Idea Lawyer Blog

A good student, he chose a school long favored by gifted outsiders: Reed College in Portland, Oregon, some two-thirds of whose students drop out before graduation. Majoring in math and physics, Norton found himself working hard for the first time. He did passably well, but couldn't really break through to excellence; as he puts it, he could do math, but he couldn't figure out "what math was." In particular, he couldn't grasp the mathematical concept of "elegance."

Meanwhile, like many creative people, he felt his "inner spirit fighting" the restraints of schooling.

What he enjoyed most at college was calligraphy. Indeed, he was among the ten or so students active in the art. But even there he found a problem: he was "extremely sensitive to rankings" and knew exactly where he ranked as a calligrapher. Moreover, he decided that people in all fields fell into three groups: those who knew little and cared little; those who worked hard, but had no gift for the craft; and those who both worked hard and had the gift--who were, in short, artists.

That led to the key insight: that to be remarkably good at anything, you need some kind of special engagement with the material. Lacking that almost mystical element, you'll never be more than competent at what you do, and what you do will never make you particularly happy.

Where did that leave Peter Norton? In math, physics, even calligraphy, he seemed always to fall in the middle group: he worked hard and was smart enough to do passably, but could never find the thing he loved, where he could distinguish himself. He could never discover the art of what he was doing.

Then a summer job changed everything.

Excerpted from
The Great American Idea Book: How to Make Money from Your Ideas for Movies, Music, Books, Inventions, Businesses and Almost Anything Else!
Authors: Bob Coleman & Deborah Neville
Publisher: WW Norton
Copyright: 1993; 1995
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