Dylan, Roy Or-
bison,Tom Petty,and Jeff Lynne wereall spendingtime with him
in the Los Angelesarea,whereHarrison was living at the time.
As Harrison cameup with the bonesof the songhe wanted to
record,he realizedthat Lynne wasalreadyworking with Orbison.
Harrison soon askedDylan and Petty to join them and to sing
alongon the song'schorus.In a casualsettingwith the minimal
pressureassociatedwith recording a B-side, thesefive rock leg-
ends generated"Handle with Care," one of the most memorable
songsof Harrison'spost-Beatlecareer.
'When Harrison playedthe songa few dayslaterfor Mo Ostin,
chairman of \Tarner Brothers Records,and Lenny Waronker,
headofA&R, the two werestunned.Not only wasthe songmuch
too good to serveas a lowly B-side,but the collaborationgener-
ated a sound,at once easygoingand brilliant that beggedfor a
granderplatform. Ostin and'Waronkerwonderedto Harrison if
the team that created"Handle with Care" could generatean en-
tire album. Harrison found the idea intriguing and took it back
to his friends.
Somelogisticalitems neededaddressing.Dylan was going out
on a long tour in two weeks,and getting everyonein one place
after that was going to be a problem.The five decidedto squeeze
whateverthey could into the time they had beforeDylan's depar-
ture. Using a friend's studio, they laid down the tracks for the
entire album. They didn't have months to dedicateto polishing
the songwriting, doing dozens of alternate takes, or worrying
 Beyond Imagining 69

over a guitar part. Instead,they relied on somethingmuch more

innate-the creativespark generatedby five distinctive musical
voicesjoining together.
They all collaboratedon songs.Each donated vocal harmo-
nies, guitar lines, and arrangements.They fed off each other,
goadedeachother, and, most importantly, had a greattime. The
result was a recording that was both casual-the songsseemin-
ventedon the spot-and unmistakablyclassic.In fitting with the
relaxednature of the project, the five decidedto downplay their
stardomand to call their makeshiftband the taveling Wilburys.
The album they recordedwent on to sell five million copiesand
spawnmultiple hit singles,including "Handle with Care."Rolling
Stone magazine named The Traueling Wilburys one of the "100
BestAlbums of All Time." I think that this is a greatexampleof
the creativeprocessat work.
Here'sanother one that seemscompletelydifferent.
in the early 1960s,an unknown studentat Cornell University
threw a plate into the air in the university restaurant.\7e don't
know what happenedafter that to the studentor to the plate.The
student may have caught the plate with a smile, or it may have
shatteredon the floor. Either way, this would not have been an
extraordinaryevent but for the fact that someoneextraordinary
happenedto be watchingit.
Richard Feynmanwas an American physicist,and one of the
undisputedgeniusesof the twentieth century.He was famous for
his groundbreakingwork in severalfields including quantum
electrodynamicsand nanotechnology.He was also one of the
most colorful and admired scientistsof his generation,a juggler,a
painter, a prankster, and an exuberant jazz musician with a par-
ticular passionfor playing the bongos.In 1965,he won the Nobel
Prize in Physics.He saysthis was partly becauseof the fying
olate.
70 The Element

"That afternoonwhile I was eating lunch, somekid threw up

a plate in the cafeteria,"Feynman said. "There wasa blue rnedal-
lion on the plate, the Cornell sign, and as he threw up the plate
and it came down, the blue thing went around and it seemedto
me that the blue thing went around fasterthan the wobble,and I
wonderedwhat the relationwas betweenthe two. I was iust play-
ing, no importanceat all, but I playedaround with the equations
of motion of rotatingthings,and I found out that if the wobbleis
small the blue thing goesaround twice as fastasthe wobblegoes
round."
Feynmanjotted som€tholrghtsdown on his napkin, and after
lunch, he got on with his day at the university.Sometime later,he
looked again at the napkin and carried on playing with the ideas
he'd sketchedout on it.
"I startedto play with this rotation, and the rotation led me tcr
a similar problem of the rotation of the spin of an electronaccord-
ing to Dirac'sequation,and that just led me back into quantum
electrodynamics, which was the problem I had been working
on. I kept continuing now to play with it in the relaxedfashion I
had originally done and it was just like taking the cork out of a
bottle-everything just poured out, and in very short order I
rvorkedthe things out for which I later won the Nobel Prize."
Apart from the fact that they both spin around, what do mak-
ing recordsand understandingelectronshave in common that
can help us understandthe nature of creativity?As it happens,
quite a lot.

Creatiue Dynamics

Creativity is the strongestexampleof the dynamic nature of intel-

ligence,and it can call on all areasof our minds and being.
Let me beginwith a rough distinction. I said earlierthat many
 Imagining
Bryond 71

peoplethink they're not creativebecausethey don't know what's

involved.This is true in two different ways.The first is that there
are some generalskills and techniquesof creativethinking that
everyonecan learn and can apply to nearly any situation.These
techniquescan help in generatingnew ideas,in sorting out the
useful onesfrom the lessuseful ones,and in removing blocks to
new thinking, especiallyin groups.I think of theseasthe skills of
generalcreativity,and I'm going to say more about them in the
chapteron education.\X/hat I want to discussin this chapter is
personalcreativity,which in somewaysis very different.
Faith Ringgold,the'Iraveling Wilburys, Richard Feynman,
and many of the other peoplein this book are all highly creative
peoplein their own unique ways.They work in differentdomains,
and individual passionsand aptitudes drive them. -fhey have
found the work they love to do, and discovereda specialtalent for
doing it. They arein their Element,and this drivestheir personal
creativity.Having someunderstandingof how creativityworks in
generalcan be instructivehere.
Creativity is a step beyond imagination becauseit requires
that you actuallydo somethingratherthan lie around thinking
about it. It's a very practicalprocessof trying to make something
original. It may be a song,a theory, a dress,a short story,a boat,
or a new saucefor your spaghetti.Regardless, somecommon fea-
turespertain.
The first is that it is a process.New ideasdo sometimescometo
people fully formed and without the need for much further work.
Usually,though, the creativeprocessbeginswith an inkling-like
Feynman watching the wobble of the plate or GeorgeHarrison's
first ideafor a song-which requiresfurther development.This is
a journey that can have many different phasesand unexpected
turns; it can draw on different sorts of skills and knowledgeand
end up somewhereentirely unpredicted at the outset. Richard
72 'I-he Element

Feynman eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physics,but they

didn't give it to him for the napkin he'd scribbledon over lunch.
Creativityinvolvesseveraldifferentprocesses thatwind through
eachother. The first is generatingnew ideas,imagining different
possibilities,consideringalternativeoptions. This might involve
playing with some notes on an instrument, making somequick
sketches,jotting down somethoughts,or moving objectsor your-
self around in a space.The creativeprocessalsoinvolvesdevelop-
ing theseideasby judging which work best or feel right. Both of
theseprocesses of generatingand evaluatingideasare necessary
whether you're writing a song, painting a picture, developinga
mathematicaltheory, taking photographsfor a project,writing a
book, or designingclothes.These processes don't come in a pre-
dictable sequence.Instead,they interact with eachother. For ex-
ample,a creativeeffort might involvea greatdealof ideageneration
while holding back on the evaluationat the start. But overall,cre-
ativework is a delicatebalancebetweengeneratingideasand sift-
ing and refining them.
Becauseit's about making things, creativework always in-
volvesusing media of some sort to developideas.The medium
can be anything at all. The \Wilburys used voices and guitars.
Richard Feynman used mathematics. Faith Ringgold's media
were paints and fabrics(and sometimeswords and music).
Creativework also often involvestapping into various talents
at your disposalto make somethingoriginal. Sir Ridley Scott is
an award-winning director with such blockbuster films as Gladi-
ator, Blade Runner, Alien, and Thelma and Louise to his credit.
His films have a look distinct from other film directors. The
sourceof this look is his training asan artist.
"Becauseof my backgroundin fine art," he told me, "I have
very specificideas about making films. I ve always been told I
 Beynd Imagining 73

havethis eye.I ve neverthought about what it is, but I'm usually

accusedof being too pretty, or too beautiful, or too this, or too
that. I've gradually realizedthat this is an advantage.My first
film, The Duellists,was criticized for being too beautiful. One
critic complained about 'the overuseof filters.' Actually, there
were no filters used. The 'filters' were fifty-nine days of pissing
rain. I think what he was taken by was how I look at the French
landscape.Probablythe bestphotographersof the Napoleonicpe-
riod would be painters.So I looked at the Russianpaintersof Na-
poleon going to the front on that disastrousjourney to Russia.A
lot of greatnineteenth-centuryviewson that arefrankly just pho-
tographic.I would take everything from thoseand apply that to
the fiIm."
Peoplewho work creativelyusually have something in com-
mon: they love the media they work with.
Musicians love the sounds they make, natural writers love
words, dancerslovemovement,mathematicianslovenumbers,en-
trepreneurslovemaking deals,greatteacherslove teaching.This is
why peopiewho fundamentallylovewhat they do don't think of it
aswork in the ordinary senseof the word. They do it becausethey
want to and becausewhen they do, they are in their Element.
This is why Feynmantalks about working on the equationsof
motion "just for the fun of it." Itt why he talks about "playing"
with the ideas in "a relaxed fashion." The \Tilburys produced
someof their bestwork when they werejust trying things out and
having a good time togethermaking music. The fun factor isn't
essentialto creativework-there are many examplesof creative
pioneerswho werehardly a laugh a minute. But sometimeswhen
we'replaying aroundwith ideasand laughing,we'remost open to
new thoughts. In all creativework, there may be frustrations,
problems,and deadendsalong the way.I know somewonderfully
74 'Ihe Element

creativepeoplewho find parts of the processdifficult and deeply

exasperating.But there'salwaysprofound pleasureat somepoint,
and a deepsenseofsatisfactionfrom "getting it right."
Many of the peopleI talk about in this book think they were
lucky to find what they love to do. For someof them, it was love
at first sight.That's why they call the recognitionof their Element
an epiphany.Finding the medium that excitesyour imagination,
that you love to play with and work in, is an important step ro
freeing your creativeenergies.History is full of examplesof peo-
ple who didn't discovertheir real creativeabilitiesuntil they dis-
coveredthe media in which they thought best.In my experience,
one of the main reasonsthat so many other peoplethink they're
not crcativeis that they simply haven'tfound their mediurr-r. There
areotherreasons, which we'll cometo, includingthe ideaof luck.
closelyat why the actual rnediawe useare
But first let'slook rr-rore
so important to the creativew<lrkwe do.
Diffcrent rnedia help us to think in different ways. A great
friend of mine, the designerNick Egan, recently gave my wife
Terry and me two paintings he'd done for us. A coupleof things
I'd saidin somepublic lectureshad movedNick in a significant
way. The first was, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll
neverproduceanything original." The secondwas, "Great educa-
tion dependson great teaching."I think both of theseare true,
which is why I go around sayingthem. Nick found himself think-
ing about theseideasand about how they'd applied to his own
life, growing up and then working asan artist in London. He de-
cided to createsome paintings about them, and he worked on
them nearly full-time for severalweeks.
Each of the paintingshe did for us featuresone of thosestate-
ments and is a kind of visual improvisationon it. They are both
powerful imageswith an almost primal energy.One of them is pri-
marily black,with the words scrawledand scratchedinto the paint
 BeyondImagining 75

on half of the canvaslike graffiti. The other one is largely white,

with the words written in a childlike way in dripping black paint
acrossthe background. One features a glaring cartoonlike face
that's somewherebetweena cavepainting and child's drawing.
At first glance,the paintings seemrushed and chaotic. But a
careful examination of the canvasesrevealslayersupon layersof
other imagesbeneath,carefully built up and partly painted over.
This givesthe paintings real depth. He alsolacedeachwith intri-
catetexturesof colorsand brushstrokesthat becomemorevibrant
asyou look at them. All of the complexityin the paintingsgener-
atestheir senseof simplicity and urgent ener€ly.
Although my words inspired them, I couldn't have created
thesepaintings. Nick is a designerand a visual artist. He has a
natural aptitude and passionfor visual work-sensitivity to line,
color, shapes,and texturesand to how they can be formed into
new, creativeideas.He developshis ideasthrough paint, chalks,
pastels,printmaking, film, digital imaging, and a whole host of
other visual media and materials.-fhe materialshe useson any
given project affect the ideashe has and how he works on them.
You can rhink of creativityasa convetsation berweenwhat we're
trying to figure out and the media we are using. The paintings
that Nick finally gave us were different from how they started
out. 'fheir appearanceevolvedas he worked on them, and what
he wanted to expressbecamecleareras the paintings took shape.
Creativity in different media is a striking illustration of the
diversityof intelligenceand waysof thinking. Richard Feynman
had a great visual imagination. But he wasn't trying to paint a
picture of electrons;he was trying to developa scientifictheory
about how they actually work. To do that, he had to use mathe-
matics. He was thinking about electrons,but he was thinking
'STithout
about them mathematically. mathematics, he simply
couldn't havethousht about them as he did. The \Wilburys were
76 The H,lemcnt

thinking about love and relationships, life and death, and the
whole damn thing; but they weren't trying to write a psychology
textbook. They were thinking about these things through music.
They were h:rving musical ideas, and music is what they rnade.
Understanding the role of the media we use for creative work
is important for another reason.To develop our creativeabilities,
we also need to develop our practical skills in the media we want
to use. It's important that we develop theseskilis in the right way.
I know plenty of people who have been turned off math for life
becausethey were never helped to seeits creative possibilities-as
you already know, I'm one of those people. -Ieachers always pre-
sented math to me as aln interminablc series clf puzz-lesto which
solneoneelsealready kncw the answers,and the only options were
to get it right orwrong. This is not how ILichard Feynman tl-rought
of math.
F.qually,I know m:rnv people n'ho spent eudlesshours as chil-
drcn practicing scaleson the piano or guitar and never want to see
an instrument again becausethe whole processwas so dull and
repetitive. Many people have decided that tirey u'ere simply no
good at math or music when it's possiblethat their teacherstaught
them the wrong way or at the wrong time. Maybe they should
look again. Maybe I should. . . .

Opening Your Mind

Creativethinking involvesmuch more than the sorts of logical,

linear thinking that dominate the \Testern view of intelligence
and especiallyeducation.The frontal lobes of the brain are in-
volved in somehigher-orderthinking skills. The left hemisphere
is the areathat'smost involvedin logicaland analytical thinking.
But creativethinking usually involvesmuch more of the brain
than the bits at the front and to the left.
 B4tondImagining 77

Being creativeis about making fresh connectionsso that we

seethings in new waysand from different perspectives. In logical,
linear thinking, we move from one idea to another through a se-
ries of rules and conventions.\Weallow somemoveswhile reject-
ing othersbecausetheyie illogical. IfA + B = C, we can figure out
what C + B equals.ConventionallQ examstypically test for this
type of thinking. The rulesof logic or linear thought don't always
guide creativethinking. On the contrary.
Creativeinsightsoften comein nonlinearways,through seeing
connectionsand similaritiesbetweenthings that we hadn't noticed
before. Creative thinking dependsgreatly on what's sometimes
calleddivergentor lateralthinking, and especially on thinking in
metaphorsor seeinganalogies. 'fhis is what Richard Feynman
was doing when he sawa connectionbetlveenthe wobbling plate
and the spin of electrons.The idea fbr George Harrison'ssong
"Handle with Care" camefiom a labelhe sawon a packingcrate.
I don't mt:anthat creativityis the oppositeof logical thinking.
The rulesof logic allorvenormousroom for creativityand impro-
visation within themselves.So do all activitiesthat are bound by
rules.Think of all the creativityin chessand in different types of
sport, poetry, dance, and music, where there can be very strict
rules and conventions.Logic can be very important at different
stagesin the creativeprocess,accordingt<lwhat sort of work we're
doing, particularlywhen we'reevaluatingnew ideasand how they
fit into or challengeexisting theories.Even so, creativethinking
goesbeyondlinear and logical thought to involve all areasof our
minds and bodies.
It's now widely acceptedthat the two halvesof the brain have
different functions.The left hemisphereis involvedin logical,se-
quential reasoning-with verbal language,mathematicalthink-
ing, and so on. The right hemisphereis involvedin recognitionof
patterns, of faces,with visual perception,orientation in space,
7B The Element

and with movement.However,thesecompartmentsof the brain

hardly work in isolationfrom eachother. If you look at imagesof
the brain at work, you'll seethat it is highly interactive.Like the
rest ofour bodies,thesefunctions ate all related.
Legs have a major role in running, but a leg on its own is
frankly rather poor at it. In the sameway, many different parts of
the brain are involvedwhen we play or listen to music, from the
more recentlyevolvedcerebralcortex to the older,so-calledreptil-
ian parts of the brain. Thesehaveto work in concertwith the rest
of our body, including the restof the brain. Of course,we all have
strengthsand weaknesses in the different functions and capacities
of the brain. But like the musclesin our arms and legs,theseca-
pacitiescan grow weakeror strongerdependingon how much we
exercisethem separatelyand together.
By the way, there'ssome suggestionin recent researchthat
women'sbrains may be more interactivethan men'sbrains.The
jury is still out on this, but reading about it reminded me of an
old questionin'Westernphilosophythat professorsoften give col-
lege freshmento debate.It's about the relationshipbetweenour
sensesand our knowledgeof the world. The essenceof the ques-
tion is whether we can know something is true if we don't have
direct evidenceof it through our senses, and the usual exampleis
this: "If a treefalls in a forestand no one is around to hear it, does
it make a sound?" I used to teachsomephilosophy courses,and
the studentsand I could debatethis sort of thing in an earnest
way for weekson end. The ans#er,I think, is, "Of courseit does,
don't be so ridiculous."But, you know, I had tenure, so therewas
really no needto rush this conversation. A recenttrip to SanFran-
cisco reminded me of thesedebates.I was wandering through a
streetmarket and saw someonewearing a T-shirt that said, "If a
man speakshis mind in a forestand no woman hearshim, is he
still wrong?" Probably.
 BeyondImagining 79

\Thatever gender differencesthere may be in everydaythink-

ing, creativityis alwaysa dynamic processthat may draw on many
different ways of thinking at the sametime. Dance is a physical,
kinestheticprocess.Music is a sound-basedart form. But many
dancersand musicians use mathematicsas an integral part of
their performances.Scientistsand mathematiciansoften think in
visual waysto picture and test their ideas.
Creativity also usesmuch more than our brains. Playing in-
struments,creatingimages,constructingobjects,performing a
dance,and making things of everysort are alsointenselyphysical
processes that dependon feelings,intuition, and skilled coordina-
tion of handsand eyes,body and mind. In many in51x116s5-in
dance,in song,in performance-we do not useexternalmedia at
all. We ourselvesare the medium of our creativework.
Creativework also reachesdeepinto our intuitive and uncon-
sciousminds and into our heartsand feelings.Have you everfor-
gotten someone's name,or the name of somewhereyouve visited?
Try asyou may, it's often impossibleto bring it to mind, and the
more you think about it, the more elusiveit becomes.Usually,the
best thing you can do is stop trying and "put it to the back of
your mind." Sometime later, the name will probably show up
in your head when you're least expectingit. The reasonis that
there is far more to our minds than the deliberateprocesses of
consciousthought. Beneaththe noisy surfaceof our minds, there
are deepreservesof memory and association,of feelingsand per-
ceptionsthat processand recordour life'sexperiences beyond our
consciousawareness. So at times,creativityis a consciouseffort. At
others,we needto let our ideasferment for a while and trust the
deeperunconsciousruminationsof our minds, overwhich we have
less control. Sometimeswhen we do, the insights we've been
searchingfor will cometo us in a rush, like "letting a cork out of a
bottle."
 The Element

Getting It Together

Vhile you can seethe dynamic nature of creativethinking in the

work of single individuals, it becomesmuch more obviouswhen
you look at the work of great creativegroups like the Traveling
\Wilburys.The successof the group cameabout not becausethey
all thought in the samcway,but becausethey wereall so different.
Theyhad diffbrenttalents,differentinterests,and differentsounds.
But they founcl a processof working togetherwhere their differ-
encesstimulated each other to createsomething they wouldn't
have come up with individually. It's in this sensethat creativitl,
draws not just from our own personalresourcesbut alsofrom the
wider world of other people'sideasand values.This is wherethe ar-
gument fbr developingour powersof creativitynrovesup a gear.
Let'sgo back to Shakespeare's Hamlet.In Shakespeare's play
Ham/et, the prince of Denmark is torn by raging feelingsabout
the death of his father and the treacheryof his mother and uncle.
Throughout the play, he wrestleswith his feelingsabout life and
death,loyalty and betrayal,and his significancein the wider uni-
verse.He strugglesto know what he should think and feel about
the eventsthat are engulfing his spirit. Early in the play,he greets
Rosencrantzand Guildenstern,two visitors to the royal Danish
court. He welcomesthem with thesewords:

My excellent Ah,
goodfriends!How dostthou, Guildenstern?
Rosencrantz! Goodlads,how do you both?
. . . whathaveyou,
My goodfriends,deserved at the handsof fortune,
That shesendsyou to prisonhither?

The questionsurprisesGuildenstern.He asksHamlet what he

means by "prison." Hamlet says,"Denmark's a prison." Rosen-
 BeyondImagining Bl

crantz laughs and saysthat if that's true, then the whole world is
a prison. Hamlet saysit is, and "a goodly one, in which there are
many confines,wards and dungeons,Denmark being one of the
worst." Rosencrantzsays,"\7e think not so, my lord." Hamlet's
reply is profound. "'Tis none to you for there is nothing either
good or bad, but thinking makesit so: to me it is a prison."
The power of human creativity is obvious everywhere,in the
technologieswe use,in the buildings we inhabit, in the clotheswe
wear, and in the movieswe watch. But the reachof creativity is
very much deeper.It affectsnot only what we put in the world,
but also what we make of it-not only what we do, but also how
we think and leelaboutit.
Unlike all other species,so far aswe can tell, we don't just get
on in the world. \Wespendmuch of our time talking and think-
ing aboutwhat happensand trying to work out what it all means.
\7e can do this becauseof the startling power of imagination,
which underpinsour capacityto think in words and numbers,in
imagesand gestures,and to use all of theseto generatetheories
and artifactsand all the complex ideasand valuesthat make up
the many perspectives on human life. We don't just seethe world
asit is; we interpretit through the particular ideasand beliefsthat
have shapedour own cultures and our personaloutlook. All o{
thesestandbetweenus and our raw experiences in the world, act-
ing as a filter on what we perceiveand how we think.
tVhat we think of ourselvesand of the world makesus who we
are and what we can be. This is what Hamlet means when he
says,"There is nothing good or bad, only thinking makesit so."
The good newsis that we can alwaystry to think differently.Ifwe
createour worldview we can re-createit too by taking a different
perspectiveand reframing our situation.In the sixteenthcentury,
Hamlet said that he thought of Denmark metaphorically as
a prison. In the seventeenthcentury, Richard Lovelacewrote a
82 fhe Element

poem for his love, Althea. 'faking the opposite vielv, Lovelace says
that lor him an actual prison woulcl be a place of freedom and
liberty so long as he could think of Althea. 'fhis is how he closes
h i s ooem :

Stone walls do r.rota prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;
Mincls innocent and quiet take
That fbr an hern.ritage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul atn free,
Anecls alone, that soat'above,
Enjoy such libe rty.

Ir-r the nineteenth century, William James bccame one of the

Foundingthinkersof rnodernpsychoiogy. By then, it wasbecom-
ing more widely understood that our ideasand waysof thinking
coulclimprisonor liberateus.Jamesput it this wav: "'fhe greatest
discovcryof my generationis that httman beingscan alter their
lives by alteringtheir attitude of mind. . . . If you changeyour
mind, you can changeyour life."
This is the real powerof creativityand the tru€promiseof be-
ing in your Element.
 CHAPT ER F OUR

In the Zone

v
TJwe LnuneNcr, is the most famousfemalebilliardsplayer
the planet.Known as "the Striking Viking," shehas been
-Don
ranked number 1 in the world, won both the Europeanand U.S.
national championships,has appearedon the cover of the New
York TimesMagazine, been featuredin People,Sportslllustrated,
Forbes,and many other publications,makesregular televisionap-
pearances,and servesas a commentatoron ESPN.
Growing up in Sweden,Ewa discoveredthe gamewhile trail-
ing after her older brother.
"Me and my best friend, Nina, we were always hanging
around, just ascloseas friendscan be. One day,when I was four-
teen, the two of us followed my brother and his friend to this
bowling alley to play and decidedto check it out. 'Wewere there
for a while and then got really bored.And then we found out that
they had goneto somethingcalleda poolroom. I had neverheard
of pool. \Wefollowed them up there and I remember,the minute
I walked in, I reactedto it right away.I loved the whole thing-
this dark room with lights over eachtableand the clicking of the
balls. I just thought it was mesmerizingright off the bat.
"There was this whole society there where everybodyknew
'Wewere
this thing about billiards and it grabbedme right away.
intimidated and curious, but just sat and watched everything.
\7hen you sit and watch it, or do it yourself,everything disap-
pears.It's easyfor that to happenwith billiards becauseeachtable
84 The Element

is a stage.So, everythingaround it disappearedfor me and that's

all I saw. I was watching these players who knew exactly what
they were doing. I realized that there'smore to this than just
banging the balls around and hoping somethinggoesin. There
was one guy who ran ball, after ball, after ball, and made sixty,
seventy,eighty balls in a row and I realizedhe was moving the
white ball around to shoothis next shot.And somehow,it clicked
in. It was their knowledgeand skill that really amazedme-that
chesspart of billiards, of playing three, four moves ahead and
then having to executeit on top of it."
From that moment of epiphany,Ewa knew that shewanted to
dedicateher life to billiards. Fortunately,her parentssupported
her, allowing her to spendsix to ten hours a day playing at a local
poolroom, doing her homework in betweenshots."Peoplethere
knew I was seriousabout the game,so they left me alone.But we
also had a lot of fun there. If you find a place where everybody
elselikes the samething that you do, it really becomesfun. So
theseodd shx1261s15-because we all had billiards together-we
becamelike a family."
In 1980, at sixteen,Ewa won the Swedishchampionship.At
seventeen, shewon the first-everEuropean\7omen's Champion-
ship. This led to an invitation to go to New York to represent
'World
Europe in the Championship. "That whole summer I
practiced.The poolroom didn't open until five in the afternoon,
so I would take the bus in the morning up to the part of town
wherethe owner lived, get the key to the poolroom, and then take
the bus into town and let myself in. I did that all summer and
then playedten, twelve hours a day. Then I went to the tourna-
ment in New York. I didn't win, though; I camein seventh.I was
disappointedI didn t do better, but at the sametime I thought,
''Wow,that'slike seventhin the world!"'
Though her parentsdidn't like her being so far away,Ewa de-
 In the Zone 85

cided to stay in New York to continue her pursuit of the sport,

knowing that in the United States,shewould have the opportu-
nity to play regularlyagainstthe bestin the world. In addition to
scoring victories,she also becamea leading voice for women in
billiards. Her talent, her passion,and her stunning good looks
made her a media star and helpedbring new levelsof popularity
to the gamesheloved.
Fameand financial rewardaccompaniedEwa Lauranceon her
rise to the top. But for her, the biggestchargecontinuedto be the
gameitself.
"You'realmost unconsciousto what'sgoing on aroundyou. It's
literally the most peculiar feeling. It's like being in a tunnel but
you don't seeanything else.You just seewhat you'redoing. Time
changes.Somebodycould askyou how long youve beendoing it
and you could havesaid twenty minutes but it was actually nine
hours. I just don't know. I haveneverhad it with anything before
or since,even though I am very passionateabout a lot of other
things. But the feelingof playing billiards is unique for me.
"Part of the beautythat pool offersyou is how much you can
learn. It's a never-endingdeal. Every layout is different, so there's
alwayssomething to keep you interested.I just love the physics
and the geometryof it-learning and understandingthe angles
and finding out how far you can push to changethe angleto get
the cue ball whereyou want it to go. And learningwhat the limits
and possibilitiesare. Being able to control the cue ball scooting
forward two and a half inchesinsteadof three is a pretty amazing
feeling. So insteadof fighting the elements,you actually figure
out a way to work with them.
"I wasn't at all interestedor good at geometry or physicsat
school.For somereason,when I'm playing I seeit a lot. I look at
the table and I literally seelines and diagramsall over the place.I
see'I'm going to make the t here,the 2 over here,the 3'sgoing to
86 The Element

go down here,I'm going to have to go three rails around for the

4,the 6 is down here,no problem,Ive got 7,8,9,I'm out.'I see
them all lined up. And then if you hit one ball a little bit incor-
rectly,all of a suddena whole new diagram in your headpops up.
You need to resolvethe problem becauseyou're not where you
wanted to be. You were six inchesofl so now you haveto refor-
mulate the whole thing.
"Geometry at school did not get my attention. Maybe if I'd
had a different teacherit would have been different-somebody
that iust said, 'Ewa, think of it this way,' or, 'Look at it this way
and you will get it.' Or they could havetaken our whole classto a
poolroom and said, 'Check this outl' But it was so boring at
school.I couldn't evenkeepmy eyesopen in class,you know? But
now, when I give lessonsto someone,I try to figure out asquickly
asI can ifthey havehand-eyecoordinationand also,aretheyjust
interestedin the gameor are they interestedin the geometryand
the physicsof it. Are they math-oriented."
Ewa has been playing billiards professionallyfor nearly thirty
years.Yet shestill getsthe samechargethat the sport has always
given her. "Even when I do an exhibition, after all theseyears,I
get nervous.Peoplesay,'\fell youve done it so many times.' But
it doesn'tmatter; it's about being in that moment."
Playingbilliards puts Ewa Laurancein the zone.And being in
the zoneputs Ewa Laurancefaceto facewith the Element.

The Zone

To be in the zoneis to be in the deepheart of the Element.Doing

what we love can involve all sortsof activitiesthat are essentialto
the Element but are not the essenceof it-things like studying,
organizing,arranging, limbering up, etc. And even when we're
doing the thing we love, there can be frustrations, disappoint-
 In the Zone 87

ments, and times when it simply doesn'twork or come together.

'We
But when it does,it transformsour experienceof the Element.
'We
becomefocusedand intent. live in the moment.'W'ebecome
lost in the experienceand perform at our peak. Our breathing
changes,our minds mergewith our bodies,and we feel ourselves
drawn effortlesslyinto the heart of the Element.
Aaron Sorkin is the writer of two Broadway plays,A Few Good
Men and The Farnsworth Inuention; three television series,Sports
Night, The WestWing, and Studio 60 on the SunsetStrip; andfive
feature films, 14Few GoodMen, Malice, TheAmerican President,
Charlie Wilson'sWar, andthe soon-to-be-releasedTrial of the Chi-
cago7. He's been nominated for thirteen Emmy Awards, eight
Golden Globes,and the AcademyAward for Best Picture.
"I neverset out to be a writer," he told me. "I alwayssaw my-
selfasan actor.I got an acting degreeat college.I was so passion-
ate about this that when I was in high school,I'd take the train
into New York City when I was broke and wait until the second
half of a play when therewould be empty seatsto sneakinto after
the intermission.\Triting for fun was not something I was ever
introduced to. It alwaysseemedlike a chore. I had written one
sketchfor a collegeparty and my teacher,Gerard Moses,had said
to me, 'You could do this for a living, you know, if you wanted''
But I hadn't a cluewhat he wastalking about.Do what?I thought,
and moved on.
'A few months after I left school,a friend of mine was going
out of town. He had his grandfather'santique typewriter and
askedme to hang onto it for him. At this time I was paying a
friend of mine fifty dollars a week to sleepon his floor in a tiny
apartmenton the Upper EastSideof New York' I'd got a job with
a children'stheatercompanyfor a while and somework on a soap.
This was in l9B4 and I was doing the rounds of auditions'
"This particular weekendall of my friendswere out of town.
88 The Element

It was one of thoseFriday nights in New York whereyou feel like

everyonebut you hasbeeninvited to a party. I wasbroke,the TV
wasn't working, and all there was to do was muck around with
this pieceof paperand the typewriter. I sat down at it and wrote
from nine o'clock at night until noon the next day. I fell in love
with it all.
"I realizedthat all thoseyearsof acting classes and taking'the
train to the theaterwas not about acting but about what the play
actuallywas.I'd beena cocky a6ss1-l wasn'tevera wallfl
but writing had beenso far removedfrom my consciousness until
that night.
"The first play I wrote was a one-actplay called Hidden in This
Picture,and that was well receivedand reviewed.Then my sister,
who is a lawyer,told me about a casein GuantdnamoBay involv-
ing some marines accusedof killing a fellow marine. The story
intrigued me and I spentthe next yearand a half writing the stage
play for A Few GoodMen.
"\fhen it was playing on Broadway,I rememberedthat con-
versationwith Gerard.I rang him up. 'Is this what you meant?'I
askedhim."
I askedAaron how he feelswhen he'swriting. "\7hen it s going
well," he said,"I feel completelylost in the process.tWhen it's go-
ing poorly,I'm desperatelylooking for the zone.I haveflashlights
on and I'm desperatelylooking for it. I wouldn't speakfor other
'S7hen
writers, but I'm basicallyan on-and-off switch. I feel that
somethingI'm writing is going well, everything in my life is good
and the things in my life that aren'tgood are completelymanage-
able.If it's not going well, Miss America could be standing there
in a swimsuit handing me a Nobel Prizeand I wouldn't be happy
about it."
Doing the thing you love to do is no guaranteethat you'll be
in the zone everytime. Sometimesthe mood isn't right, the time
 In the Zone 89

is wrong, and the ideasjust don't flow. Somepeopledeveloptheir

own personalrituals for getting to the zone. They don't always
work. I askedAaron if he had techniquesof his own. He said he
doesn'tand he wished that he had. But he does know when to
stop pushing.
"'W'henit's not going well, I put it away and try again tomor-
row or the next day.One thing I do is drive around in my car with
music on. I try to find someplacewhere I don't have to think
about driving too much, like a freeway,where you don't have to
stop at red lights or turn or anything.
"\7hat I don't do is watch other people'smoviesor television
shows or read their plays for fear that they're going to be very
good and either make me feel worseor simply make me inclined
to imitate what they'redoing."
At its best, the processof writing for Aaron is completelyab-
sorbing."\Triting for me is a very physicalactivity. I m playing all
the parts, I'm getting up and down from my desk, I'm walking
around.\Whenit's going well, in fact, I'll find that I've beendoing
lapsaroundmyhouse,wayout in front of whereI type. In other
words, I ve beenwriting without writing. Then I haveto go back
to where I am on the pageand make sure I actually type what I
just did."
In all likelihood, you'vehad instancesin your life whereyou've
become"lost" in an experiencethe way Aaron Sorkin did when
he finally connectedwith writing. You begin to do somethingyou
love, and the restof the world slipsaway.Hours pass,and it feels
like minutes. During this time, you have been "in the zone."
Those who have embracedthe Element find themselvesin this
placeregularly.This is not to suggestthat they find everyexperi-
enceof doing the thing they love blissful,but they regularlyhave
optimal experienceswhile doing these things, and they know
they will again.
90 The Element

Different people find the zone in different ways.For some it

comes through intensephysical activity, through physicallyde-
manding sports,through risk, competition, and maybea senseof
danger.For othersit may comethrough activitiesthat seemphysi-
cally passive,through writing, painting, math, meditation, and
other modesof intensecontemplation.As I said earlier,we don't
only get one Elementapiece,nor is thereonly one road for eachof
us to the zone. \(/e may have different experiencesof it in our
lives.However,there are somecommon featuresto being in that
magicalplace.

Are We There Yet?

One of the strongestsignsof being in the zone is a senseof free-

dom and of authenticitl'.tVhen we are doing somethingthat we
love and are naturally good at, we are much more likely to feel
centeredin our true senseof self-to be who we feelwe truly are.
t0fhen we are in our Element, we feel we are doing what we are
meant to be doing and being who we'remeant to be.
Time also feelsvery different in the zone.\7hen you're con-
necting this way with your deepinterestsand natural energy,time
tendsto movemore quickly, more fuidly. For Ewa Laurance,nine
hours can feel like twenty minutes.'W'eknow the oppositeis true
when you haveto do things to which you don't feel a strong con-
nection.\fe've all had experiences wheretwenty minutes can feel
like nine hours. At those times, we're not in the zone. In fact,
we'reprobablyzoning out.
For me, this time shift (the good one, not the bad one) hap-
pens most often when I'm working with people, and especially
'W'hen
when I'm giving presentations. I am deep in the throesof
exploring and presentingideaswith groups, time tends to move
more quickly, more fluidly. I can be in a room with ten or twenty
 In the Zone 91

peopleor severalthousand,and it's alwaysthe same.For the first

five or ten minutes, I'm feeling for the energy of the room and
trying things out to catch the right wavelengththere.Those first
minutes can feel slow.But then, when I do make the connection,
'When
I slip into a different gear. I have the pulse of the room
with me, I feel a different energy-and I think they do too-
which carries us forward at a different pace and in a different
space.\(hen that happens,I can look at the clock and seethat al-
most an hour has gone by.
The other featurecommon among thosefamiliar with this ex-
perienceis the movementinto a kind of "meta-state"where ideas
come more quickly, asif you'retapping a sourcethat makesit sig-
nificantly easierto achieveyour task. You developa facrlity for the
thing you are doing becauseyou'veunified your energywith the
processand the efforts you are making. So there'sa real senseof
ideasflowing through you and out ofyou; that you'rein someway
channeling these things. You're being an instrument of them
ratherthan beingobstructiveto them or strugglingto reachthem.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Eric Clapton describesit as being
"in harmony with time. It's a greatfeeling."
You can seeand experiencethis shift in all sorts of perfor-
mances,in acting, in dance, in musical performances'and in
sports.You seethat peoplehavesuddenlyentereda differentphase.
You seethem relaxed,you seethem loosenup and becomeinstru-
mentsof their own expression.
Grand Prix racer Jochen Rindt said simply that when he's
racing,"You ignore everything and just concentrate.You forget
about the restof the world and becomepart of the car and track.
It's a very specialfeeling.You'recompletelyout of this world anc
completelyinto it. There'snothing like it."
Aviator\Wilbur\Tright describedit this way: "\fhen you know,
after the first few minutes,that the whole mechanismis working
92 The Element

perfectly,the sensationis so keenly delightful as to be almost be-

yond description.More than anything elsethe sensationis one of
perfectpeacemingled with an excitementthat strainseverynerve
to the utmost, if you can conceiveof such a combination."
SuperstarathleteMonica Selessays,"\7hen I am consistently
playing my best tennis, I am also consistentlyin the zone," but
notes,"Once you think about being in the zone,you areimmedi-
atelyout of it."
Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihaivi (it's pronounced "chicks-sent-
me-HIGH-ee," if you'd like to try it at home) performed"decades
of rescarch on rhepositiveaspects of humanexperience-ioy, crea-
tivity, the processof total involvementwith life I call flow." In his
landmark work Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,Dr.
Csikszentmihalyiwrites of a "stateof mind when consciousness is
harmoniouslyordered,and [people]want to pursuewhateverthey
are doing for its own sake."\il/hat Dr. Csikszentmihalyi calls
"flow" (and what many otherscall "being in the zone") "happens
when psychicenergy-o1 x11sn1i6n-isinvestedin realisticgoals,
and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit
of a goal brings order in awareness becausea personmust concen-
trate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget every-
thing else."
Dr. Csikszentmihalyispeaksof the "elementsof enjoyment,"
the components that comprise an optimal experience.These
includefacinga challengethat requiresa skill one possesses, com-
plete absorption in an activity, clear goals and feedback,con-
centrationon the task at hand that allowsone to forget everything
else,the lossof self-consciousness, and the sensethat time "trans-
forms" during the experience. "The key element of an optimal
experience,"he says in Flow, "is that is an end in itself Even if
it
initially undertakenfor other reasons,the activity that consumes
us becomesintrinsically rewarding."
 [n the Zone 93

This is a crucial point to grasp.Being in the Elementand es-

pecially being in the zone doesn'ttake energyaway from you; it
gives it to you. I used to watch politicians fighting electionsor
trying to stay in office and wonder how they kept going. You see
them traveling all over the world, under constantpressureto per-
form, making critical decisionswith everyappearanceand living
irregular hours in a constant spotlight of attention. I wondered
how they didn't fall over from sheer exhaustion.The fact is,
though, that they love most of it, or they wouldn't do it. The very
thing that would wear me out is fueling them up.
Activities we love fill us with energy even when we are physi-
cally exhausted.Activities we don't like can drain us in minutes,
even if we approachthem at our physicalpeak of fitness.This is
one of the keys to the Element, and one of the primary reasons
why finding the Element is vital for every person.\When people
placethemselvesin situationsthat lead to their being in the zone,
they tap into a primal sourceof energy.They are literally more
alive becauseof it.
It is as though being in the zone plugs you into a kind of
powerpack-for the time you are there,you receivemoreenergy
than you expend.Energydrivesall of our lives.This isn't a simple
matter of physicalenergywe think we have or don't have but of
our mental or psychicenergy.Mental energyis not a fixed sub-
stance.It risesand falls with our passionand commitment to
what we are doing at the time. The key differenceis in our atti-
tude, and our senseof resonancewith an activity. As the song
says,"I could havedancedall night."
Being in your Element,having that experienceof flow, is em-
poweringbecauseit's a way of unifying our energies.It's a way of
feeling deeplyconnectedwith our own senseof identity and it
curiouslycomesabout through a senseof relaxing,of feelingper-
fectly natural to be doing what you'redoing. It's a profound sense
94 The Element

of being in your skin, of connectingto your own internal pulseor

energy.
These peak experiencesare associatedwith physiological
changesin the body-there may be a releaseof endorphinsin the
brain and of adrenalinethrough the body. There may be an in-
creasein alpha wave activity and changesin our metabolicrates
and in the patternsof our breathing and heartbeats.The specific
nature ofthese physiologicalchangesdependson the sortsofac-
tivities that havebrought us to the zone and on what we'redoing
to keep ourselvesthere.
However we get there, being in the zone is a powerful and
transformativeexperience.So powerful that it can be addictive,
but an addiction that is healthv for vou in so manv wavs.

Reaching Out

\fhen we connectwith our own energy,we're more open to the

energyof other people.The more alive we feel, the more we can
contribute to the livesof others.
Hip-hop poet Black Ice learnedat a very young age that his
words could bring out emotionsin himself and others."My mom
usedto make me write about everything,"he told an interviewer.
"\7hen I got in trouble, when I was happy or even when I was
scared.I was a giddy little kid. When I startedliking little girls, I
used to write letters for my friends. Mine were better than the
'circleyes,no, maybeso.' I cameupon spokenword as an adult. I
went to a poetry spot, looking to meet women. It was 'open mic'
night and when this cat messedup, the audiencegavehim lots of
love and support. I was blown away.Being the aggressive person
that I am, it surprisedme to seewhat I would talk about everyday
in the barbershopin spokenword form at the club. I was able to
 In the Zone 95

releasewhat was on my chestand peoplewould understandwhat

I was saying."
Black Ice, born Lamar Manson, moved from those early
performancesto increasinglybigger stages.He appearedfor five
consecutiveseasonson HBO's Def PoetryJam, was a lead cast
member in the Tony Award-winning Def Poetr! on Broadway,re-
leasedhis first album on a major label, and appearedin front of
millions at the Live B concert. His messageis life-affirming and
motivating, speakingof the importanceof family and the power
of youth. To back up his words,he startedthe Hoodwatch Move-
ment Organization to help inner-city kids stay on the right track
and understandthe extentof their potential.Critics laud his work
and audiencesrespondpassionately, and when you seehim on-
stage,you can sensethat he is very much in the zone.
For Black lce, though, this entry into the zone comesfrom a
senseof mission."My life has beenso meaningful I haveto write
something that touchesfolks," he said in another interview. "I
havea legacyto uphold. I grew up around greatmen. My father,
my uncles,and my grandfatherare my heroesand just in that
alone,there are somethings I could neversay.I could neverlook
my father in his faceknowing I havesomethingthat'splaying on
the radio that'sabsolutelyasinine.
"My voice is my gift," Black ice says."It's pointlessif I'm not
going to say anything. It's mad important. I can seein society
now, how important it is. SometimesI'm discouraged,but I defi-
nitely know what I can contribute.\7e arewho we are,but I want
to get at the kids and stay in the seven-and eight-year-old'sears.
Telling them, 'you'regoing to be something. . . there is no other
compromise,there is no if or you might; you are going to be
something."'
This is anothersecretof being in the Tsns-1h21 when you are
96 The Element

inspired, your work can be inspirational to others.Being in the

zone taps into your most natural self.And when you are in that
place,you can contribute at a much higher level.
One of the ideaswe've aheadydiscussed-and which we will
come back to again (no point using a good ideaonly once)-is
that intelligenceis distinct for every individual. This is an espe-
cially important point to recognizewhen exploringthe conceptof
being in the zone.Being in the zoneis about usingyour particular
kind of intelligencein an optimal way. This is what Ewa Lau-
rance toucheson when she talks about pool and geometry.It's
what Monica Selesconnectswith when her physicalintelligence
and her mental acuity becomeone,what Black Ice conjureswhen
he weaveshis words born of both careful observationand a re-
fined ear for rhythm.

BeingYourself
\(hen peopleare in the zone,they align naturally with a way of
thinking that works bestfor them. I believethis is the reasonthat
time seemsto take on a new dimensionwhen you are in the zone.
It comesfrom a levelof effortlessness that allows for suchfull im-
mersionthat you simply don't "feel" time the sameway. This ef-
fortlessnesshas a direct relationshipto thinking styles.-When
people use a thinking style completelynatural to them, eyery-
thing comesmore easily.
It's obviousthat different peoplethink about the samethings
in different ways. I saw a great exampleof this a few yearsago
with my daughter.Kate is veryvisualin her approachto the world.
Shet extremelybright, articulate,and well read, but shelosesin-
terestquickly during lectures(of all types,not simply the onesin-
volving the need for her to clean her room). Not long after we
moved to Los Angelesfrom England,her history teacherbegana
 In the Zone 97

sectionon the Civil \Var. Not being American, Kate knew little
about this period in American history,and shegot little out of her
teacher'srecitation of dates and events.This approach-filling
\With
students'headswith bullet points-had little impact on her.
a test coming up on the subject,though, she couldn't simply ig-
nore the topic.
Knowing that Kate had a very strongvisual intelligence,I sug-
gestedthat she considercreatinga mind map. Mind mapping, a
techniquecreatedby Tony Buzan, allows a personto createa vi-
sual representationof a conceptor pieceof information' The pri-
mary conceptsitsat rhecenterof rhe map,and lines,arrows,and
colorsconnectother ideasto that concept.I had the feelingthat,
as someonewho tendsto think visually,Kate would benefitfrom
looking at the Civil'War from this perspective.
A few dayslater,Kate and I went out to lunch, and I askedher
if she'd had a chanceto try out the mind map. As it turned out,
she'ddone much more than try it. Through this technique,she'd
createdsucha strongvisual representation of the Civil War in her
mind that shespent the next forty minutes telling me about the
major eventsand the consequences of thoseevents.By looking at
it from this new perspective-one that made use of one of the
primary waysin which shethinks-Kate was ableto understand
the war in a way that bullet points never would have provided.
Becauseshe'dproduceda mind map, shewasseeingthe imagesin
her mind clearly,as if shehad photographedthem.

GettingOut of theBox
There have been various attempts to categorizethinking styles,
and evenwhole personalitytypes,so that we can understandand
organizepeoplemore effectively.These categoriescan be more or
lesshelpful, as long as we rememberthat they are just a way of
98 The Element

thinking about things and not the things themselves. Thesesys-

tems of personalitytypes are often speculativeand not very reli-
able becauseour personalitiesoften refuseto sit still and tend to
flutter restlesslybetweenwhateverboxesthe testersdevise.
Anyone who has ever taken a Myers-Briggstesr knows about
the various box-placingtools out there. The Myers-BriggsType
Indicator (MBTI) is somethingthat human resourcedepartments
seemto enjoy using to "type" people.More than two and a half
million peopletake the MBTI annually,and many of the compa-
nies in the Fortune i00 use it. It's essentiallya personalityquiz,
though more sophisticatedthan what you might find in the pages
of a pop magazine. Peopleanswera seriesof questionsin four ba-
sic categories(energyattitude, perception,judgment, and orienta-
tion to life events),and their answersindicate whether they are
more one thing or another in eachof thesecategories(for exam-
ple, more extrovertedor introverred). From the four categories
and the two placesin which peoplefall in thesecategories,the
test identifiessixteenpersonalitytypes. The underlying message
of the test is that you and eachof the other six billion peopleon
the planet fit into one ofthese sixteenboxes.
There are severalproblemswith this. One is that neither Ms.
Briggsnor her daughter,Ms. Myers,had any qualificationsin the
field of psychometrictesting when they designedthe test. An-
other is that test takers often don't settle neatly into any of the
categorieswhen they take the MBTI. They tend to be just a little
more to one sideof the line or the other (a little more exrroverred
than introverted,for example),ratherthan being clearlyone thing
or the other. Most telling, though, is that many peoplewho re-
peat the testend up in a different box when they do so. k's true in
at leasthalf of the cases,accordingto somestudies.This suggesrs
either that a huge percentageof the population has seriousper-
 In the Zone 99

sonality disorder problems,or that the test might not be such a

reliableindicator of "type" after all.
My guessis that sixteenpersonalitytypes might be a bit of an
underestimate.My personalestimatewould be closerto six bil-
lion (though I'll need to revisethat estimatein future editions of
this book, becausethe population keepsgrowing).
Another test is the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument. I
feel a bit more relaxedabout this one, becauseit talks about cog-
nitive preferencesin terms that I believemost peoplewould find
acceptable.Like the MBTI, the Hermann Brain Dominance In-
strument (HBDI) is an assessment tool that usesparticipants'an-
swersto a seriesof questions.It doesn'tseekto put peoplein a box.
Instead,it tries to show peoplewhich of four brain quadrantsthey
tend to usemore often.
The A quadrant (cerebralleft hemisphere)relatesto analytic
thinking (collecting data, understandinghow things work, and
so on). The B quadrant (limbic left hemisphere)relatesto imple-
mentation thinking (organizingand following directions,for ex-
ample).The C quadrant (limbic right hemisphere)relatesto social
thinking (expressingideas,seekingpersonalmeaning). The D
quadrant (cerebralright hemisphere)relatesto future thinking
(looking at the big picture, thinking in metaphors).
The HBDI acknowledgesthat everyoneis capableof using
eachof thesethinking styles,but tries to indicate which of these
stylesis dominant in any individual. The function of this seems
to be that peopleare more likely to be effective at work, at play,at
any pursuit, ifthey understandhow they approacheachofthese
tasks.Though I'm suspiciousof typing peoplecategorically,and I
still think four modes may be too few, this seemsto me to be a
more open approachthan Myers-Briggs.
The risk in saying that there is a set number of personality
100 The Element

types,a set number of dominant waysof thinking, is that it closes

doors rather than opening them. To make the Elementavailable
to everyone,we need to acknowledgethat each person'sintelli-
genceis distinct from the intelligenceofevery other personon the
planet,that everyonehasa unique way of getting in the zone,and
a unique way of finding the Element.

Do the Math

At the ageof two, TerenceTao taught himself to readby watching

SesameStreet,and he tried to teach other kids to count using
number blocks.\Tithin the year,he wasdoing double-digitmath-
ematicalequations.Beforehis ninth birthday,he took the SAT-M
(a math-specificversion of the SAT given primarily to college
candidates)and scoredin the ninety-ninth percentile.He received
his Ph.D. at agetwenty.And when he was thirty, he won a Fields
Medal, considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, and a
MacArthur Fellowship.
Dr. Tao is extraordinarily gifted. He's earned the moniker
"the Mozart of Math," and his lectures-his math lectaret-draw
standing-room-onlycrowds. His academicrecord suggeststhat
he could have been successfulin severaldisciplines,but his real
calling, his discoveryof the Element,camevia math when he was
still a toddler.
"I remember as a child being fascinatedwith the patterns
and puzzlesof mathematicalsymbol manipulation," he told an
interviewer."I think the most important thing for developingan
interestin mathematicsis to havethe ability and the freedomto
play with mathematics-to set little challengesfor oneself,to de-
vise little games,and so on. Having good mentors was very im-
portant for me, becauseit gaveme the chance to discussthese
sorts of mathematicalrecreationsithe formal classroomenviron-
 In the Zone 101

ment is of coursebest for learning theory and applications,and

for appreciatingthe subjectas a whole, but it isn't a good placeto
learn how to experiment.Perhapsone charactertrait which does
help is the ability to focus, and perhapsto be a little stubborn. If
I learnedsomethingin classthat I only partly understood,I wasn't
satisfieduntil I was able to work the whole thing out; it would
bother me that the explanationwasn't clicking togetherlike it
should. So I'd often spenda lot of time on very simplethings un-
til I could understandthem backwardsand forwards,which re-
ally helpswhen one then moveson to more advancedparts of the
subject."
"I don't haveany magical ability," Dr. Tao told another inter-
viewer."I look at a problem,and it looks somethinglike one I've
alreadydone; I think maybethe ideathat worked beforewill work
here.\When nothing's working out then I think of a small trick
that makesit a little better,but still is not quite right. I play with
the problem, and after a while, I figure out what's going on. If I
experimentenough, I get a deeperunderstanding.It's not about
being smart or even fast. It's like climbing a cliff-if you'revery
strong and quick and havea lot of rope, it helps,but you need to
devisea good route to get up there. Doing calculationsquickly
and knowing a lot of facts are like a rock climber with strength'
quickness,and good tools; you still need a plan-that's the hard
part-and you haveto seethe biggerpicture."
TerenceTao probably finds himself in the zone regularly.In
addition to being born with rare skills, he is alsoextremelyfortu-
nate becausehe arrivedat his versionof the Elementwhen he was
very,very young. He found the placewhere his brilliance and his
passionmet, and he neverlooked back.
'$7'hat
we can glean from his devotion to math and the mag-
netic pull it has for him has resonancefor all of us. I think it is
significantthat he discoveredhis passionat such a young ageand
102 The Element

could expressit beforehe wasout of diapers(I m not certainabout

whether Dr. Tao was still in diapersat agetwo, actuall/; I sup-
posehe could havebeena toilet-traininggeniusaswell). He could
be what he was naturally inclined to be beforethe world put any
restrictionson him (we'll talk more about theserestrictionslater
in this book). No one was going to tell TerenceTao to stop doing
math becausehe'd make more money if he were a lawyer.In that
way, he and otherslike him havean unencumberedpath toward
the Element.
But they prouide a path as well. For they show all of us the
value of asking a vitally important question: If left to my own
devices-if I didn't haveto worry about making a living or what
othersthought of me-what am I most drawn to doing?Terence
Tao probably never had to wonder what he was going to do with
his life. He probablyneverusedthe Myers-BriggsType Indicator
or the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument to determine
which careeroptions offereda spark for him. \(hat the rest of us
need to do is to seeour futures and the futures of our children,
our colleagues,and our community with the childlike simplicity
prodigieshavewhen their talentsfirst emerge.
This is aboutlooking into the eyesofyour childrenor thoseyou
carefor and, ratherthan approachingthem with a templateabout
who they might be, trying to understandwho they really are.This
is what the psychologistdid with Gillian Lynne, and what Mick
Fleetwood'sparentsand Ewa Laurance'sparentsdid with them.
Left to their own devices,what are they drawn to do? \fhat kinds
of activities do they tend to engagein voluntarily? \What sorts of
aptitude do they suggest?'il7hat absorbsthem most? \fhat sort
of questionsdo they ask,and what type of points do they make?
\7e needto understandwhat puts them and us in the zone.
And we need to determinewhat implications that has for the
rest of our lives.
 CHAPT ER F IVE

FindingYourTribe

v
Mosr PEoPLE,a primarycomponentof beingin their
Eo*' Elementis connectingwith other peoplewho sharetheir pas-
I
sion and a desireto make the most of themselvesthrough it. Meg
Ryan is the popular actor bestknown for her work in suchmovies
as When Harry Met Sally. . . and Sleepless in Seattle.Her acting
careerhas been buoyant for more than a quarter ofa century,yet
she didn't imagine a lifetime in that professionwhen shewas at
school.In fact, the whole thought of acting or even speakingin
public terrifiedher.Shetold me that at schoolperformances,she'd
alwayspreferredto be on the bleachersthan on the stage.Shewas
a good student,though, and in the eighth grade,shewas valedic-
torian. Shewas thrilled at her achievementuntil sherealizedthat
shehad to give a speechin front of the whole school.
Although she practicedfor weeks,when she found herselfat
the podium she simply froze in terror. She said that her mother
had to go up onto the platform and bring her back down to her
seat.And yet she went on to become one of the most accom-
plishedcomedyactresses of her generation.This was, in part, be-
causeshefound her tribe.
Following a successfulcareerat school,Meg won a scholarship
to New York Universityto study journalism. Shehad alwaysloved
to write, and her intention was to focus on becoming a writer,
somethingsheconsideredat the time to be her true passion.To
help pay for tuition, though, she found work in the occasional
104 The Element

commercial.This led to producerschoosingher for a regular role

in the soap operaAs the World Turns,and to Meg's discoveryrhar
sheloved travelingin this circle.
"I found the world of actorsfascinating,"she told me. "I was
around hilarious people.The job was like being in this nutty ex-
tended family. It was a kick. I was doing sixteen-hourdaysand I
becamemore and more comfortablewith the 'everyday'of it. I
loved the fact that we were always talking about why someone
would do something and examining human behavior.I found I
had all theseopinionsaboutwhat my characterwould or wouldn't
do. I didnt know whereI got them from but I had lots and lots of
them. I would saythings like, 'OK, that'swhat the subtextis. So
why am I speakingmy subtext?'I would find myself rewriting
lines and really engagingin the characterand their world. Every
day we'd get a new script and I had to memorizeall theselines. It
was absolutely,overwhelminglyengaging.There was no time to
think about anything else.It was completeimmersion."
Still, after leaving As the World Turns and graduating from
college,Meg did not set off immediately for Hollywood. Believ-
ing shehad more to discoverabout herself,shespentsometime in
Europe and evenconsideredjoining the PeaceCorps. But when a
movie offer took her to Los Angelesand she rerurned to the acr-
ing milieu, shefound onceagainthat shewas in a rareplacewhen
doing this work.
"I met up with this really grearacting reacher.Her name was
P.ggy Fury. Peggystartedtalking to me abour the art and craft of
acting and what being an arrisr meanr to her. Sean Penn was in
the classaboveme, and Anjelica Houston, Michelle Pfeiffer,and
Nicolas Cage were there, too. I was surrounded by peoplewho
worked from really deep,deep down in themselvesand were in-
terestedin the human condition and the idea of bringing writing
to life. All thesethings just startedto bloom in my mind and in
 FindingYourTiibe 105

my heart and in my soul. So I stayedin Los Angelesand got an

apartment. My agent in New York hooked me up with an L.A.
agent,and thatt when it all cametogetherfor me.
"Various movies have come along and taught me so many
things and helped me grow as a human being. \When I decideto
do a movie, it may be becauseI think it's funny, or I want to work
with a particular actor, but in the end, it alwayshas a profound
effecton my life. If it's not the subjectmatter,it may be a particu-
lar group of people.My evolutionis servedby the different incar-
nationsthat are part of everysinglemovie."
Meg Ryan could havebeenmany things. Shehasgenuineskill
as a writer. Shehas considerableacademictalents.Shehas a wide
variety of interestsand fascinations.However,when she's acting,
shefinds herselfwith a group of peoplewho seethe world the way
she does,who allow her to feel her most natural, who affirm her
talents,who inspire her, influence her, and drive her to be her
best.Sheis closeto her true selfwhen sheis among actors,direc-
tors, cameraand lighting people,and all of the otherswho popu-
late the film world.
Being a part of this tribe brings her to the Element.

A Place to Discouer Yourself

Tribe memberscan be collaboratorsor competitors.They can

sharethe samevision or have utterly different ones.They can be
'W'hat
of a similar age or from different generations. connectsa
tribe is a common commitment to the thing they feel born to do.
This can be extraordinarily liberating, especiallyif you've been
pursuing your passionalone.
Don Lipski, one of America'smost acclaimedsculptorsand
public artists, alwaysknew that he had an artistic bent. There
weresomeeadysignsthat he had unusualcreativeenergy."\7hen
106 The Element

I was a child," he told me, "I was alwaysmaking things. I didn't

think of myself as a creativepersonbut as someonewith nervous
energy.I had to be doodling and putting things together.I didn't
think of it asan asset.If anything, it was a peculiarity."This "ner-
vous energy"made him feel different from other kids, and some-
times uncomfortable.'As a child," he said, "more than anything
elseyou just want to be like all the other kids. So rather than me
seeingmy creativity as something special,it seemedto set me
apart."
Through elementaryschool and into junior high, Lipski was
pulled in different directions. He was academicallybright but
bored by academicwork. 'Academicwork camevery easilyto me.
I would finish assignmentsvery quickly and with the leasteffort
rather than the most depth." He was gifted in math, and his
school moved him into an acceleratedmath group, but in other
respectsteachersthought ofhim as an underachieverbecausehe
did just enough to get by. He spent more time drawing on his
books than thinking about what to write in them: "\7hen I
should havebeendoing academicwork, I was drawing or folding
paper.Rather than being encouraged,I was chided for it."
One teacherstrongly encouragedhis artistic talents,but Don
didn't take art that seriously.The teacherbecameso upsetwith
Don that "he literally wouldn't speakto me." Shortly afterward,
the teacherleft, and another art teacherarrived at the school.He
brought with him a revelationfor Don. "They had a very rudi-
mentaryweldingsetupin the sculpturedepartmenr,and he taught
me how to weld. To me it was like magic that I could actually
take piecesof steeland weld them together.It felt like everything
I had done beforein art was just child's play. Welding steeland
making steelsculptureswas like real adult art."
Discoveringwelding was like finding the Holy Grail. Still, he
wasn't surewhat to make of this fascination.He didn't think of
 FindingYour Ty'ibe 107

himself as an artist becausehe wasn't good at drawing. He had

friendswho drew well. \While they were drawing, "I was playing
with blocksor building things out of my erectorset.None of that
felt like real art. It was the kids who could draw a horse that
looked like a horsethat felt like the real artists."
Even when he beganwinning schoolart showsfor his sculp-
tures, he never thought about going to an art school.-When he
graduatedfrom high school,he enrolledat the Universityof \Wis-
consinasa businessmajor. He subsequently switchedhis major to
economicsand then history, but he stayedawayfrom the art de-
partment, even though he found little inspiration in any other
classes.
In his final year,he bluffed his way into taking two electives,
woodworking and ceramics,for which he wasn't actually quali-
fied. He loved and excelledin both. Most importantly, he felt, al-
most for the first time, the true exhilaration of working as an
artist on his own terms.In the ceramicsclass,he alsofound some-
thing he'd beenmissingthroughout his collegeexperience : an in-
spirationalteacher."He was a very romantic and enthusiasticguy.
Everything he did was like an artwork. If he was buttering his
bread,he wastotally into it. He servedasa model for me and made
me think that I could really make my life by making things."
For the first time, a careeras an artist seemedpossibleand
worthwhile to Lipski. He decidedto go to graduateschoolat the
CranbrookArt Institutein Michigan to studyceramics.Then he
hit an obstacle.His parentshad encouragedhis creativework as
long asit wasa hobby.\Whenhe appliedto Cranbrook, his father,
a businessman,called him in and tried to drum someeconomic
senseinto him. Don agreed;studying ceramicsmadeno practical
sense.But it was all he wanted to do. His father looked at Don
long and hard, saw that his mind was set, and stood aside.And
when Don went to Cranbrook, he discovereda new world of
108 The Element

peopleand possibilities."I'd had very little exposureto arts stu-

dentsother than in the few coursesI had taken,"he said. "Cran-
brook is almost completelya graduateschool.There were maybe
two hundred art studentsthere, and about a hundred and eighty
of them weregraduatestudents.So for the first time I was around
a big body of peoplewho were very serious,knowledgeable,and
committed to making their artwork, and it was fantasticfor me.
I went to all the critiques,not just in the ceramicsdepartmentbut
in the painting department,the sculpturedepartment,the weav-
ing department,and everywhere,just soaking it all up. I spent a
Iot of time visiting with other studentsin their studiosabsorbing
what everybodywas doing. I started to read the art magazines
and go to museumsand fully immersemyself in art for the first
time."
At Cranbrook Don found his tribe, and it set him on a differ-
ent path.
Finding the right tribe can be essentialto finding your Ele-
ment. On the other hand, feelingdeepdown that you'rewith the
wrong one is probably a good sign that you should look some-
where else.
Helen Pilcherdid just that. Shestoppedbeing a scientistand
becameone of the world's few sciencecomedians.Shefell into it
after falling out of science.In fact, falling around has been a
theme of her professionallife. As sheputs it, "I wasn'tpushedinto
science,ratherI stumbled."After school,shewas offereda univer-
sity placeto study psychologyand "to drink cider and watch day-
time TV." After university,"ageneralizedapathy and unwillingness
to find a real job" led her to take a one-yearmaster'sdegreein
neuroscience. At this point, scienceitself startedto get interesting
for Helen. "There werebig experiments,brain dissections,and ri-
diculouslyunflattering safetyspecs."
Bitten by the sciencebug and little else, she stayed on to
 FindingYourTi,ibe r09

completeher Ph.D. She learnedsome useful science,as well as

"how to play pool like a diva." She also learnedsomething else.
Sheenjoyedscience,but scientistswerenot her tribe. In her expe-
rience,science,unlike pool, was not playedon a level surface."I
learnedthat seniorityin the scientificcommunity is inverselypro-
portional to communication skills, but directly related to the
thicknessof trousercorduroy."
She did learn something of her craft too. "I learnedhow to
make forgetful rats remember.I 'made' and grafted genetically
modified stem cells into the brains of absent-mindedrodents,
which, shortly after my meddlings,went on to developthe cogni-
tive capacityof a London cabby.But, at the sametime, my own
attention beganto wander."
Most of all, shefound that the world of scienceas sheexperi-
encedit was not the utopia of free inquiry that shehoped for. It
was a business."W'hilst corporatesciencepours cash and man-
hours into medical research,its downfall is that it's driven by
businessplans. Experimentsare motivated lessby curiosity, and
more by money. I felt disappointedand confined. I wanted to
communicatescience.I wanted to write about science.I wanted
out."
So she formed "a one-woman escapecommittee and started
digging a tunnel." Sheenrolledfor a diploma in sciencecommuni-
cation at Birkbeck College in London, and there found "like-
minded friends." She was offered a degreein media fellowship
"and spenttwo wonderful months writing and producing funny
sciencefilms for Einstein TV." Sheplucked up the courageto sell
her freelancesciencewriting to anyone who would have it: "I
whored my waresto radio, to print, and to the Internet." Finally,
sheleft the laboratoryand went to work for the Royal Society."My
role was to find waysof making sciencegroovy again-not the of
ficial job description."
110 The Element

And then, unexpectedly,shereceivedan e-mail message offer-

ing her prime-time stagespaceat the CheltenhamScienceFesti-
val to do stand-upcomedyabout science.No soonerhad shesaid
yesthan the panic set in. "Science,aswe all know, is seriousstuff.
Einstein'stheory of relativity doesnot a one-linermake. I enlisted
the help of friend and fellow comedian and writer Timandra
Harknessand severalpints later, The Comedy ResearchProject
(CRP) was born."
Shewent on to join the London comedy circuit, and for the
next five years,she "cultured stem cells by day and audiencesby
night." The CRP becamea live stageshow whereTimandra and
Helen counted down the "Five Best Things in ScienceEver."
Members of the audience"find themselvesjoining in with the
formula for nitrous oxide,volunteeringto catch a scientistrecreat-
ing earlyexperimentsin flight, and singingalongwith Elvis about
black holes."
The CRP, shesays,aims to prove scientificallythe hypothesis
that sciencecan be funny. "\7e aremethodologicallysound.Dur-
ing eachshow,a control audienceis locked in an identical,adjoin-
ing room without comedians.\Wethen assess whether this control
audience laughs more or lessthan the experimentalaudiencewho
are exposedto jokes about science.Preliminary daa gathered
from showsaround the country looks promising."
For Helen Pilcher,a life in sciencehas given way to a life of
writing and communicating about science.Leaving the lab was
scary,she says,"but not as scary as the prospectof staying. My
advice,shouldyou be contemplatingmaking that leap,is to make
like a lemming and jump."
 Finding Your Tiibe tlI

Domains and Fields

\When I talk about tribes, I'm really talking about two distinct
ideas,both of which are important for anyonewho is looking to
find their Element. The first is the idea of a "domain" and the
second,of a "field." Domain refersto the sorts of activitiesand
disciplinesthat peopleare engagedin-acting, rock music, busi-
ness,ballet, physics,rap, architecture,poetry, psychology,teach-
ing, hairdressing,couture, comedy, athletics, pool, visual arts,
and so on. Field refersto the other peoplewho are engagedin it.
The domain that Meg Ryan discoveredwas acting, particularly
soaps.The field was the other actorssheworked with who loved
acting the way she did, and who fed Meg's creativity.Later, she
moved to another part of the domain, to film acting and within
that from comedyto more seriousroles.Sheextendedher field as
well, especiallywhen shemet P.ggy Fury and the other actorsin
her class.
UnderstandingMeg's domain and her connectionto her field
helps explain how the shy girl who couldn't give a valedictorian
speechbecamean accomplished,world-renownedactor."\fhen I
wasworking, it wasjust me and a coupleof other actorsin a black
room with a camerateam. I wasn't worried about an audience,
becausetherewasn'tone.The everydayof it hasno audience.The
everydayof it is a black sound stagewith camerasand one other
personyou'redoing sceneswith. And the activity was so absorb-
ing; thesepeoplewere so great that I just got carried awayin the
whole process."
The confidence she got from that experiencewas strong
enoughto carry her further into her domain and to freshfieldsof
people.Even now, though, she still dislikes talking in public or
televisiontalk showinterviews."I do it if I haveto. I'd just rather
112 The Element

not. Itt just not who I am. I really don't feel comfortablein that
spotlight."
Brian Ray is an accomplishedguitarist who hasworked with
Smokey Robinson, Etta James,and Peter Frampton and toured
on bills with the Rolling Stonesand the Doobie Brothers. He
cameto his domain early,and it ultimately led him into the inner
circle of a hero that as a child he neverdreamedhe would meet.
Brian was born in 1955,in Glendale,California, the year that
Alan Freedcoinedthe term rockand roll. He wasone of four kids,
including a half sister,Jean,who was fifteen yearshis elder.
"Jeanwould take me over to her girlfriend's house,and they
would be playing Rick Nelson,Elvis Presley,and Jerry Lee Lewis
while poring over photosof theseguys. It had such a visceralim-
pact on me, the reactions of these girls to this music that
was pouring out of the radio and their responseto thesephotos.
There was a part of me that just got the whole thing, right then
and there at age three. My dad playedpiano, and we had a little
phonograph-makingkit. It had a microphone,and you could cut
a record and put this other needleon it to play the record. I re-
member sitting, at two or three, with my dad at the piano and
cutting records.
"Right out of high schoolJeanstartedgetting into music,and
she joined a folk band called the New Christy Minstrels. They
did a tour throughout the country. She'dtell us storiesand would
be glowing from this life shehad grown into. Jeanimparted to me
her love and joy of music and sealedthat by bringing me to clubs
and concertswhen I was nine and ten yearsold. I would seeand
meet peoplethat I worshipped.
"My brotherwasgiven a really nice Gibson guitar plus lessons.
He didn't havea big desireto play music, and while he was busy
not caring about the lessons,I was busy practicing on his guitar.
Then I was given a $5 nylon string guitar by my sisterJean that
 Finding Your Tiibe tt3

shebought in Tijuana. I just startedcrying. My passionfor music

was so big that it was almost a crusade,without my meaningto or
knowing that I wanted to shareit and spreadit around a little. I
started a band with guys before I even knew how ro tune a
guitar."
"One Sunday night when I was ten or elevenwe heard this
new band on The Ed Sulliuan Show, the Beatles. It was such a
different kind of music. It was a mixrure of that black R&B
that I loved so much, but it was mixed with someother X factor
or element that I didn't know. It was from Mars. It chansed
everything.
"I knew I wanted to play music, but now they'd closedthe
deal for me. It wasjust the most exciting thing I had everseen.It
made being in a band seemlike somerhingthat was doableand
attractiveand somethingI could do for a living. They took away
all the'maybe I'll be a fireman.' I was driven now ro what ended
up being my life."
In the next twenty years,Brian playedwith someof the most
outstanding musiciansof his generation.Then came the call he
never expected-an invitation to audition for Paul McCartney's
new band. He hasbeentouring and playingwith McCartney ever
since.
"Never in my wildest dreamswould I havethought that, you
know, this little blond kid sitting indian-style in front of the TV
in 1964 would end up playing with that guy singing All My
Lovin' ' and 'I SawHer StandingThere' on TheEd SulliuanShow.
There is something really gratifying about this story, this, you
know, just beinga part oFthis scene."
The peoplein this book havefound their Elementin different
domains and with different fields of people.No one is limited to
one domain, and many people move in several.Often, break-
through ideascome about when someonemakes a connection
114 The Element

between different ways of thinking, sometimesacrossdifferent

domains. As Pablo Picassoexplored the limits of his Blue and
Roseperiods,he becamefascinatedwith the collectionsof Afri-
can art at the Musded'Ethnographiedu Trocaddroin Paris.This
work was vastly different from his, but it sparked a new level of
creativity in him. He incorporatedinfuences from the ceremo-
nial masks of the Dogon tribe into his landmark painting Zrs
Demoiselles dAuignon, and thus launchedhimself into the Cubist
work for which he is most celebrated.
As cultures and technologiesevolve, new domains emerge,
new fields of practitionerspopulate them, and old domains fade
away.The techniquesof computer animation have generatedan
entire new domain of creativework in cinema, television,and
advertising.These days,though, peoplearen't spendingquite as
much time as they usedto illuminating manuscripts.
Finding your tribe can have transformativeeffects on your
senseof identity and purpose.This is becauseof three powerful
tribal dynamics:validation, inspiration, and what we'll call here
the "alchemyof synergy."

It's Not Just Me

Debbie Allen's careerin dance,acting, singing, producing, writ-

ing, and directing has dazzledand touched millions. Her career
soaredin 1980with the hit TV seriesFame.Sheholds the distinc-
tion of having choreographedthe Academy Awards for six con-
secutiveyears,and she has won many awardsherseleincluding
the EssenceAward in 1992 and 1995. She is the founder anc
director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy,which offers pro-
fessionaltraining for young dancersand professionals.It also
commissionsopportunities for new choreographersand provides
an introduction to dancefor all aees.
 FindingYourTiibe tt5

'As a young child," shetold me, "very young, four or five years
old, I can rememberputting on my pink shiny bathing suit and
tying a towel around my neck, climbing a tree, and dancing on
the roof of my house performing to the birds and the clouds. I
was alwaysdancing as a little girl; I was inspiredby the beautiful
pictures of ballerinas.BecauseI was black and lived in Texas,I
hadn't seen a dance performancebut I watched musical films,
ShirleyTemple, Ruby Keeler,the Nicholas Brothers.
"\(/hen the Ringling Brothers Circus came to town, when I
sawthe spectacle,the peoplein beautiful costumesand the danc-
ersflying in the air, toespointed, I just thought it was amazing!I
was so inspired by movies.Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev
were the most incrediblethings I had everseen.
"As a young girl, I couldn't go to seriousdanceschoolsbecause
everything was segregated.I joined Debato Studios. I got a full
grant scholarshipand attendedten danceclasses a week.I still re-
membermy first dancerecital-I wore a white shiny satin skirt, a
white jacketand orangeblouse,white tap shoesand was playing a
triangle. The feeling of performing was like being on top of the
world! I was alwayswearing leotardsas a child. In fact, at my fif-
tieth birthday party one of my aunts brought a picture of me at
agefive in my leotard.I knew I was a dancervery early on.
"I first sawthe Alvin Ailey Company at ageseventeen. I knew
then that I wasgoing to throw awaymy point shoes,put on high
heelsand long white skirts, and dance to that kind of music. I
identified myselfwith them so much onstage.It was glorious.
"One summer I went to the Spoleto Dance Festival in the
Carolinas.That was when it all fell into placefor me. I had ideas
as a child but I was challengedby segregation,and so this oppor-
tunity to be taughtby Dudley \Williamsin thoseclasses was amaz-
ing. Alvin Ailey was there, the resident dance company taught
RevelationsDance Classes,and I iust shone.They wanted me in
116 The Eiement

the company but Alvin thought I was too young. I neverjoined

them but i knew I had to do that kind ofdancing and teach.
"The Academy is born out of my desireto give back. It offers
all stylesof dancefrom flamenco,African, modern,and character
to tap and hip-hop. We haveincredibleteachersfrom all over the
world. Everychild hasthe right to learn to dance.It is an incredi-
ble language.These are not the kids that are going to get into
trouble, believeme."
Connecting with peoplewho sharethe samepassionsaffirms
that you'renot alone;that thereareotherslike you and that, while
many might not understandyour passion,some do. It doesn't
matter whether you like the people as individuals, or even the
work they do. Itt perfectlypossiblethat you don't. \(hat matters
first is having validation for the passionyou have in common.
Finding your tribe bringsthe luxury of talking shop,of bouncing
ideasaround, of sharing and comparing techniques,and of in-
dulging your enthusiasmsor hostilitiesfor the samethings. Mak-
ing this connectionwas a significantspur to many of the people
we'vemet so far in this book-from Matt Groening to Ewa Laur-
anceto Meg Ryan to Black lce-and to many of thoseahead.
Being among other artists at Cranbrook gave Don Lipski a
deepersensethat what he was doing mattered and was actually
worth doing. He said, "In graduateschool I started taking seri-
ously for the first time the little doodlesI had made. If I saw a
rubber band in the street,I'd pick it up and then start looking for
somethingto wrap it around or combine it with. That's the sort
of activity I'd alwaysdone, but when I was in graduateschool,
I realized that that indeed was sculpture. Although modest, it
really was art making and not just passingtime."
Somepeoplearemost in their Elementwhen they areworking
alone.This is often true of mathematicians,poets, painters,and
someathletes.Evenwith thesepeople,though, there'sa tacit aware-
 FindingYour Tiibe 1r7

nessof a field-the other writers, other painters,other mathema-

ticians,other players,who enrich the domain and challengetheir
senseof possibility.
The great philosopherof scienceMichael Polanyi arguesthat
the free and open exchangeof ideasis the vital pulse of scientific
inquiry. Scientistslike to work on their own ideasand questions,
but scienceis also a collaborativeventure."Scientists,freelymak-
ing their own choiceof problemsand pursuing them in the light
of their own personaljudgment," he said,"are in fact cooperating
as membersof a closelyknit organization."
Polanyiarguespassionatelyagainststatecontrol ofsciencebe-
causeit can destroythe freeinteractionson which genuinescience
depends.'Any attempt to organizethe group . . . under a single
authority would eliminate their independentinitiatives and thus
reducetheir joint effectiveness to that of the singlepersondirect-
ing them from the centre.It would, in effect, paralyzetheir coop-
eration." lt was pardy this pressureon sciencethat made Helen
Pilcherjump ship from stem cellsto the comedystage.
Interactionwith the field, in personor through their work, is
as vital to our developmentas time alonewith our thoughts.As
the physicistJohn W'heelersaid, "If you don't kick things around
with people,you are out of it. Nobody, I alwayssay,can be any-
body without somebodybeing around." Even so, the rhythms of
community life vary in the Elementjust as they do in daily life.
Sometimesyou want company;sometimesyou don't. The physi-
cist Freeman Dyson saysthat when he's writing, he closesthe
door, but when he'sactually doing science,he leavesit open. "Up
to a point you welcomebeing interrupted becauseit is only by in-
teracting with other people that you get anything interesting
done."
118 The Element

How Do TheyDo That?

Finding your tribe offers more than validation and interaction,
important as both of thoseare.It providesinspirationand provo-
cation to raise the bar on your own achievements.In every do-
main, members of a passionatecommunity tend to drive each
other to explore the real extent of their talents.Sometimes,the
boost comesnot from closecollaborationbut from the influence
of others in the field, whether contemporariesor predecessors,
whether directly associated with one'sparticular domain or asso-
ciatedonly marginally.As IsaacNewton famouslysaid, "If I saw
further itwas becauseI stoodon the shouldersof giants."This is
not just a phenomenonof science.
Bob Dylan was born in Hibbing, Minnesota,in 1942.In his
autobiography,Chronichs,he tells of his senseof alienationfrom
the peoplethere,from his family, and from the popular culture of
the day. He knew he had to get away from there to becomewho-
ever he was going to be. His one lifeline was folk music. "Folk
music,"he said,"wasall I neededto exist.. . . I had no other cares
or interestsbesidesfolk music.I scheduledmy life around it. i had
little in common with anyonenot like-minded."
As soon as he could, he moved on instinct to New York City.
There he found the artists,the singers,the writers,and the "scene"
that beganto unleashhis own talents.He had begun to find his
people.But among all of thosewho inspired and shapedhis pas-
sion, there was one who led him to an artistic place that he had
neverimagined.\7hen he first heard\WoodyGuthrie, he said,"It
was like a million megatonbomb had dropped."
One afternoon in the early 1960sin New York City, a friend
invited Dylan to look through his recordcollection. It included a
few record albums of old 7Bs. One was The Spirituals to Swing
Concertat CarnegieHall, a collection of performances by Count
 Finding Your Tiibe 119

Basie,Meade Lux Lewis,JoeTurner and PeteJohnson,SisterRo-

setta Tharpe, and others.Another was a \7oody Guthrie set of
about twelvedouble-sidedrecords.Dylan had listenedcasuallyto
someof Guthrie's recordingswhen he was living in Hibbing, but
hadn't paid them closeattention.This day in New York City was
going to be different.
Dylan put one of the old 7Bson the turntable, "and when the
needledropped, I was stunned. I didn't know if I was stonedor
straight." He listened entrancedto Guthrie singing solo a range
of his own compositions:"Ludlow Massacre,""1913Massacre,"
"JesusChrist," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Hard tavelin'," 'Jackham-
mer John," "Grand Coulee Dam," "Pasturesof Plenty,""Talkin'
Dust Bowl Blues,"and "This Land Is Your Land."
'All these songs tog€ther,one after another made my head
spin," he said. "It made me want to gasp. It was like the land
parted. I had heard Guthrie before but mainly just a song here
and there-mostly things that he sangwith other artists.I hadn't
actually heard him, not in this earth shattering kind of way. I
couldn't believeit. Guthrie had such a grip on things. He was so
poetic and tough and rhythmic. There wasso much intensity,and
his voicewas like a stiletto."
Guthrie sanglike no other singer Dylan had listenedto, and
he wrote songslike no one he'd ever heard. Everything about
Guthrie-his style, his content, his mannerisms-came to him
as a revelationof what folk music could be and had to be.
"It all just about knocked me down. It was like the record
playeritself had just picked me up and flung me acrossthe room.
I was listeningto his diction, too. He had perfecteda styleof sing-
ing that it seemedlike no one elsehad ever thought about. He
would throw in the sound of the last letter of a word wheneverhe
felt like it and it would comelike a punch. The songsthemselves,
his repertoire,were really beyond category.They had the infinite
r20 The Element

sweepof humanity in them. Not one mediocresongin the bunch.

\7oody Guthrie tore everything in his path to pieces.For me it
was an epiphany,like someheavy anchor had just plunged into
the watersof the harbor."
Dylan listenedto Guthrie for the rest of that day "as if in a
trance."It was not only a moment of revelationabout Guthrie; it
was a moment of truth for Dylan. "I felt like I had discovered
someessenceof self-command,that I was in the internal pocket
of the systemfeelingmore like myselfthan everbefore.A voicein
my head said, 'So this is the game.'I could sing all thesesongs,
everysingleone of them, and they were all that I rvantedto sing
It was like I had beenin the dark and someonehad turned on the
main switch of a lightning conductor."
By traveling to New York City to find like-minded people,
Dylan was looking for himself. By discoveringthe journey of
Woody Guthrie, he beganto imagine his own. Like Newton, he
sawfurther becausehe stood on the shouldersofgiants.

Circlesof Influence
Tribesarecirclesof influence,and they can take many forms.They
may be scatteredfar and wide or huddled closelytogether.They may
be presentonly in your thoughtsor physicallypresentin the room
with you. They may be alive or dead and living through their
works.They may be confinedto a singlegenerationor crossover
them.
Nobel laureateRichard Feynman spokeof ultra-miniaturized
machineslong before anyone had any thought of creating such
things. Yearslater, Marvin Minsky, inspired by Feynman'sidea,
becamethe founding father of artificial intelligenceand movec
the conversationforward. Then K. Eric Drexler approachedMin-
sky at MIT, and askedthe esteemedprofessorto sponsorhis the-
 FindingYour Tiibe 121

sison miniature devices.That thesisservedas the foundation for

Drexler's pioneering work in nanotechnology.Through an ex-
tended, multigenerationaltribe, a concept that critics dismissed
as purely sciencefiction when Feynman introduced it becamea
reality.
tVhen tribes gather in the sameplace, the opportunities for
mutual inspiration can become intense. In all domains, there
havebeenpowerful groupingsof peoplewho havedriven innova-
tion through their influenceon eachother and the impetusthey ve
createdas a group.
SociologistRandall Collins writes about how nearly all great
philosophicalmovementscamevia the dynamicsof tribes.In an-
cient Greece,the history of philosophy"can be recountedin terms
of a seriesof interlinked groups: the Pythagoreanbrotherhood
and its offshoots;Socrates'circle,which spawnedso many others;
the acutedebatersof the Megaraschool;Plato'sfriends,who con-
stituted the Academy;the breakawayfaction that becameAristo-
tle's Peripateticschool; the restructuring of the network that
crystallizedwith Epicurus and his friendswithdrawing into their
Garden community, and their rivals, the Athenian Stoics,with
their revisionistcirclesat Rhodesand Rome: the successive move-
m€nts at Alexandria."
If it can happen in Ancient Greece,it can happen in Holly-
wood. The documentary EasyRiders,Raging Bulls examinesthe
"raucous,inspired, and occasionallysordid cultural revolution"
that led to the reinvention of Hollywood filmmaking in the
1960s.In a few short years,the bobby socksand beachblankets
that characterizedwholesome 1950s Americana were replaced
with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Inspired by the French New
Waveand British New Cinema, a new generationof directorsand
actorsset out to revolutionizeAmerican cinema and make films
that expressed their personalvision.
122 The Element

The breakthrough successes of landmark films such as Edr/

Rider, The Godfather,and Thxi Driuer gavethesefilmmakers un-
precedentedfinancial and creativeindependence.The box-office
of their films forcedthe old guardof the Holly-
and critical success
wood studio systemto relinquish their power. This becamethe
age of a new breed of iconic filmmakers such as Francis Ford
Coppola, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese,Peter Bogdanovich,
and Dennis Hopper.
\7ith eachsuccess,the filmmakersgainedgreatercreativecon-
trol. They createda culture of feverishinnovationaseachinspired
the others to explorenew themesand forms for popular movies.
This newfound freedomalsogavebirth to an explosionof excess,
ego, soaring budgets,and a seeminglyendlesssupply of drugs.
Eventually,the filmmakers' mutual support and encouragement
degeneratedinto intense competition and bitter rivalries. The
emergencefrom this culture of blockbustermovies suchasJaws
and Star Wars changedthe landscapeof Hollywood films once
again,and creativeand financial control returned to the handsof
the studios.
The power of tribal clusteringwas clear too in the period of
wild invention surrounding the softwareindustry that accompa-
nied the dawn of the personalcomputer.Silicon Valley has had a
huge impact on digital technology.But, as Dorothy Leonard and
'Walter
Swap have noted, it's surprisingly small geographically.
"Viewing the valleyfrom the fight approachto San FranciscoIn-
ternational,one is struck by how small the region is. As Venture
Law Group's Craig Johnsonnotes,Silicon Valley 'is like any gas
that is compressed;it gets hotter.' Its tribes overlap socially and
professionallybasedon work discipline (software engineers,for
example),organizationalaffiliation (Hewlett-Packard),or back-
ground (StanfordMBAs or South Asian immigrants). The most
 FindingYourTribe 123

skillful playersdo not have to travel far to make deals,change

jobs, or find professionalpartners.John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins
is fond of sayingthat the Valley is a placewhere you can change
your job without changingyour parking spot.
"Sharedvaluesalso bind longtime Silicon Valley natives.The
personalconvictions of the Valley'sremarkableinnovators,who
creatednot just a companybut an industry, still echothrough the
community. Bill Hewlett and David Packardinfluencedthe older
gen€rationdirectly; many of them wereearlyemployees. Through
this old guard, collegiality and high standardsfor performance
are being carried down to next-generationentrepreneurs."
Other examples of tribes inspiring individuals to greater
heights abound: the sports teams-the 1969 New York Knicks,
the "No Name Defense" of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dol-
phins, the 1991MinnesotaTwins-that performedasa collective
that wasmore distinguishedthan any of the individuals; the Bau-
haus movementin architecturein the earlydecadesof the twenti-
eth century. In each case,the physical clustering of a tribe of'
creativeindividuals led to explosiveinnovation and growth.

TheAlchemyof Synergt
The most dramatic exampleof the power of tribes is the work of
actual creativeteams. In Organizing Genius: The Secretsof Crea-
tiue Collabordtizn,\Tarren Bennis and Pat \iZard Biederman write
of what they call "Great Groups,"collectionsof peoplewith simi-
lar interestswho createsomethingmuch greaterthan any of them
could createindividually-who become more than the sum of
the parts. 'A Great Group can be a goad, a check, a sounding
board, and a sourceof inspiration, support, and even love," they
say.The combinationof creativeenergiesand the needto perform
124 The Element

at the highest level to keep up with peersleadsto an otherwise

unattainablecommitment to excellence.This is the alchemy of
synergy.
One of the best examplesof this is the creationof Miles Da-
vis's landmark album Kind of BIur. \(hile music loversof every
sort widely considerthe recording a "must have,"and legionsof
jazz fans-and classicaland rock fans for that matter-know
each note of the album by heart, none of the playerson that al-
bum knew what they were going to play beforethey enteredthe
studio.
"Miles conceivedthesesettingsonly hours beforethe record-
ing datesand arrived with sketcheswhich indicatedto the group
what was to be played,"pianist Bill Evanssaysin the original liner
notesto the album. "Therefore,you will hear somethingcloseto
pure spontaneityin these performances.The group had never
played thesepiecesprior to the recordingsand I think without
exceptionthe first completeperformanceof eachwas a 'take."' In
fact, the songsthat appearon the album are all the first full takes,
with the exceptionof "FlamencoSketches,"which was the second
take.
\7hen trumpeter Davis gatheredEvans,along with tenor sax-
ophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonistJulian "Cannonball"
Adderley,pianist\WyntonKelly,bassistPaulChambers,and drum-
mer Jimmy Cobb in the studio in 1959,he laid out the scales-
itselfsomewhatrevolutionary,sincejazzat the time wastraditionally
built around chord changes-and turned on the tape recorder.
Each of theseplayerswasan activeparticipant in the tribe moving
jazzin new directionsat that time, and they'd worked togetherin
the past.\7hat happenedduring theKind ofBlzzrsessions, though,
wasa perfectstorm of affirrnation,inspiration,and synergy.These
artists set out to break barriers,they had the skill to take their
music in new directions,and they had a leaderwith a bold vision.
 Finding YourTribe 125

Their improvisationalwork that day was the result of power-

ful creativeforcesmerging and creatingsomethingoutsize-the
ultimate goal of synergy.\(hen the tape started rolling, magic
happened."Group improvisationis a further challenge,"said Ev-
ans. 'Aside from the weighty technicalproblem of collectiveco-
herent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for
sympathyfrom all membersto bend for the common result.This
most difficult problem, I think, is beautifully met and solvedon
this recording."The music they createdin thosenext few hours-
working with each other, playing off each other, synchronizing
with eachother, challengingeachs1hs1-weuld last severallife-
times. Kind of Blur is the best-sellingjazz al6um of all time and,
nearlyfifty yearslater,still sellsthousandsof copieseveryweek.
\X/hy can creativeteamsachievemore togetherthan they can
separately? I think it's becausethey bring togetherthe three key
featuresof intelligence that I describedearlier. In a way, they
model the essentialfeaturesof the creativemind.
Great creativeteams are diuerse.They are composedof very
different sorts of people with different but complementarytal-
ents.The team that createdKind of Blue was made up of extraor-
dinary musicianswho not only played different instrumentsbut
brought with them different musical sensibilitiesand types of
personality.This was true too of the Beatles.For all that they had
in common, culturally and musically,Lennon and McCartney
were very different as people,and so too were GeorgeHarrison
and Ringo Starr.It was their differencesthat made their creative
work togethergreaterthan the sum of their individual parts.
Creativeteamsare dynamic.Diversity of talentsis important,
but it is not enough.Different waysof thinking can be an obstacle
to creativity.Creativeteamsfind waysof using their differencesas
strengths,not weaknesses. They have a processthrough which
their strengthsarecomplementaryand compensate for eachother's
126 The Element

weaknesses too. They are able to challengeeachother as equals,

and to take criticism as an incentiveto raisetheir game.
Creative teams are distinct. There's a big difference between a
great team and a committee. Most committeesdo routine work
and have members who are theoretically interchangeablewith
other people.Committee membersare usually there to represent
specificinterests.Often a committee can do its work while half
the membersare checkingtheir BlackBerrysor studyingthe wall-
paper. Committees are often immortal; they seem to persist
forever,and so often do their meetings.Creativeteamshavea dis-
tinctive personalityand come togetherto do somethingspecific.
They are togetheronly for aslong asthey want to be or haveto be
to get the job done.
One of the most famous examplesof powerful teamwork is
the administration of PresidentAbraham Lincoln. In her book
Teamof Riuals,Doris KearnsGoodwin tells the story of Lincoln
and four membersof his cabinet,Edwin M. Stanton,secretaryof
war, Salmon P. Chase, secretaryof the treasury, \Tilliam H.
Seward,secretaryof state,and Edward Bates,attorney general.
These five men were unquestionablypart of the sametribe, pas-
sionatein their desireto lead and move America forward. How-
ever, each of the four others had opposedLincoln openly and
bitterly prior to his presidency.Stanton once even called Lincoln
a "long armed ape."Each had strongly held positionsthat some-
times differed greatly from Lincoln's. ln addition, each of them
believedthey weremore deservingof the presidencythan the man
the peopleelected.
Still, Lincoln believedthat each of theserivals had strengths
the administrationneeded.\With an equanimity difficult to imag-
ine in current American politics, he brought this team together.
They argued ceaselessly, and often viciously.\What they found
in working with eachother, though, was the ability to forge their
 FindingYour Tiibe 127

differing opinionsinto sturdy nationalpolicy,navigatingthe coun-

try through its most perilous period through the effort of their
combinedwisdom.

Lost in the Crowd

There'san important differencebetweenbeing in a tribe as I'm

defining it and being part of a crowd, evenwhen the membersof
a crowd are all there for the samereasonand feel the samepas-
sions.Sports fans come to mind immediately.'Ihere are vocifer-
ous and passionatefans all over the sports landscape-football
devoteesin Green Bay, soccer(or as those of us from the rest of
the world know it,football) enthusiastsin Manchester,ice hockey
zealotsin Montreal, and so on. They covertheir walls, their cars,
and their front lawnswith team paraphernalia.They might know
the regular lineup for their local teams when they finished in
fourth placein 1988.They might havepostponedtheir weddings
becausethe date conflicted with the \World Seriesor the Euro-
pean Cup. They are dedicatedto their teams, rhapsodicabout
their teams, and their moods might be dictated by the perfor-
manceof their teams.But their fandom doesnot placethem in a
tribe with their fellow fans, at least not in the way that I'm de-
scribing it here.
Fan behavior is a different form of social affiliation. Some
people,including Henri Tajfel and John Turner, refer to this as
socialidentity theory.They arguethat peopleoften derivea large
senseof who they are through affiliation with specificgroupsand
tend to associatethemselvescloselywith groups likely to boost
their self-esteem.Sportsteamsmake fans feel as though they are
part of a vast,powerful organization.This is especiallytrue when
the teamsarewinning. Look around at the end of any sportssea-
son, and you'll notice team jerseysof that season'schampion
I28 The Element

sprouting all over the street,even in placesfar distant from the

team'shome city. Fansboasttheir affiliation with victoriousteams
much more loudly becauseat somelevel they believethat being
associatedin a tangentialway with such a team makesthem look
better.
The social psychologistRobert Cialdini has a term for this.
He calls it Baskingin ReflectedGlory, or BIRGing. In the 1970s,
Cialdini and othersconducteda study about BIRGing and found
that studentsat a number of American universitieswere much
more likely to wear university-relatedclothing on the Monday
after their school won a football game. They also found that
students were more likely to use the pronoun we regarding the
team-as in "\7e destroyedStateon Saturday"-than they were
if their team lost. In the latter instance, the pronoun usually
switchedrc thq/-as in, "I can't believethey blew that game."
The point about BIRGing as it relatesto our definition of
tribes is that the persondoing the baskinghas little or nothing to
do with the glory achieved.\We'llgive a tiny bit of credit to the eF
fect of fan support if the fan attended the actual sports event.
Though serioussports fans are a notoriously superstitiouslot,
only the most irrational among them actually believethat their
actions-wearing the same hat to every game, sitting perfectly
still during a rally, using a specificbrand of charcoalduring the
tailgateparty-have any impact on the results.
Membershipof a fan group-whether itt the Cheeseheads or
Red Sox Nation-is not the same as being in a tribe. In fact, such
membershipcan createthe oppositeeffect. tibe membershipas
I define it here helps people become more themselves,leading
them toward a greatersenseof personalidentity. On the other
hand, we can easilyloseour identity in a crowd, including a group
of fans. Being a fan is about being partisan; cheeringor jeering
and finding joy in victory and agonyin defeat.This might be ful-
 FindingYour Tiibe 129

filling and thrilling in many ways, but it normally doesn'ttake

you to the Element as a meansof self-realization.
In fact, fandom is in many waysa form of what psychologists
rather awkwardly call "deindividuation."This meanslosing your
senseof identity through becoming part of a group. Extreme
forms of deindividuation lead to mob behavior. If youve ever
been to a European soccermatch, you know how this can apply
to the sportsworld. But evenin more benign versions,it resultsin
a senseof anonymity that leads people to lose inhibitions and
sometimesperform acts they later regret, and in most casesdo
things outside their normal personalities.In other words, these
actionscan take you far from your true self.
My youngest brother Neil used to be a professionalsoccer
playerfor Everton,one of the major teamsin Britain. \X/heneverI
was in Liverpool, I would watch him play. It was an exhilarating
and often terrifying experience.Football fans in Liverpool are
very enthusiastic,let's say.They are passionateabout winning,
and when things on the pitch aren't going as they'd like, they
willingly offer tacticaladvicefrom the terraces.It's a form of men-
toring for the players,and often for the refereetoo. if Neil failed
to placea shotexactlywherethe fanswanted it, they would scream
words of encouragement."Poor shot, Robinson,"they might say,
or, "Come on, you can do better than that, surely."Or words to
that effect.
On one occasion,therewas an hystericaloutburst from some-
one immediately behind me, offering a robust criticism of my
younger brother's tactics in words that implicated my morher
and, by extension,me. On instinct, i whirled around to dealwith
what was clearly a question of family honor. tVhen I saw the
manic fan'ssizeand facial expressions, however,I agreedthat he
was probablyright. Crowd behavioris like that.
130 The Element

Look, Listen, and Learn

reallyare skilledcritics,and what they think
Somespectators
about an eventcan genuinelyhelp othersto make better senseof
it. The domainsof literarycriticism,musicjournalism,and sports
commentary all havedistinguishedmemberswhosewords speak
to us deeply and who belong to tribes passionatelydedicatedto
extending the discourse.This is different from simplefandom. It
is a performancein the serviceof fandom that hasdefinablelevels
How-
of excellenceand the makingsof a true calling. Sportscaster
ard Cosell called one of his autobiographiesI Neuer Playedthe
Game,yet he servedfor decadesasone of the most important and
influential voicesin the U.S. sportsworld.
My guessis that Cosell found his Element in sports, even
though he wasn'tan athlete.He knew he could enhancethe aver-
age fan's sports experience,and found a greatersenseof who he
was in doing so. Cosell once said,"I was infectedwith my desire,
my resolve,to make it in broadcasting.I knew exactly what I
wanted to do, and how." He was one of a key grouPof enthusiasts
who becameactive participants in the world they admired by
bridging the spacebetweenthe playersand the audience.
And in everycrowd and everyaudiencetheremay be someone
who is responding differently from everybody else-someone
who is having his own epiphany,someonewho seeshis tribe not
on the bleachersaround him but on the stagein front of him.
Billy Connolly is one of the most original and one of the fun-
niest comediansin the world. He was born in a working-class
areaof Glasgow,Scotland, in 1942.He struggledthrough school,
which he mostly disliked, and left as soon as he could to become
an apprenticewelder in the Glasgow shipyards.He servedhis
time there, learning his trade and also absorbing the ways and
customsof working life on the banks of the river Clyde. From an
 FindingYourTribe 131

early age, Connolly loved music and taught himself to play the
guitar and the banjo. Like Bob Dylan, growing up at the same
time and an ocean away,he was captivatedby folk music and
spentwhatevertime he could listening and playing at folk clubs
around Scotland.He also loved the pubs and the banterof Glas-
gow nightlife, and made regularvisits to the cinema,to Saturday-
night dances,and to occasionallive theater.
One night Connolly was watching the comedian Chick
Murray on television.For more than forty years,Chick Murray
had been a legendof comedyand music hall. His droll, acerbic
wit epitomizedthe laconic take on life that typifies Scottish hu-
mor. Billy took his seat,readyfor a riotous sessionwith the great
man. He had all of that. But he had somethingelse-an epiph-
any.As he rolled around in his seat,he was acutelyawareof the
hystericalpleasure,the emotionalrelease, and the laceratingin-
sightsthat Murray was detonatingaround himself.For Billy in
Glasgow,this wasasmuch of a turning point aslisteningto \Woody
Guthrie wasfor Bob Dylan in GreenwichVillage. He realizedthat
it waspossibleto do this, and that he wasgoing to do it. He began
to separatefrom the crowd and to mergewith his tribe.
Billy had alwaystalked to his own small audiencesbetween
songs.Increasingly,he found himself talking more and singing
less.He found too that the audienceswere getting bigger. For
many comediansof his generation,he went on to become the
doyen of freewheelingstand-upcomedy.His work hastaken him
far from the shipyardsof the Clyde into packedtheatersaround
the world, into award-winning moviesas an actot and into the
minds and affectionsof millions of people.
Like most of the people in this book, he found his way not
only when he found his Element but also when he found his
tribe.
 CHAPT ER SIX

What \fiil They Think?

v
youn EIEvENT can he challengingon avarietyof
Et*DrNG
I levels,severalof which we've alreadydiscussed.Sometimes,
the challengecomes from within, from a lack of confidenceor
fear of failure. Sometimesthe peopleclosestto you and their im-
age and expectationsof you are the real barrier. Sometimesthe
obstaclesare not the particular peopleyou know but the general
culture that surroundsyou.
I think of the barriersto finding the Elementasthree concen-
tric "circlesof constraint."These circles are personal,social,and
cuhural.

This Time lt's Personal

Given the way his life hasworked out, it's interestingthat several
of Chuck Close'steachersand classmates consideredhim a slacker
when he wasa child. The kids thought so becausehe had physical
problemsthat made him poor at sportsand even the most rudi-
mentary playground games.The teachersprobably thought so
becausehe testedpoorly, seemedlazy, and rarely finished his ex-
ams. It turned out later that he was dyslexic,but the diagnosisfor
this didn't existwhen he wasyounger.To many outsiders,it didnt
seemthat Chuck Closewas trying very hard to do anything with
his life, and most thought that he wouldn't amount to much.
On top of his learning disorder and his physical maladies,
 \X/hatlYill TheyThink? 133

Close also faced more tragedy than any young boy should ever
encounter.His father uprootedthe family regularlyand then died
when Chuck was eleven.Around this time, his mother,a classical
pianist, developedbreastcancer,and the Close family lost their
home when the medical bills overwhelmedthem. Evenhis erand-
mother becameterribly ill.
\What got Close through all of this was his passionfor art. "I
think early on my art ability was something that separatedme
from everybody else,"he said in an interview. "It was an area
in which I felt competentand it was something that I could fall
back on." He even devised innovative ways to use art to over-
come the restrictionsof his conditions.He createdpuppet shows
and magic 2615-q7[x1he called"entertainingthe troops"-to get
other kids to spendtime with him. He supplementedhis school-
work with elaborateart projectsto show teachersthat he wasn't"a
malingerer."
Ultimately, his interestin art and his innate gifts allowedhim
to blossominto one of the singulartalentsin Americanculture.
After graduatingfrom the University of \Washingtonand getting
his MFA at Yale-several of his earlierteachershad told him that
collegewould be out of the questionfor him-Close set off on a
careerthat was to establishhim as one of America'smost cele-
brated artists. His signaturestyle involved a grid systemhe de-
vised to create huge photorealistic images of faces alive with
texture and expression.His method has drawn widespreadatten-
tion from the media, and his paintings hang in top museums
around the world. Through ceaseless dedication to his passion
and his craft, Chuck Close overcameconsiderableconstraintsto
find his Elementand rise to the pinnacleof his profession.
But that'sonly the beginning of the story.
In 1988, Chuck was making an award presentationin New
York when he felt somethingwrong insidehis body. He made his
 The Element

way to the hospital,but within hours, he was a quadriplegic,the

victim of a blood clot in his spinal column. One of the greatest
artistsof his generationcould no longer evengraspa paintbrush.
Early rehabilitation efforts proved frustrating, and this latest
roadblock in a life filled with roadblocksseemedto be the one
that would at last stifle his ambitions.
One day, however, Close discoveredthat he could hold a
paintbrush with his teeth and actually manipulateit well enough
to createtiny images."I suddenlybecameencouraged,"he said."I
tried to imagine what kind of teenypaintings I could make with
only that much movement.I tried to imagine what thosepaint-
ings might look like. Even that little bit of neck movementwas
enough to let me know that perhapsI was not powerless.Perhaps
I could do somethingmysell."
\What he could do was createan entirelynew form of artwork.
When he later regainedsomemovementin his upper arm, Close
beganusing rich colorsto make small paintings that fit together
to createa largemosaicimage.His new work wasat leastaspopu-
lar as his older work and earned him additional acclaim and
notoriety.
Throughout his life, Chuck Closehas had endlessreasonsto
give in to his problemsand to give up as an artist. He chosein-
steadto push on beyond everylimit his life presentedand to stay
in his Elementno matter what new obstaclesrearedup in his way.
He would not let any of thesethings preyenthim from beingwho
he felt he was meant to be.
Chuck Closeis not alonein overcomingphysicalobstaclesto
pursue his passion.\We'll meet some other peopie who've done
this, and someof them may surpriseyou. The problemsthey face
are not only physical,though physicaldisabilitiescan be tortur-
ous and aggravatingin themselves. They alsofacedproblemsaris-
ing from their own attitudes to their disabilitv, and from the
 \Y/hatWiII TheyThink? 135

effectson their feelingsof other people'sattitudesto their disabili-

ties. To overcomethesephysicaland psychologicalbarriers,peo-
ple with disabilitiesof everysort must summon enormousreserves
of self-beliefand determinationto do things that other peoplecan
do without a secondthought.
CandoCois a professionalcontemporarydancecompanybased
in Great Britain that includesdisabledand nondisableddancers.
Over the years,the dancershaveincluded singleand double am-
putees,paraplegicsin wheelchairs,and peoplewith a wide range
of other conditions.The vision of the company,foundedin 1982,
is to inspire audiencesand support participants"to achievetheir
highestaspirationsin line with the Company'sethosthat danceis
accessible to everyone."CandoCo works to broadenthe percep-
tion of dancethrough its performancesand through its education
and training program. The directors of the company say that
CandoCo has always aimed high-"High in quality of move-
ment, high in integrity of danceasan art form and high in expec-
tations of ourselvesas performers.Our focus is on dance not
disability, professionalismnot therapy."One of a growing num-
ber of "integrated"companiesin dance,theater,and music, their
ambitions have been fulfilled through numerous international
awards from professionaldance critics and festivalsaround the
world.
"To truly appreciatethe CandoCo Dance Company," one re-
viewernoted,"it hasbeensaidthat one should discardall conven-
tional notions of the dancing body. Why talk about swift and
articulatefootworkwith pointed toes,when legsare of no conse-
quence?[In theseperformances]representationsof the perfect
and physicallycompletebody are thrown out of the window, in-
troducing less-than-wholefigures with no lesstalent than their
able-bodiedcounterparts. . . thosewho expectedthe CandoCo
dancers to perform gravity-defying stunts with crutches and
136 The Element

wheelchairswould have been sorelydisappointed.Instead,their

performancewas a visual and psychologicalconfrontation that
was not so much a slap in the face,but a lingering thought that
warms the heart and caresses the mind."
\Whetheryou'redisabledor not, issuesof attitude are of para-
mount importance in finding your Element.A strong will to be
yourselfis an indomitableforce.\flirhout it, evena personin per-
fect physical shapeis at a comparativedisadvantage.In my ex-
perience,most peoplehaveto faceinternal obstaclesof self-doubt
and fear as much as any external obstaclesof circumstanceand
opportunity.
The scaleof these anxietiesis clear from the burgeoning
worldwide market for selFhelpcoursesand books,many of which
focuson just theseissues.For me, the bestin breedis SusanJell
fers'slandmark book FeeltheFearand Do It Anyway@.Ithasbeen
translatedinto thirty-fivelanguages and hassoldmillions of cop-
ies. In it, Jefferswrites with passionand eloquenceabout the
gnawing fearsthat hold so many peopleback from living their
livesin full and contributing to the world. Thesefearsincludethe
fearoffailure,the fearofnot beinggood enough,the Fearofbeing
found wanting, the fbar of disapproval,the fear of poverty, and
the fearof the unknown.
Fearis perhapsthe most common obstacleto finding your Ele-
ment. You might ask how often it's playeda part in your own life
and held you back from doing the things you desperatelywanted
to try. Dr. Jeffersoffersa seriesof well-testedtechniquesto move
from fear to fulfillment, of which the most powerful is explicit in
the title of her book.
 What Will TheyThinh? r37

Social: It\ For Your Own Good

Fear ofdisapproval and ofbeing found wanting are often entan-

gled in our relationshipswith the peopleclosestto us. Your par-
entsand siblings,and your partnerand children ifyou havethem,
are likely to havestrong views on what you should and shouldn't
do with your life. They may be right, of course.And they can
have positive roles as mentors in encouragingyour real talents.
However,they can also be very wrong.
Peoplecan have complexreasonsfor trying to clip other peo-
ple'swings. Your taking a different path might not meet their in-
terests,or might createcomplicationsin their lives that they feel
they can't afford. \Thatever the reasons,someonekeeping you
Fromthe thing you love to do-or from evenlooking for it-can
be a deepsourceof frustrarion.
There may be no consciousagendafrom othersat all. You may
simply find yourselfenmeshedin a self-sustaining web of social
rolesand expectations that forms a tacit boundary to your ambi-
tions. Many peopledon't find their Element becausethey don't
have the encouragementor the confidenceto step outside their
establishedcircle of relationships.
Sometimes,of course,your loved ones genuinely think you
would be wastingyour time and talentsdoing somethingof which
they disapprove.This is what happenedto Paulo Coelho. Mind
you, his parentswent further than most to put him off. They had
him committed repeatedlyto a psychiatricinstitution and sub-
jected to electroshocktherapy becausethey loued him. The next
time you feel guilty about scoldingyour children, you can proba-
bly take somecomfort in not resorting to the Coelho parenting
system.
The reasonCoelho'sparentsinstitutionalizedhim was that he
interestasa teenag€rin becominga writer. Pedro
had a passionate
r38 The Element

and Lygia Coelho believedthis was a wasteof a life. They sug-

gestedhe could do a bit of writing in his sparetime if he felt the
needto dabblein sucha thing, but his real future lay in becoming
'$7'hen
a lawyer. Paulo continued to pursue the arts, his parents
felt they had no choicebut to commit him to a mental institution
to drive thesedestructivenotions from his head."They wanted to
help me," Coelho has said. "They had their dreams.I wanted to
do this and that but my parentshad different plansfor my life. So
there was a moment when they could not control me anymore
and they were desperate."
Coelho's parentsput Paolo in an asylum three times. They
knew their sonwas extremelybright, believedhe had a promising
careeraheadof him, and did what they felt they had to do to put
him on the right track. Yet not evensuch an extremeapproachto
intervention stoppedPaulo Coelho from finding his Element.In
spite of the intense family opposition, he continued to pursue
writing.
His parentswere right in assuminghe had a promising future
aheadof him, but that future had nothing to do with the legal
profession.Coelho'snovelTheAlchemistwasa major international
best seller,selling more than forty million copies around the
world. His books have been translatedinto more than sixty lan-
guages,and he is the best-sellingPortuguese-language writer in
history. His creativereachextendsto television,newspapers,and
evenpopular music; he haswritten lyrics for severalhit Brazilian
rock songs.
It's entirelypossiblethat PauloCoelho would havemadean ex-
cellent lawyer. His dream was to write, though. And even though
his parentstried extraordinarily hard to put him on "the right
course,"he kept his focus on his Element.
Few of us are encouragedto conform to our family's ex-
pectationsas firmly as Paulo Coelho was. But many peopleface
 \Y/hatWill ThryThink? 139

barriersfrom family and friends: "Don't take a dance program,

you can't make a living as a dancer,""You'regood at math, you
should becomean accountant,""I'm not paying for you to be a
philosophymajor," and the rest.
\When peoplecloseto you discourageyou from taking a par-
ticular path, they usually believethey are doing it for your own
good. There are some with lessnoble reasons,but most believe
they know what's best. And the fact is that the averageoffice
worker probablydoeshavemore financial securitythan the aver-
agejazz trumpeter. But it is difficult to feel accomplishedwhen
you're not accomplishingsomething that mattersto you. Doing
something"for your own good" is rarely for your own good if it
causesyou to be lessthan who you really are.
The decisionto play it safe,to take the path of leastresistance,
can seem irresistible,particularly if you have your own doubts
and fears about the alternatives.And for some people it seems
easierto avoid ruffling feathersand havethe approvalofparents,
siblings,and spouses.But not for everyone.
Someof the peoplein this book had to pull away from their
families,for a while at least,to becomethe personthey neededto
be. Their decisionto take the lesscomfortableroute and accept
the price of troubled relationships> tensefamily holidays,and, in
Coelho's case, even lost brain cellseventuallyled them to consid-
erable levelsof fulfillment and accomplishment.\What each of
them managed to do was weigh the cost of disregardingtheir
loved onesagainstthe cost of relinquishingtheir dreams.
W'henArianna Stasinopouloswas a teenagerin Greecein the
1960s,shehad a suddenand passionatedream. Leafing through
a magazine,she saw a picture of Cambridge University in En-
gland. She was only thirteen years old, but she decided on the
spot that shehad to be a student there.Everybodyshetold about
this, including her friends and her father,said it was a ridiculous
140 The Element

idea. Shewas a girl, it was too expensive,shehad no connections

there, and this was one of the most prestigiousuniversitiesin the
world. No one took her seriously.No one exceptArianna herself,
that is. And one other person.
Her mother decided that they had to find out if Arianna's
dream was even remotelypossible.Shemade someinquiries and
learnedthatArianna could applyfor a scholarship.Sheevenfound
somecheapair tickets "so we could go to England and seeCam-
bridge in person.It was a perfect exampleof what we now call
visualization."It was a long flight to London, and it rained the
entire time they were in Cambridge. Arianna and her mother
didn't meetanyonefrom the university;they simplywalkedaround
and imagined what it would be like to be there.\fith her dream
reinforced,Arianna appliedas soon asshewas eligible.
To her delight and everyone'sastonishment(excepther moth-
er's),Cambridge acceptedArianna-and shewon a scholarship.
At the ageof sixteen,shemovedto Englandand went on to gradu-
ate from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics.At
twenty-one,she becamethe first woman presidentof the famed
debatingsociety,the CambridgeUnion.
Now basedin the United States,Arianna Huffington is the
author of elevenbooks on cultural history and politics, a nation-
ally syndicatedcolumnist, and cohost of Left, Right dr Center,
National Public Radio'spopular political roundtableprogram. In
May 2005, shelaunchedtheHffington Post,a newsand blog site
that hasbecome"one of the most widely readand frequentlycited
media brandson the Internet." In 2006, Time magazineput her
on their list of the world's hundred most influential people.
For all her success,Huffington knows that the biggestobsta-
clesto achievementcan be self-doubtand the disapprovalof other
people.Shesaysthis is especiallytrue for women. "I am struck by
how often, when I askedwomen to blog for the Hffington Post,
 WhatWillThryThink? I4t

they had a hard time trusting that what they had to say was
worthwhile, even establishedwriters. . . . So often, I think, we as
women stop ourselvesfrom trying becausewe don't want to risk
failing. \Weput such a premium on being approvedof,,we become
reluctantto take risks.
"\fomen still havean uneasyrelationshipwith power and the
traits necessaryto be a leader.There is this internalizedfear that
ifwe arereally powerful, we aregoing to be consideredruthlessor
pushyor strident-all thoseepithetsthat strike right at our femi-
ninity. \7e are still working at trying to overcomethe fear that
power and womanlinessare mutually exclusive."
Huffington saysthere were two key factors in pursuing her
early dream. The first was that shedidn't really understandwhat
shewas getting herselfinto. "My first tasteof leadershipcame in
a situation in which I was a blissfully ignorant outsider.It was in
college,when I becamepresidentof the CambridgeUnion debat-
ing society.Since I had grown up in Greece,I had never heard
of the Cambridge Union or the Oxford Union and didn't
know about their place in English culture, so I wasn't weighed
down with the kinds of overwhelming notions that may have
stoppedBritish girls from even thinking about trying for such a
position. . . . In this way, it was a blessingthat I startedmy career
outsidemy home environment.It had its own problemsin that I
was ridiculed for my accentand was demeanedas someonewho
spoke in a funny way. But it also taught me that it is easierto
overcomepeople'sjudgmentsthan to overcomeour own self-judg-
ment, the fearwe internalize."
The secondfactorwas the unwaveringsupport of her mother.
"I don't think that anything I've done in my life would havebeen
possiblewithout my mother. My mother gaveme that safeplace,
that sensethat she would be there no matter what happened,
whether I succeededor failed. Shegaveme what I am hoping to
142 The Element

be ableto give my daughters,which is a sensethat I could aim for

the starscombinedwith the knowledgethat if I didn't reachthem,
she wouldn't love me any less.She helped me understandthat
failure was part of any life."

Groupthinh
Positivelyor negatively,our parentsand families are powerful in-
fluenceson us. But even stronger,especiallywhen we're young,
are our friends. \Wedon't chooseour families, but we do choose
our friends,and we often choosethem as a way of expandingour
senseof identity beyond the family. As a result, the pressureto
conform to the standardsand expectationsof friends and other
socialgroupscan be intense.
Judith Rich Harris is a developmentalpsychologistwho has
looked at the influenceson young peopleoftheir friendsand peer
groups.Shearguesthat three main forcesshapeour development:
personaltemperament, our parents,and our peers.The influence
of peers,sheargues,is much strongerthan that of parents."The
world that children share with their peers,"she says,"is what
shapestheir behaviorand modifies the characteristicsthey were
born with, and hencedeterminesthe sort of people they will be
when they grow up."
Children get their ideasof how to behaveby identifying with
the group and taking on its attitudes,behaviors,speech,and styles
of dressand adornment."Most of them do this automaticallyand
willingly. They want to be like their peers,but just in casethey
haveany funny ideas,their peersare quick to remind them of the
penaltiesof being different. . . . The nail that sticks up getsham-
mereddown."
Sincebreaking the rules is a sureway to find ourselvesout of
the group, we may deny our deepestpassionsto stay connected
 WhatVillThqt Think? r43

with our peers.At school,we disguisean interestin physicsbe-

causeour circle finds it uncool. \7e spendafternoonsplaying bas-
ketball when what we really want to do is masterthe five mother
.sauces.\7e never mention our fascinationwith hip-hop because
the peoplewe travelwith considersomethingso "street"to be be-
neath them. Being in your Element may dependon steppingout
of the circle.
Shawn Carter was born in the housing projectsin Brooklyn,
New York. Now known asJay-2,he is one of the most successful
musiciansand businesspeople of his generation,and an icon to
millions of people around the world. To becomeall of that, he
first had to confront the disapprovaland the skepticismof the
friendsand peershe grew up with on the Brooklyn streets."\X/hen
I left the block, everyonewas saying I was crazy," he has said
of his early success."I was doing well for myself on the streets'
and cats around me were like, 'These rappersare hos. They just
record, tour, and get separatedfrom their fomilies, while some
white person takes all their money.' I was determined to do it
differently."
His role model was the music entrepreneurRussellSimmons,
and like him, Jay-Z now headsa diversebusinessempire that's
rooted in his successasa musicianbut goesbeyondit to include a
clothing line and a record label.All of this has generateda huge
personalfortune for Jay-Zand the renewedrespectof many of the
friends in Brooklyn he had to move asideto make his way.
In extreme cases,peer groups can become trapped in what
psychologistIrving Janis has called "groupthink," a mode of
thinking "that peopleengagein when they are deeplyinvolvedin
a cohesivein-group, when the members'strivingsfor unanimity
override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative
coursesof action." The prevailing belief here is that the group
knows best,that a decisionor a direction that seemsto represent
144 The Element

the majority of the group standsbeyond careful sxxrnln2ll6n-

evenwhen your instincts suggestotherwise.
There are severalfamous-and sometimeinfamous-studies
of the effectsof groupthink, including the SolomonAsch confor-
mity experiments.In 1951,psychologistAsch brought together
collegestudentsin groupsof eight to ten, telling them he wasstudy-
ing visual perception.All but one of the studentswere "plants."
They knew the natureof the experiment,and Asch had instructed
them to give incorrect answersthe majority of the time. The
real subject-the only one who Asch had not preparedaheadof
6lms-xn5wered each question only after hearing most of the
other answersin the group.
Asch showedthe studentsa card with a line on it. He then
held up another card with three lines of different lengths and
askedthem to saywhich one was the samelength as the line on
the other card. One was an obvious match but the planted stu-
dentshad beeninstructed by Asch to saythat the match was one
of the other lines.\Zhen it was time for the subjectto answer,the
effectsof groupthink kicked in. In a majority of cases,the sub-
ject answeredwith the group, and againstclearvisual evidence,at
leastonceduringthe session.
'W'hen
interviewedlater, most of the subjectssaid they knew
they weregiving the wrong answersbut did so becausethey didn't
want to be singledout. "The tendencyto conformity in our soci-
ety is so strong," Asch wrote, "that reasonablyintelligent and
well-meaningyoung peoplearewilling to call white black.This is
a matter of concern.It raisesquestionsabout our ways of educa-
tion and about the valuesthat guide our conduct."
Managementwriter Jerry B. Harvey givesanother famousex-
ample, known as the Abilene Paradox:On a hot afternoon in
Coleman, Texas,the story goes,a family is comfortably playing
dominoeson a porch, until the father-inJawsuggeststhey take a
 What lVill TbeyThink? 145

trip to Abilene, fifty-three miles north, for dinner. As Harvey de-

scribesit, "The wife says,'sounds like a greatidea.'The husband,
despite having reservationsbecausethe drive is long and hot,
thinks that his preferences must be out of stepwith the group and
says,'sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go.'
The mother-inlaw then says,'Of courseI want to go. I haven't
beento Abilene in a long time.' The drive zi hot, dusty,and long.
\Vhen they arrive at the cafeteria,the food is as bad. They arrive
back home four hours later, exhausted.One of them dishonestly
says,'It was a greattrip, wasn'tit.'
"The mother-in-lawsaysthat, actually,shewould rather have
stayedhome, but went along sincethe other three were so enthu-
siastic.The husbandsays,'I didn't want to go. I only went to sat-
isfy the rest of you.' The wife says,'I just went along to keepyou
h"ppy. I would haveto be crazyto want to go out in the heat like
that.' The father-inlaw saysthat he only suggestedit becausehe
thought the othersmight be bored.
"The group sits back, perplexedthat they togetherdecidedto
take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have
preferredto sit comfortably,but did not admit to it when they still
had time to enjoy the afternoon."
This is a benign but dramatic illustration of the consequences
of groupthink. Every member of the group agreedto do some-
thing they didn't want to do becausethey thought the otherswere
committed to doing it. The result was that no one came away
h"ppy.
Allowing groupthink to inform our decisionsaboutour futures
can leadto equallyunpleasant-and much more consequential-
results.Accepting the group opinion that physics is not cool,
playing basketballis better than learning to be a chef, and hip-
hop is beneathyou is counterproductivenot only to the individual
but to the group. Perhaps,like those in the Abilene Paradox,
146 The Element

others in the circle secretlydisagreetoo but are afraid to stand

aloneagainstthe group. Groupthink can diminish the group asa
whole.
The major obstaclesto finding the Element often emergein
school.This is partly becauseof the hierarchyof subjects,which
meansthat many studentsneverdiscovertheir true interestsand
talents.But within the generalculture of education,different so-
cial groups form distinctive subcultures.For some groups the
code is that it's just not cool to study. If you're doing science,
you'rea geek;if you'redoing art or dance,you'reeffete.For other
groups,doing thesethings is absolutelyessential.
The power of groups is that they validate the common inter-
estsof their members.The danger of groupthink is that it dulls
their individual judgment.The group thinks in unison and be-
havesen masse.In this respect,schoolsof peopleare like schools
of fish.

A Single Ant Can't Ruin a Picnic

Youve probably seenimagesof huge schoolsof fish swirnming

in tight formation that instantly move in a new direction like a
single organism.Perhapsyou've seenswarms of insectscrossing
the sky that spontaneouslyswoop and swirl like an orchestrated
cloud. It's an impressivedisplaythat seemslike controlled and in-
telligent behavior.But the individual herrings or mosquitoesare
not acting on free will, as we think of it in humans. \7e don't
know what may be on their minds as they go along with the
crowd, but we do know that when they do it, they act almost asa
single creature.Researchers are now understandingmore about
how this happens.
The probability is that fish make thosedramatic tight shifts in
direction by following the movementsof the fish that lie directly
 rX/hatWillTheyThink? 147

in their field of perception.\7hat appearsto be a masterworkof

choreographyis probably little more than an especiallyelegant
versionof follow-the-leader.To illustratethe point, thereare now
computer programs that simulate the effects of swarms and
schoolswith remarkableaccuracy.
A similar principle seemsto drive the operationsof one of the
oldest and most successfulcreatureson earth, the ant. If you've
seen an ant wandering aimlessly acrossyour kitchen floor in
searchof a morsel to eat, you don't get a senseof a highly devel-
oped intelligenceat work. Yet the work of ant coloniesis a miracle
of efficiencyand success. Ants dependon what'sknown asswarm
intelligence,the nature of which is currently the subjectof intense
study. \While they haveyet to understandfully how ants havede-
velopedsuch sophisticatedteamwork, researchers do know that
ants achieve their goals by fulfilling their own very specificroles
with military precision.
For instance,when looking for food, one ant startson a path,
leavinga trail of pheromones.The next ant follows this trail, leav-
ing a trail of its own. In this way, a large collection finds its way
to the food sourceand carriesit back as a team to the colony.
Each ant works toward a global goal, while no one ant takesthe
lead.In fact, thereseemsto be no hierarchyat all within ant colo-
nies.Eventhe queen'sone function seemsto be to lay eggs.These
patternsof coordinatedgroup behaviorin fish, ants, mosquitoes,
and most other creaturesareprincipally to do with protectionand
security,with mating and survival,and with getting food and not
becomingfood themselves.
'W'e
It's much the samewith human beings. aggregateasgroups
for the sameessentialand primal purposes.The upsidefor us is
that groups can be tremendouslysupportive.The downside is
that they encourageuniformity of thought and behavior.The Ele-
ment is about discoveringyourselCand you can't do this if you're
148 The Element

trapped in a compulsion to conform. You can't be yourself in a

swarm.

Culture:Rightand Thong
Beyond the specificsocial constraintswe may feel from families
and friends, there are othersthat are implicit in the generalcul-
ture. I define culture as the values and forms of behavior that
characterizedifferent socialgroups.Culture is a systemof permis-
sions. It's about the attitudes and behaviorsthat are acceptable
and unacceptablein different communities, rhose that are ap-
provedof and thosethat are not. If you don't understandthe cul-
tural codes,you can look just awful.
I'll alwaysremembera man I sawwho got it miserablywrong
on a beachin Malibu in California.He struttedslowlyinro our
midst, a vision of the unexpectedthat causeda beach full of
strangersto form a deep bond of helplesscamaraderie.He was
about forty. My guesswas that he was somesort of executive,and
I could imagine that in certain setringshe cut a distinguishedfig-
ure. But here,he did not. In a land of physicalculture and tread-
mills, he waspale,hairy, and inhabiteda saggingbody that clearly
spentits daysat a deskand its nights on a barstool.One can for-
give a man for all of thesethings. But not for wearing a nylon,
leopard-printthong.
The thong clung to his groin like an oxygen mask. A stretch
of elasticheld it in place,skirting his waist and threading tightly
betweenhis bare buttocks. He paradeddown the length of the
beach,apparentlydelighted that every eye was turning to him
in a slow Mexican wave of amazement.He gave the impression
of a self-appointedrole model of physical attraction and sexual
magnetism bathing in the bright sunlight of popular acclaim.
 IYhatrYillTheyThinb? 149

This wasn't the majority opinion, however.'At least he might

havewaxed,"said the man next to me.
W'hy was this so hypnotically amusingfor us all? It wasn'tjust
that he had such an outrageouslyhigh opinion of his attractive-
ness.It was also that he was so far out of context.The outfit and
attitude might haveworked in the south of France,but in Malibu,
for various reasons,it was all wrong. There'san unspokencode
for men on California beaches.Itt a curious mixture of peacock
displayand public modesty.Oiled torsosand rippling musclesare
fine, but naked buttocks are not. All overAmerica, there'sthis in-
tricatemixture of prurienceand prudishness.
Shortly afterward, my wife, Terry, and I were in Barcelona.
There arebeachestherethat line the harbor in the city center,and
everylunchtime during the summer the local officesspill out and
young men and women head to the city beachesand sunbathe
topless,in thongsat the very most.In Spain,that'scompletelyac-
cepted.lt would be odd there to seesomeonein a pair of knee-
lengthshortsand a T-shirt.The culturesimplyacceptsthat people
can wanderaroundvirtually nakedon the beach.
All socialculturespromotewhat I'd describeas "contagious
behavior."One of the bestexamples is language,and moreparticu-
larly accentsand dialects.Thesearewonderful illustrationsof the
impulseto copyand conform.It would be odd for someoneborn
and raisedin the Highlandsof Scotlandor the Badlandsof Mon-
tana not to speakthe local dialect of English with the local ac-
cent.rVe'd b eamazed,ofcourse, ifa child born therespontaneously
started speakingFrench or Hebrew. But we'd be just as taken
abackif the child spokethe local languagein an entirely different
dialect or accentfrom everyoneelse.The natural instinct of chil-
dren is to copy and imitate, and asthey grow they absorbnot only
the sounds they hear but the sensibilitiesthey expressand the
150 The Element

culture they convey.Languagesare the bearersof the cultural

genes.As we learn a language,accents,and waysof speaking,we
also learn waysof thinking, feeling,and relating.
The culturesin which we are raiseddo not only affectour val-
ues and outlook. They also shapeour bodies and may even re-
structure our brains. Language,again, is a prime example.As we
learn to speak,our mouths and vocal organsadapt to make the
soundsour languagesuse. Ifyou grow up speakingonly one or
two languages,it can be physicallydifficult to createthe sounds
that other languagesrequire and that other cultures take for
granted-those guttural French sounds, or the lispy sounds of
Spanish,or the tonal soundsof someAsian languages.To speaka
new language,we may have to retrain our bodies to make and
understand the new sounds.But the effects of culture may go
deeperstill-into the actual structlrresof the brain.
In the last few yearstherehasbeena seriesoffascinatingstud-
ies into differencesin visual perceptionbetweenpeoplefrom the
'W'est
and from EastAsia. Thesestudiessuggestthat the cultures
we grow up in affectthe basicprocesses by which we seethe world
around us. In one such study,'Westerners and Asianswere asked
to look at a seriesof photographsand to describewhat they saw.
A number of marked differencesemerged.In essence, \Testerners
tend to focusmore on the foregroundof the picturesand on what
they considerthe subject.Asiansfocus more on the whole image,
including the relationshipsbetween the different elements.For
example,onephotographshoweda jungle scenewith a tiger.Typi-
cally, the \Testernobservers,when askedwhat they saw,said, 'A
tiger." To \Testernreadersof this book, that may seemreasonable
enough. However,Asian observerstypically said, "It's a jungle
with a tiger in it," or "It's a tiger in a jungle." The differenceis sig-
nificant, and it relatesto largercultural differencesin the \Testern
and Asian worldviews.
 WhatWill TheyThink? r51

In Asian art there is often much lessemphasison portraiture

and the individual subjectof the sort that is common in \Testern
art. In Asian cultures,thereis lessemphasison the individual and
more on the collective. \Testern philosophy since the ancient
Greekshasemphasizedthe importanceof critical reasoning,logi-
cal analysis,and the separationof ideasand things into catego-
ries. Chinese philosophy is not based as much on logic and
deductivereasoningand tendsto emphasizerelationshipsand ho-
lism. These differencesin perceptionmay lead to differencesin
memory and judgment. At leastone study suggeststhat overtime
they may also lead to structural differencesin the brain.
Researchers in Illinois and Singaporemonitored brain activity
in young and elderly volunteersas they looked at a seriesof im-
ageswith different subjectsand backgrounds.Using functional
magneticresonanceimaging (FI\4RI),they focusedon the part of
the brain known as the lateraloccipital complex,which processes
visual informationabout objects.AII the youngerparticipanrs
showedsimilar brain activity, but there were marked differences
in neural responses betweenthe older \festern and Asian observ-
ers. In the'Westerners,the lateraloccipital complexremainedac-
tive, while in the Asian participantsit respondedonly minimally.
Dr. Michael Chee is a professorwith the Cognitive Neurosci-
enceLaboratoryin Singaporeand coauthorof the study.He con-
cluded,"The partsof the brain involvedin processingbackground
and objectsare engageddifferently acrossthe two setsof elderly
peoplecoming from different geographicaland-by inference-
cultural backgrounds."Dr. DenisePark is professorof psychology
at the Universityof Illinois and a seniorresearcheron the project.
In her view, thesedifferent results may East
be because Asian cul-
tures "are more interdependentand individuals spendmore time
monitoring the environmentand others.'Westerners focus on in-
dividuals and central oblects becausethese cultures tend to be
152 The Element

independentand focusedmore on the self than others."Shesays

that thesestudiesshow that culture can sculpt the brain.
\Whetherand to what extent this happensis now attracting a
wider field of researchers.
\(hat is alreadyclear is that what we
actually see of the world is affected by culture, not only what
we think of what we see.Culture conditionsall of us in waysthat
are imperceptible.

Suimming Against the Tide

All cultureshave an unwritten "survival manual" for success,to

quote cultural anthropologistClotaire Rapaille.The rules and
guidelinesare transparentto most of us (if not to the thong man),
and thosewho movefrom one culture to anothercan gain insight
into the different rules and guidelinesrelativelyeasily.This sur-
vival manual comesfrom generationsof adaptationto the particu-
lar climatein which the culture resides.But in addition to helping
thosewithin the culture thrive, it also setsout a seriesof con-
straints. Such constraintscan inhibit us from reachingour Ele-
ment becauseour passionsseeminconsistentwith the culture.
The greatsocialmovementsarethosethat arestimulatedwhen
the boundariesarebroken.Rock music,punk, hip-hop, and other
great shifts in the socialculture usually derive their energyfrom
young peoplelooking for somealternativeway of being.Youthful
rebellionoften expresses itself through distinctive stylesof speech
and dresscodes,which usually turn out to be just as conformist
and orthodox within their subcultureasthey are at odds with the
dominant culture they'retrying to escape.It's very hard to passas
a hippie if you'rewearing an Armani suit.
All cultures-and subcultures-also embody systemsof con-
straintsthat can inhibit individuals from reachingtheir Element
if their passionsare in conflict with their context. Some people
 WhatWillThqtThink? 153

born in one culture end up adopting anotherbecausethey prefer

a French
its sensibilitiesand waysof life, like cultural cross-dressers;
person may become an Anglophile, or an American a Franco-
phile. Like peoplewho changereligions,they can becomemore
zealousabout their adopted culture than those who were born
into it.
The urban culture may not be best for someonewho wants to
run a small shop wherehe knows everyone'sname.Partsof heart-
land American culture are not prime territory for thosewho want
careersas scathingpolitical comics.This is why Bob Dylan had
ro get out of Hibbing, and why Arianna Stasinopouloswanted to
leaveGreece.Finding your Elementsometimesrequiresbreaking
awayfrom your native culture in order to achieveyour goals.
ZahaHadid, the first woman everto win the Pritzker Prize for
Architecture,grew up in Baghdadin the 1950s.Iraq was a differ-
ent place then, much more secularand more open to \Testern
thought. During this time, thereweremany women in lraq devel-
oping ambitious careers.But Hadid wanted to be an architect,
and shefound no femalerole modelsof this sort in her homeland.
Driven by her passions,Hadid movedfirst to London and then to
America, where she studied with the greatestarchitectsof her
time, honed a revolutionarystyle, and, afier a rocky start-her
work requiresconsiderablerisky conceptualleaps,which many
clients were loath to make at first-built some of the most dis-
tinctive structuresin the world.
Her work includes the RosenthalCenter for Contemporary
Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, which the New York Timescalled "the
most important new building in America since the Cold \War."
Moving out oiher culture and into a milieu that celebratedinven-
tion gaveHadid the opportunity to soar.If she'd stayedin lraq,
she might havehad a good career,at leastuntil political circum-
stanceschangedfor women. But shewould not have found her
154 The Element

Element in architecture,becauseher native culture simply didn't

afford women that option.
The contagiousbehaviorof schoolsof fish, insectswarms,and
crowds of people is generatedby close physical proximity. For
most of human history, cultural identitieshavealsobeen formed
through direct contactwith the peoplewho arephysicallynearest
to us: small villages,the local community. Large movementsof
people once were limited to invasions,military conquests,and
trade, and thesewere the main waysin which cultural ideaswere
disseminatedand different languagesand waysof life imposedon
other communities.
All of this has changed irreversiblyin the last two hundred
yearsor so with the growth of global communications.\7e now
havepatternsof contagiousbehaviorbeing generatedon a massive
scalethrough the Web. SecondLife hasmillions of peopleonline
from different parts of the world potentially affecting how they
eachthink and taking on new virtual identitiesand roles.
Many of us now live like Russiandolls nestledin multiple lay-
ersof cultural identity. I wasamusedto readrecently,for example,
that nowadaysbeing British "meansdriving home in a German
car, stoppingoff to pick up someBelgian beer and a Turkish ke-
bab or an Indian takeaway,to spendthe eveningon Swedishfur-
niture, watchingAmerican programson a Japanese TV." And the
most British thing of all? "Suspicionof anything foreign."
The complexitiesand fluidity of contemporary cultures can
make it easierto changecontext and break away from the pres-
suresof groupthink and feelingstereotyped.They can also make
for a profound senseof confusion and insecurity. The message
here isn't as simplistic as "Don't let anything get in your way."
Our families, friends, culture, and place in the human commu-
nity are all important to our senseof fulfillment, and we have
certain responsibilitiesto all of them. The real messagehere is
 Vhat\YtillThelThink? 155

that, in seekingyour Element,you'relikely to faceone or more of

the three levelsof constraint-personal, social,and cultural.
Sometimes,as Chuck Closefound, reachingyour Elementre-
quires devising creative solutions to strong limitations. Some-
times, aswe learnedfrom Paulo Coelho, it meansmaintaining a
vision in the face of vicious resistance.And sometimes,as Zaha
Hadid showed us, it meanswalking away from the life you've
known to find an environmentmore suited to your growth.
Ultimately, the questionis alwaysgoing to be, "\7hat price are
you willing to pay?"The rewardsof the Elementare considerable,
br-rtreapingtheserewardsmay mean pushing back againstsome
stiff opposition.
 CHAPT ER SEVEN

Do You FeelLucky?

v J

put*c cooD AT soMETHrNc and havinga passionfor it

l-) areessentialto finding the Element.But they arenot enough.
Getting there dependsfundamentally on our view of ourselves
and of the eventsin our lives. The Element is also a matter of
attitude.
\Whentwelve-year-old \Wilsonwalked into his chemistry
John
classat ScarboroughHigh Schoolfor Boys on a rainy day in late
October 1931,he had no way of knowing that his life was about
to changecompletely.The classexperimentthat day was to show
how heatinga containerof waterwould bring oxygenbubbling to
the surface,something studentsat this school and at schoolsall
arourrdthe world had been doing for a very long time. The con-
tainer the teachergaveJohn to heat, however,was not like the
containersstudents everywherehad used. Somehow,this con-
tainer mistakenly held something more volatile than water. It
turned out that the container had the wrong solution becausea
laboratoryassistanthad been distractedand put the wrong label
on the bottle. And when John heatedit with a Bunsenburner,the
container exploded,shattering glassbottles in the vicinity, de-
stroying a portion of the classroom,and pelting the studentswith
razor-edgedshards.Severalstudentscame away from this acci
dent bleeding.
John \flilson cameawayfrom it blinded in both eyes.
'$Tilsonspentthe next two months in the hospital.
'When he
 Do YouFeel Luchy? r57

returned home, his parentsattemptedto find a way to deal with

the catastrophethat had befallentheir lives.But \Wilson did not
regard the accident as catastrophic."It did not strike me even
then as a tragedy,"he said oncein an interview with the Timesof
London. He knew he had the restof his life to live, and he did not
intend to live it in an understatedway. He learnedbraille quickly
and continued his education at the esteemed'WorcesterCol-
lege for the Blind. There, he not only excelledas a student but
also becamean accomplishedrower, swimmer, actor, musician,
and orator.
From \(/orcester,\Wilson studied law at Oxford. Away from
the protected environs of a school set up for blind students,he
neededto contendwith a busy camprusand the very activestreets
in the vicinity. Rather than relying on a walking stick, though, he
reliedon an acutesenseof hearingand what he calledhis "obsta-
cle sense"to keep him out of harm'sway.At Oxford, he received
his law degreeand set out to work for the National Institute for
the Blind. His real calling, however,was still waiting for him.
In 1946,\Wilsonwent on a fact-finding tour of British territo-
ries in Africa and the Middle East. \7hat he found there was
rampant blindness.And unlike the accident that cost him his
eyesight,the diseasesthat affectedso many of thesepeoplewere
preventablewith the proper medical attention. For \7ilson, it was
one thing to accepthis own fate and quite anotherto allow some-
thing to continue when it could be fixed so easily.This moved
him to action.
The report \Wilsondeliveredupon his return led to the forma-
tion of the British Empire Societyfor the Blind, now called Sight
SaversInternational.\Tilson himself servedas the director of the
organization for more than thirty years and accomplishedre-
markablethings during his tenure.
His work often led him to travel more than fiftv thousand
T5B The Element

miles a year, but he consideredthis an essentialpart of the job,

believingthat he neededto be presentin the placeswherehis or-
ganization'swork was being done. In 1950,he and his wife lived
in a mud hut in a part of Ghana known as "the country of the
blind" becausea diseasethat came from insect biteshad blinded
10 percentof the population.He sethis team to work on develop-
ing a preventativetreatmentfor the disease,commonly known as
"river blindness."Using the drug Mectizan, the organizationin-
oculatedthe children in the sevenAfrican countriesstrickenwith
the diseaseand all but eradicatedit. By the early 1960s,river
blindnesswas overwhelmingly under control. It is no exaggera-
tion to saythat generationsof African children can thank the ef-
'$Tilson
forts of John for their sight.
Under \Tilson's direction, the organization conducted three
million cataractoperationsand treated twelve million others at
risk of becoming blind. They also administeredmore than one
hundred million dosesof vitamin A to preventchildhood blind-
nessand distributedbraillestudypacksto afflictedpeoplethrough-
out Africa and Asia. ln all, tensof millions can seebecauseof the
commitment John \X/ilsonmade to preventingthe preventable.
\When\Wilsonretired, he and his wife devotedtheir consider-
able energiesto Impact, a program of the \World Health Organi-
zation that works on the prevention of all types of disabling
diseases. Knighted in 1975,he also receivedthe Helen Keller In-
ternationalAward, the Albert SchweitzerInternational Prize,and
the \World Humanity Award. He continued to be an active and
prominent voice for the causeof preventing blindness and all
avoidabledisability until his death in 1999.
John Coles, in his biography Blindnessand the Visionary: The
Life and Work of John Wilson, wrote, "By any standards,his
achievementsrate comparisonwith thoseof other great humani-
 Do YouFeel Lucley? r59

tarians."Others have comparedhis accomplishmentswith those

of Mother Teresa.
Many people,faced with the circumstancesSir John \(ilson
encountered,would havebemoanedtheir existence.Perhapsthey
would haveconsideredthemselvescursedby ill fortune and frus-
trated in their attemptsto do anything significantwith their lives.
\Wilson.however.insistedthat blindnesswas "a confoundednui-
sance,not a crippling affliction," and he modeledthat attitude in
the most inspiring possibleway.
He lost his sight and found a vision. He proved dramatically
that it's not what happensto us that determineseLll liy65-i1'5
what we make of what happens.

Attitude and Aptitude

There is a risk in giving examplesof peoplewho havefound their

Element.Their storiescan be inspiring,of course,but they can
also be depressing.After all, thesepeople seemblessedin some
way; they'vehad the good fortune to do what they love to do and
to be very good at doing it. One could easilyascribetheir good
fortune to luck, and certainly many peoplewho lovewhat they do
say that theyve been lucky (just as peoplewho don't like what
they'redoing with their livesoften saytheyve been unluckl). 96
course,some"lucky" peoplehavebeenfortunate to find their pas-
sions and to have the opportunities to pursue them. Some "un-
lucky" peoplehavehad bad things happento them. But good and
bad things happen to all of us. It's not what happensto us that
makes the differencein our lives. \What makes the differenceis
our attitude toward what happens.The idea of luck is a powerful
way of illustrating the importanceof our basicattitudesin affect-
ing whether or not we find our Element.
160 The Element

Describing ourselvesas lucky or unlucky suggeststhat we're

But if
simply the beneficiariesor victims of chancecircumstances.
being in your Elementwerejust a matter of chance,all you could
do is crossyour fingers and hope to get lucky as well. There's
much more to being lucky than that. Researchand experience
show that lucky people often make their luck becauseof their
attitudes.
Chapter 3 looked at the concept of creativity.The real mes-
sagethere is that we all createand shapethe realitiesof our own
livesto an extraordinaryextent.Those who simply wait for good
things to happenreallywould be lucky to encounterthem. All of
the peopleI ve profiled in this book havetaken an activerole in
"gettinglucky."Theyve mastereda combinationof attitudesand
behaviorthat led them to opporttrnitiesand that give them the
confidenceto take them.
One of these is the ability to look at situations in different
ways.There'sa differencebetweenwhat we are ableto perceive-
our field of perception-and what we actually do perceive.As I
mentionedin the last chapter,thereare significantcultural differ-
encesin how people perceivethe world around them. But two
different people with the same cultural orientations may stilL
seethe samescenein completelydifferent ways,dependingupon
their preconceptionsand their setrseof mission. Best-selling
author and top motivational speakerAnthony Robbins demon-
stratesthis with a simple activity. In his three-dayseminars,he
asksthe thousandsof people in attendanceto look around and
count how many items of green clothing they can see.He gives
them a few minutes to do this and then asksthem for their find-
ings. He then asks them how many items of red clothing they
saw.Most peoplecan't evenbegin to answerthe questionbecause
Robbins told them to look for items of green clothing, and they
only focusedon those.
 Do YouFeelLuchy? 161

In his book The Luch Factor,psychologistRichard \Tiseman

writes about his study of four hundred exceptionally"lucky" and
"unlucky" people. He found that those who consideredthem-
selveslucky tended to exhibit similar attitudes and behaviors.
Their unlucky counterpartstendedto exhibit oppositetraits.
\(iseman has identified four principlesthat characterizelucky
people. Lucky people tend to maximize chance opportunities.
They are especiallyadept at creating,noticing, and acting upon
theseopportunitieswhen they arise.Second,they tend to be very
effectiveat listeningto their intuition, and do work (suchasmedi-
tation)that is designedto boosttheir intuitive abilities.The third
principle is that lucky peopletend to expectto be lucky, creating
a seriesof selffulfilling propheciesbecausethey go into the world
anticipating a positive outcome.Last, lucky peoplehavean atti-
tude that allowsthem to turn bad luck to good. They don't allow
ill fortune to overwhelm them, and they move quickly to take
control of the situationwhen it isn't going well for them.
Dr. \Tiseman performedan experimentthat speaksto the role
of perceptionin luck. He set up a nearbycafewith a group of ac-
tors told to behavethe way peoplenormally did in that setting.
He also put a five-pound note on the sidewalk just outside the
caf6. He then askedone of his "lucky" volunteersto go down to
the shop.The lucky personsawthe money on the ground, picked
it up, walked into the shop,and ordereda coffeefor himself and
the strangerat the next chair. He and the strangerstruck up a
conversationand wound up exchangingcontact information.
Next, Dr. \Tiseman sent one of his "unlucky" volunteersto
the ca{?. This person stepped right over the five-pound note,
bought coffee,and interactedwith no one. Later,\Tiseman asked
both subjectsif anything lucky happenedthat day. The lucky
subjecttalked about finding the money and making a new con-
tact. The unlucky subjectcouldn't think of anything.
162 The Element

One way of opening ourselvesup to new opportunitiesis to

make consciousefforts to look differently at our ordinary situa-
tions. Doing so allows a personto seethe world as one rife with
possibility and to take advantageof someof thosepossibilitiesif
they seemworth pursuing.Vhat Robbinsand \Tiseman show us
is that if we keepour focustoo tight, we miss the restof the world
swirling around us.
Another attitude that leadsto what many of us would consider
"good luck" is the ability to reframe,to look at a situationthat fails
to go accordingto plan and turn it into somethingbeneficial.
If things had worked out differently, there is a very good
chancethat I would not be writing this book at all now and you
would thereforenot be readingit. I might be running a sportsbar
in England and regaling anyone who'd listen with tales of my
glittering soccercareer.I grew up in Liverpool as one of a large
family of boysand one sister.My father had beenan amateursoc-
cer playerand boxer,and like everyonein my extendedfamily, he
was devotedto our local soccerteam, Everton. It was the dream
of everyhouseholdin the neighborhoodto haveone of their own
kids play for Everton.
Until I was four, everyonein my family assumedthe Everton
soccerplayer in our clan would be me. I was strong, very active,
and I had a natural aptitude for soccer.This was in 1954,the year
in which the polio epidemicsreachedtheir peak in Europe and
America. One day, my mother came to collect me from nursery
school to find that I was howling in pain from a piercing head-
ache.I nevercried much as a child, so my misery concernedher
deeply.Our doctor came to the houseand decidedI had the flu.
By the next morning, it becameclearthat his diagnosiswas off, I
woke up completely paralyzed-I could not move at all.
I spentthe next few weekson the emergencylist in the polio
isolationunit of our local hospital.I'd completelylost the use of
 Do YouFeelLuchy? 163

my legsand much of my body. For eight months, I found myself

in the hospital surrounded by other kids who were struggling
with suddenparalysis.Someof them were in iron lungs. Someof
them didn't survive.
Very slowly, I began to recoversome use of my left leg and,
thankfully, the full use of my arms and the rest of my body. My
right leg remainedcompletelyparulyzed.Ieventuallyleft the hos-
pital at the ageof five in a wheelchair,wearing two braces.
This pretty much put an end to my plannedcareerIn 5esss1-
although, given the way Everton has been playing lately,I might
still havea shot at making the team.
This blow wasdevasrating to my parenrsand everyone in my
family. As I grew up, one of their biggestconcernswas how I
would make a living. My father and mother recognizedfrom the
outset that I neededto make the best use of my other talents,
though it wasn'tclear at that point what those talentsmight be.
Their first priority was for me to get the best educationpossible.
As I moved through school,I was under extra pressureto study
and do well in my exams.This was not easy.After all, I was one
of a large,very closefamily living in a housethat was constantly
full of visitors,noise,and laughter.
On top of this, the housewas in Merseysidein the early '60s.
Rock music-loud rock music-was everywhere.My brother Ian
playeddrums in a band that rehearsedeveryweek in our house
right next door to the room where I was trying to find somerele-
vance in algebraand Latin. In the battle for my attentions be-
tween the booksand the beat,the bookswere losing badly.
Still, as much as any boy could, I understoodthat therewas a
future to considerand that I neededto do the most with what I
had. Soccerwasno longeran option, and as much as I loved mu-
sic, I didn't haveany musical talent to speakofl \(ith the benign
pressureof my father,I eventuallygot through school.I went on
164 TheElement

to college,and it was there that the intereststhat haveshapedmy

life beganto take form.
I don't know what kind of soccerplayerI would havebeen. I
do know that catching polio opened many more doors for me
than the one it so firmly closedat the time. I certainly didn't see
this when it happened,and neither did anyonein my family. But
my parents'ability to reframeour situation by doing their best to
focus me on my schoolwork,and my ability to reframe my cir-
cumstance,turned a disasterinto a completelyunexpectedset of
opportunities,which continue to evolveand multiply.
Someoneelsewho wasdenieda careerin soccerwent in a very
different direction. Vidal Sassoonis one of the most celebrated
namesin hairdressing.In the 1960s,his clientsincluded the big-
gest stars and iconic models of the time, such as Mary Quant,
JeanShrimpton, and Mia Farrow.His revolutionarycreationsin-
cluded the bob, the five-point geometriccut, and the Greek god-
dessstyle,taking over from the beehivestylesofthe 1950s.
\WhenVidal was a child in the EastEnd of London, his father
abandonedhis mother. An aunt took them all in, and Vidal and
four other children lived togetherin her two-bedroom tenement
flat. Things got so bad that eventuallyhis mother sentVidal and
his brother to an orphanage,and it was nearlysix yearsbeforeshe
was ableto get them home again.As a teenager,he had a passion-
ate ambition to be a soccerplayer,but his mother insistedthat he
apprenticeas a hairdresser.Shethought that would be a more se-
curejob for him.
"I wasfourteenyearsold," he said,"and in England unlessyou
wereprivileged,that was when you left schooland startedto earn
a living. I was apprenticedto this wonderful man calledAdolph
Cohen on \WhitechapelRoad and what a disciplinarian he was!
I was fourteen, it was 1942, and the war was on. Bombs were
dropping practicallyevery night, the Luftwaffe was giving Lon-
 Do YouFeelLuchy? 165

don hell, and we still had to come in with our nails clean, our
trouserspressed,and our shoespolished. Those two yearswith
him definitely gaveme the structure I neededin my life: the in-
convenienceof discipline.
"I took sometime out after that becauseI still wasn'tsureif I
wanted to be a hairdresser.I lovedfootball so much. In the end, I
supposeit was the prospectof all the pretry girls and, of course,
my mother that swung it for me. At first I couldn't ger a proper
job in the \fest End of London at a big salonlike Raymond'sbe-
causeI had a cockney accent.That's the way it was in those
days."
For three years, he took voice lessonsto improve how he
soundedso he could get a job at one ofthe better salons."I knew
I had to learn how to projectmyself so I got a job teachingin dif-
ferent salonsin the evenings.I usedmy tips to take a bus to the
West End and go to the theater.I'd catch the matinee and see
great Shakespearean actorslike LaurenceOlivier and John Giel-
gud and try to copy their voices."
He went regularlyto London'smany art museumsand began
to educateand inspire himself with the history of painting and
architecture."l really think that waswhat serme on my course.I
was developingmy own vision for hairdressing.The shapesin my
headwerealwaysgeometric.I havealwaysbeenworking toward a
bone structureso as to definea woman rather than just make her
'pretty pretty.'I knew hair dressingcould be different, but it took
a lot of work and nine yearsto developthe sysremwe usein our
salons."
In \954, he and a partner openeda very small salon on rhe
third floor of a building in London's fashionableBond Street.
"Bond Streetwas magic to me becauseit meant the \WestEnd. It
was whereI couldn't get a job earlier.The \WestEnd meant I was
going to make it. I was determinedto changethe way things were
166 The Element

done or leavehairdressing.For me it wasn't a caseof bouffants

and arrangements.It was about structure and how you train the
eye,"
In the first week,they took in only fifty pounds,but after two
yearsthey had built the businessto a point wherethey could move
to the "right" end of Bond Street and compete with the top
salons.
"London wasa fascinatingplacein the sixties.Therewasthis
incredible energy.\7e were not going to do things the way our
parents did. I was always looking for different ways of doing
things.Everythingwaschanging:our music,clothes,and art. So
it was clear to me that there could be something different for
hair."
And then one day,somethingcaughthis eyethat wasto trans-
form his vision and the whole field of hairdressing."One Satur-
day, one of the guys was drying a client'shair and just using a
brush and drier without any rollers.I thought about it ovcr the
weekend,and on the Monday I askedhim why he had dried her
hair like that. He said he'd been in a hurry and didn't want to
wait for her to comeout of the dryer. 'Hurry or not,' I said,'you've
discovered something,and we aregoing to work on this.' For us,
that'show blow drying started."
Vidal Sassoonwasto createa revolutionin cutting and styling
hair that changedthe industry and the way that women looked
around the world.
"I alwayshad shapesin my head. I remembercutting Grace
Cruddington'shair into the 'five point haircut' and flying to Paris
with her in 1964.I wanted to actually show it to the magazine
editors.I knew we'd got somethingbut you had to seeit, seethe
way it movedand swung. It was all about scissors.Our motto was
'eliminate the superfluous.''We made pages and pages in Elle
magazine.They'd beengoing to featurecurls but they lovedwhat
 Do YouFeelLucky? 167

we'd done.That led on to more photo sessions and tours.Then in

1965, I was invited to do a show in New York and about five
newspaperscoveredit. They gaveus the front pageof the beauty
section in the New York Timesthe following day. The papersand
magazineswere full of picturesof our new geometriccuts. \fe'd
done it! tVe'd brought America 'the bob."'
He openedthe first Sassoonschoolin London in 1967.Now
they are all over the world. "My philosophy has alwaysbeen to
shareknowledge.Our academyand educationcentersare filled
with energy.That's what helpsyoung peopleto push the bound-
ariesof their creativity.I tell them, if you havea good idea,go for
it, do it your way. Take good advice,make sure it is good advice,
then do it your way.\7e've beenaround for a long time and to me
'longevity is a fleeting moment that lastsforever."'
Vidal Sassooncreateda new look and a whole new approach
to fashion and style. He not only took the opportunities that he
saw he createda million more in the way he respondedto them.
Perhapsthe most important attitude for cultivating good
Fortuneis a strongsenseof perseverance. Many of the peoplein
this book facedconsiderable constraintsin finding the E,lement
and managedto do it throughsheer,doggeddetermination.None
more so than Brad Zdanivsky.
At nineteen,Brad knew that he loved to climb. He'd been
climbing treesand boulderssincehe was a kid and had movedon
to scalesomeof the highestpeaksin Canada.Then, while return-
ing home from a long drive after a funeral, he fell asleepat the
wheel of his car and plunged nearly two hundred feet off a cliff.
The accidentleft him a quadriplegic,but he remaineda rock
climber in his heart. Even as he waited at the bottom of the cliff
for help to arrive,knowing that he couldn't move,he recallswon-
dering if it were possiblefor a quadriplegicto climb. After eight
months of rehab, he began to talk to fellow climbers about
168 The Element

designing some kind of gear that would get him back onto a
mountain. \With the help of severalpeople,including his father,
he createda devicewith two largewheelsat the top and a smaller
one on the bottom. Seatedin this rig, he usesa pulley systemwith
his shouldersand thumbs that allows him to scaleabout a foot at
a time. The techniqueis excruciatinglyslow,but Zdanivsky'sper-
sistencehasbeenrewarded.Beforehis injury, his goal had beento
climb the two-thousand-footStawamusChiel one of the largest
granite monoliths in the world. In July 2005, he reachedthat
goal.
We all shapethe circumstancesand realitiesof our own lives,
and we can also transform them. Peoplewho find their Element
are more likely to evolvea clearersenseof their life's ambitions
and set a coursefor achievingthem. They know that passionand
aptitude are essential.They know too that our attitudesto events
and to ourselvesare crucial in determinine whether or not we
find and live our livesin the Element.
 CHAPT ER EIGHT

SomebodyHelp Me

v
pollo, I went to a specialschoolfor the
/\ rren I ceucur
A.physically handicapped. This wasstandardprocedure back
then in Britain; the educationauthoritiesremovedany children
with disabilitiesfrom mainstreamstateschoolsand sent them to
one of thesespecialschools.So I found myselffrom the ageof five
travelingby specialbus everyday from our working-classareaof
Liverpool acrossthe city to a small schoolin a relativelyaffluent
area.The Margaret BeavanSchoolhad about a hundred or so pu-
pils aged from five to fifteen with various sorts of disability, in-
cluding polio, cerebralpalsy,epilepsy,asthma,and, in the caseof
one of my bestfriends there,hydrocephalus.
\(/e weren't especiallyconsciousof each other's disabilities,
though many of us wore braces,usedcrutches,or were in wheel-
chairs.In that setting, the nature of anyone'sdisability was more
or lessirrelevant.Like most kids, we formed our friendshipsbased
on people'spersonalities.One of my classmates had cerebralpalsy
and severespasticity.He couldn't use his hands and spokewith
tremendousdifficulty. The only way he could write was by grip-
ping a pencil betweenhis toes and arching his leg over the desk.
For all of that, he was a funny and entertainingguy onceyou got
used to his strained efforts at speaking and could understand
what he was actually saying.I enjoyedmy time at the schooland
had all the childhood excitementsand frustrations that I knew
my brothersand sisterwere having at their "normal" schools.If
170 The Element

anything, I seemed to like my school more than they liked

theirs.
One day when I was ten, a visitor appearedin the classroom.
He was a well-dressedman with a kind face and an educated
voice. He spentsometime talking to the teacher,who seemedto
me to take him very seriously.Then he wandered around the
deskstalking to the kids. I supposetherewereabouta dozenof us
in the room. I rememberspeakingwith him for a little while, and
that he left soon afterward.
A day or so later,I receiveda message to go to the headmaster's
office. I knocked on the largepaneleddoor, and a voicecalledme
in. Sitting next to the head teacherwas the man who'd comeinto
my classroom.He wasintroducedto me asMr. Strafford.I learned
later that he was CharlesStrafford, a member of a distinguished
group of public officials in the United Kingdom, Her Majesty's
Inspectorsof Schools.The governmenthad appointedthesesenior
educatorsto report independentlyon the quality of schoolsaround
the country.Mr. Straffordhad particular responsibilityfor special
schoolsin the northwestof England,including Liverpool.
\Wehad a short conversationduring which Mr. Straffordasked
me some generalquestionsabout how I was getting on at the
school and about my interestsand family. A few days later, I re-
ceivedanothermessage to go to the headmaster's study.This time
I wound up in anotherroom and met a different man who asked
me a seriesof questionsin what I later understoodwas a general
IQ test. I rememberthis vividly becauseI made a mistakeduring
the test that really irritated me. The man read a seriesof state-
mentsand askedme to comment on them. One of them was this:
"Scientistsin America havediscovereda skull which they believe
belongedto Christopher Columbus when he was fourteen." He
askedme what I thought of that, and I said that it could not have
 SomebodyHelp Me 171

beenChristopherColumbus'sskull becausehe didn't go to Amer-

ica when he was fourteen.
The moment I left the room, I realizedwhat a stupid answer
that was and turned to knock on the door to tell the man that I
knew the real flaw in the statement.I heard him speaking to
someoneelse,though, and decidednot to interrupt. The next day
I saw him crossingthe playgroundand was about to accosthim
with the answer.But I worried that he would assumethat I'd spo-
ken with my dad overnightand that he'd told me the real answer.
I decidedit was a wasteof time to correctthings. Fifty yearslateg
I'm still annoyedabout this. I know; I should get over it.
My error turned out to be insignificant to whateverthe test-
erswere looking for in me. Shortly afterward, the school moved
me to a different classof children who were severalyearsolder
than me. Apparently, Mr. Strafford had spoken with the head
teacherabout me and said that he sawa particular spark of intel-
ligence that the schoolwasn't developingas fully as they could.
He thought the school could challengeme more and that I had
the potential to passa test known at the time as the eleven-plus
examination.
In Britain back then, high schooleducationtook placein two
different types of school: secondarymodern schoolsand gram-
mar schools.The grammar schoolsoffereda more prestigious,ac-
ademiceducation,and they werethe primary routesto professional
careersand universities.Secondarymodern schoolsoffereda more
practical educationfor kids to take up manual and blue-collar
jobs. 'Ihe whole systemwas a deliberatepieceof socialengineer-
ing designedto provide the workforce neededfor the industrial
economyin the UK. The eleven-pluswas a seriesof IQ testsde-
velopedto identify the academicaptitudesneededfor a grammar
school education.Passingthe eleven-pluswas, for working-class
172 The Elemenr

kids, the best path to a professionalcareerand an escapefrom a

possiblelifetime of manual work.
The teacherin my new classwas the redoubtableMiss York.
Shewas a small woman in her forties,kind but with a reputation
for being intellectually rigorous and demanding. Some of the
teachersat the schoolhad relativelylow expectationsof what we
kids were likely to achievein our lives.I think they saw the pur-
poseof "specialeducation"mainly aspastoral.Miss York did not
Sheexpectedof her "special"pupils what shewould cxpcctof any
others:that they work hard, learn, and do their absolutebest.
Miss York coachedme relentlesslyin math, English, history, and
a variety of other subjects.Periodicallyshe would give me past
eleven-plus examsto practiceon, encouragingme to excelat
these. She remains one of the most impressiveteachersI have
evermet.
Eventually,with a group of other children from my schooland
other specialschoolsin the area, I sat down to take the actual
eleven-plusexam. For weeksafterward,Miss York, Mr. Strafford,
my parents,and I waited anxiouslyfor the brown envelopefrom
the LiverpoolEducationCommittee to arrivewith the potentially
life-changingresultof the test. One morning in the earlysummer
of 1961,we heard the letterboxclatter,and my mother ran to the
front door. Tensewith excitement,she carried the letter into the
small kitchenwherewe werehaving breakfastand handedit to me
to open. With a deepbreath,I took out the small folded pieceof
paperinsidethe envelopewith its typed message. I had passed.
'We could hardly believeit. The houseerupted in wild excite-
ment. I was the first member of my family to passthis test, and
the only pupil at the school who passedit that year. From that
moment on, my life moved in a completelynew direction. I re-
ceiveda scholarshipto the Liverpool CollegiateSchool,one of the
bestin the city. In one leap,I moved from the specialschoolinto
 SomebodyHelp Me 173

the upper ends of mainstreamstateeducation.There, I beganto

developthe interestsand capacitiesthat have shapedthe rest of
my life.
Charles Strafford becamea closefriend of my family and a
frequent visitor to our packed, usually frenetic family home in
Liverpool. He was a sophisticated,urbane man with a passionfor
helpingpeoplefind the chancesthey deserved. A professionaledu-
cator with a love of literature and classicalmusic, he played the
timpani, sangin choirs,and conductedmusicensembles in Mersey-
side.He had a refinedtastefor good wines and brandiesand lived
in a finely furnished town house in northern England. He'd
servedas a major during World \WarII and had been part of the
Normandy campaign.He kept a secondhome in Ranville in the
Calvadosregion of northern France,where he had becomea key
figure in the local Frenchcommunity. Ranville now boastsa road
named after him, the allie CharlesStrafford. I visited him there
in rny universitydays,and he introduced me to local societyand
to the pleasuresof French cuisinc and calvadosapplebrandy,for
which I am equallygrateful.
For me, CharlesStrafford was a window into another world.
Through hands-on, practical assistance,he facilitated my early
journey from the back row of specialeducationto what has be-
come a lifelong passionfor full-scaleeducationalreform. He was
an inspirationalrolemodelfor seeingthe potentialin otherpeople
and for creatingopportunities for them to show what they can
really do. Aside from my parents,he was my first true mentor and
taught me the invaluablerole mentorsplay in helpingus reachour
Element.
174 The Element

The Life- Changing Connection

Finding our Elementoften requiresthe aid and guidanceof oth-

ers. Sometimesthis comesfrom someonewho seessomethingin
us that we don't seein ourselves,as was the casewith Gillian
Lynne. Sometimesit comesin the form of a personbringing out
the bestin us, as Prggy Fury did with Meg Ryan.For me, Charles
Strafford saw that I would only reachmy potential if my educa-
tors offeredme greaterchallenges.He took the necessary stepsto
assurethat it happened.
I didn't know it at the time, but the personwho wasto mentor
me for most of my adult life this far was also at school in Liver-
pool at the time, just a few miles awayfrom me. I met Terry years
later,when I was living and working in London in my late twen-
ties. I was back in Liverpool for a week to run a coursefor teach-
ers.Shewas teachingdrama in a difficult, low-incomeareaof the
city. \Wehad an instant connection-which had absolutelynoth-
ing to do with teaching,education,or the Element-and we ve
been togetherever since.She'sone of the finest mentorsI know,
not just to me but to friends, family, and everyonewho works
with her and for her. Sheknows intuitively the power and impor-
tanceof mentorsbecausethey havebeenso important in her own
life. \While I was being mentoredby Charles,shehad a childhood
mentor of her own. This is how shetells it:
"I went to an all-girls Catholic high schoolrun by an order of
nuns known as the Sistersof Mercy-a misnomer if ever there
was one.This wasthe 'swingingsixties,'and we weren'tdoing any
swinging, but we were doing a lot of praying and in particulaq I
was praying for a way out. By the time I was seventeenmy only
ambition wasto leavehome, moveawayfrom the suburbsand get
to the bright lights of London fast. From there I was planning on
getting to America and marrying Elvis Presley.
 SomebodyHelp Me 175

"My academiccareerhad beenone abjectfailure after another,

but I loved to act and I loved to read. Then in my last year at
school for the first time i had an inspirational English teacher,
SisterMary Columba, a tiny young woman who had a passionfor
V. B. Yeatsand a passionfor teaching.At the very first seminar,
shepicked me to read a poem to the classand, as I did, the hairs
on the back of my neck tingled. I still have neverread anything
more beautiful or oowerful:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths

Enwroughtwith goldenandsilverlight,
The blueand the dim and the darkcloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spreadthe clothsunderyour feet;
But I, beingpoor,haveonly my dreams;
I havespreadmy dreamsunderyour feet;
Treadsoftlybecause you treadon my dreams.

"For the first time I really wanted to learn more and over the
next two yearssheguided me to a love of Dickens and E. M. For-
ster to Wilfred Owen, Shakespeare, and Synge.\fle were a small
tutorial group and every one of us was intenselyengagedin her
classes.Sheencor.rraged my writing, shemade me give of my best
and with her guidanceI was ableto challengeothersintellectually
and to shine.
"These books openedme to a world of possibilitiesand what
intrigued me most was how open-mindedshewas. After all, she
was a Catholic nun and herewe were discussinglove and sexand
the occult. No subjectwas taboo.\Wewould spendhours discuss-
ing any themethat was thrown up, from the Oedipus complexin
Coriolanusto the infidelity in HoutardsEnd. For a girl who had
rarely beenout of Liverpool this was headystuff.
176 The Element

"I was her top pupil that year and I passedmy English exams
cum laude.At her suggestionI went on to study drama and litera-
ture at college.From then on I never doubted my ability to de-
bate. I had friends for life in the writers we studied and I know
that without her wonderful mentoring I would still be looking for
Elvis."
Mentors often appear in people'slives at opportune times'
though, as we sawwith Eric Drexler and Marvin Minsky, some-
times "mentees"take an activc role in choosing their mentors.
\Tarren Buffett, a man who hashimself inspiredlegionsof inves-
tors,points to Benjamin Graham (known asthe fatherof security
analysis) as his mentor. Graham taught Buffett at Columbia
University-giving Buffett the only A-plus he ever bestowedin
twenty-two yearsof teaching-and then offered Buffett a iob at
his investmentcompany.Buffett stayedthere severalyearsbefore
heading off on his own. In his book Buffitt: The Making of an
American Capitalist, Roger Lowenstein writes, "Ben Graham
openedthe door, and in a way that spoke to Buffett personally.
He gaveBuffett the tools to explorethe market'smanifold possi-
bilities, an approachthat fit his student'stemper. Armed with
Graham'stechniques,Buffett could dismisshis oraclesand make
useof his native talents.And steeledby the exampleof Graham's
character,Buffett would be able to work with his trademarkself-
reliance."
In a different domain entirely,the singer Ray Charleswas a
guiding light to countlesspeoplefor his remarkablemusical tal-
ent and his ability to overcomeadversity.His story starts,though,
with a man who taught him to tap into the music that was deep
insidehim.
In an interview with the Harvard Mentoring Project posted
on www.\ThoMentoredYou.org,Charles recalled, "\il/iley Pitt-
man, he wasa cat. I mean,if it hadn't been for him, I don't think
 SomebodyHelp Me 177

I'd be a musiciantoday.\7e lived next door to him. He had a little

caf!, a generalstore,and he had a piano in there.Everyafternoon
around 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., he'd start to practice.I was three
years old and-I don't know why I loved him, I can't explain
that-but any time he'd start practicingand playing that boogie
woogie-I loved that boogie woogie sound-I would stop play-
ing as a child, I didn't care who was out there in the yard, my
buddies,or whoever,I would leavethem, and go insideand sit by
him and listen to him play.
"From time to time, I'd start hittin' the keys with my whole
fists and finally he would sayto me, 'Look kid, you don't hit the
keyswith your whole fist like this if you like music so much,' and
he knew how much I liked music becauseI'd stop everything I
was doing and listen to him.
"So he startedto teachme how to play little melodieswith one
finger.And, of course,I realizetoday that he could ve said, 'Kid,
get awayfrom me, can't you seeI'm practicing?'But he didn't. He
took the time. Somehow,he knew in his heart, 'this kid lovesmu-
sic so much, I'm going to do whateverI can to help him learn how
to play."'
Marian \Wright Edelman, founder and presidentof the Chil-
dren'sDefenseFund, discoveredher mentor when shewent away
to school at Spelman College, a place she describesas "a sraid
women'scollegethat developedsafe,young women who married
Morehousemen, helpedraisea family, and neverkicked up dust."
\7hile shewas there,shemet the history professorHoward Zinn.
They werein the South in the late 1950s,andZinn felt it was im-
portant to motivatehis studentsto play an activepart in the civil
rights struggle.
Inspired by Zinn, Edelman engagedin the early civil rights
proteststhat openedthe door to a national movement.Her essen-
tial role as a voice for changeand justice, and the extraordinary
178 The Element

work shehasdonefor children for more than threedecades, found

its path through the mentorshipof HowardZinn.
I cameupon the storiesabout Ray Charlesand Marian Vright
Edelman while reading about National Mentoring Month, a
campaign orchestratedby the Harvard Mentoring Projectof the
Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR/National Mentor-
ing Partnership,and the Corporation for National and Commu-
nity Service.Sponsorsfor the campaign (eight yearsold, as of
January 2009) include many huge corporations.In addition, a
largenumber of major mediacompaniesserveaspartners,doing
everything from offering hundreds of millions of dollars of free
public serviceannouncernents to incorporatingmentoringstories
into the plots of televisionshows.
Public/PrivateVentures,a national nonprofit organizationfo-
cusedon improving"the effectiveness of socialpolicies,Programs,
and community initiatives, especiallyas they affect youth and
young adults,"performeda landmark impact study on mentoring
beginning in 2004. Randomly pairing 1,100 fourth- through
ninth-gradersin more than seventyschoolsaround the country
with volunteersfrom Big Brothers Big Sistersof America, they
reachedsomeencouragingfindings about the value of mentoring.
The mentored students improved in overall academic perfor-
mance, quality of classwork, and delivery of homework. They
also got into serioustrouble in school less often and were less
likely to skip school.
It was good to seetheseresults,but they didn't surpriseme at
all. Many of thesekids probably did better in school simply be-
causethey appreciatedsomeonetaking an interest in them. This
is an essentialpoint, and I'll come back to it later on when I look
at the issuesand challengesof education.At the very least,good
mentoring raisesself-esteem and senseof purpose.But mentoring
takesan elevatedrole for peoplewhen it involvesdirecting or in-
 SomebodyHelp Me 179

spiring their searchfor the Eiement.\X/hat the psychologistsaw

with Gillian Lynne and rn'hat'WileyPittrnan sawwith RayCharles
was the opportunity to lead someonetoward his or her heart's
fulfiliment. \What Howard Zinn sawwith Marian \Wright Edel-
man and Ben Graham saw with \Tarren Buffett was rare talent
that could blossom into something extraordinary if nurtured.
When mentors servethis function-either turning a light on a
new world or fanning the {lamesof interestinto genuinepassion-
they do exaltedwork.

The Roles of Mentors

Mentorsconnectwith us in a varietyof waysand rernainwith us

for varying lengths of time . Someare r,r,ithus for decadesin an
evolvingrole that might start as teacher/str.rdent and ultimately
evolveinto closefriendship. Others enterour livesat a critical mo-
ment, staywitlr us long enoughto make a pil'otal diffbrence,and
then move on. Regardless,trrentorstend to servcsome or all of
fbur rolesfor us.
'fhe first roleis rec'ognition.
CharlesStraffordservedthat func-
tion in my life, identifying skills that my teachershad not yet no-
ticecl. One o[ the fundamental tenets of the Element is the
tremendousdiversityof our individual talentsand aptitucles. As
we've discussedearlier,somc testsare availablethat aim to give
people a general indication of their strengths and weaknesses
basedon a seriesofstandardizedquestions.But the real subtlety
and nuancesof individual aptitudesand talentsare far more com-
plex than anv existingtestscan detect.
Some peoplehave generalaptitudesfor music, or for dance,
or for science,but more often than not, their aptitudesturn out
to be much more specificwithin a given discipline. A person
may havean aptitudefor a particular type of music or for specific
180 TheElement

instruments:the guitar, not the violin; the acousticguitar, not the

electricguitar. I don't know of any test or softwareprogram that
can make the kinds of subtle,personaldistinctionsthat differen-
tiate an interest from a potential burning passion.A mentot
who has alreadyfound the Elementin a particular disciplinecan
do preciselythat. Mentors recognizethe spark of interestor de-
light and can help an individual drill down to the specificcompo-
nents of the discipline that match that individual's capacityand
passion.
Lou Aronica, my coauthoron this book, spentthe first twenty
yearsof his professionallife working for book publishers.His first
job out of collegewas for Bantam Books,one of New York'spub-
lishing powerhouses. Not long after he startedat the company,he
noticed a wizened,gnomish man wandering the halls. The man
didnt seemto have any particular job, but everyoneseemedto
pay attentionto him. Lou finally askedabout the man and learned
that he was Ian Ballantine, who'd not only founded Bantam
Books and later Ballantine Books but was in fact the personwho
introduced the paperbackbook to the United Statesin the 1940s.
Over the next coupleof years,Lou passedBallantine in the hall
numeroustimes,nodding to him politely,and feelinga bit intimi-
dated in the presenceof a man who was such a legend in his
chosenprofession.
Lou got his first "real" job at Bantam around this time, a posi-
tion in the editorial department,trying to piecetogethera science
fiction and fantasypublishing program. One day not long after
this, Lou was sitting at his desk when Ian Ballantine strolled in
and satdown.This part wassurprisingenoughro Lou. The next
severalminutes,however,left him stunned."Ian had a distinctive
way of speaking,"Lou told me. "You got the sensethat every
thought was a pearl, but his languagewas so circuitous that it
seemedthe pearl still had the oyster around it." \7hat became
 SomebodyHelp Me 181

clear as Ballantine continued to speak,though, was that-much

to Lou's astonishment-the publishing legend wanted to take
Lou under his wing. "He never actually said, 'Hey, I'll be your
mentor.' Ian didn't make declarativestatementslike that. But he
suggestedhe might enjoy dropping by regularly,and I made it
clear that he could drop by wheneverhe wanted and that I'd be
h"ppy to go halfway acrossthe world to get to him if he didn't feel
like coming to me."
Over the next severalyears,Lou and Ian spenta considerable
amount of time together.Ballantine taught Lou much about the
history and, more importantly, the philosophy of book publish-
ing. One of Ballantine'slessonsto Lou was to "zig when everyone
elseis zagging,"his way of suggestingthat the fastestpath to suc-
cessis often to go against the flow. This struck a specialchord
with Lou. "From the time I startedin the business, I'd beenhear-
ing about the 'conventions' of book publishing. it seemedthere
were a lot of rules about what you could and couldn't do, which
didn't seemto make much senseto me, sincereadersdon't readby
rules.Ian didn't believeany of that, and he'd been overwhelm-
ingly more successful than the peoplespoutingtheseruleswere.
Right then, I decideclto becomea publisherwho would publish
books I lovedwith only a nodding glanceto 'the rules."'
The approachservedLou well. He had his first book imprint
by the time he was twenty-six and becamedeputy publisher at
Bantam and then publisher at Berkley Books and Avon Books
beforeturning his attentionsto writing. Before lan Ballantine
choseto mentor him, Lou knew he wanted a careerin books. But
in addition to teachinghim the nuancesof the industry, Ballan-
tine helped him identify the particular part of publishing that
truly brought him to his Element.
Mentors leadus
The secondrole of a mentor is encouragement.
to believethat we can achievesomethingthat seemedimprobable
182 The H,lement

or impossibleto us beforewe met them. They don't allow us to

succumbto self-doubtfor too long, or the notion that our dreams
are too large for us. They stand by to remind us of the skills we
alreadypossessand what we can achieveif we continue to work
hard.
\fhen JackieRobinsoncame to play major-leaguebaseballin
Brooklyn for the Dodgers, he experiencedlevelsof abuseand
hardship worthy of Greek tragedy from those who believed a
black man shouldn't be allowed to play in a white man's league.
Robinsonbore up under most of this, but at one point, things got
so bad that he could barelyplay the game.The tauntsand threats
rattled his concentrationso badly that he faltered at the plate
and in the field. After a particularly bad moment, Pee\7ee Reese,
the Dodger shortstop,called a time-out, walked over to Robin-
son, and offered him encouragement,telling him he was a great
ballplayerdestinedfor the Hall of Fame.Yearslater,during Rob-
inson's Hall of Fame induction ceremony,he spoke about that
moment. "He savedmy life and my careerthat day," Robinson
saidfrom the podium at Cooperstown."I had lost my confidence,
and Pee'W'ee picked me up with his words of encouragement.He
gaveme hope when all hope was gone."
The third role of a mentor isfacilitating. Mentors can help lead
us toward our Elementby offering us adviceand techniques,pav-
ing the way for us, and evenallowing us to falter a bit while stand-
ing by to help us recoverand learn from our mistakes.These
mentorsmight even be our contemporaries,as was the casewith
Paul McCartney.
"I rememberone weekendJohn and I took the bus acrosstown
to seesomeonewho knew how to play 87 on the guitag" Paul told
me. "The three basicchordsyou neededto know were E, A, and
'$7e
87. didn't know how to do 87 and this other kid did. So we
got the bus to seehim, learnedthe chord, and came back again.
 SomebodyHelp Me 183

So then we could play it too. But basically,mates would show

you how to do a particular riff, I rememberone night watching
a TV show called Oh Boy! Cliff Richard and the Shadows
were on, playing'Move It.' It had a greatriff. I loved it but didn't
know how to play it. Then I worked it out and ran over to John's
housesaying,'I've got it. I've got it.' That was our only education
experience-showing eachother how to do things.
"To start with, we werejust copying and imitating everyone.I
wasLittle Richard and Elvis.John wasJerryLeeLewis and Chuck
Berry. I was Phil from the EverlyBrothersand John was Don. \7e
just imitated other peopleand taught eachother. This was a big
point for us when we were planning the policies at LIPA-the
fact that it's important for studentsto rub up againstpeoplewho
have actually done or are doing the thing that the studentsare
learning.They don't really need to tell you much, just show vou
what they do."
The fourth role of a mentor is stretching.Effective mentors
push us pastwhat we seeas our iimits. Much as they don't allow
us to succumbto self-doubt,they also preventus from doing less
with our lives than we can. A true mentor reminds us that our
goal should neverbe to be "average"at our pursuits.
Janes Earl Jonesis known asa superlativeactor and one of the
great"voices"in contemporarymedia.Yet most of us neverwould
haveheard that voicehad it not beenfor a mentor. One can only
imagine what Darth Vader might sound like if Donald Crouch
hadn't enteredJones'slife.
As a child, Jonessuffered from crippling self-consciousness,
largelybecausehe stutteredand found it very difficult to speakin
front of people.\fhen he got to high school,he found himself in
an English classtaught by Crouch, a former collegeprofessorwho
had worked with Robert Frost. Crouch discoveredthat Jones
wrote poetry, a fact that Joneskept to himself for fear of ridicule
184 The Element

from the other boysin school."He questionedme about why, if I

lovedwords so much, couldn't I saythem out loud?"Jonessaysin
the book ThePerson\Yho ChangedM1 Ltfe: ProminentAmericans
Recall Their lVfentors.
"One day I shou'edhim a poem l had written, and he re-
spondedto it by sayingthat it was too good to be my own work,
that I must havecopied it from someone.'Io prove that I hadn't
plagiarizedit, he wanted rne to recitethe poem, by heart, in front
of the entire class.I did as he asked,got through it without stut-
tering, and from then on I had to write more and speakmore.
This had a trernendouseffect on me, and my confidencegrew as
I learnedto expressmyselfcomfortablyout loud.
"On the lastday of schoolwe had our final classoutsideon the
lawn, and ProfbssorCrouch presentedme rvith a gifi-a copy of
Ralph Valdo Emerson'sSelfReliance.This was invaluableto me
because it summedup what he had taughtme-self-reliance.His
influenceon me was so basicthat it extendedto all ar:easof my
life. t{e is the reasonI becamean actor."
Mentors servean invaluablerole in helping peopleget to the
Element.It might be overstatingthings to suggestthat the only
way to reach the Element is with the help of a mentor, but it is
onlv a mild overstatement. \X/eall encountermultiple roadblocks
and constraintson the journey toward finding what we feel we
were meant to do. \Without a knowledgeableguide to aid us in
identifying our passions,to encourageour interests,to smooth
our paths,and to push us to make the most of our capacities,the
journey is considerablyharder.
Mentorship is of coursea two-way street.As important as it is
to have a mentor in your life, it is equally important to fulfill
theserolesfor other people.lt is evenpossiblethat you'll find that
your own real Element is as a mentor to other people.
 SomebodyHeQ Me 185

Anthony Robbins is one of the world's most successfulper-

sonalcoachesand mentors,often creditedwith laying the founda-
tions for the personalcoachingprofession.This sectoris growing
exponentiallyaround the world and has becomea multimillion-
dollar industry. All of this speakseloquentlyto the appetitefor
mentoring and coachingand to the profbund rolesthesecan ful-
fill in many of our lives. More and more peopleare discovering
that being a mentor,for them, is being in the Element.
'fhis happened for l)avid Neils. His own mentor was Mr.
Clawson, a neighbor who came up with multiple successfulin-
ventions.When Neils wasa child, he would go to visit the neigh-
bor rvhile he worked. Instead of chasingthe kid awa)',Clawson
askeclfor Neils'sadviceand criticism about his work. This inter-
action charged Neils with a senseof self-worth and an under-
standingthat his opinionsmattered.As an adult, Neils founded
the lnternationalTelementorPrograln,an organizationthat facili-
tates mentoring by electronic rleans between professionalsand
students.Since1995,the programhashelpeclmore than 15,000
studentsaround the world receiveprofessional guidance.David
Neiis literallymadementoringhis life'swork.

More Tltan Heroes

I'm sure that severalof the mentors mentioned here, ir-rcluding

many of the Big Brothersand Big Sisters,becameheroesto those
they mentored.We all havepersonalheroes-a parent,a teacher,
a coach,evena schoolmateor colleague-lvhose actionswe idol-
ize. In addition, we all haveireroeswe'venevermet who stir our
imaginationswith their deeds.\7e considerLance Armstrong a
hero for the way he overcamea lile-threateningillnessto domi-
nate a physicallygrueling sport, and Nelson Mandela one for his
186 The Element

critical role in ending apartheidin South Africa. In addition, we

forever associatepeople with heroic 2s15-fte53 Parks'strium-
phant stand against bigotry, Neil Armstrong's first step on the
moon.
Thesepeopleinspire us and lead us to marvel at the wonders
of human potential. They open our eyesto new possibilitiesand
fire our aspirations.They might even drive us to follow their ex-
amplesin our lives,moving us to dedicateourselvesto public ser-
vice,exploration,breakingbarriers,or lessening injustice.In this
way, theseheroesperform a function similar to mentors.
Yet mentorsdo somethingmore than heroesin our searchfor
the Element. Heroes may be remote from us and inaccessible.
They may live in another world. They may be dead. If we meet
them, we may be too awestruckto engageproperly with them.
Heroesmay not be good mentorsto us. They may be competitive
or refuseto have anything to do with us. Mentors are different.
They take a unique and personalplacein our lives.Mentors open
doorsfor us and get involveddirectly in our journeys.T'heyshow
us the next stepsand encourageus to take them.
 CHAPT ER NINE

Is It Too Late?
J
-V;.
..?,

useN JrrrBns is the author of Feel the Fear and Do It

AnywalP and many other best-sellingbooks.Shedidn't begin
her writing careeruntil shewaswell into her forties.How shedid
it is a remarkablestory.
As a child, Susanloved to read.The best time of the day for
her was when she could curl up with a book in the quiet of her
room. "I was alwayscurious, and nly flther was a great one for
explaining things. Sometimeshe would go into so much detail
my eyeswould roll back. I rememberhearing something on the
radio once that I didn't understand.The word was circumcision.
True to fonn, he didn't give me a short explanation!He was like
a teacher.I think he missedhis calling. He'd alwayswanteda boy,
and I was treatedto all the things he would havedonewith a son.
I got to go to a lot of wrestlingmatches!"
Susanwent ofTto college,whereshemet and soonmarried her
first husband.She dropped out when she got pregnantwith the
first of her two children.After four yearsat home, shedecidedshe
had to go back to college.This decisioncreatedmuch anxiety:
"The yearsat home had shatteredmy confidence,and I wasn't
sure I would succeed."She eventually found her feet at college
'W'hen
and evengraduatedsumma cum laude. shelearnedof this
honor, shebeganphoning everyone sheknew. "Finally I dropped
the phoneand begancrying asI realizedthat the one personI was
r88 The Element

trying to reachwas my father,who had died a few yearsearlier.

He would havebeenso proud."
\With the encouragementof one of her teachers,Susan en-
rolled in graduateschooland ultimately receivedher doctoratein
psychology.Then, through an unexpectedturn of events,shewas
askedto becomethe executivedirector of the FloatingHospital in
New York City. Shehesitatedat first, as it was a very big job and
shedidn't know if shecould handle it. But finally, sheagreed.
By then, shewas having trouble in her marriage,and shefiled
for divorce.This was a difficult time for Susan."Even having my
doctoratein psychologydidn't help.\While my job wasrewarding
beyond my wildest dreams,I was miserable.I soon got tired of
feelingsorry for myselfand knew I had to find a new way of 'be-
ing' in the world. And that is when my spiritual journey began."
During the ten yearssheran the Floating Hospital, Susanbe-
came what she calls a "workshop addict." In her free time, she
studiedEasternphilosophiesand attendedall manner of personal
growth and New Age workshops."I discoveredthat it was fear
that was creatingmy 'victim mentality' and negativeattitude. It
was stopping me from taking responsibilityfor my experienceof
life. k wasalsofear that waskeepingme from being a truly loving
person.Little by little, I learnedhow to push through fear and
move myself from the weakestto the strongestpart of who I am.
Ultimately, I felt a senseof power that I had neverfelt before."
Sitting at her deskone day,the thought cameinto her mind to
go down to the New Schoolfor SocialResearch,a placeshehad
neverbeen.Sinceshewas learning to trust her intuition, shede-
cided to check it out. "I thought maybe they had a workshop I
neededto take.\When I arrived,I looked at the directory and no-
ticed the Department of Human Resources, which soundedrele-
vant to my interests.I mademy way to their offices.There wasno
one in the receptionarea.Then I heard a woman in the office to
 Is ltTbo Late? 189

the right say,'Can I help you?' I walked in and blurted out, 'I'm
hereto teacha courseabout fear.''Wherethat camefrom, I hadn't
a clue!Shelooked at me in shockand said,'Oh my goodness,I've
been searchingfor someoneto teach a courseon fear and this is
the last day to put it in the catalogueand I haveto leavein fifteen
minutes.'Satisfiedwith my credentialsshesaid, 'Quickly write a
coursetitle and a seventy-five-word coursedescription.\Without
any forethought,I titled the course'Feelthe Fearand Do It Any-
way' and wrote the coursedescription.Shewaspleasedand placed
my courseinformation on her assistant's desk with a note to in-
clude it in the catalogue.She thanked me profuselyand quickly
exited.Alone, I stood thinking to myself,'\Whatjust happened?'
I believestrongly in the Law of Attraction, but to me this was
mind blowing."
Susanwas nervousas shefacedthe first sessionof the twelve-
week course.The two hours went well, but she then was con-
fronted with a new fear. "I thought, 'That's it. That's all I know
about this subject.So what am I going to teach next week?And
the ten more sessionsto follow?' But every week I found I had
more to say.And my confidencelevelgrew.I realizedI had learned
so much over the yearsabout pushing through fear.And my stu-
dents were drinking it up. Ultimately, they were amazedat how
shifting their thinking really changedtheir lives. Teaching this
courseconvinced me that the techniquesthat had transformed
my life were the same techniquesthat could transform anyone
regardlessofage, sex,or background."
Susaneventuallydecidedto write a book basedon the course
shehad taught. Shefacedmany roadblocks.And after four agents
and fifteen rejectionsfrom variouspublishers,shereluctantlyput
the proposalin a drawer.One of the worst rejectionlettersshere-
ceived said, "Lady Di could be bicycling nude down the street
giving this book away,and no one would read it!"
190 The Element

During this period, shedecidedto leavethe FloatingHospital

and focus on becoming a seriouswriter. "I rememberriding in a
cab one evening.The driver askedme what i did. I heard myself
say,'I'm a writer.' I supposeuntil that moment I had thought of
rnyselfas a psychologistor an administrator,but there it was. I
was a writer."
After three years of writing articles fbr magazines,she was
going through the drawer that held her much-rejectedbook
proposal. "l picked it up and had a profound sensethat I held
somethingin my hands that many peopleneededto read.So I set
out with much determinationto find a publisherwho believedin
my book the same way I did. This time, I succeeded.\What's
more, I succeededbeyondmy wildest c{reams."
Fee/ theFearand Do It Anyway(4hassold millions of copies.it
is availablein a hundredcountries,and it hasbeentranslatedinto
more than thirty-five languages.Susan has written seventeen
more books that are alsomaking their way around the world. Su-
sanwas indeecla writer; the T'irnesof London evendubbedher the
"Queen of Self-t-{elp."Sheis a sought-afterpublic speakerand has
been a gueston many radio and televisionshowsinternationally.
About Feel the Fear and Do It AnywayG),she says,"My \feb site
receivese-mails from all over the world from people telling me
how my book has helpedtheir lives.Somehave actually credited
it with sauingtheir lives.I'm so h"ppy I nevergaveup. My father
would really havebeenproud."

Is It Tbo Late?

\7e all know people who feel locked into their lives. They sin-
cerelywish they could do something more meaningful and ful-
filling, but at age thirty-nine or fifty-two or sixty-four, they feel
that the opportunity has passed.Perhapsyou feel that it's too
 Is It TooLate? 19r

late-that it's unrealistic to pivot your life suddenlyin a new di-

rection. Perhapsyou feel that you'vemissedthe one opportunity
you had to pursue your heart'sdesire (maybedue to one of the
constraintswe discussedearlier).Perhapsyou didn't havethe con-
fidenceto follow the passionearlier,and now believethat the mo-
ment is gone.
There is abundant evidencethat opportunitiesto discoverour
Element exist rnore frequentlyin our lives than many might be-
lieve.In the courseof writing this book, we havecome upon liter-
ally hundredsof examplesof peoplefollowing their passionslater
in their lives.For example,Harriet Doerr, the best-sellingauthor,
only dabbledin writing while she raisedher family. When she
was sixty-five,she returned to collegeto get a degreein history.
But the writing coursesshe took along the way raisedher prose
skills to a new level,and shewound up enrolledin Stanfbrd'screa-
tive writing program. Sheeventuallypublishedher first novel,the
National Book Award-winning Stones for lbarra, in 1983,at the
ageofseventy-three.
\X/hile lessthan half that age at thirty-six, Paul Potts still
seemedstuck in an obscure and unfulfilling life. He'd always
known he had a good voice and he'd pursued operatictraining.
However, a motorcycle acciclentcut short his dreams of the
stage.Instead,he becamea mobile telephonesalesmanin South
\Walesand continued to strugglewith a lifelong self-confidence
problem.'Ihen he heardabout auditionsfor the talent competi
tion televisionshowBritain\ Got Thlent,createdby Simon Cowell
of Americanldol fame.Pottsgot the opportunity to sing Puccini's
"Nessun Dorma" on national television,and his beautiful voice
brought down the house,leavingone of the judgesin tears.Over
the next few weeks,Potts becamean international sensalien-
the YouTube video of his first performance has been down-
loadedmore than eighteenmillion times. He ultimately won the
192 The Element

competitionand got the opportunity to sing in front of the Queen.

Carphone'Warehouse's losshas beena gain for operafans around
the world, as Potts releasedhis first album, One Chance,in late
2007. Singing had alwaysbeenhis Element.
"My voice,"he said, "has alwaysbeen my bestfriend. If I was
having problemswith bullies at school,I alwayshad my voice to
fall back on. I don't really know why peoplebullied me. I was al-
ways a little bit different. So I think that's the reasonsometimes
that I struggledwith self-confidence.\fhen I'm singing I don't
havethat problem. I'm in the placewhereI should be. All my life
I felt insignificant.After that first audition, I realizedthat I am
somebody.Im PaulPotts."
Julia Child, the chef creditedwith revolutionizingAmerican
home cookingand originatingthe televisioncookingshow,worked
first as an advertisingcopywriter and then in variousrolesfor the
U.S. government.In her mid-thirties, shediscoveredFrenchcui-
sine and began professionaltraining. It was not until she was
nearly fifty that she publishedMnsteringtheArt of French Cook-
ing, and her storied careertook off.
At sixty-five,Maggie Kuhn was a church organizerwho had
no intention of leaving her job. Unfortunately, her employers
made retirementmandatory at her age.Angry at the way her em-
ployer showedher the door, shedecidedto start a support group
with friends in similar situations.Their attempts to addressthe
common problems of retireespushed them toward higher and
higher levelsof activism,culminating in the creationof the Gray
Panthers,a national advocacygroup.
\Weve all heard that fifty is the new thirty and that seventyis
the new forty (if this algorithm extends in both directions, it
would explainthe adolescentbehaviorof somethirty-somethings
I know). But there are some important changesthat we should
take seriously.Life expectancyhas increasedin our lifetimes. It
 k It TooLate? 193

has more than doubled in the past hundred years,and is growing

at an acceleratedrate. Quality of health for older peoplehas im-
proved.According to a MacArthur Foundationstudy,nearlynine
in ten Americansagessixty-fiveto seventy-foursaythey areliving
disability-free.Many older people in the developedworld have
much greaterfinancial stability.In the 1950s,35 percentof older
Americanslived in poverty; today that figure is 10 percent.
There'sa greatdeal of talk thesedaysabout the "secondmiddle
'W'hat
age." we once consideredmiddle age (roughly thirty-five
to fifty) presageda rapid descenttoward retirement and immi-
nent death.Now, the end of this first middle agemarks a seriesof
benchmarks(a certain levelof accomplishmentin your work, kids
going off to college,reduction in necessarycapital purchases).
\What comesafter this is a secondstretchwhere healthy,accom-
plishedpeoplecan set offto reachtheir next set ofgoals. Itt cer-
tainly eitherchasteningor inspirational-I'm not surewhich-to
hear boomer rock starsprovetheir predictionswrong about what
they'd be doing "when I'm sixty-four" or still trying to get some
"satisfaction."
If we have an entire extra "middle age" thesedays, certainly
we get additional opportunities to do more with our lives as part
of the package.Thinking that we need to fulfill our grandest
dreams(or at leastbe in the processof fulfilling them) by the time
we'rethirty is outmoded.
I don't mean to say,of course,that we all can do anything at
any time in our lives.If youte about to turn one hundred, it's un-
likely that you'regoing to nail the leading role in Swan Lake, es'
peciallyif you haveno previousdancebackground.At fifty-eight,
with a wobbly senseof balance,I'm getting usedto the idea that
I'll probably never take the speed-skatinggold at the \Tinter
Olympics (particularlysinceI ve neveractually seena pair of ice
skatesin real life). Some dreams truly are "impossibledreams."
194 The Element

However, many aren't. Knowing the difference is often one of

the first stepsto finding your Element,becauseif you can seethe
chancesof making a dream come true, you can alsolikely seethe
necessarynext stepsyou needto take toward achievingit.
One of the most basicreasonsfor thinking that it's too late to
be who you are truly capableof being is the belief that life is lin-
ear.As if we'reon a busy one-waystreet,we think we haveno al-
ternativebut to keep going forward. If we missedsomethingthe
first time, we can't double back and take another look becauseit
takesall of our effort just to keepup with traffic. 'W'hatwe'veseen
in many of the storiesin this book, though, are clear indications
that human lives are not linear. Gordon Parks'sexplorationsand
masteryof multiple disciplineswere not linear. Chuck Closecer-
tainly has not lived a linear life; diseasecausedhim to reinvent
himself.
Sir Ridley Scott had a decidedlynonlinear approachtoward
entering the film world. He told me that when he first left art
school,"I had absolutelyno thoughtsabout making films. Films
were somethingI would go to on a Saturday.It was impossiblettr
think of how you would make that leap into film from the life I
was leading.
"l then decidedthat fine art wasn'tfor me. I neededsomething
more specific.I neededa target>a brief. So I moved around and
tried other forms of art practiceand finally I found my feet with
Mr. Ron Storein printing. I lovedthe printing process.I lovedhav-
ing to grind stonesfor eachcolor of the lithograph.I usedto work
late every day, go to the pub for two pints of beer,and get the last
bus home. I did that for four years,five nights a week. I adoredit."
A short while after this, he startedmoonlighting at the BBC.
"I was alwaystrying to breakthe boundariesof what I was doing,
maximizing the budgets.They sentme on a year'stravel scholar-
 Is It TboLate? 195

ship, and when I went back, I went straight in asa designer.After

two yearsat the BBC, I was put into the director'scourse."
From there, though, he made another leap,this time into ad-
vertising,becauseit was "fantasticallyfun. Advertisinghasalways
been a dirty word in relation to fine art and painting and you
know, that side of things. I unashamedlygrabbedit with both
hands."
Directing commercialsled to directing television.Only after
that did Ridley Scott becomeimmersed in the film world that
would define his life's work. If he'd believedat any point along
this journey that he had to follow a straight path in his career,he
neverwould havefound his true calling.
Human lives are organic and cyclical.Different capacitiesex-
pressthemselvesin strongerwaFSat different times in our lives.
Becauseof this, we get multiple opportunities for new growth
and development,and multiple opportunities to revitalizelatent
capacities.Harriet Doerr started to exploreher writing skill be-
fore life took her in another direction. That skill was waiting for
her decadeslater when she turned back to it. Maggie Kuhn dis-
coveredher inner advocatewhen the opportunity arose,though
she was probablyentirely unawarethat she had this talent until
that moment.
\7hile physicalageis absoluteasa way of measuringthe num-
ber of yearsthat havepassedsinceyou wereborn, it is purely rela-
tive when it comesto health and quality of life. Certainly, we are
all getting older by the clock. But I know plenty of peoplewho are
the sameage chronologicallyand generationsapart emotionally
and creatively.
My mother died at the age of eighty-six,very suddenly and
very quickly from a stroke. Right up to the end of her life, she
looked ten or fifteenyearsyoungerthan her birth date suggested.
r96 fhe Elemcnt

Shehad an insatiablecuriosity about other peopleand the world

around her. She danced, read, partied, and traveled.She enter-
tained everyoneshemet with her wit, and sheinspiredthem with
her senseof style, her energy,and her sheer pleasurein being
alive-in spite of multiple hardships,struggles,and crisesin her
life.
I'm one of her sevenchildren, and she rvas one of sevenas
well-so when we gatheredin one placern,ithour extendedfar-n-
ily, we were a substantialcrowd. My mother took careof us dur-
inpStimes when there wcre few modern conveniencesand little
help apart frorn what shecould drag reluctantlyfrom us when we
werenot actuallycrcatingwork for her.When I wasnine, we all
faceda catastrophe. My father,who was the pillar of the farnily,
and had beenso distraughtat my gettingpolio, had an industrial
accident.He broke his neck, and for the rest of his life was a
quadriplegic.
He washimselfan extraordinaryman who remainedfirmly at
the centerof our family lile . He was shar:plyfunny, deeplyintelli-
gent, and an inspiration to everyonewho came within range clf
him. So, too, was my mother. I{er energyand zest for life never
dirninished.Shewas alwaystaking on new projectsand learning
new skills. At family gatherings,she was alwaysthe first on the
dance floor. And in the last yearsof her life, she was studving
ballroom dancing and making dollhousesand rniniatures.For
both my mother and my father therewas alwaysa clear,substan-
tial difference between their chronological ages and their real
ages.
There'sno shortageof peoplewho achievedsignificantthings
in their later years.Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocal lens
when he was seventy-eight.Thatt how old Grandma Moseswas
when shedecidedto get seriousabout painting. Agatha Christie
 Is It -fooLate? 197

wrote The Mowsetrap,the world's longest-running play' when she

wassixty-two.JessicaTandy won the Oscarfor BestActressat age
eighty. Vladimir Horowitz gavehis last seriesof sold-out piano
recitalswhen he was eighty-four.
Compare theseaccomplishmentswith the prematureresigna-
tion of peopleyou know in their thirties or forties,who behaveas
if their lives havesettledinto a dull routine and who seelittle op-
portunity to changeand evolve.
If you'refifty, exerciseyour mind and body regularly,eatwell,
and have a generalzest for li{b, you're likely younger-in very
real,physicalterms-than your neighborr,vhois forty-four,works
in a dead-endjob, eatschickenwingstwice a day,considers think-
ing too strenuous,and looksat lifting a beer as
glass a reasonable
daily workout.
Dr. Henry L,odgc,coauthor of YoungerNext Year,makes the
point sharply."It turns out," he says,"that 70o/oof Americanag-
ing is not real aging. It's just decay.It's rot from tire stuff that we
do. All the lifestylediseases . . . the diabetes,the obesity,the heart
disease, much of the Alzl-reimer's, lots of the cancers,and almost
all of the osteoporosis,those are all decay.Nature doesn'thave
that in storeftrr any of us. \Wego out and buy it off the rack."
'Ihe peopleat realage.com havepu[ed togethera setof metrics
designed to your
c,alculate "real age" as opposedto your chrono-
logical age.It takesinto considerationa wide rangeof factorsre-
garding lifestyle,genetics,and medicalhistory.\(hat's fascinating
about this is that their work suggeststhat it's actually possibleto
make yourselfyoungerby making better choices.
One way to improve your real age is to take better care of
yourself physically,through exerciseand nutrition. I know this,
becauseI live in Califbrnia, where everyoneseemsto have stock
in Lycra, and dairy products have the same health status as
198 'l"he Element

cigarettes.I try my best to live healthily, too. I aim to do sit-ups

everyday and to avoiddessert.But it's not only aboutworking out
and eatingin.
One of the fundamental preceptsof the Element is that we
need to reconnectwith ourselvesand to seeourselvesholistically.
One of the greatestobstaclesto being in our Elementis the belief
that our minds somehowexist independentlyof our bodies,like
tenantsin an apartment,or that our bodiesare really just a form
of transport for our heads.The evidenceof research,and of com-
mon sense,is not only that our physicalhealth affectsour intel-
lectual and emotional vitality, but that our attitudes can affect
our physicalwell-being.But equallyimportant is the work you do
to keepyour mind young. Laughter has a huge impact on aging.
So doesintellectualcuriosity. Meditationcan alsoprovidesignifi-
cant benefitsto the physicalbody.
The answerto the question,Is it too late for me to find the Ele-
ment? is simple: No, of coursenot. Even in the caseswhere the
physicaldegradationsthat come with age make certain achieve-
ments impossible,the Elementis still within reach.I'll neverget
that speed-skatinggold, but if the sport meant that much to me
(it doesn't),I could find a way to gain accessto that tribe, perhaps
using the skills I alreadyhaveand thoseI could acquireto make
a meaningful contribution to that world.

KeepingThingsPlastic
tWhat this really comes down to is our capacity to continue to

develop our creativity and intelligence as we enter new stages in

our lives. Obviously, it happens in dramatic ways when we're very
young. The infant brain is tremendously active and enormously
plastic. It is a ferment of potential. It has somewhere near one
hundred billion neurons, and it can make a nearly infinite variety
 Is h foo Late? r99

of possibleconnections,building what scientistscall "neuralpath-

ways" out of what we encounterin the world. Our brainsare pre-
programmedto somedegreeby our genetics,but our experiences
deeply affect how we evolveas individuals and how our brains
develop.
Consider,for instance,how we learn language.Learning to
speakis one of the most miraculousachievelnentsin a child's life.
It happensfor most of uswithin our first few years.No one teaches
languageto us-certainly not our parents.They couldn't possibly
do that becausespokenlanguageis too complex,too subtle,and
too full of variationsfor anyoneto teachit formally to a child. Of
course,parentsand others guide and correct young children as
they learn to speakand they may encourageand applaud them.
But babiesdon't learn to speakby instruction. They learn by imi-
ration and inference.\7e are all born with a deep,instinctive ca-
pacity for language,which is activatedalmost as soon aswe draw
breath.
Babiesinstinctively recognizcmeaningsand intentions in the
soundsand tonesthey hear from other humansaround them. Ba-
bies born into householdswith dogs as pets will respondto the
noisesand growls that dogs make. However,they don't confuse
thesesoundswith human language.Most children don't opt for
barking asa way of communicating-with the possibleexception
of the terrible twos and a coupleof yearsin late adolescence.
There doesn'tseemto be any obviouslimit to our capacityfor
languages.Children born into multilingual householdsare likely
to learn eachof theselanguages.They don't reacha point of satu-
ration and say,"Pleasekeep my grandmotherout of here. I can't
handle anotherdialect."Young children tend to learn all the lan-
guagesto which they are exposedand to slip effortlesslybetween
them. I recall meeting three school-agebrothers a few years
ago. Their mother was French, their father was American, and
200 The Element

they lived in Costa Rica. They were fluent in French,English,

and Spanishas well as an amalgam they createdfrom the three
that they usedexclusivelywhen speakingwith eachother.
On the other hand, if you are born into a monolingual house-
hold, the odds are that you won't seek out other languagesto
learn, at least until you need to chooseone in middle school.
Learning a new languageat that point is a much more difficult
thing to do becauseyouve alreadypaveda largenumber of neural
pathwayswith rcgardto language(in other words, you'vemade a
huge number of yes/nodecisionsabout what to call a particular
item, how to form sentences, and evenhow to shapeyour mouth
when speaking).tying to speaka foreign languagefor the first
time in your thirties is eventougher.
The neuroscientistSusan Greenfield illustratesthe amazing
plasticity of the young brain in a cautionarytale of a six-year-old
boy in ltaly, who was blind in one eye.The causeof his blindness
was a mystery.As far as the ophthalmologistscould tell, his eye
was perfectly normal. T'hey eventuallydiscoveredthat when he
was a baby,he had been treatedfor a minor infection. The treat-
ment included having the eye bandaged for two weeks. T'his
would havemade little differenceto the eye of an adult. But in a
young baby,the developmentof the eye-to-brainneural circuits is
a delicateand critical process.Becausethe neurons serving the
bandagedeye were not being used during this crucial period of
development,theyweretreatedby the brain asthough they weren't
there at all. "Sadly," said Greenfield,"the bandaging of the eye
was misinterpretedby the brain as a clearindication that the boy
would not be using the eyefor the rest of his life." The resultwas
that he was pernanently blinded in that eye.
Youngbrainsarein a constantprocessofevolution and change,
and extremelyreactiveto their environment.During early stages
of development,our brains go through a processthat cognitive
 [s h TooLate? 201

scientistscall "neural pruning." Essentially,this involves trim-

ming awayneural pathwaysthat we determineat an unconscious
levelto havelittle long-termvalueto us. This pruning is of course
different for every individual, but it is a tremendouslynecessary
part of development.It servesthe same function in our brains
aspruning doesto 2 11ss-i1 getsrid of the unnecessary branches
to allow for continued growth and increasedoverall strength.
It shuts down pathways that we'll never use again in order to
make room for the expansionof pathwaysthat we will use regu-
larly. As a result, the enormousnatural capacitieswith which we
are all born become shapedand molded, expandedor limited,
through a constant processof interaction betweeninternal bio-
logical processes and our actual experiences in the world.
The bestnewsin all of this is that the physicaldevelopmentof
the brain is not a straightforward,one-waylinear process.Our
brains don't stop developingwhen we get our first set of car keys
(though the insurancecompanieswould like to suggestasmuch).
Harvard neurobiologistGerald Fischbachhas performed exten-
sive researchin brain cell counting and has determinedthat
we retain the overwhelmingmajority of our brain cellsthrough-
out our lives. The averagebrain contains more neuronsthan it
could possibly use in a lifetime, even given our increasedlife
expectancies.
In addition, researchindicatesthat, as long as we keep using
our brainsin an activeway,we continue to build neural pathways
as we get older.This givesus not only the ongoing potential for
creativethought, but also an additional incentivefor continuing
to stretch ourselves.There is strong evidenceto suggestthat the
creativefunctions of our brain staystrong deepinto our lives:we
can recoverand renew many of our latent aptitudesby deliber-
ately exercisingthem. Just as physicalexercisecan revitalizeour
muscles,mental exercisecan revitalize our creativecapabilities.
202 'I'heElement

There'sextensiveresearchgoing on now regardingneurogenesis,

the creation of new brain cells in adult humans. It's becoming
clear that, contrary to what we believedfor more than a century,
the brain continu€sto generatenew cells, and certain mentai
techniques(suchasmeditation) can evenaccelerate this.
\7e can admire the remarkabler.vorkdone by peoplelike Geor-
gia O'Keeffe,Albert Einstein,PaulNewman,and I. M. Peilatein
their lives, but we should not considerthis work remarkablebe-
causethey did it late in life. 'fhese peopleweresimplyhigh achiev-
erswho kept their brainssharpso they could continueto be high
achievers.'i-hat they accomplishedwhat they did at advanced
agesshouldnot surpriseus nearly:rsmuch as it often does.
I nrentionedearlierthat it's unlikely that a centenarianwill
take tlre leadin Swdnl.ake.lt'snot irnpossible, just unlikely.The
reason,of course,is that, at leastr"rntilmedical sciencetakessev-
eral leapsforwirrd, someoltour capacitiesdo deterioratewith age,
especiallyphysicalathleticism.There'snot much point in deny-
ing this, though someof Llstry desperately to do so, to the point
of ernbarrassing ourselvesin public.
However, this isn't true of all of our capacities.Like a goocl
wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano,some of them actually improve
over time. There seemto be seasons of possibilityin all of our
lives,and they vary accordingto what we'redoing. It's r.videlyac-
cepted thar our abilities in mathematics,for example, tend to
grow and peak in our twentiesand thirties. I don't mean the abil-
ity to work out the food bill or to calculatethe odds of your team
winning the SuperBowl. I'm speakingabout the kind of higher
math doneby world-classmathematicians,the Terencef aosof the
world. Most math geniuseshavedone their most original work by
the time the rest of us have signedup for our first mortgages-
which is somethingwe probablywouldn't do if we were better at
 b ltTbo Late? 203

rnath. The same is true of learning the technical skills of playing

a musicai instrument.
But in other ways and in other areas, maturity can be a genu-
ine advantage, especially, for example, in the arts. Many writers,
poets, painters, and composers have produced their greatestwork
as their insights and sensitivitiesdeepenedwith age. One can say
the same about disciplines as diverse as law, cooking, teaching,
and landscapedesign. In fact, in any discipline where experience
plays a significant role, age is an assetrather than a liability.
It follows. then, that "too late" arrives at various times, de-
pending on where your search for the Element takes you. If it's
toward internationally cornpetitive 91,6ns.1ics, it might be too
late by the time yc'ru'refifteen" If it's towarcl developing a new style
of fusion cuisine, "too late" might never come. For rnost of us,
we're not even close to "too late."

EngagedI'-orauer

One of the resultsof seeingour lives as linear and unidirectional

is that it leadsto a cuiture (true of nrost Western cultures, in fact)
'We
of segregating people by age. send the very youtrg to nursery
schools and kinclergartens as a group. \We educate teenagers in
batches. \7e inove the elderly into retirement homes. There are
some sood teasonsfor all of this. After all, as Gail Sheehy noted
decades ago, there are predictable passagesin our lives, and it
meke s s om c s c ns et o c re a tee n v i ro n me n tsw l te re pcopl e can expe-
rience those passagesin an optimal way.
However, there are also good reasonsto challenge the routines
of what reaily amounts to age discrirnination. An inspiring exam-
ple is a unique educational program in the Jenks school district of
Tulsa, Okiahoma.
204 The Element

The stateof Oklahoma has a nationally acclaimedearly-years

readingprogram,providing readingclasses for three-to five-year-
olds throughout the state.The Jenksdistrict offersa unique ver-
sion of the program. This cameabout when the owner of another
institution in Jenks-one acrossthe street from one of the ele-
m€ntary schools-approached the superintendentof schools.
He'd heard about the readingprogram and wonderedif his insti-
tution could offer somehelp.The superintendentrespondedposi-
tively to the idea and, after clearing some bureaucratichurdles,
welcomedthe other institution'shelp.
The other institution is the GraceLiving Center,a retirement
home.
Over the next few months, the district establisheda preschool
and kindergarten classroomin the very heart of Grace Living
Center. Surroundedby clearglasswalls (with a gap at the top to
allow the soundsof the children to filter out), the classroomsits
in the foyer of the main building. The children and their teachers
go to school there every day as though it were any other class-
room. Becauseit's in the foyer, the residentswalk past it at least
three times a day to get to their meals.
As soon as the classopened,many of the residentsstoppedto
look through the glasswalls at what was going on. The teachers
told them that the children were learning to read. One by one,
severalresidentsaskedif they could help. The teacherswere glad
to have the assistance, and they quickly set up a program called
Book Buddies.The program pairs a member of rhe retiremenr
home with one of the children. The adults listen to the children
read,and they readto them.
The programhashad someremarkableresults.One is that the
majority of the children at the Grace Living Center are ourper-
forming other children in the district on the srare'sstandardized
reading tests.More than 70 percentare leaving the program at
 Is ltTbo Late? 205

agefive readingat third-gradelevelor higher.But the children are

learningmuch more than how to read.As they sit with their book
buddies,the kids have rich conversations with the adults about a
wide variety of subjects,and especiallyabout the elders'memories
of their childhoods growing up in Oklahoma. The children ask
things about how big iPods were when the adults were growing
up, and the adults explain that their lives really weren't like the
livesthat kids havenow. J'his leadsto storiesabout how they lived
and playedseventy,eighty,or evenninety yearsago.The children
are getting a wonderfully textured social history of their home-
towns from peoplewho have seenthe town evolveover the de-
cades.Parentsare so pleasedwith this extracurricularbenefitthar
a lottery is now required becausethe demand for the sixty avail-
abledesksis so strong.
Somethingelsehas beengoing on at the GraceLiving Center,
though: medicationlevelsthereareplummeting.Many of the resi-
dentson the program havcstoppedor cut back on their drugs.
\fhy is this liappening?Becausethe adult participantsin the
program have come back to life. Instead of whiling away their
dayswaiting fbr the inevitable,they havea reasonto get up in the
morning and a renewedexcitementabout what the day might
bring. Becausethey are reconnectinglvith their creativeenergies,
they areliterallyliving longer.
J'here'ssomething else the children learn. Every now and
then, the teachershaveto tell them that one of their book buddies
won't be coming an)/ more; that this personhas passed.So the
children cometo appreciateat a tenderagethat life hasits rhythms
and cycles,and that eventhe peoplethey becomecloseto arepart
of that cycle.
In a way,the GraceLiving Center has restoredan ancient,tra-
ditional relationshipbetween the generations.The very young
and the very old havealwayshad an almost mystical connection.
206 The Element

They seemto understandeachother in a fundamental,often un-

spokenway. Our practicein the \7est is often to keepthesegen-
erationsapart. The Book Buddiesprogram showsin a simpleyet
profound way the enrichment possiblewhen generationscome
together.It showstoo that the elderlycan revivelong-lostenergies
if the circumstancesare right and the inspiration is there.

There\ Time
\Whateveryonefrom Susan
Jeffersto Julia Child to the book bud-
dies teach us is that remarkable,life-enhancingthings can hap-
pen when we take the time to stepout of our routines,rethink our
paths,and revisitthe passionswe left behind (or neverpursuedat
all) for whateverreason.\7e can take ourselvesin freshdirections
at nearly any point in our lives.\7e havethe capacityto discover
the Element at practically any age. As the actor Sophia Loren
oncesaid,"There zi a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your tal-
ents,the creativityyou bring to your life and the livesof the peo-
ple you love. tVhen you learn to tap this source,you will truly
have defeatedage."
 CHAPT ER T EN

For Love or Money

v
f ennlel Tnop is an accomplished academicscholar.'$?'hen
Ut met him, he was at Berkeley studying for a Ph.D. in Ger-
man literature.This work meansa greatdeal to him, but it is not
the only thing about which he is passionate.He alsohas an over-
whelming attraction to music. "If I were to lose the use of my
hands,"he said to me, "my life would be over."
Yet Gabriel has neverentertainedthe thought of becoming a
professionalmusician.In fact, for a long time he didn't want to be
involved in music at all. In his first yearsof high school,Gabriel
would look pityingly at the music students,struggling acrossthe
campuswith their bulky instrumentcases,turning up at school
fbr rehearsalshours before anyone else had to be there. That
u'asn'ta life for him, especiallythe part about getting to school
extra early.He vowed secretlyto avoid music.
However, one day, in the music classthat was part of his
school'sstandardcurriculum, he was tinkling idly on the piano
and reaiizedthat he found it easyto pick out tunes.\7ith a sink-
ing feeling,he realizedtoo that he actually enjoyeddoing it. He
tried to disguisehis obviouspleasurefrom the music teacher,who
had wanderedover to listen. He must not havedone this particu-
larly well, becausethe teachertold Gabriel that he had a good ear
and suggestedthat Gabriel go into the music storeroomto seeif
any of the instrumentsthere appealedto him.
A friend of Gabriel'splayedthe cello, and for this reasonand
208 The Element

no other,Gabriel decidedto try out one of thosein the storeroom.

He found that he loved the shapeand sizeof the instrument and
the deep, sonorousnoise it made when he plrrckedthe strings.
One cello in particular,had "a wonderful smell of middle school
varnish." He decided to break his vow and to give the cello a
chance.\When he beganpracticing,he took it very casually.But
he quickly found that he loved playing this instrument, and that
he wasspendingmoreand more time doing so.
From there,Gabriel practicedso ofien and with such intensity
that within a couple of months he was playing reasonablywell.
Within a year,he wasthe principalccllistin the schoolorchestra.
'fhis meant,of course,that he arrivedat schoolearlyin the morn-
ing, dragginghis bulky iustruntentcaseacrossthe campusto the
pitying looks of the nonmusicianshe had left behind.
Gabrielalso lovesliterature,the German ianguage,and aca-
dernic work. At somepoint, he had to make a hard decisionbe-
tween music and academicsas his prirnary focus in life. After a
long internal struggle,he choseGerman literaturebecausehe felt
that doing so would allow him to continue to spendtime asa cel-
list, while if he dedicatedhimself to a professionin music,the
time requiredto do so would have made it nearly impossibleftir
hirn to exploreGerman poetry in depth. "I choseliterature be-
causeit seemedto me compatiblervith an intensity of music play-
ing, and if I wereto be a professionalmusician,my attachmentto
literaturewould havebeendisproportionatelysidetracked.So this
arrangementwas really the one I could find where I could remain
a dedicatedcellist and sustaina high degreeof involvementwith
Iiterarylanguage."
Still, he plays for hours every day and continues to perfbrm
(he recentlyplayeda cello concertowith the University of Cali-
fornia BerkeleySymphony C)rchestra).He doesn'tknow how he
would survive without regular immersion in the practice and
 For Loueor Money 209

enjoymentof music. To call this a hobby,he says,would be ridic-

ulous.Music is elementalin his life, and in music,he hasfound
his Element.
In the truest meaning of the word, Gabriel is an amat€urmu-
sician.And he wouldn't haveit any other way.

For the Loue of It

At the most basiclevels,professionals in any field aresimply those

peoplewho earn their living in that field,while amateursarepeo-
ple who don't. But the terms arnateur andprofessionaloften imply
somethingel5s-5ornslhing about quality and expertise.People
oftcn think of amateursassecond-rate, as thoseu4roperform well
below professionallevels.Amateurs are the oneswho gesticulate
too wildly in the local theaterproduction,who scoreovera hun-
dred on the golf course,or who write cute storiesabout petsin the
town'sfreenewspaper.tiThen we call something"amateurish,"we
usethc rvord asa pejorative.\7e're suggestingthat the thing upon
rn'hichwe're cclmmentingis nowhere near professional,that the
effort is som€thingof an embarrassment.
Sometirnesit's perfectlyreasonableto draw sharp distinctions
betweenprofessionals and amateurs.There can, after all, be enor-
mous clifferencesof accomplishmentbetweenthem. If I had to
havea vasectomy,I'd greatlypreferto put myself in the hands of'
someonewho did this sort of thing for a living ratherthan some-
one who occasionallydabbledin it. But often the differencesbe-
tween professionalsand amateurshave less to do with quality
than with choice.Many people,like Gabriel, do perform at pro-
fessionallevelsin the fields they love.They simply choosenot to
make their living that way. They aren'tprofessionalsin this field
becausethey don't make money that way.They are,by definition,
amateurs.But nothing about their skill is "amateurish."
210 The Elemenr

The word amateurderivesfrom the Latin word dmAtor,which

meanslover,devotedfriend, or someonewho is in avid pursuit of'
an objective.In the original sense,an amateur is someonewho
doessomethingfor the love of it. Amateurs do what they do be-
causethey havea passionfor it, not becauseit paysthe bills. True
amateurs,in other words, arepeoplewho havefound the Element
in somethingother than their jobs.
In "The Pro-Am Revolution," a report for the British think
tank Demos, CharlesLeadbeaterand Paul Miller underline the
rise of a rype of amateur that works at increasinglyhigher stan-
dards and generatesbreakthroughssometimesgreaterthan those
made by professionals-hencethe term Pro-Am. In many cases,
new technologyis providing a wider group with apparatusonce
unaffordable to the 2m31su1-QCD chips for telescopes,Pro
Toolsfor musicians,sophisticatedvideo editing softwarefor home
computers,and so on. Leadbeaterand Miller point to the emer-
genceof hip-hop, a musical genrethat startedwith the distribu-
tion of handmadetapes.
They note that the Linux computer operating system is a
collaborativework createdby a largecommunity of programmers
in their sparetime. The Jubilee2000 debt campaign,which has
resultedin the relief of tens of billions of dollars in debt from
Third \7orld countries,startedwith the petitions of peoplewith
no professionallobbying experience. And an amateurastronomer
using a ten-inch telescopeis credited with the discovery of a
supernova.
'A Pro-Am pursuesan activity as an amateur,mainly for the
love of it, but setsa professionalstandard,"Leadbeaterand Miller
say. "Pro-Ams are unlikely to earn more than a small portion
of their income from their pastime but they pursue it with the
dedication and commitment associatedwith a professional.
For Pro-Ams, leisureis not passiveconsumerismbut active and
 For Loueor Monel 211

participatory; it involves the deployment of publicly accredited

knowledgeand skills, often built up overa long career,which has
involvedsacrificesand frustrations."
Leadbeaterand Miller call Pro-Ams "a new social hybrid,"
noting that they pursue their passionsoutsideof the workplace,
but with an energyand dedicationrarely given to actsof leisure.
Pro-Ams find this level of intensity restorative,often helping to
compensatefor less-than-inspiring jobs.
Somepeopledo truly remarkablework asamateurs.Arthur C.
Clarke was a best-sellingsciencefiction writer, author of, among
other novels,2001: A SpaceOdysseyand Rendezuous with Rama.
He'd alreadybegun his writing careerwhen he becamean officer
in the BritishRoyalAir Force.While there,he observedscientists
in the air force'sradar division and becamefascinatedwith their
work. In 1945he published an article in WirelessWorld magazine
entitled "Extra-TerrestrialRelays: Can Rocket Stations Cive
World-\V'ideRadio Coverage?" In it, he positedthe use of satel-
litesin geostationary orbit to broadcasttelevisionsignalsaround
the globe.
Most scientistsdismissedthis propositionasyet anotherwork
of sciencefiction. However,Clarke had a very keeninterestin the
subject,and he had studied it carefully. His proposalwas solid
technically and, as we all now know, utterly prescient.The spe-
cific geostationaryorbit Clarke proposedis now known as the
Clarke orbit, and hundreds of satellitesuse it. And while Clarke
made his living in the upper stratospheres of the New York Times
best-seller list, it's the work he did as an amateur (specificallya
letter to the editors of WirelessWorld that precededhis article)
that sitsin the National Air and SpaceMuseum.
SusanHendrickson hasn't had a particular professionat all.
She dropped out of high school, becamea skilled scuba diver,
taught herselfto identify raremarine specimens,becamean expert
212 The Element

at finding amber insectfossils,and haslived a multifacetedlife as

an explorerand adventurer.In 1990, Hendricksonjoined an ar-
chaeologicalexpedition in South Dakota led by the Black Hills
Institute of Geological Research.The work started extremely
slowly.The group exploredsix outcropsand made no significant
discoveries.Then one day,while the restof her team wasin town,
Hendrickson decidedto explorethe only other mappedoutcrop.
There, shecameupon a few small bones.Theseboneswould lead
to the uncoveringof the largestand most completefossil skele-
ton of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered-and one of the few
female T rexeseverfound.
The skeletonis now on display at the Field Museum in Chi-
cago.Her name:TyrannosaurusSue,after the amateurarchaeolo-
gist who unearthedher.
In his book The Amateurs,David Halberstam wrote about
four athletesin their pursuit of Olympic gold in 1984. Unlike
the track champions or basketballplayerswho could leverage
Olympic successinto huge professionalcontracts (the Olympic
Committee didnt allow NBA stars to participateback then) or
endorsementdeals,the subjectsHalberstamfollowed-scullers-
had no chanceof cashingin on their victories.They weredoing it
purely for the love of the sport and the senseof accomplishment
that would come from being the best.
'Wood.
The book focusesmost closelyon Christopher "Tiff"
Halberstam calls \Wood "the personificationof the amateur.He
had put asidecareer,marriage,pleasurein his single-mindedpur-
suit of excellencein a sport that few of his fellow countrymen
caredabout and that was, therefore,absolutelywithout commer-
cial rewards."At thirty-one, \7ood was old for the sport (at least
at the Olympic level),but he was on a mission.He'd been an al-
ternate at the 1976 Olympics and never got to compete. He was
 For Loueor Money 213

the captain of the 1980 team that was supposedto go to Moscow.

But, asa protestover the SovietinvasionofAfghanistan, America
chosenot to attend thosegames.
The 1984 Olympics would be'Woodk last chancefor a gold
medal. \Within the small but devotedsculling community, he'd
becomesomething of a favoriteson. Tiff \Wood,as it turns out,
did not come away with the gold. That fact, though, is only a
'$(/'hat
sidebarto the story. comesacrossin Halberstam'sdepiction
of \food and the other scullersis the passionand satisfactionas-
sociatedwith a purely amateurpursuit. Tiff \Wooddiscoveredthe
Element through his nonprofessionalefforts. His job was just a
job. Rowing was his life.
To be in your Element, it isn't necessaryto drop everything
elseand do it all day,everyday. For somepeople,at somestages
in their lives, leaving their current jobs or roles to pursue their
passionssimply isn't a practicalproposition.Other peoplechoose
not to do that for a whole range of reasons.Many peopleearn
their living doing one thing, and they then createtime and space
in their lives to do the thing they love. Some peopledo this be-
causeit makes greatersenseemotionally. Others do it because
they feel they haveno alternativebut to pursuetheir passions"on
the side."
A coupleof yearsago, I was leasinga new car from a dealer-
ship in SantaMonica. As it turned out, this was not easy.There
was a time when the only decisionyou had to make when buying
a car was whetherto have it or not. Now you haveto take a full-
scalemultiple-choicetest to navigateyour way betweenthe hun-
dreds of finishes,trims, accessories, and performance features
that stand between you and the versionyou actuallywant. I'm not
good at this kind of excessivedecision-making.I needhelp decid-
ing what to wear in the morning, where there'smuch lesschoice
214 The Element

and the stakesare far lower. By the time I'd made up my mind
about the car, my salesman,Bill, and I had bonded and were
planning our annualreunion.
Vhile we were waiting for the final paperwork-another
lengthy process-l askedhim what he did when he wasn'twork-
ing. \Without missing a beat, he said he was a photographer.I
asked him what he photographed,assuming he meant family
weddingsand pets.He said he was a sportsphotographer.I asked
him what sports he covered."Just surfing," he said. I was in-
trigued and askedhim why. He said that he'd beena surferwhen
he was younger and simply loved the beauty and dynamics of
the sport. He rvent to the beachat Maiibu after work, weekends,
holidays-whenever he could-just to take pictures.He'd been
doing this for yearsand had accumulatedthousandsof dollars'
worth of cameras,tripods, and specializedlenses.Over longer
holiciays,he traveledto Hawaii and Australia to catch the big surf
on canlera.
I askedhim if any of his pictureshad beenpublished.He said
they had, and pulled open the drawer of his desk. It was full of
high-production,glossysurfing magazines.He had picturesin
everyone of them. His work was very,very good.
I askedhim if he'd ever thought of doing this type of work
for a living. "I'd love to," he said, "but there isn't enough money
in it." Nonetheless,surfing photographywas his passion,and one
of the things that rnade his life worthwhile. As I leafedthrough
these amazing, professionalimages.I asked him what his boss
at the deaiershipthought of them. "He doesn't know anything
about them," Bill told me. "It's not really relevantto how I do my
job, is it?"
I'm not surehe was right about that. I actually think it might
havehad a greatdealto do with how Bill did his job, asis likely the
casewith all peoplewho discoverthe Element in a pursuit other
 For Loueor Monelt 215

than their jobs. My guessis that the satisfactionand excitement

Bill found photographingsurfersmade it so much easierfor him
to be effectiveat what he thought of as the relativedrudgery of
helping customerschoosefrom dozensof paint samples,finish
options, and decisionsabout running boards.The creativeoutlet
he found in his photographymade him that much more patient
and helpful in his day job.
The need for an outiet of this sort manifestsitself in many
forms. One that i find fascinatingis the emergenceof the corpo-
rate rock band. Unlike the conrpanysoftball team,which tendsto
fill its rosterwith young peoplefrom the mailroom, thesebands
rend to include a lineup of senior executives(unlesssomeonein
the mailroom is a great bassplayer)who once dreamedof being
rock stars before settling into other careers.The passionwith
which many of theseamateurmusiciansplay showsthat such an
avocationoffersa levelof fulfilhnent they can't find in their work,
regardlessof how accomplishedthey are at their jobs.
For four yearsnow, there has been a rock festivalof sortsput
togetherin New York to benefit the charity A Leg to Stand On.
\What distinguishesthis rock benefitshow from all othersis that
every member of every band (with the exceptionof a couple of
ringers) is in the hedgef und business."By day, most of the per-
formersmanagemoney,"statesone of the pressreleases for Hedge
Fund Rocktoberfest,"but when they turn off their trading screens,
they turn on the music."
"By 11 p.m., everyoneis eirher thinking about their 4 aln.
train ride the next morning or the fact that the Tokyo marketsare
now open,"notedTim Seymour,one of the performers.But while
the show is on, it's pure revelry,with managerscovering classic
hits or even donning skimpy outfits to serveas backup singers.
The contrastbetweenthe day job and this is dramatic and, by all
indications,liberatingfor everyonewho participates.
216 The Element

Transformation

Finding the Elementis essentialto a balancedand fulfilled life. It

can also help us to understandwho we really are.Thesedays,we
tend to identify ourselvesby our jobs. The first questionat parties
and social gatheringsis often, "\fhat do you do?" We dutifully
answer with a topJine description of our professions:"I'm a
teacher,""I'm a designer,""I'm a driver." If you don't havea paid
job, you might feel somewhatawkward about this and find the
needto givean expianation.For so many of us, our jobs defineus,
even to ourselves-and even if the work we do doesn'texpress
who we really feel we are. This can be especiallyfrustrating
if your job is unfulfilling. If we're not in our Elementat work, it
becomeseven more important to discoverthat Element some-
where else.
'Io begin with, it can enrich everythingelseyou do. Doing the
thing you love and that you do well for even a coupleof hours a
week can make everything elsemore palatable.But in somecir-
cumstances,it can lead to transformationsyou rnight not have
imaginedpossible.
Khaled Hosseiniimmigratedto Americain 1980,got a medi-
cal degreein the 1990s,and setoffon a careerpracticinginternal
medicine in the Bay Area. ln his heart, though, he knew he
wanted to be a writer and that he wanted to tell the story of life in
Afghanistan prior to the Soviet invasion.\While continuing his
medicalpractice,he beganwork on a novel about two boysgrow-
ing up in Kabul. That novel becameTheKite Rwnner,altookrhat
has sold more than four million copiesand generateda recent
film.
Hosseini'spursuit of his most intense interests,even while
he was working hard at another profession,transformed him in
profound ways.The successof TheKite Runner has allowed him
 For Loueor Money 217

to go on an extendedsabbaticalfrom medicineand to concentrate

on writing full-time. He publishedhis secondnovel,the best-sell-
ingA ThousandSplendidSuns,in2007. "I enjoyedpracticingmed-
icine and was alwayshonoredthat patientsput their trust in me to
take careof them and their loved ones,"he said in a recentinter-
view. "But writing had alwaysbeen my passion,sincechildhood.
I feel ridiculously fortunate and privilegedthat writing is, at least
for the time being, my livelihood. It is a dream realized."
Like Khaled Hosseini's,Miles \Taters'sfirst careerwas in the
medical profession.He beganpracticing as a dentist in England
In 1974.And like Hosseini,\Tatershad a burning passionfor an
entirely different field. In \Taters'scase,it was popular music.
He'd played in bands at school and started writing songsalong
the way.In 1977,he scaledbackhis dental practiceto spendmore
time at songwriting. It took him severalyearsto make inroads,
but he eventuallywrote severalhit songsand beganto earn a liv-
ing in the music field. He quit dentistry for a period and worked
full-time as a rn'riterand producer,contributing to an album by
Jim Capaldi (from the legendaryrock band Traffic) that featured
work from Eric Clapton, Steve\7inwood, and GeorgeHarrison.
He's traveledin the same circles as Paul McCartney and Pink
Floyd's David Gilmour. These days, he shuttlesbetween music
and dentistry,maintaininga practicewhile still composingand
producing.
\Woodmadea fortune asa marketingexecutivefor Micro-
John
soft. During a trip to the Himalayas, though, he came upon a
school in an impoverishedvillage. The school taught four hun-
dred and fifty students,but had only twenty books-and not one
of thesewas a children'sbook. \When \Wood askedthe school's
headmasterhow the schoolgot by with such a paucity of books,
the headmasterenlisted his aid. \7ood began collecting books
and raising moneyfor this schooland others,doing the work on
218 The Element

nights and weekendswhile dealingwith a hugelydemandingday

job. Finally,he walked awayfrom Microsoft for his true calling-
Room to Read,a nonprofit organizationwith the goal of extend-
ing literacy in poor countries.Severalof his Microsoft colleagues
thought he'd lost his mind. "It was incomprehensible to many of
them," he said in an interview."'W'henthey found out I was leav-
ing to do things like delivering books on the backsof donkeys,
they thought I was crazy."Room to Read has been transforma-
tional not only for \Wood, but for thousandsand thousandsof
others. The nonprofit <lrganizationhas createdmore than five
thousandschoollibrariesin six countrieswith plansto extendthat
reachto ten thousandlibrariesand fifteen countriesbv 2010.

Beyond Leisure

There's an important differencebetweenleisureand recreation.

In a generalsense,both words suggestprocessesof physical or
mental regeneration.But they have different connotations.Lei-
sure is generallythought of as the oppositeof work. It suggests
something effortlessand passive.\7e tend to think of work as
somethingthat takesour energy.Leisureis what we do to build it
up again. Leisureoffers a respite,a passivebreak from the chal-
lengesofthe day,a chanceto restand recharge.Recreationcarries
a more x61ivslens-literally of re-creatingourselves.It suggests
activitiesthat requirephysicalor mental effort but which enhance
our energiesrather than depleting them. I associatethe Element
much more with recreationthan with leisure.
Dr. SuzannePetersonis a managementprofessorat the'W. P.
CareySchoolof Businessand Center for ResponsibleLeadership
at Arizona StateUniversityand a consultantfor an executivecoach-
ing firm. She'salso a championshipdancer, twice winning the
 For Loueor Money 219

Holiday Dance Classicin Las Vegasand grabbingthe 2007 Hot-

lanta US Open Pro-Am Latin Championship,among others.
Suzannetook somedanceclasses when shewas a teenager,but
she never seriously considereddance as a career.Suzanneknew
from the time shewas in high schoolthat shewanted to be an ex-
ecutive."I didn't grow up knowing exactlywhat I wanted to be,
but I knew that I wanted to wear businesssuits, speakto large
groupsof peopleand havethem listen to me, and havea title. I al-
wayssawmyselfasbeing ableto wear greatbusinesssuitsfor some
reason.And I liked the idea that I could visualizemyself in front
of groups of people and have something important to say. But
dancing was not a passionwhen I was young. It was something
you did becausewhat elsedo girls do asa hobby if they don't want
to play soccerand baseball?"
Her rediscoveryof dance and the intenseexcitementthat ac-
companiedit this time around came nearly accidentally."I was
just looking for a hobby and my achievementand motivation got
the best of me. I was about twenty-six, and I was in graduate
school.At this time, salsaand swing dancing weregetting popu-
lar, so I'd just go into the socialdancestudio and I would watch.
I'd mimic what the teachersweredoing. Slowlybut surelyI started
taking group lessonsand then some private lessons.The next
thing I know, it's this huge part of my life. So it really was a pro-
gressionbasedon my belief that I had the requisitetalent for it
and sort of the basicability level.But probablymy academicside
allowed me to study it and focus on it just like any other subject.
'And I literallywould study it like any other academicscience.
Huge visualization.I would sit on planesand I would visualize
myselfgoing through all the dances.So anytime I couldn't physi-
cally practice,I would mentally practice.I could feel the music. I
could feel the emotions.I could seethe facial expressions. And I
220 'I'heElement

would comethe next day to the dancestudio after beinggoneand

I would be better. And my datrcepartner would say,'Horv did
you get better overnight?Weren'tyou travelingto Philadelphia?'
and I would say,'Oh, I practicedon the plane.'And I literally
would practiceup to two hours in my head totally uninterrupted.
"I went into dancingthe sameway I go into my career-yotl
give 110 percentand you go in strong and powerltul.And I real-
ized that when you do that in dancing, it's too much. You losethe
femininity and, all of a sudden,you'rein everybody'sfaceso much.
The businessside is power and confidenceand all thesethings.
And the dancing is vulnerability and sensuality,everythingsoft.
You go from one to the other and I enjoy them equally."
Suzannein fhct seemsto have found her Elementin multiple
ways.Shelovesher profession,and sheloveswhat shedoesfor rec-
reation."lf l'm reallyteachingsomethingaboutleadership that I'm
passionate about,I get the sameexactfbelingexceptthat it's just a
different emotion. I mean I fbel confidentand powerful and very
connectedto the audienceand I want to make a difference.And
then in the dancingI feel more vulnerable,a little lessconfidence.
But they'reboth escapes in differentwaysand I get completelyen-
gulfed in them and get very movedby them emotionally."
Ultimately, though, her life has addedmeaning becauseshe's
chosena recreationalpursuit that is fulfilling, rather than simply
entertaining. "lt's taught me more about communication than
studying communication ever could. You realize the effect that
you haveon anotherperson.If you were in a bad mood, that per-
son knows it in a secondjust touching your hand. And so in my
head I could feel the perfect connection that's in a partnership,
the perfectcommunication.I would feel extremelyhappy.
"It's a flow experience.I mean it's a completerelease.I don't
think about anything. I don't think about anything good in my
 For Loueor Money 221

life. I don't think about anything bad in my life. Literally,I would

not get distracted if gunshotswent off. It's really amazing."
Suzanne'ssister,Andrea Hanna, is an executiveassistantwork-
ing in Los Angeles.Like Suzanne,she'sfound a pursuit beyond
her job that adds dimension to her life.
"i didn't like writing until my senioryear of high schooi,"she
told me. "My English teachertold us to write a compellingcollege
entranceessayabout anything of our choice. Like most assign-
ments, I dreaded the idea of sitting down and rn'riting a five-
paragraphessaythat wasjust going to end up coveredin red pen.
Nonetheless,I finally sat down and wrote about how unprepared
I felt for collegebut how excitedI wasto start a new chapterof my
life. This was the first essayI had everwritten for schoolthat had
humor in it. It was also the first essaywhere I was able to write
about something I was an expert on: me. To sllrprise, my
-y
teacherloveclit and readit in front ofthe class.Shealsoenteredit
into a writing contest.I won first placeand was askedto readmy
paperin front of a largegroup of professional women writers.I
evengot my picture in the paper!It was exciting for me and gave
me a boost of confidenceas I enteredcollege.
"l have :rlwaysbeen told I have a very strong writer's voice.
Peoplealwaystell me, 'I can hearyou while I readthis.' In college
I startedsendingfriendsthe occasionalcomedice-mail recapping
our weekends.I would turn eachone of my friendsinto a charac-
ter and embellishedthe story just enough to get the laugh I
wantcd. My e-mailsstartedgetting circulatedamongstgroupsof
friends and pretty soon I would get a reply from someone I
wouldn't knor,vtelling me how greatmy writing was. It fblt great
to be so good at somethingthat cameso naturally for me.
"f"he summerbetweenmy sophomoreand junior year,I got a
job as a receptionistat a radio station. \Within a month, I had
222 The Element

started writing funny advertisingspots for the station. The sta-

tion managerloved my ideasand put them on air. All my friends
would tune in to hear my funny commericals,many of which I
starred in myself. It felt really good to hear my work produced
and get the responseI had soughtout to get.
'As my work got recognized,I started realizingI had a talent
for somethingthat could possiblybe a career.I enteredthe enter-
tainment industry right after college.I had severaljobs working
for televisionwriters and film producers,learningthe ropes.After
yearsof coffeeruns and executivecar washes,I realizedthat many
of these'dream jobs' weresomeof the leastcreativejobs out there.
At one point, I dreamt of being a writer for SaturdayNight Liue,
but learnedweekly deadlinesand high-stressenvironmentstake
any enjoymentout of it for me. I beganto think, why does/1pd!-
checkualidate my talent?\fhen it comesdown to it, I just love to
make people laugh and if one of my sketches,short stories,or
funny e-rnailsmakessomeonecrack up, well that's really enough
for me. I becamea much happier personwhen I came to that
realization.
"'W'henI think about it, I think the main reasonI enjoy writ-
ing comedyis becauseI feelwitty and smart when I am doing it.
For so many yearsI felt stupid becauseI neverexcelledat school.
My writing givesme confidenceand makes me feel like a more
completeversionof myself."
The objectiveof this form of recreationis to bring a proper
balanceinto our lives-a balancebetweenmaking a living and
making a life. \Whetheror not we can spendmost of our time in
our Element,it's essentialfor our well-beingthat we connectwith
our true passionsin someway and at somepoint. More and more
people are doing this through formal and informal networks,
clubs,and festivalsto shareand celebratecommon creativeinter-
ests.Theseincludechoirs,theaterfestivals,scienceclubs,and mu-
 F-orLoueor Money 223

sic camps.Personalhappinesscomesasmuch from the emotional

and spiritual fulfillment that this can bring as from the materiaL
needswe meet fiom the work we may have to do.
The scientificstudy of happinessis a relativelynew field. It got
off to something of a false start with Abraham Maslow six de-
cadesago, when he suggestedthat we spend more time under-
standingthe psychologyof our positivetraits ratherthan focusing
exclusivelyon what makesus mentally ill. Unfortunately,most of
his contemporariesfound little inspirationin his words.The con-
cept gained a great deal of traction, though, when Martin Selig-
man becamepresidentof the American Psychological Association
and, coining the term PositiuePsycbology, announcedthat the goaL
of his yearlongterm in office was to provokefurther exploration
into what madehuman beingsflourish.Sincethen, scientistshave
conducted dozensof studies on happiness."Happy individuals
seemto havea whole lot more fun than the restof us everdo," Dr.
Michael Fordycesaid in his book Human Happiness. "They have
many more activities they enjoy doing for fun, and they spend
much more of their time, on a given day or week, doing fun, ex-
citing, and enjoyableactivities."
Discoveringthe Element doesn'tpromiseto make you richer.
Quite the oppositeis possible,actually,asexploringyour passions
might leadyou to leavebehind that careerasan investmentbanker
to follow your dream of opening a pizzeria.Nor does it promise
to make you more famous, more popular, or even a bigger hit
with your family. For everyone,being in their Element, even for
part of the time, can bring a new richnessand balanceto their
lives.
The Elementis about a more dynamic, organic conceptionof
human existencein which the different parts of our lives are not
seenashermeticallysealedoff from one anotherbut asinteracting
and influencingeachother. Being in our Element at any time in
224 The Element

our lives can transform our view of ourselves.\Whetherwe do it

full-time or part-time, it can affect our whole livesand the livesof
thosearound us.
The RussiannovelistAleksandr Solzhenitsynsawthis clearly.
"If you want to changethe world," he said, "who do you begin
with, yourselfor others?i believeif we begin with ourselvesand
do the things that we needto do and becomethe best personwe
can be, we havea much better chanceof changingthe wodd for
the better."
 CHAPT ER EL EVEN

Making the Grade

v
J

oF rHE pEopLEweve met rn this book didn'r do

l\ Z[^Ny
IVIwell at school, or at least didnt enjoy being there. Of
course,many people do do well in their schoolsand love what
they haveto offer. But too many graduateor leaveearly,unsureof
their real talents and not knowing what direction to take next.
Too many feel that what they'regood at isn't valuedby schools.
Too many think they'renot good at anything.
Sometimes,getting away from school is the best thing that
can happen to a great mind. Sir Richard Branson was born in
England in 1950. He attended Stowe School, and he was very
popular there, making friends easilyand excellingat sports. He
was so good at athletics,in fact, that he becamethe captain of the
soccerand cricket teams.He also showedan early flair for busi-
ness.By the time he was fifteen, he'd startedtwo enterprises,one
selling Christmas trees and the other selling small Australian
birds known as budgerigars.Neither businesswas particularly
successful,but Richard had an obvious aptitude for this kind of
thing.
\What he didn't seemto have an affinity for was school. His
gradeswerepoor, and he disliked the whole businessof attending
classes. He tried to make a go of it, but it just wasn'ta comfortable
fit. At the age of sixteen,he decidedhe'd had enough and left,
neverto return.
Richard'sexperienceat school confoundedthosewho tausht
226 The Element

him. Clearly he was bright, clearlyhe was industrious,clearlyhe

wasperson:rble and capableof putting his mind to good u5s-SLI1
equally clearly,he was completely unwilling to conform to the
school'sstandards.Commenting on Richard'sdecisionto drop
olrt, his headteachersaid,"By the time he is twenty-one,Richard
will eitherbe in iail or be a millionaire,and I haveno ideawhich
it willbe."
Out in the realworld now, Richardneededto find something
to do with his lifb. Sportswere not an option; he wasu'tskillcd
enough to be a professionalathlete. However, something else
stirredhis passionsat leastas much, and he had a strongfbeling
that he wasuer! good at this-he would becomean entrepreneur.
RichardBransonsoonstartedhis first real enterprise, a maga-
zine called Student.He followed this in 1970 ivith a rnail-order
businesssellingrecords.The mail-ordcrbusinesstrltimatelybe-
came a chain of record stores--yoti might know them now as
Virgin Megastores. This was the first of his enterprisesto carry'
the Virgin name. But it was hardly the last. Not long aftcr he
launchedthe stores,he started Virgin Records.J'hen, in the
1980s,he took on an entirelynew'businesswith Virgin Atlantic
Airways,startingthe airlinewith virtually no cashoutlayand oue
747 that he leasedfrom Boeing. Today, his empire also includes
Virgin Cola, Virgin tains, Virgin Fuel, and, one of his most
ambitious ventures,Virgin Galactic, the first commercialen-
deavorto sendpeopleinto space.His decisionto fbrgo schooland
become an entrepreneurwas inspired. And his head teacher's
prophecydid turn out to [s 11lrs-s1 leastthe part about his be-
coming a millionaire by the time he was twenty-one.
Bransoneventuallylearnedthat one of the reasonsfor his poor
academicperformancewas dyslexia.Among other things, this
causedhim to haveseriousdifficulties understandingmath. Even
now, in spiteof the billions he is worth, he still can't navigatehis
 Mahing the Grade 227

way around a profit-and-losssheet.For a long time, he couldn't

evengraspthe differencebetweennet and grossincome.One day,
in exasperation, his director of financetook him asideafter a Vir-
gin board meeting and said,"Richard, think of it this way: if you
go fishing and throw a net into the sea,everything you catch in
the net is yours to keep.That's your 'net' profit. Everythingelseis
the gross."
"Finally," Richard said,"I got the difference."
Branson'sflamboyantstyle of entrepreneurshipand huge suc-
cessin so many fieldsearnedhim a knighthood in 1999.None of
this seemedremotelylikely when he was struggling to make pass-
ing gradesat school.Perhapsit should havebeen,though.
"The fact is," he told me, "all the great entrepreneursof my
generationreally struggledat schooland couldn't wait to get out
and make somethingof themselves."
Paul McCartney didn't find school nearly as uninspiring as
Richard Bransondid. In fact, Paul actually consideredbecoming
a teacheruntil he decidedto becomea Beatleinstead.Still, one
subjectthat left him entirely unengagedwas music.
"l didn't like music at schoolbecausewe weren'treally taught
it. Our classwas just thirty teenageLiverpool lads. The music
teacherwould come in and put an old LP of classicalmusic on
this old turntableand then walk out. He'd spendthe restof the
lessonin the common room havinga cigarette.So assoonashe'd
gone,we turned the gramophoneoff and posteda guy at the door.
Ve got the playing cardsand cigarettesout and spent the whole
lessonplaying cards. It was great. \Wejust thought of music as
card-playingiessons.Then when he was coming back,we pur the
recordback on, right near the end. He askedus what we thought,
and we'd say'It was great that, sirl' I really can't rememberany-
thing elseaboutmusicat school.Honestiy.Thatt all we everdid.
"The music teachercompletely failed to teach us anything
228 The Element

about music. I mean,he had GeorgeHarrison and Paul McCart-

ney in his classesas kids and he couldn't interestus in music.
Georgeand I both went through schooland no one everthought
we had any kind of musical talent at all. The only way it would
ever show then was if you were in a little band or something.
Sometimespeoplewould get guitars out at the end of term. John
was in a band like that in his school.But otherwise,no onewould
ever notice you were interestedin music. And nobody taught us
anything about it."
Finding our Element is essentialfor us as individuals and for
the well-being of our communities. Education should be one of
the main processes that take us to the Element.Too often, though,
it servesthe oppositefunction. This is a very seriousissuefor all
of us. In many systems,the problemsare getting worse.
\What do we do about this?

This Looked-D own-Upon Thing

I receivemany e-mail messages from studentsaround the world.
student in New Jerseywho
This is one from a seventeen-year-old
watchedthe speechI gaveat the TED Conferencein 2006 (TED
standsfor Technology,Entertainment,and Design):

HereI am sittingquietlyunableto sleepin my room.It'scur-

rently6:00a.m.,and this is the periodof my life that is sup-
posedto changeme forever.After a fewweeks,I will be a senior
seemto be the main topicof my life right now . . .
and colleges
and I hate it. It's not that I don't want to go to college,it's just
that I had thoughts of doing other things that wouldn't suPpress
my ideas.I was so dead confident about something I wanted
to do and devote my time with, but to everyonearound me it
seemsiike getting a Ph.D. or someboring job is key to being
 Mahing the Grade 229

successfulin life. To me I thought that spendingyour time on

something boring and meaninglesswas a bad idea. This is the
one opportunity in my life . . . heck it's the one life I'll everget
and if I don't do something drastic, I will neverget a chanceto
do it. I hate it when I get some funny look from my parentsor
my friends'parentswhen I tell them I want to pursuesomething
completely different than the trite old medical- or business-
relatedjob.
Somehow,I stumbled upon a video with a guy talking about
ideasI've had in my headfor sometime now and it utterly shook
me to euphoria.. . . If everyonewants to be a pharmacist,in the
future, a job in the medical field won't be such a prestigious
profession.I don't want money,I don't want somelousy "expen-
sive" car. I want to do something meaningful with my life, but
support is something I rarely get. I just want to tell you that
you'vepersonallymade me believeonce again that I can follow
my dream. As a painter, a sketcher,a music writer, a sculptor,
and a writer, I truly thank you for giving me hope. My art
teacheralwaysgivesme stareswhen I would do somethingodd.
I once poured my paintbrush cleaningwater on top of a paint-
ing my teachersaid was "completed and ready to be graded."
Boy,would you haveloved the look on her face.Theseboundar-
iesare so clearlyset in schooland I want to break free and create
the ideas that come from my head at three in the morning. I
hate drawing plain old shoesor treesand I don't like having this
"grading" of art. Sincewhen should someone"grade" art? I bet
ifPablo Picassohandedin one ofhis piecesto his old art teacher,
she'd absolutelyflip and fail him. I askedmy teacherif I could
incorporate scuipture with canvasand have both intertwined
togetherand havemy sculpturegive the illusion that the paint-
ing was alive and coming towards the viewer. . . . Her response
was that it wasn'tallowed! I am going to take an AP art studio
class my senior year and they tell me that I can't do three-
dirnensionalart?lt's insaneand we needpeoplelike you to come
 The Element

down to New Jerseyand give a speechor two about this iooked-

down-upon thing called creativity.
It pains me rvhenthe minute I sayI want to be an artist when
I grow up, all I get are laughs or frowns. \7hy can't peopledcr
the things they love to do? Is happinessa mansion, some big-
screentelevisionscreen,watching numbers scroli go by as you
cringewhen S&P goesdown a point? . . . This world has turned
into an overpopulated,scary,and competitiveplace.T'hank you
for those nineteen minutes and twenty-nine secondsof pure
truth. Cheers.

This student is railing against two things that most people

eventually discover in their education. One is the hierarchy of
disciplines in schools that we discussed in the first chapter. T'he
other is that conformity has a higher value than diversity.

Coffirmi4t or Creatiuity
Public educationputs relentlesspressureon its studentsto con-
form. Public schoolswere not only createdin the interestsof in-
dustrialism-they were createdin the imageof industrialism. In
many ways,they reflectthe factory culture they were designedto
support.This is especiallytrue in high schools,where schoolsys-
temsbaseeducationon the principlesof the assemblyline and the
efficientdivision of labor. Schoolsdivide the curriculum into spe-
cialist segments:someteachersinstall math in the students,and
othersinstall history.They arrangethe day into standardunits of
rime, marked out by the ringing of bells,much like a factory an-
nouncing the beginning of the workday and the end of breaks.
Studentsare educatedin batches,accordingto age,as if the most
irnportant thing they have in common is their date of manufac-
 Making the Grade 231

ture. They aregiven standardizedtestsat setpoints and compared

with each other before being sent out onto the market. I realize
this isn't an exact analogyand that it ignoresmany of the subtle-
ties of the system,but it is closeenough.
This systemhas had many benefitsand successes. It has done
well for many people rn'hosereal strength is conventionalaca-
demic work, and most peoplewho go through thirteen yearsof
public education are at least moderatelyliterate and capableof
making changefor a twenty. But dropout rates,especiallyin the
United States,are extraordinarilyhigh, and levelsof disaffection
amongstudents,teachers,and parentsarehigherstill. Increasingly,
the structure and characterof industrial educationare creaking
under the strain of the twenty-firstcentury.A powerful symptom
of the problem is the declining value of a collegedegree.
\When I was a student, my contemporariesand I repeatedly
heard the story that if we worked hard and did well-and cer-
tainly if we went to collegeand receiveda degree--we'd have a
securejob for the rest of our lives.Back then, the idea that a per-
son with a collegedegreewould be out of work was preposterous.
The only reasonthat a college-educated personwould not havea
job was if he or shedidn't want a job.
I left collegein 1972 and I, for one, did not want a job. I'd
been going to school since I was five, and I wanted a break. I
wanted to find myself,so I decidedto go to India, whereI thought
I might be. I didn't get to India, as it happens.I only got as far as
London, where there are a lot of Indian restaurants.But I never
doubted that wheneverI decidedto get a job, I would just go out
and get one.
It's not like that now. Studentsleaving collegeare no longer
guaranteeda job in the field for r,vhichthey may be qualified.
Many graduatesleaving top universitiesare finding themselves
232 The Element

doing relativelyunskilled work or headinghome again to figure

out their next move. In fact, in January 2004, the number of un-
employedAmerican collegegraduatesactuallyexceeded the num-
ber of unemployedhigh school dropouts. It's dif'ficult to believe
that this would be possible,but in fact, it is.
Problems for collegegraduatesexist in many placesin the
world. A report from the Associationof GraduateRecruitersin
the UK noted that 3.4 percentfewer college-leveljob openings
were availablein 2003 than in the previousyear.An averageof
forty-two people applied for each of these jobs, as opposedto
thirty-seventhe year before,meaning that the scramblefor good
jobs is becoming more frantic, evenwith a highJevel education.
China, which boasts the worldt fastest-growingeconomy,has
seenhuge numbersof collegegraduates(someestimateshaveit at
30 percentof the more than threemillion who graduateannually)
going unemployed.\X/hatwill happenwhen their economyslows
down?
It is still true, though, that anybody starting out in the job
market is better off having a collegeeducation than not having
one. A recent U.S. CensusBureau report indicatesthat college
graduatescan expect to earn in excessof $ I million more than
peoplewith only high school degreesover their lifetimes. Those
with professionaldegreescan earn gleaterthan $3 million more.
But the plain fact is that a collegedegreeis not worth a frac-
tion of what it oncewas.A degreewas once a passportto a good
job. Now, at best,it's a visa.It only givesyou provisionalresidence
in the job market.This is not becausethe standardsof collegede-
greesarelower than they usedto be. Thatt very hard to judge. It's
mainiy becauseso many more peoplehave them now. In the in-
dustrial period, most people did manual and blue-collar work,
and only a minority actually went to college. Those who did
 Making the Grade 233

found that their degreecertificateswere like \Willy \fonka's golden

ticket. Now with so many people graduating college,four-year
degreesare more like the shiny paper in which they wrap the
chocolatebars.
\Why are there so many more collegegraduates? The first rea-
son is that, in the developedworld at least,the new economiesof
the twenty-first century are driven more and more by innovations
in digital technologiesand information systems.They depend
lesson manual work and more and more on what my uncle used
to call "head work." So higher levelsof educationare essentialfor
more and more people.
The secondreasonis that thereare simply more peoplein the
world now than ever befbre.The population of the world, as I
noted earlier,hasdoubledin the last thirty yearsfrom three to six
billion and may be heading for nine billion by the middle of the
century. Putting these factors together,some estimatessuggest
that more peoplewill be graduatingfrom higher educationin the
next thirty yearsthan the total nurnber since the beginning of
histor,v.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development(OECD), in the decadefrom Ig95 ro 2005,
the graduation rates of the countries with the most powerful
economiesgrew 12 percent.More than 80 percentof young Aus-
tralians graduatefrom collegenow while nearly the same per-
centageoi Norwegiansdo. More than 60 percentof American
studentsget collegedegrees.in China, nore than 17 percentper-
cent of college-age studentsgo to college,and this percentageis
increasingrapidl,v.Not long ago, ir was closerto 4 percent.
One of the resultsof this huge growth in hieher educationis
that the competition ro get into many univelsiliss-svsn those
beyond the vaunted first tier--has becomeincreasinglyintense.
234 The Element

This pressureis driving a new professionof commercialcoaches

and collegepreparatorycramming programs.This is especially
true in Japan,where "cram schools"exist all over the country.
There are actually chains of them. These operationsteach pre-
schoolers,sometimeseven one-year-olds,to preparefor entrance
examsto prestigiouselementaryschools(the necessaryfirst step
toward placement in a high-level Japaneseuniversity). There,
small children perform drills in literature,grammar,math, and a
wide variety of other subjectsto gain an edgeon their "competi-
tion." So much for recessand arts and crafts.It's a common belief
that a potential Japaneseexecutive'sfuture is largelydetermined
by the time he or sheentersfirst grade.
This is also the casein the United Statesand in other parts of
the world. In citieslike Los Angelesand New York, there is fierce
competition for placesin particular kindergartenschools.Chil-
dren are being interviewedat the age of three to seeif they are
suitablematerial.I assumethat earnestselectionpanelsarethumb-
ing through the rdsum6sof thesetoddlers,assessing their achieve-
ments 1s d2ss-"{6u mean this is it? Youve been around for
almost thirty-six months, and this is all you'vedone?You seemto
have spent the first six months doing nothing but lying around
and gurgling."
Cram schoolsexistall overthe globe.In England,cram schools
focus on getting kids through collegeentranceexams,as do SAT
prep coursesin the United States.In India, cram schoolsknown
as "tutorials" help students drive through competitive tests. In
Turkey, the dershanesystempushesstudentstoward getting ahead,
with extensiveprogramsfor studentson weekendsand after school
during the week.
It's difficult to believethat an education system that places
this kind of pressureon children is of benefit to anyone--rhe
chilclrenor their communities.N{ostcountriesare tnaking efforts
 Making the Grade 235

to reform education.In myvieq they aregoing about it in exactly

the wrong way.

ReformingEducation

Nearly everysystemof public educationon earth is in the process

of being reformed-in Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and
the Middle East. There are two main reasons.The first is eco-
nomic. Every region in the world is facing the same economic
challenge-how to educatetheir peopleto find work and create
wealth in a world that is changing faster than ever.The second
reasonis cultural. Communities throughout the world want to
take advantageof globalization,but they don't want to losetheir
own identitiesin the process.Francewants to stayFrench,for ex-
ample, and Japanwants to stayJapanese.Cultural identitiesare
alwaysevolving,but educationis one of the ways in which com-
munities try to control the rate of change.This is why there'sal-
wayssuch heat generatedaround the content ofeducation.
The mistake that many policymakersmake is to believethat
in educationthe bestway to facethe future is by improving what
they did in the past.There arethreemajor processes in education:
the curriculum, which is what the schoolsystemexpectsstudents
to learn; pedagogy,the processby which the systemhelps stu-
dents to do it; and assessment, the processof judging how well
they are doing. Most reform movementsfocus on the curriculum
and the assessment.
Typically,policymakerstry to take control of the curriculum
and specify exactly what students should learn. In doing this,
they tend to reinforcethe old hierarchyofsubjects,putting greater
emphasison the disciplinesat the top of the existing hierarchy
(the back-to-basics drive we discussedearlier). In practice, this
means that they push other disciplines-and the studentswho
236 The Element

excelat thsrn-svsn further to the margins of education.In the

United States,for example,more than 70 percentof school dis-
tricts have cut back or eliminated arts programsbecauseof No
Child Left Behind.
Next, they put greateremphasison assessment. This is not
wrong in itself,The problemis the method used.Typically,reform
movementsrely increasinglyon the proliferationof standardized
tests.One of the principal efficts is to discourageinnovationand
creativity in education, the very things that make schoolsand
studentsthrive. Severalresearchstudiesshow the negativeimpact
of unrestrictedstandardizedtesting on srudentand teachermo-
rale.There'.slots of anecdotalevidencetoo.
A friend recentlytold me that his eight-year-oldannouncedin
October that her teacher"hadn't done any teaching" since the
school year began. She said this was becauseher school insisted
that the teacherfocus on preparing for the upcoming statewide
standardizedtests.My friend'sdaughterfound the endlessreview
in preparationfor thesetestsboring, and shewould havepreferred
that her teacher"teach" insteadof doing this. Interestingly,when
my friend and his wife had their semiannualmeeting with the
teacher,the teachercomplained bitterly that she gets to spend
much lesstime on a readingprogram shelovesbecausethe school
administrationforcesher to prep her studentsfor the district-wide
teststhat comeup everymarking period. Good teachersfind their
own creativitysuppressed.
Third, policymakerspenalize"failing" schools.In the caseof
No Child Left Behind, schoolsthat fail to meet guidelinesfive
yearsin a row, regardless suchassocioeconomics,
of circutnstances
face the termination of teachersand principals, school closures,
and the takeoverof schoolsby privateorganizationsor the state.
Theseschoolsstruggleto conform to the hierarchyand the culture
 Making the Grade 237

of standardization,fearfully eschewingnearly all efforts at creativ-

ity or adaptationto the specificneedsand talentsofthe students.
Let me be clear here. I'm not against standardizedtests in
principle. If I go fbr a medical examination, I want some stan-
dardizedtests.I want to know what my blood sugarand choles-
terol levelsare in comparisonwith everybodyelse's.I want my
doctor to use a standard test and a standardscale,and not ones
that he thought up in the car on the way to work. But the testsin
themselvesareonly usefulaspart of a diagnosis.The doctor needs
to know what to make of the resultsin my particular case,and to
let me know what I should do about them given my particular
physiology.
It's the samein education.Used in the right way,standardized
testscan provideessentialdata to supportand improveeducation.
The problem comeswhen thesetestsbecomemore than simply a
tool of educationand turn into the focus of it.
\Thatever its educationaleffects,standardizedtesting is now
big business.'Ihere's a considerableprofit motive associated with
increasingrelianceon standardizedtests.According to the Gov-
ernmentAccountability Office (GAO), in the United Statesindi-
vidual stateswill spend in the range of $1.9 billion and $5.3
billion eachbetween2002and 2008 to irnplementthe testsman-
dated by No Child Left Behind. This number includes direct
costsonly. Indirect costscould make thesefiguresten times larger.
Most of this moneygoesto privatetestingcompaniesthat create,
administer,and gradethe tests.Standardizedtesting has become
a booming industry. Using the GAO figures,thesetesting com-
paniesmay generateconsiderablymore than $ 100 billion in busi-
nessoversevenyears.
You'll noticethat I haven'tyet mentionedteaching.The reason
is that policymakers,for the nrost part, don't seemto understand
238 'I'he Element

its fundamental importance in raising standardsin education.

My own extremelystrong beliel basedon decadesof work in the
field, is that the best way to improve education is not to focus pri-
marily on the curriculum, nor on assessment, important though
thesethings are.The most po\4/erfulmethod of improving educa-
tion is to investin the improvementof teachingand the statusof
great teachers.There isn't a great school anywherethat doesn't
have great teachersworking in it. But there are plenty of poor
schoolswith shelvesof curriculum standardsand reamsof stan-
dardizedtests.
The fact is that given the challengeswe face,educationdoesn't
needto be refbrmed-it needsto be transformed.The key to this
transformationis not to standardizeeducationbttt to personalize
it, to build achievementon discoveringthe individual talentsof
eachchild, to put studentsin an environmentwherethey want to
learn and where they can naturally discovertheir true passions.
The key is to embracethe cor:eprinciplesof the Element.Someof
the most invigorating and succcssfulinnovations in education
around the world illustratethe real power of this approach.

Transform i ng Edu cat i on

In the first part of rny career,I worked particularly in the field of

drama education.I did this becauseI -wasalwaysdeeplyimpressed
by the power of drama to invigoratethe imaginationsoichildren
and to promote a strong senseof coilaboration,self-esteem, and
community feeling in classroomsand schools. Children learn
bestwhen they learn from eachother and when their teachersare
learning with them. As I mentionedearlier,when I met my wife
and partner, Terry, she was teaching drama in an elementary
schoolin Knowsley,a low-incomeand difficult part of the city of
Liverpool. Nonetheless,the schoolwas achieving remarkablere-
 Making the Grade 239

sults.The reasonswere simple.First, the schoolwas led by an in-

spirational head teacherwho understood the lives the children
wereleading.He alsounderstoodthe realprocesses by which they
could be excited to learn. Second, he hired staff members, like
Terry, who were passionatein their disciplinesand gifted at con-
necting with the children. This is Terry'saccountof the school's
approach:
"I passionatelybelievethat, when it is properly integratedinto
the curriculum, drama can transform the culture of a school.I
know this from my own experienceas a teacherin one of the
'W"e
poorestareasof Liverpooi. actually kept clean clothesat the
schoolfor someof the kids to wear while attending classes. T'hey
would changeinto them in the morning and changeout of them
to go home.\Wediscoveredthat if they werejust given the clothes,
within a week, they would be in just as bad a stateas the rest of
their things, or they would mysteriouslydisappear.
"Someof the children lived in terriblecircumstancesat home.
I rememberthat in one of our creativewriting ciasses, one of the
girls wrote a story about deadbabies.\fe werestruck by the vivid-
nessofthis story,and the schoolcontactedsocialservicesto check
what was happeningat home. They discoveredthat her prema-
ture baby sister'sbody was rotting under her bed. \7e had over-
crowdedclassroomsand everyimaginablesocialprobiem,but we
also had a world-classgroup of committed teachersand a vision-
ary headmaster.
"He believedin playing to our strengthsand that teaching
shouldbe child-centered.He calleda staff meetingto discusshow
we could redesignthe school day and askedeach of us to talk
about our subjectspecializationand what we loved to teachbest.
At that time it was usual for children to stay with their class
teacherall da1'.Over the course of a few months of meetings we
came up with a plan. In the mornings, we would teachour class
240 The Element

reading,writing, and math, and then in the afternoonwe would

teach our favorite subject.This meant that over the courseof a
week eachteacherwas teachingthe whole school.
'As a drama teacher,my job was to look at the topicseachyear
group was studying in all subjectsand to bring them to life in the
hall. Another teacherwould take art, anothergeography,another
history, and so on. Then we wouid pick the topics for eachyear
group.\Whenthe ten-year-oldsread the story of the FrenchRevo-
lution, they built a guillotine with the help of the scienceteacher,
and then we constructedtrials, held executions,and even spoke
'We "decapitated" few
someFrench. a teachers,too.
"\7hen the topic was archaeologyin Roman times, we per-
fbrmed adapted versions of Julius Caesar.Becausethey had
becomecomfortablewith the process,when it came time to put
on the schoolplays,the kids were confident and desperateto be
involved, to perform, sew costumes,build sets,write, sing, and
dance.They couldn't wait to get to their lessons.It was a lot of
fun, and it wasso fulfilling to seehow kids developedsocialskills
and interacted.
"They were using their imaginationsin ways they neverhad
before.Kids who had neverexcelledat anything suddenlyfound
they could shine. Kids who couldn't sit still didn't have to, and
quite a few discoveredthey could act, entertain, write, debate,
and stand up with confidenceto addressan entire group. The
standardof all their work improveddramatically.There wasgreat
support from parents, and the governorsused the school as a
model. It wasall becauseof the headteacher,Albert Hunt, a won-
derful man."
Unlike his experiencewith music classes,Paul McCartney
had a wonderful experiencewith the teacherwho introducedhim
to Chaucerbecausethat teacherchoseto do so in a way that he
knew would reachthe teenagedboy.
 Mahing the Grade 241

"The best teacherI had was our English teacher,Alan Dur-

band. He was great. I was good with him too becausehe under-
stood our mentality as fifteen- and sixteen-year-oldboys. I did
Advanced Level English with him. \7e were studying Chaucer
and it was impossibleto follow it. Shakespeare was hard enough
but Chaucerwasworse.It was like a completelyforeign language.
You know, '\fhan that Aprille with his shouressoote,'all that
type of thing. But Mr. Durband gaveus a modern English trans-
lation by Neville Coghill, which had the original Chauceron one
pageand the modern versionon the facing page,so you could get
the story and what it was really about.
'And he told us that Chaucerwasa really popular writer in his
time and quite bawdy.He knew that would get us interested,and
it did. He told us to read The Miller's Tale.Yle couldn't believe
how bawdy it was. The bit when she pokes her bum out of the
window and he talks about kissing a beard . . . I was hooked. He
really turned me on to literature.He understoodthat the key for
us would be sex and it was. \7hen he turned that kev. I was
hooked."
There are inspiring models of educationat work throughout
the world. In the northern Italian town of ReggioEmilia, a brea.k-
through method of preschooleducationarosein the early 1960s.
Known now internationallyasthe Reggioapproach,this program
seesyoung children asintellectuallycurious,resourceful,and full
of potential.The curriculum is child-directed;teacherstake their
lessonswhere student interestsdictate. The setting of the school
is vitally important and consideredan essentialteaching too[.
Teachersfill the roomswith dramatic play areas,worktables,and
multiple environmentswherethe kids can interact,problem-solve,
and learn to cornmunicateeffectively.
Reggio schoolsspend a great deal of time on the arts, be-
lieving that childrenlearn multiple "symboliclanguages"through
242 The Element

painting, music, puppetry,drama, and other art forms to explore

their talents in all of the ways in which humans learn. A poem
from founder Loris Malaguzzi underscoresthis:

The child
is madeof one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hu n d re dw a y so f th i n k i n g
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred alwaysa hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred.ioys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred more)
but they stealninety-nine.
The schooland the culture
separatethe head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understandwithout joy
 Mahing the Grade 243

to love and to marvel

only at Easterand Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discoverthe world alreadythere
and of the hundred
they stealninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
scienceand imagination
sky and earth
reasonand dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child

that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred zi there.

Reggioteachersbuild the schoolyear around weeklongshort-

term projectsand yeadonglong-term projectsin which students
make discoveriesfrom a variety of perspectives, learn to hypothe-
size,and discoverhow to collaboratewith one another,all in the
contextof a curriculum that feelsa greatdeal like play.The teach-
ersconsiderthemselvesresearchers for the children, helping them
to exploremore ofwhat intereststhem, and they seethemselvesas
continuing to learn alongsidetheir pupils.
For the pasttwo decades,Reggioschoolshavereceivedconsid-
erable acclaim, rvinning the LEGO Prize, the Hans Christian
AndersenPrize,and an award from the Kohl Foundation.There
are currently schoolsall over the world (including thirty Ameri-
can states)using the Reggioapproach.
244 The Element

The town of Grangeton is very different from the town of

ReggioEmilia. In fact, it isn't technicallya town at all. It's actu-
ally an environmentrun by elementaryschoolstudentsat Grange
Primary, in Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire, in central England.
The town has a mayor and a town council, a newspaperand a
televisionstudio, a food market and a museum,and children are
in chargeof everybit of it. Head teacherRichard Gerverbelieves
that "learning hasto mean somethingfor young people."So when
the schoolboard hired him to turn around the fagging school,he
took the dramatic approachof creatingGrangeton.The goal was
to inspire kids to learn by connectingtheir lessonsto their place
in the realworld. "My key words areexperientialand contextual,"
Gerver told me.
Gerverchangedaround the curriculum at the schoolentirely-
and he did it while working within the guidelinescreatedby na-
tional testing. The studentsat Grange are involved in rigorous
classroomwork, but all of it comesto them in a way that allows
them to understandthe practicalapplications.Math meansmore
when put in the contextof running a cashregisterand estimating
profits. Literacyand writing skills gain additional meaningwhen
employed in the serviceof an original film screenplay.Science
comes alive when students use technology to make television
shows.Music appreciationgainsnew purposewhen children need
to determine playlists for the radio station. Civics makes sense
when the council has decisionsto make. Gerver regularlvbrings
industry professionalsin to help the studentswith technicaltrain-
ing. The BBC is activelyinvolvedhere.
The children in the upper grades hold the positions with
the greatestresponsibility(and their curriculum is most heavily
weighted toward the Grangeton model), but younger students
take an activerole nearlyas soonas they get to the school.'At no
stagearewe giving them the message that we'reteachingthem to
 Mahing the Grade 245

passan exam," noted Gerver. "They are learning becausethey

can seehow it movestheir community of Grangetononwards-
examsarea way of assessing their progressto that end. It's giving
the children a completely different perspectiveof why they are
here."
Attendanceat Grange is well abovenational averages. Mean-
while, the studentsperform in exemplaryfashionon the national
tests.In 2004, 9l percent of them exhibited proficiencyin En-
glish (a 3O-pointincreasefrom2002, the yearbeforethe program
started),87 percentexhibited proficiencyin math (a l4-point in-
crease),and 100 percent exhibited proficiencyin science(a 20-
point increase)."The project has had a remarkableimpact on
attitudes," said Gerrrer."'W'herepupils were de-motivatedand
lackluster,particularly the boys and the potential high achievers,
thereis now real excitementand commitment. That ethoshasfed
dramaticallyinto the classroom,whereteachershaveadaptedand
developedtheir teachingand leaming to becomemore experien-
tial and contextual.Children arc more confident and as a result
more independent.I-earningat Grangehas a real purposefor the
children, and they feelpart of somethingveryexciting.The effect
has alsofed into staff and parents,who havebegun to contribute
so much to the project'sfurther development."
A recent report from Ofsted, the British school inspection
agency,noted of Grange,"Pupils love coming to schooland talk
enthusiasticallyabout the many exciting experienceson offer,
tackling thesewith eagerness, excitement,and confidence."
In the stateof Oklahoma there is a groundbreakingprogram
called A+ Schoolsthat builds on a tremendouslysuccessfulpro-
gram that beganin North Carolina. This program, now in usein
more than forty schoolsacrossOklahoma, emphasizesthe arts as
a way of teachinga wide variety of disciplineswithin the curricu-
lum. Studentsmight write rap songsto help them understandthe
246 'Ihe Elemenr

salientthemesin works of literature.They might usecollagesof

different sizesto allow them to seethe practical usesof math.
Dramatic presentationsmight characterizekey momentsin his-
tory, while dancemovementsmake essentialpoints about science.
Severalof the schoolshold monthly "informances"that combine
live performancewith academicdetail.
A+ Schoolsencourageteachersto use learning tools such as
mapping, thematic webbing (establishingconnectionsbetween
varioussubjectareas),the developmentof essentialquestions,the
creation and use of interdisciplinary thematic units, and cross-
curricular integration. They build the curriculum around ex-
periential learning. They use enriched assessment tools to help
studentsmaintain an ongoing graspof how they are doing. They
encouragecollaborationbetweenteachersof different disciplines,
betweenstudents,and between the school and the community.
They build an infrastructure that supportsthe program and its
distinctive way of dealing with state-mandatedcurriculum. And
they fostera climate where studentsand teacherscan feel excited
about the work they are doing.
The schoolsin the A+ program cut acrosswide demographic
groups.There are urban schoolsand rural schools,large schools
and small, schoolsin affluent areasand those in economically
challengedones.Consistently,though,theA+ schoolsshowmarked
improvement on standardizedtests and often exceedthe test
scoresof schoolswith similar demographicsthat do not use the
A+ program. One A+ school, I.inwood Elementary School in
Oklahoma City, has twice won the Oklahoma Title I Academic
AchievementAward. In 2006, the schoolwas one of only five in
the country to receivethe Excellencein Education Award from
the National Center for Urban Schooltansfbrmation.
 Making the Grade 247

Elemental Education

The fundamental theme of this book is that we urgently needto

make fuller useof our own natural resources. This is essentialfor
our well-beingand for the health of our communities.Education
is supposedto be the processthat developsall resources.For all
the reasonsI haveset out, too often it is not. Many of the people
I ve talked about in this book say that they went through the
whole of their education without really discovering their true
talents. It is no exaggerationto say that many of them did not
discovertheir real abilitiesuntil after they left school-until they
had recoveredfrom their education.As I saidat the ourser,I don't
believethat teachersarecausingthis problem.It's a systemicprob-
lem in the nature of our educationsystems.In fact, the real chai-
lengesfor educationwill only be met by empoweringpassionate
and creativeteachersand by firing up the imaginationsand moti-
vationsof the students.
The coreideasand principlesof the Elementhaveimplications
for eachof the main areasof education.The curriculum of educa-
tion for the twenty-first century must be transformedradically.I
have describedintelligenceas being diverse,dynamic, and dis-
tinct. Here is what it meansfor education.First, we needto elimi-
nate the existinghierarchyof subjects.Elevatingsomedisciplines
over othersonly reinforcesoutmoded assumptionsof industrial-
ism and offendsthe principleof diversity.Too many studentspass
through educationand havetheir natural talentsmarginalizedor
ignored.The arts, sciences,humanities,physicaleducation,lan-
guages,and math all have equal and central contributions to
maketo a student's education.
Second,we needto questionthe entire idea of "subjects."For
generations,we havepromotedthe ideathat the arts, the sciences,
the humanities,and the rest are categoricallydiflbrent from each
248 The Element

other. The truth is that they have much in common. There is

great skill and objectivity in the arts, just as there is passionand
intuition at the heart of science.The ideaof separatesubjectsthat
havenothing in common offendsthe principle of dynamism.
School systems should base their curriculum not on the
idea of separatesubjects,but on the much more fertile idea of
disciplines. Math, for example, isn't just a set of information
to be learned but a complex pattern of ideas, practical skills,
and concepts.It is a discipline-or rather a set of disciplines.So
too are drama, art, technology, and so on. The idea of disci-
plines makes possiblea fluid and dynamic curriculum that is
interdisciplinary.
Third, the curriculum should be personalized.Learning h"P-
pensin the minds and soulsof individuals-not in the databases
of multiple-choicetests.I doubt therearemany childrenwho leap
out of bed in the morning wondering what they can do to raise
the reading scorefor their state.Learning is a personalprocess,
especiallyif we are interestedin moving peopletoward the Ele-
ment. The current processes of educationdo not take accountof
individual learningstylesand talents.In that way, they offend the
principle of distinctiveness.
Many of those whose storiesI have told in this book would
agree.For them the liberation came from meeting their passion
and being ableto pursueit. As Don Lipski says,"The main thing
is to encouragekids to follow anything they haveenthusiasmfor.
\7hen I got interestedin magic, I got great encouragementand
support. I devotedmyself to magic in the sameway that I do art-
work now. A kid may havea thing about baseball,not playing it
but learning all the statisticsof the playersand knowing who
should be traded to what team. It may seemuseless,but maybe
that kid will end up being the managerof a baseballteam. If a kid
is the only one in the classwho'san operafan, that should be vali-
 Mahing the Grade 249

dated and encouraged.\Thatever it might be for, enthusiasmis

the main thing that needsto be developed."
The Element has implicationsfor teaching.Too many reform
movementsin educationare designedto make educationteacher-
proof, The most successfulsystemsin the world take the opposite
view. They invest in teachers.The reasonis that peoplesucceec
best when they have others who understandtheir talents,chal-
lenges,and abilities.This is why mentoring is sucha helpful force
in so many peopleslives. Great teachershave alwaysunderstood
that their real role is not to teachsubjectsbut to teachstudents.
Mentoring and coaching is the vital pulse of a living systemof
education.
The Elementhasimplicationsfor assessment. Educationis be-
ing strangledpersistentlyby the culture of standardizedtesting.
The irony is that thesetestsare not raising standardsexceprin
somevery particular areas,and at the expenseof most of what re-
ally mattersin education.
To get a perspectiveon this, comparethe processes of quality
assurancein educationwith thosein an entirely different field-
catering.In the restaurantbusiness,thereare two distinct models
of quality assurance.The first is the fast-food model. In this
model, the quality of the food is guaranteed,becauseit is all stan-
dardized.The fast-foodchainsspecifyexactlywhat should be on
the menu in all of their outlets.They specifywhat should be in
the burgersor nuggets,the oil in which they should be fried, the
exactbun in which they should be served,how the fries should be
made,what shouldbe in the drinks, and exactlyhow they should
be served.They specify how the room should be decoratedand
what the staff shouldwear. Evervthing is standardized.It's often
dreadful and bad for you. Someforms of fast food are contribut-
ing to the massiveexplosionof obesity and diabetesacrossrhe
world. But at leastrhe quality is guaranteed.
250 The Element

The other model of quality assurancein cateringis the Mi-

chelin guide. In this model, the guides establishspecificcriteria
for excellence,but they do not sayhow the particular restaurants
should meet thesecriteria.They don't saywhat should be on the
menu, what the staff should wear, or how the rooms should be
decorated.All of that is at the discretionof the individual restau-
rant. The guidessimply establishcriteria,and it is up to everyres-
taurant to meet them in whateverway they seebest. They are
then judged not to someimpersonalstandard,but by the assess-
ments of expertswho know what they are looking for and what a
great restaurantis actually like. f'he result is that everyMichelin
restaurantis terrific. And they are all unique and different from
eachother.
One of the essentialproblemsfor educationis that most coun-
tries subjecttheir schoolsto the fast-foodmodel of quality assur-
ancewhen they should be adopting the Michelin model instead.
The future for educationis not in standardizingbut in customiz-
ing; not in promoting groupthink and "deindividuation" but in
cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of
everysort. For the future, educationmust be Elemental.
The examplesI havejust given point the way to the sorts of
educationwe now need in the twenty-first century.A number of
them build on principlesthat educationalvisionarieshave been
promoting for generations-principles ofien seen as eccentric,
evenheretical.And they were,then. The viewsof thesevisionaries
wereaheadof their times (hencemy describingthem asvisionary).
But the right time has arril'ed.If we are seriousabout educational
transformation,we must understandthe times and catch the new
tide. \Wecan ride it into the future, or be overwhelmedand sink
back into the past.
The stakescould hardly be higher for education and for all
who passthrough it.
 Afterword

JlrNlrNc run, ElBusNr in yourselfis essential to discover-

H .'ing
I what you can really do and who you really are. At one
level,this is a very personalissue.It's about you and peopleyou
know and care for. But there is a larger argument here as well.
The Elementhaspowerful implicationsfor how to run our schools,
businesses, communities,and institutions.The coreprinciplesof
the Elementare rooted in a wider, organic conceptionof human
growth and devclopment.
'We
Earlier,I arguedthat we don't seethe world directly. per-
ceiveit through frameworksof ideasand beliefs,which act as fil-
ters on what we seeand how we seeit. Someof theseideasenter
our consciousness so deeply that weie not even awareof them.
'fhey strike us as simple common sense.They often show up,
though, in the metaphorsand imageswe useto think about our-
selvesand about the world around us.
Sir IsaacNewton, the greatphysicist,composedhis theoriesat
the dawn of the mechanicalage.To him the universeseemedlike
an enormousmechanicalclock, with perfectlyregular cyclesand
rhythms. Einstein and othershavesinceshown that the universe
is not like a clockat ail; its mysteriesaremore complicated,subtle,
and dynamic than eyenyour favoritewatch. Modern sciencehas
changedmetaphors,and in doing so has shifted our understand-
ing of how the universeworks.
In our own time, though, we still routinely use mechanistic
252 The Element

and technologicalmetaphorsto describeourselvesand our com-

munities. I often hear peopletalk about the mind as a computer;
about mental inputs and outputs, about "downloading" their
feelingsor being "hardwired" or "programmed"to behavein cer-
tain ways.
If you work in any kind of organization,you may haveseenan
organizationalchart. Typically,theseare comprisedof boxeswith
people'snamesor functions in them and patternsof straightlines
showing the hierarchybetweenthem. These charts tend to look
like architecturaldrawingsor diagramsof electricalcircuitry, and
they reinforcethe idea that organizationsare really like mecha-
nisms,with partsand f unctionsthat only connectin cerrainsorts
of ways.
The power of metaphorsand analogiesis that they point to
similarities,and there are certainly somesimilaritiesin how life-
lesscomputersand living minds actuallywork. Nonetheless, your
mind clearly isn't a solid-statesystem in a metal box on your
shoulders. And human organizations are not at all like mecha-
nisms.They are made up of living peoplewho are driven by feel-
ings and motives and relationships.Organizational charts show
you the hierarchy,but they don't capture how the organization
feelsor how it really works. The fact is that human organizations
and communitiesare not like mechanisms:they are much more
like organisms.

The Climate Crisis

I was in a natural history museum a while ago. It's a fascinating
place. There are separaterooms devoted to different speciesof
creatures.In one,there'sa displayofbutterflies,all arrangedbeau-
tifully in glasscases,pinned through the body, scrupulouslyla-
beled, and dead. The museum grouped them by type and size,
 Afierword 253

with the big ones at the top and smaller onesat the bottom. In
another room, there are beetlessimilarly arrangedby type and
size,and in anotheg thereare spiders.Organizing thesecreatures
into categoriesand putting them in separatecabinetsis one way
of thinking about them, and it's very instructive. But this is not
how they are in the world. 'S7'henyou leavethe museum, you do
not seeall the butterfliesfying in formation, with the large ones
in the front and the small onesar the back. You don't seethe spi-
ders scuttling along in disciplined columns with the small ones
bringing up the rear,while the beetleskeep a respectfuldistance.
In their natural state,thesecreaturesare all over eachother.They
live in complicated,interdependentenvironments,and their for-
tunes relateto one another.
Human communitiesare€xactlythe same,and they arefacing
the samesorts of crisesthat are now confronting the ecosystems
of the natural environment.The analogyhereis strong.
The relationshipsof living systemsand our widespreadfailure
to understand them was the theme of Silent Spring, Rachel Car-
son'shard-hitting book publishedin Septembe r 1962.Sheargued
that the chemicalsand insecticidesthat farmerswereusing to im-
prove cropsand destroypestswere having unexpectedand disas-
trous consequences. As they drained into the ground, thesetoxic
chemicalswere polluting water systemsand destroying marine
life. By indiscriminatelykilling insects,farmerswere also upset-
ting the delicateecosystemson which many other forms of life
depended,including the plants the insectspropagatedand the
countlessbirds who fed on the insectsthemselves.As the birds
died, their songsweresilenced.
RachelCarsonwas one of a number of pioneerswho helpedto
shift our thinking about the ecologyof the natural world. From
the beginning of the industrial age,human beingsseemedto see
nature as an infinite warehouseof useful resourcesfor industrial
254 The Element

'We
production and material prosperity. mined the earth for coal
and ore, drilled through the bedrock for oil and gas,and cleared
the forestsfor pasture.All of this seemedrelativelystraightfor-
ward. The downsideis that, three hundred yearson, we may have
brought the natural world gaspingto its knees,and we now facea
major crisisin the useof the earth'snatural resources.
The evidenceof this is so strong that somegeologistssaywe
areenteringa new geologicalage.The last ice ageendedten thou-
sandyearsago.Geologistscall the period sincethen the Holocene
epoch.Someare calling the new geologicalperiod the Anthropo-
cene age, from the Greek word for human, anthropos.They say
the impact of human activity on the earth'sgeologyand natural
systemshas createdthis new geologicera.The effectsinclude the
acidificationof the oceans,new patternsof sediments,the erosion
and corrosionof Earth'ssurface,and the extinction of many thou-
sandsof natural speciesof animals and plants. Scientistsbelieve
that this crisisis real,and that we haveto do somethingprofound
within the next few generationsif we'reto avoid a catastrophe.
One climate crisis is probably enough for you. But I believe
there'sanotherone,which is just asurgentasand hasimplications
just as far-reachingas the crisiswe'reseeingin the natural world.
This isn't a crisisof natural resources.It is a crisis of human re-
sources.I think of this as the otherclimatecrisis.

The Other Climate Crisis

The dominant \tresternworldview is not basedon seeingsyner-

giesand conn€ctionsbut on making distinctions and seeingdif-
ferences.'fhis is why rn'epin butterfies in separateboxesfrom the
beetles-and teachseparatesubjectsin schools.
Much of \Testernthoueht assumesthat the mind is separate
 Afierword 255

from the body and that human beingsaresomehowseparatefrom

the restof nature. This may be why so many peopledon't seemto
understandthat what they put into their bodies affectshow ir
works and how they think and feel.It may be why so many people
don't seemto understandthat the quality of their iivesis affected
by the quality of the natural environmentand what they put into
it and what they take out.
The rate of selFinflicted physical illness from bad nutrition
and eating disordersis one exampleof the crisis in human re-
sources.Let me give you a few others.\fe're living in times when
hundredsof millions of peoplecan only get through their day by
relying on prescriptiondrugs to treat clepression and other emo-
tional disorders.The profits of pharmaceuticalcompaniesare
soaring,while the spiritsof their consumerscontinueto dive. De-
pendenceon nonprescriptiondrugs and alcohol,especiallyamong
young people, is also rocketing. So too is the rate of suicides.
Deaths eachyear from suicidearound the world are greaterthan
deathsfrom all armed conflicts.According to the \7orld Health
Organization, suicide is now the third highest causeof death
among peopleagedfifteen to thirty.
\7hat is true of individuals is naturally true of our communi-
ties. I live in California. In 2006, the state of California spent
$3.5 billion on the stateuniversitysystem.It spent$9.9billion on
the state prison system.I find it hard to believethat there are
three times more potential criminals in California than potential
collegegraduates,or that the growing massesof people in jails
throughout the country were simply born to be there. I don't be-
lieve that thereare that many naturally malign peoplewandering
around, in California or anywhere else.In my experience,the
greatmajority <lfpeoplearewell intentionedand want to live lives
with purposeand meaning. Horvevet very many people live in
256 The Element

bad conditions,and theseconditionscan drain them of hope and

purpose. In some ways, these conditions are becoming more
challenging.
At the beginningof the lndustrial Revolution,therewashardly
anybody around. In 1750,therewere one billion peopleliving on
the planet. It took the rvhole of human existencefor the world
population to reach one billion. I know that soundsa lot, and
we've agreedthat the planet is relativelysmall. But it's still big
enough for a billion peopleto spreadout in reasonable comfort.
ln 1930, there were two billion people.It took just one hun-
dred and eighty yearsfor the population to double.But therewas
still plenty of room fbr peopleto lie down. It took only fbrty more
yearsfor us to get to three billion. tVe crossedthat threshold in
1970,just after the Summerof Love,which I'm surewasa coinci-
dence.After that camea spectacularincrease.On New Year'sEve
1999,you weresharingthe planetwith six billion other people.
The human popularion had doubled in thirty years.Some esti-
mates suggestthat we'll hit nine billion by the midcltreof the
twenty-first century.
Anorher factor is the growth of cities.Of the one billion peo-
ple on Earth at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution,only 3 per-
cent lived in cities.By 1900, 12 percentof the almost two billion
peoplelived in cities.By 2000, neariyhalf of the six billion people
on Earth lived in cities. It's estimatedthat by 2050 more than
60 percentof the nine billion hurnan beingswill be city dwellers.
By 2020. there may be rnore than frr'e hundred cities on Earth
with populationsaboveone million, and more than tu'enty nrega-
cities, with populations in excessof twenty million. Already,
Greater Tokyo has a population of thirty-five million. This is
greaterthan the total population of Canada,a territory four thou'
sand times larger.
Someof thesemassivecitieswill bc in the so-calleddeveloped
 Aferword 257

countries.They will be well planned,with shoppingmalls, infor-

mation booths, and property taxes.But the real growth isn't hap-
pening in thoseparts of the world. Itt happeningin the so-called
developingworld-parts of Asia, South America, the Middle
East, and Africa. Many of thesesprawling cities will be mainly
shantytowns,self-built with poor sanitation,little infrastructure,
and barelyany socialsupportservices.This massivegrowrh in the
sizeand densityof human populationsacrossEarth presenrsenor-
mous challenges.It demandsthat we tackle the crisisin natural
resources with urgency.But it demandstoo thar we tacklethe cri-
sisin human resourcesand that we think differently about the re-
lationshipsbetween these two. All of this points to a powerful
need for new ways of thinking-and new metaphorsabout hu-
man communitiesand how they fourish or decay.
For more than three hundred years\(/esternthought has been
dominatedby the imagesof industrialismand the scientificmethod.
It's time to changemetaphors.\7e have ro move beyond linear,
mechanistic metaphors to rnore organic metaphorsof human
growth and development.
A living organism,like a plant, is complexand dynamic. Each
ofits internal processes affectsand dependson rh€othersin sus-
taining the vitality of the whole organism.f"his is also true of the
habitatsin which we live. Most living things can only flourish in
certain typesof environrnent,and the relationshipsbetweenthem
are often highly specialized.Healthy, successfulplants rake the
nutrients they need frorn their environment.At the same rirne,
though, their presencehelpsto sustainthe environrnenton which
they depend.There areexceptions,like the Leylandcypresses rhat
just seemto rake over everything in their path, but you ger rhe
idea.The sameis true of all creaturesand animals,including us.
Farmersbasetheir livelihoodson raisingcrops.But farmersdo
not make plants grornrThey don't attach the roors, glue on the
258 The Element

petals,or color the fruit. The plant grows itself.Farmersand gar-

denersprovide the conditions for growth. Good farmersknow
what thoseconditionsare,and bad onesdon't. Understandingthe
dynamic elementsof human growth is as essentialto sustaining
human cultures into the future as the need to understandthe
ecosystems of the natural world on which we ultimately depend.

Aiming High
A few hundred miles awayfrom my home in Los Angelesis Death
Valley,one of the hottest,driestplaceson earth. Not much grows
in Death Valley,hencethe name.The reasonis that it doesn'train
very much there-about two inchesa yearon average.However,
in the winter of 2004-5, somethingremarkablehappened.More
than seveninches of rain fell on Death Valley, something that
had not happenedfor generations.Then in the spring of 2005,
something evell more remarkablehappened.Spring flowerscov-
ered the entire floor of Death Valley. Photographers,botanists,
and just plain touriststraveledacrossAmerica to seethis remark-
able sight, something they might never see again in their life-
times. Death Valley was alive with fresh,vibrant growth. At the
end of the spring, the flowers died away and slipped again be-
neath the hot desertsand, waiting for the next rains, whenever
they would come.
tVhat this proved, of course,was that Death Valley wasn't
dead at all. It was asleep.It was simply waiting for the conditions
of growth. \7hen the conditionscame,life returned to the heart
of Death Valley.
Human beings and human communities are the same.\(e
need the right conditions for growth, iu our schools,businesses,
and communities,and in our individual lives.lf the conditions
are right, peoplegrow in synergywith the people around them
 Afienaord 259

and the environmentsthey create.If the conditionsarepoor, peo-

ple protect themselyesand their anxietiesfrom neighborsand the
world. Some of the elementsof our own growth are inside us.
They include the need to developour unique natural aptitudes
and personalpassions.Finding and nurturing them is the surest
way to ensureour growth and fulfillment as individuals.
If we discoverthe Element in ourselvesand encourageothers
to find theirs, the opportunitiesfor growth are infinite. If we fail
to do that, we may get by, but our liveswill be duller as a result.
This is not just a'West Coast, California argument,eventhough
I do live there now. I believedthis in the damp, cold daysof De-
cemberin England, when thesethoughts can be harder to come
by. This is not a new view It's an ancientview of the needfor bal-
ance and fulfillment in our lives and for synergieswith the lives
and aspirationsother people.It's an idea that is easilylost in our
current forms of existence.
The crisesin the worlds of nature and of human resourcesare
connected.JonasSalk was the pioneeringscientistwho developed
the Salk polio vaccine.As somebodywho contractedpolio in the
1950s,I feel someaffinity with his life's passion.Later in his life,
Salk made a provocativeobservation,one that addresses the two
forms of climate crisis."It's interestingto reflect,"he said, "that
if all the insectswere to disappearfrom the earth, within fifty
yearsall other forms of life would end." He understood,asRachel
Carson did, that the insects we spend so much effort trying
to eradicateare essentialthreads in the intricate web of life on
Earth. "But," Salk went on, "if all human beingswere to disap-
pearfrom the earth,within fifty yearsall other forms of life would
fourish."
\fhat he meantis that we havenow becomethe problem.Our
extraordinarycapacityfor imagination has given rise to the most
far-reachingexamplesof human achievementand has taken us
 The Element

from cavesto citiesand from marshesto the moon. But thereis a

danger now that our imaginations may be failing us. \(/e have
seenfar, but not far enough.\Westill think too narrowly and too
closelyabout ourselvesasindividualsand asa speciesand too little
about the consequencesof our actions. To make the best of
our time togetheron this small and crowded planet,we have to
develop-consciously and rigorously-our powers of imagina-
tion and creativity within a different framework of human pur-
pose.Michelangelooncesaid,"The greatestdangerfor most of us
is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low
and we reachit." For all our futures,we needto aim high and be
determinedto succeed.
To do that each of us individually and all of us togetherneed
to discoverthe Element.
 Notes

Chapter One: The Element

GrrrraN LyNNr: All material in this segrnent came from an original inter-
view for this book.
Matr GnonNrNrc:All material in rhis segmenr came from an original in-
terview for this book.
Peul Senrur,lsoN:Paul Samuelson, "How I Became an Economist," http://
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/econom ics/articles/samuelson-2/index
.html.

Chapter Two: Think Differently

Mrcr Frarr,*zooo: All material in this segmenr came from an original
interview for this book.
SrNsrs: Kathryn Linn Geurts, Cuhure antl the Senses: Bodily Ways
of Knowing in an African Community (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Uni-
versity of California Press,2003).
Andrew Cook, "Exploding the Five Senses,"http://www.hummingbird
-one.co.uk/humanbeing/five.html.
Benr CoNwpn: All material in this segmenr came fiom an original inter-
view for this book.
IQ, SAT, AND EUGENICs: Jan Strydom and Susan du Plessis, "IQ Test:
tVhere Does It Come From and What Does It Measure?" http://www
.audiblox20 00.com /dyslexia_dyslexic/dyslexia014.htm.
"Timing of IQ Test Can Be a Life or Death Matter," ScienceDaily
Magazine, December 6, 2003.
"The Ftrture of the SAT," http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2001/10i
SAT/.
262 Notes

Alan Stoskepf, "The Forgotten History of Eugenics," http://www

.rethi nkingschools.org/archiveI 13 -03 I ergenic.shtml.
Arnxrs LrNrernE: http://www.news.corn.aulstoryI0,23599,22758356
-13762,00.hrml.
GonnoN Pems: Andy Grundberg, "Gordon Parks, a Master of the Cam-
era, Dies at93," New Yorh Times, March 8,2006.
Corey Kilgannon, "By Gordon Parks, A View of Himself and, Yes, Pic-
t'tres," New York Times, JuJy7,2002.
http : //www.pbs.org/newshourlbb/entertainment/jan-june98/gordon
_l-6.html.
http : //www. aaa.si.edulcollections/oralhistories/transcripts/parks64
.htm.
R. BucrvrNs.rsR IlurI-n,n: http://www.designmuseum.org/design/
r-buckm inster-fu I ler.
Ar-sBRTErNsrErN: tJTalterIsaacson,Eirutein: Hb Life and Uniuerse(New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2007).

Chapter Three: Beyond Imagining

FarrH RrNccoro: The majority of the material in this segment came
from an interview conducted by the author. Aclditional details carne
from http: //www.faithringgold.com/r'inggold/bio.htrn.
BnninnNo Russr,ll: Bertrand Russell,A History of WesternPhilosophy, and
Ix Connection tuith Political and Social Circunutances from
the Earliest Times to the l)resent Day (New York: Simon 6c Schuster,
1945).
PleNarenv pHoros: Graphics by Pompei AD, New York.
Trrr, T'naveI-tNcWrr.eunvs: Originai interview with |ohn Beug, senior ex-
ecutive, Warner Music Group.
http ://w'ww.travelingwilburys.com/theband.htm l.
http :/lwwrv.headbutler.comlmusic/travel ing-wiiburys.asp.
Rrcneno FevNueN: Richard l'}hillips Feynman and Christopher Sykes,
No Ordinary Genius: The lllustrated Richard Feynman (New York:
W. W. Norton. 1994).
Rrolrv Scorr: All material in this segment came from an original inter-
view for this book.
Peul McCanrNEv: All material in this segment came from an oliginal
interview fbr this book.
 Notes 263

Chapter Four: In theZone

Eve L,runeNcE: All material in this segmenr came from an original inter-
view for this book.
AeR.oN SonrrN: All material in this segment came from an original in-
terview for this book.
Entc CraproN: http: //wwwmoretorheblues.com/lapton_sessions.shtml.
J ocurN RrNol: http ://www.evenfl ow.co.uk/mental.htm.
VrrsuR W'nrcsr: http : //www.pi lotpsy.comi fl ights/ 11.html.
MoNrca SBI-es:M. Krug, personal interview of Monica Seles,1999.
Fro.or: Mihaly C.sikszentmihalyi, FIow: 'fbe Psychologyof Optimal Experi-
rzre (New York: HarperCollins, 1990).
Brecr IcB: Sim6ne Banks, "Black lce," Scheme,February 4, 2007.
http : //www. musicremedl,'.corn
/b / Bl ack_Icclalbumi'f he_Death_of
-,Willie*Lynch-323 8. html.
MrNo velplNc: http://www.imindmap.com/.
THe Myrns-Bnrccs Typl', INorcaron: David J. Pittenger, "Measuring
the MBTL . . and Coming Up Short," Journal of Caleer Planning &
Illacement, Fall 1993.
http ://wrvw.j ul iand.com lpsvchological_type.htrnl.
http ://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl. hrm.
i-lannraNN Bn-qrN DonarNescr, INsrmrMF.NT: http://www.juliand.com/
thi nk ing_styie.litml.
'InnnNcn'Iao : http :1/blog.oup.com1200 6 I 09 I interview_with_/.
http: /lwww.college.ucla.edr-r/news/05/terencetaomarh.htm
l.

Chapter Five: Finding Your Tribe

Mrc RyeN: AII nraterial in this segn.renrcame from an original interview
fbr this book.
Don l-Ipsrr: All material in this segment came f,rom an original inter-
view Ibr"this book.
HBreN Pncrrnn: Helen Pilcher, ",A.Funny T'hing Hrppened on the'Way to
the Lab," Science,
December 5,20C2.
BnreN Ray: All material in this segment carne lrom an original interview
for this L'took.
DnsgrE, Au-nN: All material in this segrnenr came from an original
interview for dris book.
Mrcnerl PouNyr: Michaei Poianyi, "The RepuLrlicof Science:Its Political
264 Notes

and EconomicTheory,"tn Knctwingand Being(Chicago:Universityof

C hi c agoP r c s s1969
. ).
Bos DvraN: Bob Dylan, Chronicle-,,Val. 1 (NewYork: Simon& Schuster,
2004).
RaNoarr Corr-INs: Randali Collins, The Sociologyof Philosophies:A
Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press,i998).
Donotnv LnoNeno eNn Varren Sv'ap:l)orothy Leonard and'Walter
Swap,"Gurus in the Garage,"Haruard Bttsiness Reuiew,Nr-rvember-
December2000.
Gnear Gnoups:Warren G. Bennisand PatriciaWard Biederman,Orga-
nizing Genius: The Seuets oJ' Creatiue Collaboration (New York:
Pers eus B ook s .1997 ).
Kwo or Br.ur: Blll Evans,liner notesto Kind of Blueby Miles Davis,Co-
lumbia Records,1959.
AsneFreNa LrNcor-N:Doris Kearns Cloodwin, Teamof Riuak: 7-hePolitical
Geniusof AbrahamLincoln(New York: Simon & Schuster,2005).
RosERrCtalotNI: Dr. Alan Eshleman,"BIRGing, CORFing and Blast-
ing," SanFranciscoChronicle,November 20, 2002.
FeN sEHavron:http://www.tcw.utlvente.nl/theorieen overzichtl'I'heoryo/o
20clusters Com municationyo20and7o
/ Interpersonalo/o20 20Relations/
Social-IdentityJheory.doc/.
http ://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/fans/sit.
shtml.
Howero Cossn: Howard Cosell,Cosell(Chicago:PlayboyPress,1973).
'William
Howard Cosell, I NeuerPlayedrhe (]ame (New York: Mor-
row 1985).
BIlry CoNNou-v:PamelaStephenson,Bil/y (New York: HarperCollins,
2 001) .

Chapter Six: \7hat Will They Think?

CHucr Crosr: Jon Marmor, "Close Call," Columns: 'I'he l/niuersity of
Washington Alutnni Magazine,June 1997.
h ttp :/ / www. aaa. s i .e /c
d uo l l e c ti o n s /o l a l h i s to ri e s / transcri pts/cl ose87
.htm.
CeNooCo D,q.ncrCclvpeNv:Malcolm Tay.,"In the f)ompany of Able(D)
Dancers,"FlyingInkpot,October'2,2000.
Peuro CoErHo: PauloCoelho, op-ed,Indian Express, Februar,v7,2006.
 Notes 265

http : //www.world mind. c om / Cannon/ Cult ur e/ I nt er v i e w s / c o e l h o

.html.
AnreNNe HuprrNcrou: All material in this segment came from an original
interview for this book.
GnouprrrrNr<: Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption: lYhy Children
Turn Out the Wa1 They Do (New York: Free Press, 1998).
VanessaGrigoriadis, "Smooth Operator," Neu York, January 17,2005.
Solomon Asch, "Opinions and Social Pressure," Scientifc American,
1955.
JerryB. Harvey,TheAbilenel)aradoxand OtherMedirarions
onMan-
agement(Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1988).
Zen,,r Heoro: http ://wwwdesignmuseum.org/design/zaha-hadid.

Chapter Seven: Do You Feel Lucky?

JoHN \Trlsors: John Coles, Blindness and the Visionary: The Life and Work
ofJohn \Yilson (London: Giles de la Mare, 2006).
Obituary, Independent (London), December 3, 1999.
Obituary, New York Times,December 7, 1999.
RtcHeno \flIsnveN: Richard \fiseman, The Luch Factor (New York: Mira-
max, 2003).
VIoal SassooN: All material in this segment came from an original inter-
view fbr this book.
Bneo ZoeNtvsrv: Pieta Woolley, "Hell on tffheels," Straight.com, July Z
2005.
http ://www.ctv.calservlet/ArticleNews/story/C'f
VNewsI ll 23261552811
_118670752I ?hub=Canada.

Chapter Eight: Somebody Help Me

Wannnn Burrprr: RogerLowenstein,Bffitt: 'fhe Mahing of an ,4merican
Capiralist(New York: Random House, 1995).
Rev Cnanrss: Harvard Mentoring Project, Harvard School of Public
Health, http ://www.whomentoredyou.org.
ManteN 'Wntcnr EonLvaN: lv{atilda Raffa Cuomo, The PersonWho
ChangedMy Zle (New York: Barnes& Noble, 2002).
Prrerrc/PRlvATs VlNrunrs: http://www.ppv.orglppv/publications/assets/
219_publication.pdf.
Jacrrc RostNsoN:http://www.mentors.ca/Storyl 3.pdf.
266 Notes

Peul McCenrNev: All material in this segment came from an original

interview for this book.
Jerr.rnsEenr Jorsns: Matilda Raffa Cuomo, The Person IYho Changed My
Life (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2002).
Devro Nr,rm : http ://www.telementor.org/aboutus.cfm.

Chapter Nine: Is It Too Late?

SuseN Jnrrnns: All material in this segment came from an original inter-
view for this book.
Hennrnr Donnn: Yvonne Daley, "Late Bloomer," Stanford Magazine, 1997.
Peur Porrs: http://www.paulpottsuk.com.
Juue Cnrrn AND MAGGIEKuHN: Lydia Bronte, "What Longevity Means
to Your Career," Fiue O'Cloch Club Neuts, July 2001, http://www
.fiveoclockclub.com/articlesl -i ndex.shtml# 20 01.
Rrornv Scorr: All material in this segment came from an original inter-
view for this book.
Dn. HsNnv Loocs: Chris Crowley and Harry S. Lodge, M.D., Younger
Than Next Year: Liue Srrong, Fit, and Sexy-Until You're 80 and Beyond
(New York: \forkman, 2005).
http ://www.theupexperience.com/speakers.html.
Dn. SusaN GRBnNprEr-o:Susan Greenfield, The Human Brain: A Guided
Tour (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997).
Clnecr LrvrNc CBNren: Marti Attoun, "School of a Lifetime," American
Profi le.com, December 1, 2002.
Sopnre LonrN: http ://www.sophialoren.com/about/by.htm.

Chapter Ten: For Love or Money

GesntBr Tnop: All material in this segment came from an original inter-
view for this book.
"Tun Pno-Arvr RlvoI-urroN": Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller, "The
Pro-Am Revolution: How Enthusiasts are Changing Our Economy
and Society," www.demos.co.uk, 2004.
Antrun C. Clenrr: http ://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orchid/amateurs
.html#fea*top.
http ://lakdiva.org/clarke/ 1945ww l .
SuseN HsNonlcKsoN: http://www.geocities.com/stegob/susanhendrickson
.html.
 Notes 267

http ://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orchid/amateurs.html#fea_top.
"Trrr" \Wooo: David Halberstam, The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young
Men and Their Questfor an Olympic Gold Medal (New York: Ballantine
Books, 1985).
A Lsc ro Srerqo ON: Burt Helm, "Hedge Funders Band Together for
Charity," BusinessWeek, October 20,2006.
Krreno HosserNr: http ://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/microsite.asp ?id
=480&section= I &aid= 1873.
http ://www.bookbrowse. com /biographies /index. cfm ?author_number
= 90 0.
Mrr-es \flernns: http ://www.nature.com/b dj l jounall v20l l nl l f:uJrll4Sl3Sl5a
.html.
'Wooo:
JonN Bob Cooper, "Rich in Books," San Francisco Chronicle,
September26,2004.
http : //www. roomtoread.org/media/pressI 2007_09 _27_cgi. html.
SuzersNn Pnrpnsou: All material in this segment came from an original
interview for this book.
MrcHeu- Foroyce: hrtp://gethappy.netlv2\2.htm.

Chapter Eleven: Making the Grade

Rrcnano BneNsoN: All material in this segment came from an original
interview for this book.
Paul McCanrNrv: All material in this segment came from an original
interview for this book.
"Tnrs loorro-DowN-upoN TrrrNc": Courtesy of Takeshi Haoriguchi.
UNBrvtployuBNT RATESrroR coLLEGE GRADUATES: http://www.epi.org/
content. cfm /webfeatures-sn apshots-arch ive -0317 20 0 4.
Conncn-rlvnI- JoB oIENTNGS rN rHn UK: hrtp://newsvote.bbc.co
. uk/ m pa pp s /p ag eto ols / pr int / news . bbc . c oluk l2lh i/ business /
3068443.stm.
Eent'IrNcs oF coLLEGE GRADUATEs:http://www.usatoday.com/news/
nation/censusI 20 02-07 -18-degree-dollars.htm.
Cn,l,nuerroN RATEsARouND THE NToRLD:http://wlvlv.economist.com/
PrinterFriendly.cfm ?story_id= 9823950.
Cneu scnoors: Sheryl \X/lrl)unn, "In Japan, Even fbddlers Feel the Pres-
sure to Excel," Neu Yorh Times,fantary 23, \996.
268 Notes

TnB rrsrrnc INDUSTRv:Barbara Miner, "Keeping Public Schools Public,"

Rethinking Schools, Winter 2004-5.
Peur McCenrrsrv: All material in this segment came from an original
interview for this book.
Rrccro scHooLS: Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, and George Forman,
The Hundred Languages of Children: Tbe Reggio Emilia Approach Ad'
uancedRef.ectiazs(Greenwich, Conn.: Ablex, 1998).
Lonrs Malecuzzt: Loris Malag;.zz| "Invece il cento c'e," translated by
Lella Gandini.
http ://www.brainy-ch ild.com/article/reggioemilia.html.
http : //www.reggioalliance.org/schools/index.html.
GneNcEroN: Portions of this segment came from an original interview
for this book.
http : //www.tes.co.uk/search/story/ ?story-id=20 437 74.
http ://www.teachernet.gov.uk/casestudies/casestudl'.cfm ?id= 3 44.
Orreuova A* Scsools: Nicole Ashby, 'Arts Integration at Oklahoma
School Provides Multiple Paths for Learning," Achieuer,J:une1,2007.
http ://www.aplusok.org/.
 Index
Abilene Paradox,144-45
Adderley,Julian"Cannonball,"124
aging, 195-98,2A2-6
Ailey,Alvin.i15-16
Allen, Debbie, 114-16
Altrnan,Robert,122
amateurs,209-IB
derivationof word, 210
leisurevs.recreation,
2lB-24
in OlympicGames,212-13
Pro-Am Revolution,210-l 1
rransfonnation,216-18
Anlo Ewepeople,3l
ants,swarmsof. 14647
aptitude,22-24, 1t9, 179-80
Aristotle,36, l2I
Armstrong,Lance,185
Armstrong,Neil, l86
Aronica,Lou, 180-81
Asch,Solomon,144
AthenianStoics,121
attitude,22, 24-'25, 156, 159,
I 60-68
','rh..ri.in,
A O -4 4
balance,3 1-32
Ballantine,Ian, 180-Bl
Bardetrs, Peter,29
Bates,Edward,126
Beatles, 10, ll3,125
Bennis,\Warren,123
Biederman,PatVard, 123
Big BrothersBig Sisters,178, 185
Bill (car salesman),214-15
Binet,Alfred,38
BIRGing (Baskingin ReflectedGlory),
r28
BlackIce, 94-96,116
biindness,156-59, 200-201
Bogdanovich,Peter,122
Book Buddies,204-6
brain:
and,creativity, T6-79
and culture,150-51, 152
genderdiflerences in, 7fl
henrispheres of,77-78
oFinFanrs,198-99
and intelligence, 44
and language,150, I 99-200
lateraloccipitalcomplcx,I5I
and memoly,79
neuralpathwaysol 199,201-2
physicaldevelopmentof, 201
plasticityof,200-201
structuraldif-fercncesin, l5l
and visualperception,150-51
brairrcells,201, 202
Branson,Sir Richard,225-27
Brechr,Bertolt,32
Brigham,Carl,4l
Bruce,Jack,29
Buffett, Varren, 176, l7')
Buzan,Tony,97
CandoCoDance Company, 135-36
Capaldi,Jim,2l7
Carson,Rachel SilentSpring 253-54,
259
Chambers,Paul, 124
c hanc e, 25,
160,161
270 Index

change,paceof,17-21 crowd vs. trlbe,127-29

Charles,Ray,175-77, 178, 179 Cruddington,Grace,166
Chase,SalmonIl, 126 Crumb, Roben,5
Chee,Michael,151 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly,92
Child, Julia, 192,206 culture:
Christie, Agatha, 196-97 and the brain,150-51,152
Cialdini, Robert,128 constraintsof,152-55
cities,growth of, 256-57 contagiousbehaviorin, 149
Clapt on Eric,
. 29 , 9 1,2 17 definitionol 148
Clarke,Arthur (1.,211 influcnceof, l4B-52
Clawson,Mr., 185 and language,149-50
Cleese, John,l1 survivalmanualfor, 152
climarecrisis,252-58 swimmingagainstthc tide, 152-55
Close,Chuck, 132,35, 155, 194
Cobb,Jimmy, 124 Davis,Miles, 28, 124-25
, 7-J8. | 55
C oelho,Pa ulo 13 DeathValley,218
Coghill,Neville,241 deindividuation, 129
Cohen,Adolph,164 Descartes, Rend,37
Coles,John,l58 disapproval,fearof, 137-42
Collins,Randall,121 diversity,4649, l2l, 125
Coltrane,John,124 Doerr,Flarriet,191, 195
Comaneci,Nadia,34 Doerr,John, 123
ComedyResearch Project(CRP), 110 domains,Ill-14
common sense,32 Drexler K. Eric, 120-21.176
conformity, 144, 230-35 Durband, Nan,247
Connelly,Billn 130-31 Dylan,tsob,68, 1i8-20, 131,153
Conner,Bart,33-34,48 dynamics,creative,70-76, 125*26
contagiousbehavior,149 dyslexia,226-27
Cooper,Robert,44 Dyson,Freeman, 117
Coppola,FrancisFord, 122
Cosell,Howard, 130 253-54
ecology',
Cowell,Simon,191 Edelman,Marian Vright, 177-7 8,
creativity,16,55-57 179
and the bnin.76-79 educationsystem,12-l 5
dynamics ot.70-76. 125 26 assessment in, 235, 236-37,
featuresof,7l-73 249-50
and imagination, 57-59, 66, 70, 81 "backto basics,"l5-l6
and insight,76-77 in Britain,171-72
and media,72-76,79 conforrnityin,230*35
nrythsof,56-57 cramschools,234-35
openingyour mind to,76-82 creativitydrained by, 16
porverof, 67-70,81,82 curriculumin, 235-36, 247-48
proccssof, 71-.72 elemental,247-50
reachof, 8l highereducatio n, 232-34
thinking outsidethe box, 97-100 and intelligence,36, 38-42
criticalreasoning,37 lack of intcrest in, 228-30
Crouch,Donald,l83-84 pedagogy,235
 Index 271

practicaltraining in, 3940 Gardner,Howard,43

qualityassuran ce in, 249-50 Gerver,Richard,244-4t
rct^ rmrn o
" ""'' "' _b'
/ i\ - aX Geurts,KathrynLinn, Cultureand tlte
Reggioapproach,241-43 Senses,3I
teaching,12,74, 107, 175-76, Gielgud,SirJohn,165
237-38,249 (lilmour, David,217
transforming,238-46 Goleman,Daniel,44
Egan,Nick, 74-75 Goodwin, Doris Kearns,Tbamof
Einstein,Albert, 49-50, 202,251 Riuak, 126-27
Element,8 GraceLiving Center,Jirlsa,204-5
barriersto {inding,9, 132 Craham,Benjamin,176, 179
groupthinkvs.,142-46 Grangeton,England,24446
pcrsonaJconstraints,132-36 Cray Panthers,192
socialbarriers,137-42 ()reat Oroups,123-24
wharir is,2l-22 Green,Peter,29
and the zone,86-90 Greenfield,Susan,200
Emerson,Ralph Waldo, Self-Reliance, Groening,Matt, 4-(r, 22, 116
184 groupthink,142-46
encouragemenr, 18 1-82 growthand development,257-58
cnjoyment,elementsol 92 Guthrie,Woody,ll9-20, 131
Enlightenment,37
Epicurus,l2l Hadid, Zaha, 153-54, 155
epiphanystories,8, 74 Halberstam,David, 212-13
eugenicsmovement,39,40, 4i Hanna,Andrea,221-22
Evans,Bill, 124, 125 happiness, 223
evidence,scicntific, 37 Harkncss,-fimandra,100
expecrarions,I6I Har r isJ. r r dir hRic h,I 4 2 - 4 6
Harrisorr,(ieorgc,10, 67*69, 77, 125,
farrdom,127-2) 2t 7, 228
fast-foodmo del,249-5 0 HarvardMentoringProject,178
fearof disapproval, 13742 Harvey,Jenyts., 144-45
h-eynrnan, Richard,69-7 0, 7 1, 72, 73, Hendrichson, Susan, 21l-12
75,7 6,7 7,1 20 ,1 21 HermannBrain Dominance
fields,1 11 -14 ,11 7 Instrument(HBDI), 99
Fischbach, Gerald,201 heroes,181-86
fish,swarming,146-47, 154 Hewlett,Biil, 123
Fleetwood,Mick,27-30, 48, lA2 I{oll1'woodfilmmaking, l2l --22
Fleewood,Sally,28 FloodwatchMovementC)rganization, 95
Fleerwood,Susan,28 Hoover,Elizabeth,5
Fleetwood Mac,27,29 Hopper,Dennis, 122
flow,92,93 Horowitz,Vladimir, 197
Fordyce,Michael,223 Hosscini,Khaled,TheKite Runner
Franklin,Benjamin,I 96 2t 6- 17
Freed,AIan, 112 Hubble telescope, 59, 64, 66, 67
Frost,Robcrt,183 Hulfi ngton,AriannaStasinopoulos,
Fuller,R. Buckrninstet4-') 139-42, 153
Fury,Peggy,104, 11), 174 Hunt, Albert, 240
272 Index

imagination,57*59, 66, 70, 81 Liverpool Institute for the Performing

IndustrialRevolution,256 Arts (LIPA), 10, 183
insects,swarmsof, 14647,154 Lloyd \Webber,Andrew,3
insighr,T6-77 Lodge,Henry, 197
intelligence, 3542 logic,37,77
artificial,45,120 Loren,Sophia,206
and the b'ain,44 Lovelace, Richard,81-82
and creariviry,67,70 Lowenstein, Roger,176
distinctivenesso[ 50*5 I luck,25, 156-68
dynamic,49-50,70-76 and aptitude,159
featuresof,43,4649 and attitude,156, 159, 160*68
tq 3841,43 bad,turned to good, 161
measurement of, 3842, 43 and blindness,156*59
swarm,147 and chance,160,161
varietiesof,4246 characterizations of, 161
InternationalTelementorProgram, andperception, 160,161
18 5 Lynne,Gillian,14, 14,22, 102,174,
intuition,31,33,161 179
lsaacson,Valter, 50 Lynne,Jef[ 68

James,\filliam, 82 MagellanicCloud, 65
Janis,Irving, 143 Malaguzzi,Loris,242
Jay-Z (Carrer), 143 poem,242-43
Jeffers,Susan,187-90, 206 Mandela,Nelson,185-86
Feelthe Fear and Do It Anyway@, MargaretBeavanSchool,169
13 6,1 87 ,19 0 Mary Columba,Sister175-76
Jenksschooldistrict, Tirlsa,203-6 Maslow, Abraham,223
Johnson,Craig,122 Mayall,John,29
Jones,JamesEarl, 183-84 McCartney, Paul,10*11,113,125,
182-83, 2r7, 227-28, 240-4r
Katzman,lohn,42 McVie, John,29
Kelly,Vynton, 124 rneditation,161, 198,202
kinestheticsense(proprioception), Megaraschool,121
32*33 memory,79
Kuhn, Maggie,192, 19t mentors,174-85,249
encouragement, 18 1*82
language,149*50, 199-200 facilitating,182
Laurance,Ewa,83-86, 90,96,102, life-changingconnections,174-7 9
11 6 aspersonalheroes,lB5-86
Leadbeater, Charles,210-l I recognition,I79-8I
Lemaire, Alexis,45-46 roleso[ 179-85
Lennon,John,5, 10, 125, 182-83 stretching,183-84
Leonard,Dorothy, 122 rwo-waystreetof, 184-85
life-changingconnections. I 74-79 Ir{ichelangelo, 260
life expectanry,192-93 Michelin model,250
Lincoln,Abraham,126-27 Miller, Paul,210-11
Lipski,Don, 105-8, 116,248 mind mapping,97
 Index 273

Minsky,Marvin, 120, 176 Potts,Paul, l9l-92

Moses,Gerard,87 Presley,
Elvis,i1
Moses,Grandma,196 Pro-AmRevolution,210-1 1
Murray,Chick, l3l Public/PrivateVentures,I 7B
Myers-BriggsType Indicator (MBTI), Pythagoreanbrotherhood, 12 i
98-99
Rapaille,Clotaire,152
Neils,David, 185 Ray,Brian, 112-13
nervoussystem,44 Ray,Jean,112
neurogenesis,202 recognition,179-BI
New ChristyMinstrels,112 Reese,Pee\?'ee,182
Newman,Pad,202 reframe,abiliq, to, 162
Newton,Sir Isaac,251 revelation,8
No Child Left Behind,14-15,236*37 Richard,Cliil 183
Rindt, Jochen,9 1
O'Keeffe, Georgia,202 Ringgold,Faith, 52-55, 7 1, 72
Olivier,Sir Laurence,165 RobbinsAr , t hony ,1 6 0 ,1 6 2 ,1 8 5
Olympic Games,34, 212-13 Robinson,Ian, 163
opportuniry 22, 25*26, 161, I 90-98 Robinson,Jackie,182
Orbison,Roy,68 Robinson,James, 12, lB
Ostin, Mo, 68 Robinson, Kate,12,23,96-97
Robinson,Neil, 129
Packard,David, 123 Robinson,'lerry,19, 149, 174-76,
pain (nociception),32 23840
Park,Denise,l5l-52 Room to Read,218
Parks,Gordon,4648, 194 Russell,Bertrand,59, 66
Parks,Rosa,186 Ryan,Meg, 103-5, 116,174
passion,22,24
peergroupsJ142-46 Salk,Jonas,259
Pei,I.M.,2 02 Samuelson, Paul,7, 22
perception, 160,161 Sassoon, Vidal164-67
Peripateticschool,121 SAT (Scholastic ApritudeTest),4 I -42
personalcirclesof constraint, 132-36 schools,rre educationsystem
personalitytypes,98-99 scientificmethod, 37
Perspecrive,66 Scorsese, Martin, 122
Peterson,Suzanne,218-20 Scott, Sir Ridley,72-7 3, 194-9 5
physicaldisabilities,132-36, 169-7 1 Seles,Monica,92, 96
physicalproximiry 154 self-discovery, 105-10
Picasso,Pablo,114 self-futfillingprophecies,161
Pilcher,tlelen, 108-10 self-reliance, i84
Pittman,'Wtley,l7(t-77, 179 Seligrnan, Marin,223
planets,sizesof, 59-66 Seward,\WilliamH., 126
Plato,3(r,121 Seymour,Tim, 211
I'oianyi,Michael,117 Slrakespeare, William, Ilarnlet, 80-87
polio epidemics,162-64 Silicon Valle,v, 122-23
populationgrowth,18-19, 256 size,and imaeination,59-6(r
positivepsychology, 223 socialbarricrs,13"/-42
274 Index

socialidentity rheory,127 crowdvs., 127-29

socialmovements,i!2 of, 126
distinctiveness
Socrates'circle,121 diversityin,121,125
Solzhenitsyn,Neksandr,224 domainsand fields,111-14
Sorkin, Aaron, 87-89 dynamicsof,125-26
Stanford-Binettest,39 fandon, 127-29
Stanton,Edwin M., 126 inspirationol 118-20
Starr,Ringo, 10, 125 physicalproximityin, 154
Stasinopoulos, Arianna(Huffington), self-discovery
in, 105-10
13942,r53 spectators,130-31
sterilizationlaws,40 synergyof,123-27
Sternberg,Robert, 43 Tiop, Gabriel,207-9
Store,Ron, 194 Thrner,John, 127
Strafford,Charles,170*71, 172, 173,
174 ,17 9 vestibularsense(equilibrioception),
32
stretching, 183-84 visualperception,i50-5 I
Swap,Walter, 122
swarmingbehavior,146-47, 154 \Taronker,Lenny,68
swimming againstthe ide, 152-55 \(/aters,Miles, 217
synergy,123*27, 258 V/heeler,John, 117
synesthesia, 33 \Tilliams,Dudley, 1i5
\Wilson,
John, 156*59
-la1fel, Henrl 127 Vinwood, Sreve,217
'Wiseman,
taking thingsfor granted,30-35 Richard, 162
Thndv,Jessica, 197 TheLuck Factor 161
'W'ood,
Tho,Terence,100-102 Christopher "Tiff ," 212
Taylor, Mick, 29 Wood,John,217-lB
teachers, inspirational,12, 74, 107, \Wright,Wilbur,91-92
175-76
technology,paceof changein, 17-20 Yeats,V. 8., 175
temperature(thermoception), 32
Terman,Lewis,39 Zdanivsky,Brad, 167-68
thinking otrtsidethe box, 97-100 Zinn, Howard, 177-78, 179
Thurber,James,5 zone:
time,90-9 1 ^...L^^.:^:.,.:- on g4
-Ibffler,Alvin, FutureShock,19 beingin, 8(r-90
transforrnation, 216-lB beingyourselfi n, 95-97
'liaveling
Wilburys,69, 7 1, 72, 73, energyin,94-96
7i*76 ,80 fieedomin, 90
tribe"finding your, 103-31 meta-state of, 9l
affiliationwith, 127 outsidethe box,97-100
ascircieofinfluence,I2A*23 time in, 90-91
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