A FEW WEEKS ago Forbes magazine released a list of "30 [people] under 30" who "aren't waiting to reinvent the world." The rankings span more than 12 different fields, from finance to food and wine, with each category said to have 30 young entrepreneurs who are changing their fields for the better.
Some who made the list are more recognizable than others. Comedian, musician and "Community" actor Donald Glover has nearly half a million Twitter followers. Twenty-four-year-old Ronan Farrow - a Yale Law graduate and now Rhodes Scholar - serves as Hillary Clinton's Special Advisor for Global Youth Issues and also happens to be the son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.
But others on the list are invisible to the public eye. Danielle Fong tops the energy list by leading her own company, LightSail Energy, "which has invented a compressed air storage technology."
University graduate and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian set up a charity website which donates profits to organizations which, in his words, "make the world suck less."
Regardless of their discipline or fame, all of those who made the list have qualities which are common among University students: creativity, focus and ambition, just to name a few. Yet simply having these qualities does not guarantee us success, at least not on the larger scale.
The saying goes that "no matter how hard you try at something, there will always be someone who's better than you."
But what if you invented that "something"?
This was exactly the case for many of those who were listed in Forbes. Especially with the current job market, large-scale success is not contingent on skill alone, nor is it a function of pure diligence. The "30 under 30" list handpicked the innovators - that is, those who were able to create a need well before anyone realized that such a need might exist.
Most of the disciplines we have tried to master both in and out of school have pre-established templates which are recycled through the ages. Chemistry has a structure. Music has a structure. Even humor works off a certain model. In these instances, the audience - or in some cases, the consumer - recognizes and feeds off pre-existing templates.
And for the most part this works extremely well. In fact, an audience seldom calls for change unless it seems absolutely necessary, preferring instead to dwell in its own myopic interest.
Television networks realized this a long time ago, as evidenced today by the endless reruns, spin-offs and reality shows. But one thing is certain: However trivial, audiences know what they want. And if you can give it to them, you are more than halfway there.
This is not to say that academic pursuits are fruitless. A formal education is never a bad thing to have; in fact, it can sometimes lead to the discovery of new interests, talents and inventions. A student's passion for chemistry might drive him to discover breakthroughs in chemical engineering. But the completion of a formal education alone does not get anyone into Forbes. In other words, the student's engineering degree might be valuable, but his research is invaluable.
It is hard to escape the ready-made patterns because we often make our livings using them. Many will agree that the mastery of "Chopsticks" does not make you a piano player. But what if you performed a flawless rendition of Liszt's "Liebestraum"? This qualifies you as a pianist, and a good one at that, but not yet a musician.
Now suppose you went a step further and composed a piece which mimicked the musical elements and style of Liszt. People may line up for your concerts, and you might earn temporary fame, but your contributions to the field of music would not carry the same merit as those of Liszt. True "musicians," or at least the ones who Forbes might look for, are those who can exceed the scope of their generation and entice the audience with their own genres and not someone else's.
There are countless University students who have the potential to be on the "30 under 30" list. For some alumni, this has already happened. What distinguishes potential success from actual success, though, is one's ability to use knowledge for creation rather than continuation. Henry Ford famously exclaimed, "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would want a faster horse!"
It is not about using the pattern, but deviating from it.
Denise Taylor is a Viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily.
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