Practical Creativity and the 95% Rule
So I've spoken about the importance of a creative outlet before, mostly in my fifth essay. What I want to do with this post is bridge the gap between creativity and practicality. How do you find a creative outlet that's worth something? I'm not sure I can answer that for you, but maybe explaining how I've approached this can guide you to your own answer.
I want to start by making three points that, to me, are the cornerstone of this idea.
Point #1: It is easier than you think to know more than 95% of people about something.
Point #2: You probably already do.
Point #3: That knowledge can be used to create value.
So to make that more succinct, let's call this the 95% rule: If you know more than 95% of people about something, you can most likely be paid for that knowledge.
Yes, that takes hard work. But likely not any "harder" than what you're used to as a student or employee. Just different.
I'll explain how I learned this to give you and idea of what I mean.
I was an abnormally curious freshman in college. I worked every day to understand all of the career paths a business student like me might pursue, why one would pursue each one, and how they could do so successfully.
I did this for myself. It was to understand what the hell I myself should do with my life.
But that curiosity allowed me to, unintentionally, paint certain very clear pictures in my head. Pictures of "the ideal student internship experience". Pictures of "the ideal student intern". And it gave me unbelievable insight into the opportunities available to students in different spaces, especially the space I ended up being most interested in--startups and VC.
I didn't think anything of what I was learning until that summer, where at my internship, my boss asked me to formally document how their internship program would be carried out in the future(ironic, right?). But what I actually ended up doing was rebuilding the entire internship program from scratch, building educational projects and resources for future interns to engage in.
But what the hell qualified me to do that? I guess the fact that I knew what students wanted and needed because I was a student. And I had studied how student experiences were built, what works, and what doesn't.
So the reason I was able to build Gator Venture Capital and Catalyst with Jack that fall was because I happened to know more than 95% of people what opportunities and knowledge students were missing, and how to give it to them.
And in terms of our customers at the time--startups--we knew more than 95% of them about how to find all-star student interns.
And by some miracle, they paid Catalyst for that knowledge. We created value that enabled us to grow the company and spread the impact that we have on students worldwide.
Fast forward, and the lessons I've learned, people I've met, and experiences I've had while working nonstop to grow Catalyst have given me enough insight to turn Catalyst into a full-blown education company.
The crazy thing about that is that we were just students doing the same things many other ambitious students our age were doing. The difference is that we were inspired to turn the input we were constantly receiving and turn it into practically valuable output. If you're curious about how to get that inspiration, I would read "How to Start a Startup on Accident".
I believe there are approximately zero ambitious people who don't get that same unique input from somewhere; who don't have that "95%" insight. So I encourage you to find out what yours is, and see how you can use it to help other people.
I don't think many people understand where creativity comes from. It's not some superpower few people possess that lets them just dish out new ideas. Creativity comes from unique perspectives. And because we as humans are so unbelievably complex, we all have those. "Creative people" are just the ones who decide to translate theirs to output. And that's the adventure that I believe everyone deserves to experience.
Now you might not immediately know what your 95% insight is, but if you want to find out, try everything. Be opportunistic. I figured mine out by doing an internship in wealth management. What does that have to do with educating students and sourcing talent to startups? Not much, but it still led me to that by teaching me things about myself.
So what's my point?
An important step to autonomy is finding your unique value as an individual. That value is created by unique experiences, which provide you with unique perspectives. You can create value by turning those unique perspectives into equally unique output. And in a practical sense, you can make that unique output something people will pay you for.
So "Practical Creativity" means creative output that is concretely valuable to others, so much so that they're willing to offer you value in return. That doesn't have to mean a startup. It could mean a book you want to write. It could mean releasing a music album. It could mean posting reviews on YouTube of something you know more than 95% of other people about.
Whatever it might be, your 95% insight is worth something. You might just not know it because you haven't asked for anything in exchange for it.
It's also true that it might not be worth anything. Or it is, but you took the wrong approach to making it valuable. But no matter what, finding out will definitely get you closer to something that is.
So to bring it all home, let's say there are actually steps to this.
1. Be ambitious and curious about pursuing a goal.
2. Pay attention to what you learn in the process.
3. Find a way to turn those learnings into something valuable.
4. Ask for something(likely money) in exchange for that thing.
That's how you can find a creative outlet that's valuable in the real world. Which is something we all strive for, and something I believe we all can have.
So that's my nonsensical brain dump for this week. Subscribe with the purple button to get notified when I'm feeling stupid enough to put another one of these things out into the world, and email me at nathan@catalystxl.co with any thoughts or questions.
Why 95%?
In all honesty, I decided to go with a high estimate to be conservative. The truth is you might only need to know more than 50% of people about something in order to create value with that knowledge. As long as you're one of the few ambitious enough to ask for something in exchange for it.
But hey, might as well strive for 95% just to be safe.
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