MLK, Wozniak, and Washington weren’t that different from you. Here’s what I learned from Adam Grant’s Originals.

Adam Grant’s Originals is a terrific read — it seamlessly combines research & anecdotes to develop a framework for extraordinary nature. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to make an outsized impact on their industry or community.

Here are my 4 favorite takeaways:

1/ Everyone — including extraordinary individuals such as MLK, Wozniak, and Michelangelo— experiences insecurities and hesitations.

Adam Grant: “The drive to succeed and the accompanying fear of failure have held back some of the greatest creators and change agents in history. Concerned with maintaining stability and attaining conventional achievements, they have been reluctant to pursue originality. Instead of charging full steam ahead with assurance, they have been coaxed, convinced, or coerced to take a stand. While they may seem to have possessed the qualities of natural leaders, they were figuratively — and sometimes literally — lifted up by followers and peers. If a handful of people hadn’t been cajoled into taking original action, America might not exist, the civil rights movement could still be a dream, the Sistine Chapel might be bare, and we might still believe the sun revolves around the earth, and the personal computer might never have been popularized.”

Given the nature of our credential-oriented society, my friends and I have often feared that not attaining conventional achievements — brand-name jobs or graduate degrees — would hold us back from truly achieving our potential. This book highlights several stories of extraordinary people who actually had the same fears:

• Martin Luther King was apprehensive about leading the civil rights movement; his dream was to be a pastor and a college president. 3 weeks before he became the face of the civil rights movement, King and his wife had “agreed that I should not take on any heavy community responsibilities since I had so recently finished my thesis and needed to give more attention to my church work.”
• Former President John Adams feared British retaliation and hesitated to give up his budding law career to get involved in the revolutionary war.
• George Washington hesitated becoming Chief of the Army because that meant he’d have to give up on his business managing wheat, flour, fishing, and horse-breeding. “I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it,” Washington wrote.
• Michelangelo wasn’t interested in painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel since he viewed himself as a sculptor, not a painter. He found the task so unappealing that he fled to Florence for 2 years to get away.
• Steve Wozniak didn’t want to leave Hewlett-Packard and go full-time at Apple; “I still intended to be at that company forever — my psychological block was really that I didn’t want to start a company. Because I was just afraid.”

Grant thoughtfully writes, “We can only imagine how many Wozniaks, Michelangelos, and Kings never pursued, publicized, or promoted their original ideas because they were not dragged or catapulted into the spotlight. Advocating for new systems often requires demolishing the old way of doing things, and we hold back for fear of rocking the boat.”

2/ Before you can be respected for going against the status quo, you have to build credibility through your contributions.

Adam Grant shared an interesting story:

• Carmen Medina was shunned for encouraging the use of intranet across the CIA when she was a junior employee. Years later, she became Deputy Director of Intelligence and created an internal online community — and was lauded for her courage and non-conformity.

Adam Grant: As Medina gained respect for these efforts, she accumulated what psychologist Edwin Hollander called idiosyncrasy credits — the latitude to deviate from the group’s expectations. Idiosyncrasy credits accrue through respect, not rank; they’re based on contributions. We squash a low-status member who tries to challenge the status quo but tolerate and even applaud the originality of a high-status star. “People saw that I stood for something, not just against the status quo. I thought that if I proved myself in the position, I would get a chance to start planting the seeds for even bigger change.”

3/ Originals are often driven more by the fear of not succeeding than the fear of failing.

Adam Grant: “Ray Dalio has been studying historical figures from Ben Franklin to Albert Einstein to Steve Jobs. Of course, all of them were driven and imaginative, but I was intrigued by three other qualities on Dalio’s list. “Shapers” are independent thinkers: curious, non-conforming, and rebellious. They practice brutal, nonhierarchical honesty. And they act in the face of risk because their fear of not succeeding exceeds their fear of failing.”

I recently read a letter Pete Sampras wrote in 2015 to his 16-year-old self. “Deep in your heart you know you’re eventually going to succeed,” he wrote. This stood out to me. All of us have that inner voice that pushes us to pursue more and tell us that there are extraordinary things out there for us. We sometimes don’t listen to that voice because the implications of not succeeding aren’t that great to disrupt our daily peace, but the ones who do strive ahead because that fear drives them to restlessness.

4/ Extraordinary individuals tend to endure more battles — more ups and downs — than others with consistently positive experiences. It’s a more “difficult” path to happiness, but it leads to a more well-lived life.

Adam Grant: “When psychologist Dan McAdams and his colleagues asked adults to tell their life stories and plotted their emotional trajectories over time, they discovered two different desirable patterns. Some people had consistently pleasant experiences: they were content throughout the major periods of their lives. The people who had been recognized for making original contributions to their communities shared many more stories that started negatively but surged upward: they struggled early and triumphed only later. Despite being confronted with more negative events, they reported greater satisfaction with their lives and a stronger sense of purpose. Instead of merely enjoying good fortune all along, they endured the battle of turning bad things good — and judged it as a more rewarding route a life well-lived. Originality brings more bumps in the road, yet it leaves us with more happiness and a greater sense of meaning.”

Adam Grant is one of the most inspiring thinkers of our time, and this book will both inspire and challenge you. Check it out!