The Kid Who Taught Me Something!

I have been off the grid for a little while now doing research for a new book I’m working on.  It had required me to take a step back from a lot of outside influence and really spend a good bit of time in deep thought and reflection.  It has been a very rewarding time and it has allowed me to really gather insight and a deeper understanding of what I have learned over the years.  I find it funny how as soon as I plug back in and go online to do some research, I stumble upon a boy genius with an extraordinary story and an amazing IQ.  I have to say that my time away from all the outside influences made me extra receptive to what this young teenager had to say.  

In my quest for new information and some deep subject resources I stumble upon this young man named Jacob Barnett.  He was diagnosed at a very young age with moderate to severe autism.  The doctors said he would never be able to function on his own let alone even be able to tie his shoes.  Jacob however defied the doctors predictions and after being removed from the special education programs, he went off and learned on his own and today he is regarded as the hottest upcoming scientist of our generation with expectations of rivaling Einstein, all at the age of 15.  What a far different prediction then the ones saying he would not be able to tie his shoes.  

My story with Jacob came from a youtube video that I found.  Jacob was speaking on TED TV.  I had came across some articles about Jacob in my research but had never heard him speak.  I was intrigued to here what he had to say and how he communicated with an IQ reported at 170 or above.  My interest was even greater after reading several articles from skeptics who questioned his ability.  This made me more interested to see for myself.  I can tell you that after watching this short video of him speaking, I came away with an enormous amount of information that opened my eyes to an wonderful idea.  Jacob simply blew me away.  Perhaps it was the fact that I avoided external info as much as possible over the last couple months or perhaps because my brain just was clicking, whatever it was I GOT IT!  A fresh concept!  A very new approach and I owe it all to a 15 year old young man who was told he would never do a thing.  Here is what I learned from Jacob.  

Learn, Think, Create!  Jacob spoke about the exact thing that I was doing over the last few months and he actually explained the validity of it.  Jacob said his story required him to STOP LEARNING and START THINKING.  That was exactly what I was doing.  I had stopped learning and absorbing the outside influences.  Jacob told his own story of being removed from school and that allowed him to finally stop learning and start thinking.  

Let me explain this as simple as I can.  The message was to move from LEARNING which is just memorizing existing information and into the realm of THINKING and then finally to the place of NEW CREATION.  His message reminded me off a saying that I heard in my younger years, “Forget what you know and remember what you don’t.”  That was kind of Jacob’s message.  Forget all the programming that we have been uploaded with and start THINKING AND CREATING ON OUR OWN.  Steve Jobs was legendary for this and so have all those who come before and challenge the status quo.  It was radical at first to here but it made so much sense and to be honest it was also exactly what I was doing.  Jacob had to unplug to actually begin to thrive.

Let me close this article for now.  I will however leave you with a challenge I took from him and I will give to you.   Move from LEARNING to THINKING to CREATING.  Below is the process!

1. THINK about the field you are passionate about!    THEN…….

2. Instead of THINKING about the field. BE THE FIELD……… This allows you to finally begin to…

3. CREATE – Creation is something that the Wright Brothers did with the AIRPLANE and what Einstein did with MATH!

Go get to it!!