Thinking , does it exist? Is it not an infinite hazy vapour? Being a metaphor of an intangible human aspect, it?s very difficult to realise the corporal material of thought. Could thinking be the escape of intellectuals to place selected people at a higher societal level? The birth of a human being is probably the most valuable instant happening in the universe, but the exact time and date of conception is mysterious, and comes from ?Don?t think.? Nobody can predict life?s end. So life?s beginning and termination are within a boundary beyond control and thought. So don?t think, push the act, and let imagination take over.
The thinkers of the world we eulogise, materialised their thoughts rationally in forms such as writing, painting, singing, designing, drawing, playing and writing music, inventing. What made them do what they did is a big question mark. People often analyse a famous inventor?s ingenious thinking process just to rationalise it, but it?s simply an interpretation without truth or tangible base.
When you say ?I?m thinking?, in reality you?re getting impacted by stimuli that you physically react to. By default people absorb happenings around them, bounce with stimuli, get conditioned or are stimulated to imagine.
Closed in a box with no stimulus whatsoever, would someone be able to think? An inspiration spurs you to act, but thinking not being a stimulus, may be frigid.The higher up in society we go, the more people talk of thinking. Does the problem of underprivileged people struggling for their next meal get solved by thought or by action? If inspite of poverty they hit the limelight, it?s because they chose to respond to stimuli to reach what?s unreachable within their means, not by thought but by friction provoked by stimulus.
In 1984, I encountered a predicament. Should I continue to work for others or should I create my own enterprise? I wanted to break away from Parisian life for a few days, think about my future. I would often loiter around the beautiful Loire Valley, 204 km from Paris, weave into villages, castles, farms without any travel agenda, with unrestrained thinking. Sometimes sitting by Loire River?s beautiful French countryside, I?ve watched people cycling hurriedly, being intimate, old people playing the French petanque game, others just walking, kicking up dust. The serene landscape and vibrant action before me has filled many a drawing book with sketches as brushes, colors, palette and canvas are my constant companions.
In this thinking tour, as I was crossing rue Victor Hugo, from the river bank into the narrow Amboise Village lane where the road sharply takes an L turn, I saw a small old castle, which had an old man?s gravure poster. Written on it was ?I am a genius.? This intrigued me; I recognised those words uttered by Leonardo da Vinci when he was 39-years-old. Somehow, inspite of being well versed with art in France, I?d ignored this place. With goose pimples running through me, I suddenly realised that I?d stumbled upon Leonardo?s home. This incredible shock was the stimulus that kicked me hard. And what did I discover? In 1516, King Francois Premiere had invited Leonardo to Amboise, providing him Clos Luc? to stay and work in. A famous painter, engineer, medical scientist, and inventor from Italy, Leonardo arrived with three of his paintings, Mona Lisa, Sainte Anne and Saint Jean Baptiste, and lived here until he died on May 2, 1519.
Visiting da Vinci?s mansion, I found powerful stimuli that stopped me in my tracks. Framed on the wall were his words: ?A day with a full load of work gives better sleep; only a life totally covered with work gives a tranquil death.? People refer to Leonardo as the Master Thinker, but his personal statement put action above everything else. This made me understand that thinking may just be sophistication to distance the elite from the masses, but in actuality, the world moves with stimulus-action. So, on my return to Paris, I resigned from being among the highest paid creative directors in France in the most famous design consulting company there, to founding my own company from scratch. Da Vinci?s 600-year-old words were my life-changing stimuli.
Thinking is considered an intellectual pre-requisite in the world of business. It probably means buying more time to get impacted by multiple stimuli. Perhaps, how using stimulants, you prepare your imagination ingredients is more crucial than thinking. You may need different types of stimuli at different times of life according to your individual character.
If you?re recognised as a genius, your brilliance was not nature?s endowment. You?d have chosen to instill strong stimuli that transformed you exceptionally for society to distinguish you. Not everyone can receive extraordinary stimulus. The common person?s life may be boring, with no stimulus that allows imaginative juices to flow. The mastermind generates provocative stimulus that whirl into his mind?s eye. Without analysing this, people say he?s a thinker. But that?s no compliment, as mere thinkers contribute nothing to society. So don?t think, choose stimulus, act!
Was the twice Nobel prize winner for physics and chemistry, Marie Curie, a thinker or a hard worker confronting laborious stimuli? For four years, she and husband Pierre boiled, stirred, poured and distilled tons of pitchblende to produce a tiny amount of radium, which became among 20th century?s best discoveries. Leonard da Vinci?s contribution is not fuzzy thought but actual engineering models, scientific anatomical drawings he?d done that still propel us today.
?Shombit Sengupta is an international reative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com