The Illogical Thinker

Most must wonder on the title, but it all makes when I do explain. 

I recently read the most amazing and insightful book on earth, for me that is, and realised I was wasting my life just drifting by. The book was called the art of creative thinking, and just to surmise, the author talked about how logical thinking trapped us from becoming exceptional. He talked of the brain as a pattern recognisition software and how that connected the dots and limited what we thought we could do.

There were a lot of examples written on there about exceptional, illogical (my word not his) people that became great men. The two that caught my attention and forever imprinted themselves to memory was Richard Branson and Mahtma Gandhi.

He told of a story of a young Richard Branson on his first start up business. Richard aspired to start a school magazine. He did not have a large capital or a network to begin with but that didnt stop him. What he did was use his school's call box to call up potential investors, after the head master rightfully declined having to install a private one for him. The most amazing parts was the strategies he used. This was a 19 year old who had not attended a business school but could come up with the best business strategies that could shame AIG. The first one was how to maximise on his capital, that is on the coins used for the calls. What he discovered was that, if he called the operator and said that the machine ate his money and he still did not make that call, the operator would then punch him through. Not only does he get a free phone call but the operator also acts as a secretary for him. That tone that says "I have Mr. Branson on the line for you...." Second, was piting competitors against each other. A good example he said was how he could call Pepsi and say "Would you like to advertise before or after Coca-cola?" Anyways, you do get the jist.

The second amazing story was that of Mahtma Gandhi. Yes, everyone does know how exceptional he was, but this I saw as way and beyond wisdom. It is said that one day Mr. Gandhi was getting on a train when his shoe fell on to the platform. When he tried to retrieve it and failed, he took off the second one and threw it where the other one fell. His fellow commuters were puzzled,  he turned and said "The poor person that would find the first one would have no use for one shoe, better he finds two"

It is simple reasoning that would be difficult for a logical mind to arrive to, for reasons you have already deduced by now. But that inspired me to have a vent of feelings, to think of all current news that come in with a critical eye and a way that I can improve on them. So here I am, willing to be the illogical thinker, for what use is there to live if you just pass on by?