Fall of Creativity

Fall of Creativity

“Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, your worst enemy already lives inside you: your ego” – Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, is an old belief attributed to Buddha. So when is someone ready to learn? Essentially learning is the state where one admits to oneself, one’s own ignorance and admits to oneself the need to learn from someone else. Conversely this means that when someone is so full of himself, then the learner within himself is no longer on the lookout for new knowledge. And this is where the whole process hits a road block, in the form of ego. Ego is defined as a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. We know self-esteem plays a major part in our success. Whether we are starting our first job or have built an empire; the belief we have in our ability to achieve success is deemed as a main contributing factor. We need to believe in ourselves to succeed. It is when self-esteem gets transformed to bloated self-importance that egotism take over. That then is the first road block to learning.

Ignorance is bliss, Knowledge is sin and death. Old standards have taught us that the first couple fell out of grace with God when they were fed the wrong sort or unsuitable knowledge by a bad force with ulterior motives. Ever since those days, knowledge, right or wrong has been a commodity that led humanity to its successes and falls. And along with it has come the ego factor. This is especially so when we try to seek knowledge or solutions, together.

In a commune or gathering, the desire to be respected beyond what we deserve is very real. To grab respect when it is clearly not forthcoming.  This is one factor that has been the key that intervened with the process of learning, in a big way. It had and continues to impede with our joint efforts to search out the truth. Haven’t we seen the reality of this in debates on television. We see that these discussions that ought to lead to meaningful outcome are only platforms where we all run on parallel tracks with the listener either not getting the head or tail of the matter or worse taking sides with one.

So are we fine seeking new information on our own? I really would like to believe so. If I were to roll out something brand new, then it ought to be a safe bet. Unfortunately, not so….. There are those around who do not want to see you create something new and of value. The feeling that you will lose importance if someone else succeeds is predominant in society. This is especially so in our society. We will rush in to ensure that this does not happen, even if it means having to find ways of dishonouring that person.

But when does our sense of self-importance get in the way of our success? Does it prevent us from connecting and leading our people, creating goals to get to the next level or keeping up with the fast pace of progress and learn a new skill? The term Ego has evolved since its inception. Today, ego or egotistical, describes conceited or self-absorbed behaviour.

There is also another face of ego. Interestingly, most view egotistical behaviour as outward ‘show boating’ and the promotion of accomplished strengths. However, egotistical behaviour can manifest in more subtle ways. Consider the quiet and reserved person who is worried about what others will think should they not perform to ‘expectation’. This behaviour may still be driven by a need to be seen and validated as ‘the expert’.

Therefore, egotistical behaviour is perhaps equally representative of a willingness to showcase knowledge and expertise, as it is with avoiding mistakes and failure. This is why the ego can be so detrimental to learning – making mistakes and learning through trial and error often present the best learning opportunities.

Creativity is based on learning and then thinking beyond what was learnt. When this process is blocked at the very basic level creativity dies. Thus we as a society is starved of fresh new thinking and outputs of such thought. Ego kills not just people, relationships and communities.  It kills the future development of humanity.