The challenges for an original maker are significant. It is difficult to swim against the current. Making an original takes courage, vision, a measure of know-how and
perhaps a degree of disdain for the status quo. The Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw once said:
“The reasonable (person) adapts (themselves) to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to (themselves). Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable (person).”
This is probably why so many of the most original makers are considered difficult. When I examine my own life, I realize there are many things that I uncritically accept and move on. However, there are certain matters in which I am so invested that I am compelled to resist with principled resolve. I know that I can be difficult and stubborn in certain situations.
We should all be mindful of the matters we care about so deeply that we are willing to sacrifice our personal comfort to see it through.
I am not given to hero worship and realize anything of value today is developed through collaboration, coordination and dependence on others, but I have never seen an original masterpiece developed by a committee or through some political process. Productive creative collaborations require participants to place ideas over one’s stature and the willingness to pursue those ideas rather than one’s personal well being. At the end of the day the original maker must be willing to go it alone.