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The Will to Succeed

One of my favorite passages from pilot/writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is found at the beginning of his memoir Wind, Sand and Stars. In 1926 Saint-Ex was learning to fly the airmail routes between Toulose, France and Dakar in French West Africa. As he rode the bus out to the airfield each morning before dawn, he’d watch it slowly fill with other passengers, and ponder the difference between their lives and his. His self-aggrandizement in the process is typical of young pilots, but Wind, Sand and Stars is no Topgun. Saint-Ex’s prose is elegant, and always makes me think. Even (especially) this rant aimed at the “petty bourgeois of Toulouse” with whom he shared the bus ride each morning:

“Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning.”

While I’ve always loved Saint-Ex’s notion of never awakening something that has inhabited you from the start, I don’t believe you need to wait for someone else to “grasp you by the shoulder” to change your life. Recent research on the “neuroplasticity” of the brain indicates that it’s possible for us to change our own minds—quite literally. But what if we don’t?

I’m reading an interesting book right now called The DaVinci Method. It’s a surprisingly thought-provoking look at “the secret genius that drives risk-takers, rebels, entrepreneurs, artists, and AD/HDers to achieve greatness.”

The premise of Garret LoPorto’s manifesto is that “DaVincis” are the change-agents of society, and act the way they do because of their genes:

“DaVincis share a  common genetic polymorphism, the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat allele—a gene that supports risk-taking, novelty-seeking, increased alpha/theta brainwave patterns, susceptibility to addictive behavior, ADD/ADHD and bipolar, propensity for genius level problem solving and creativity, and gives one what it takes to be a charismatic political leader, rock star, inventor, movie-maker, artist or rebel billionaire.”

The book goes on to describe the DaVinci traits in great detail, and provides strategies for leveraging such a predisposition. The part I found most interesting, though, was not about what DaVincis are genetically capable of, but about what happens if they repress their natural gifts and inclinations. Early on in the book, LoPorto introduces the work of psychologist Otto Rank, whom he calls “the most creative of Freud’s protégés.” Among other topics, Rank was fascinated by the psychology of the artist. His book Art and Artist was an exploration of the human urge to create, and his “Will Therapy” was designed specifically for artistic types, LoPorto says.

Rank used the word “will” to mean the power of choosing between the will of the ego and the will of the soul. We’re all born with the will to be ourselves, yet as we grow up we find ourselves fighting to remain true to ourselves. According to Rank, we eventually become one of three types of people:

  • The “Normal” type is the average person that adapts their will to obey external authority and societal conventions.
  • The “Creative” or “Productive” type is the artist, the genius who creates an image of his ideal self (something for his will to focus on) and then creates his world in his own image.
  • The “Neurotic” or “Anxious” type has a stronger will than most people, but is continuously engaged in a fight against domination by both external and internal forces, and feels guilty about it.

Both the artist (the Creative type) and the neurotic live from their unconscious minds, with their proverbial fingers on the pulse of both personal and societal stirrings. But while the artist acts on these impulses, the neurotic represses them, unable (unwilling) to share his unique insights with the world. As LoPorto puts it: “He is left stuck, and frustrated, and bursting at the seams with the bile of unexpressed genius.”

Heavy stuff … the sort that leads old men and women to look back on their lives with deep regret. What’s a neurotic to do? Learn to be the creative force in his or her own life. Rank’s Will Therapy started with the assumption that his patients needed more experience in willing their own fate, not more self-knowledge. He thought that traditional psychotherapy at the time helped patients avoid taking responsibility, and as a result helped them become less able to act. For Rank, the goal was to help the neurotic learn to will—without guilt.

LoPorto’s “DaVinci Method” is a modernized version of Will Therapy that promises to help repressed creative types overcome their neurotic tendencies, and become the artists they were always destined to be. The book is a bit over the top at times in its passionate, cult-like celebration of DaVincis and the gifts of being one, and LoPorto’s DaVinci Method Web site is—as expected—a bit hyperbolic (LoPorto himself is a DaVinci type).

Yet as a guy with the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat allele myself, I’m all too aware that the embarrassing, uncomfortable feelings I sometimes have celebrating my own unique gifts (and commiserating with those who share them) are probably evidence of my own neurotic tendencies.

Thus, for me, the most important passage in The DaVinci Method is hidden on page 211:

“To be a great DaVinci you must be relentless in your honesty, pure in your action, full of integrity throughout your entire being, in everything from what you feel and what you say to what you do.

“All of it will be in alignment when you reach 100% honesty. Once you’re in 100% alignment, you will know because you’ll have incredible power, because you’re not holding back. You’re not trying to deceive anyone, not even yourself.”

I suspect Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would have enjoyed reading The DaVinci Method, as he seemed to embrace its philosophy. Each morning in Toulose, Saint Ex would step out of the bus past more conventional folk, climb into the cockpit, and push the throttle forward. The sky between Toulouse and Dakar was not always a pleasant place. But Saint-Ex pressed on, flight after flight, and was all the better for doing so:

“The squall has ceased for me to be a cause of my complaint. The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront within two hours, the black dragons and the crowned crests of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the stars.”

Not a bad way to live, if you have the will to do it.

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