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The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant | TED
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The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant | TED

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

In this section, the speaker shares a personal anecdote about missing an investment opportunity with Warby Parker and introduces the concept of "originals" as nonconformists who drive creativity and change in the world.

Recognizing Originals

  • Originals are individuals who not only generate new ideas but also take action to support them.
  • The speaker passed on investing in Warby Parker due to their slow start, highlighting his tendency as a precrastinator.
  • The speaker reflects on his early habits of finishing tasks ahead of time and contrasts this with a student's creativity emerging from procrastination.

The Link Between Procrastination and Creativity

This part delves into research findings on procrastination and creativity, exploring how moderate procrastinators tend to be more creative than extreme procrastinators.

Procrastination Study Results

  • Chronic procrastinators lack new ideas due to excessive goofing off, while those rushing in are too anxious for original thoughts.
  • Experiments reveal that moderate procrastinators show 16% more creativity compared to immediate task doers or extreme procrastinators.
  • Procrastination allows for divergent thinking, nonlinear approaches, and unexpected leaps in creativity.

Embracing Procrastination for Creativity

Here, the speaker discusses embracing procrastination as a tool for enhancing creativity by allowing ideas to incubate over time.

Embracing Procrastination

  • The speaker intentionally delays completing a chapter on procrastination while writing about it, leading to fresh insights upon returning to the task.

What Makes Originals Different

The speaker discusses the misconception of needing to be the first mover in a market and emphasizes the importance of being different and better rather than first. He also touches on the significance of doubt in the creative process and how it can be both paralyzing and energizing.

Importance of Being Different and Better

  • First movers have a failure rate of 47%, while improvers only have an 8% failure rate.
  • Being original doesn't require being first; it's about offering something different and better than existing options.

Dealing with Doubts in Creativity

  • Distinguishes between self-doubt, which is paralyzing, and idea doubt, which is energizing.
  • Emphasizes that managing doubt is crucial for creativity, as seen in examples like MLK testing ideas.

Courage to Be Original

The speaker explores the concept of courage in being original, highlighting how doubts can impact one's ability to innovate. He contrasts surface confidence with internal fears among creative individuals.

Courage vs. Doubts

  • Expresses doubts about Warby Parker's backup plans impacting their originality.
  • Original individuals may appear confident externally but often grapple with fear and doubt internally.

Overcoming Fear and Taking Initiative

The speaker delves into how originals handle fear differently by emphasizing action over inaction. He stresses the importance of trying despite potential failures.

Handling Fear and Taking Action

  • Originals are more afraid of failing to try than failing itself.
  • Elon Musk's example illustrates the significance of attempting important ideas even when success is uncertain.

Embracing Failure for Innovation

The speaker discusses how embracing failure is integral to innovation, showcasing that great originals fail frequently but persist in trying new ideas. He highlights that bad ideas are part of the journey towards success.

Embracing Failure for Success

  • Celebrates those who fail frequently as they are often the ones who try new things most.

How to Be Original

The speaker discusses the process of generating original ideas and how even renowned figures like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart had to create numerous compositions to produce a few masterpieces.

Generating Original Ideas

  • Originality requires generating more ideas.
  • Example of Warby Parker founders testing over 2,000 names before choosing "Warby Parker."
  • Emphasizes the need for persistence in idea generation for uniqueness.

Embracing Fear and Doubt

The speaker highlights that individuals considered original are not fundamentally different from others. They experience fear, doubt, procrastination, and have bad ideas; however, success can stem from these qualities rather than despite them.

Qualities of Original Individuals

  • Original individuals share common traits with others.
  • Success can be influenced by fear, doubt, and bad ideas.
Channel: TED
Video description

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals — including embracing failure. "The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most," Grant says. "You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones." Adam hosts the TED Audio Collective podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant--a show that takes you inside the minds of some of the world's most unusual professionals to discover the keys to a better work life. Listen to WorkLife with Adam Grant wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the TED Audio Collective: https://www.youtube.com/TEDAudioCollective The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com