The real divide in society has to do with two types of people. The two types of people are creative thinkers and analytical thinkers.
Creative thinkers think on a macro-level and can solve macro-level problems. It’s a “go big or go home” mentality with them. The normal, middle-class suburban life is repulsive to them. In other words, being normal is like slavery to them. These are people who consider themselves to be writers, actors, musicians. These people cannot make it unless they make it big. You only ever hear of these people on the macro level.
Analytical thinkers think on a micro-level and can solve micro-level problems. They are content with the normal, boring life as analytical thinkers can simplify life on the micro-level. These people tend to be your doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, electricians. Basically normal people (90%) think analytically (albeit not that well). You know way more of these people than you do people who write, draw, and act for a living. This isn’t to demean analytical thinkers as they serve critical roles in society.
My father has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. And I am a writer. The divide is my dad thinks I should have a technical career that requires analytical thinking, and I disagree. I don’t argue with him about it as being an analytical guy has helped him prosper a lot in life. Mind you our family is from a third-world country, so my dad has a great deal of credence when he tells me I should just be in an analytical profession. The saying goes “like father, like son,” so how did this divide occur between him and me? It comes down to the realization that the ceiling is higher for me. I saw what my father did, and then I thought about how much more I can accomplish than him. This began when I was really young. When high ceiling thinking begins at a young age then you have created a creative thinking child. I even remember the exact moment I turned into a creative thinker. It was 2003 a month before I turned seven years old, and we were in my grandma’s house and I asked my dad how much money he makes. He laughed and told me he’s not telling me. Then he asked me if I knew who Bill Gates is. I said “no.” He said, “you should become the next Bill Gates. He’s the richest man in the world.” in a laughing manner. I asked him what is Bill Gate’s job. He said that he is an engineer. Then I said, “but you’re an engineer why don’t you make as much as him?” Then he laughed again and said, “I didn’t CREATE Microsoft.” Then from that moment on I always thought about creating big things. It’s a curse and a blessing.
So how can you as a creative-minded person get ahead? It comes down to understanding who you are first. Accept this is what you are. Understand the majority of society will look down on you for THEIR PERCEPTION that they think of you as a fuck-up. Fuck them. Let them live their boring suburban lives. Their ugly fucking wives are probably cheating on them and they are probably not doing that well financially. Your ceiling is higher and you realize you must achieve it. You must realize your drive to succeed will be looked at as an act of psychopathy by those who refuse to achieve higher in life. The idiots who look down on you deserve their boring suburban life with their demanding cunt wives. But then again don’t get angry at these people either by holding it against them. They had the misfortune of being raised by people who were average. My dad ain’t average, and I must find ways to become way better.
The second thing you need to do is to ask yourself what you really want. For me, it’s to be a writer. So I created a blog. If you want to be an actor then start a youtube channel and try impersonating TV and Movie characters that AMPLIFY your personality. It’s that simple. We as creative thinkers think too much and we sometimes overlook the obvious steps we need to take to make our ambitious desires become reality.
The third thing you need to do is to stick to it. As creative thinkers, we have trouble sticking to things. It’s important to stick to things that amplify yourself as a creator.
How to balance life as a creative thinking person? Find non-judgemental analytical-minded friends. They aren’t difficult to find, and at first, they might judge you. Disregard the judgment and ask them about their jobs and what the mental process they use in their job is. But only do this if the friends are engineers, doctors, and lawyers. The reason you want to stick to these three groups has to do with the fact that finance and banking bros are way too sporadically mixed between analytical and creative types. These days it’s become difficult to differentiate between a banking bro (analytical) and a retail trading bro (creative).
So why should you have analytical-minded friends? It comes down to balance. As a creative, you think on a macro level. You cannot achieve the macro without starting at the micro. Your analytical friends will help you with your mental process on the micro-level. It will be difficult at first but realize analytical people are good at SYSTEMS. Meaning they understand the little steps needed to take to achieve a goal. Creative thinkers are terrible at taking baby steps. It’s good to have creative-thinking friends when you need to come up with a new, big macro idea. And you need to have analytical-minded friends who can show you the baby steps you need to take to make this new idea come to life. Creative thinkers’ biggest curse is that they think too big but overlook obvious first steps.
How to find analytically minded friends? Try and find technology conventions in your area. Or type on google “network with an engineer.” Meetup.com can be useful, but not if you’re in a smaller city. Meetup.com is useless even in a big city like Denver.
Another curse of creative thinkers is letting their imagination get out of control. If you find yourself getting too into your imagination then take a quick breath and ask yourself “what was the original idea?” Once you do this you can bring yourself back down to reality and be able to better achieve your new goal. Macro thinkers have a habit of thinking too macro, and a good way to bring yourself down is to be around analytically minded people.
Note: When trying to find analytically minded people make sure they are in a high-performing profession such as medicine, engineering, and/ or law. The reason for this is that they know how to use their minds to constantly improve and simplify their craft. Big brain energy rubs off on people.
The balance I have found that works for me is that I hang around analytically minded people when I need to be able to take a baby step on a macro idea. And I hang around creative thinking people when I need to come up with a big macro idea.
Remember this: The greatest blessing a creative thinker has is that they can achieve heights that the average person thinks is unrealistic and stupid. We creative-minded folk can find a way. We always do.
Let’s analyze Bill Gates. He’s an analytically minded person who had a creative idea and went for it. But most of us creative folk start as being creative. The transition from analytical to creative is faster as they have systems down to do it, but for us who are bread as creative thinkers, we have to really find analytical ways to turn our macro ideas into real things. NETWORK WITH ANALYTICALLY MINDED PEOPLE.
In terms of income. Creative-minded professions either make chitlins, or they make more than doctors. There is no in-between on this. People in creative-minded professions are either REALLY GOOD at what they do, or really bad. Remember, most people are analytical, and finding people in creative professions that are actually good at it is very rare, hence why there is a wealth gap in creative thinking professions. Learn to slow down and apply analytical skills (micro) to your macro ideas.