Five For Your Hive: Always Go a Little Further into the Water

David Bowie, Disney, Be Willing to Look Stupid, Gosh! Kids, You Will Always Long to Return

Always Go a Little Further into the Water

One piece of advice I often encounter from successful people is that if you feel a sense of safety and comfort in your current work environment—if you flinch at any kind of hardship or challenge—you may not be in the right place. This echoes what my rugby coach used to say about athletic training and becoming a better player overall: without that extra weight, that additional rep, the body settles into stagnation and complacency. Muscles don’t grow, health stagnates, movements weaken, and eventually, a state of deterioration sets in. This principle applies to everything we do. "Always go further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in," David Bowie says, "Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting." If you’re still making resolutions and you need a spark, consider this a worthy pursuit: take a step further into the unknown, and don’t look back, because when you cease to challenge yourself, you'll end up regressing and undoing all your gains.

What Would Walt Do?

Walt Disney was regarded as a singular genius, and when he was alive, it was difficult for anyone to contemplate what the company would be like without him. Even after his death, there wasn’t anybody who came close to filling his shoes. Disney employees would constantly ask themselves, "What would Walt do?", hoping to keep the spirit of creation alive. "They thought by doing that," Ed Catmull writes in Creativity Inc., "they would come up with something original and remain true to Walt’s pioneering spirit." But because it looked backward, where it was comforting and relied on the status quo, a pervasive fear of change took root. Steve Jobs, fully aware of this what-would-Walt-do chronicle, made it a point to repeat to his employees not to ask, “What would Steve do?” In the universe of originality and innovation, “no one would achieve success,” Catmull writes, “by simply clinging to what used to work.” No one can reach the pinnacle of creativity without going a little further into the water. Instead, we should be asking ourselves, What would I do? You don’t have to love change, but you must recognise that it is what makes your muscles grow, or it will reverse whatever you’ve created.

Be Willing to Look Stupid

Harold Ramis, the actor-director famous for playing Egon in Ghostbusters, once laid out his rule for success. “Find the most talented person in the room,” Ramis says, “and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful.” For this to happen, people will need to go the extra mile out into the water to find those talented people. One, you’ll need the curiosity to find those talented people. Two, you’ll need the kindness to attract those talented people. Three, you’ll need the stamina to keep finding those talented people. Last, and most importantly, you’ll need a willingness to look stupid in front of those talented people. “The fastest way to get what you want,” Austin Kloen writes, “is to be around those people who have it.” They’re all there, in the far end of the room. You’ve got to weave through the crowd and be willing to look stupid next to them, and for Ramis, he managed to find one talented person in the room: Bill Murray.

There’s Only One Way to Find Out

I didn’t always have a knack for children. For one, I didn’t think I was any good at it. I didn’t think they would listen to me, or if I could inspire them. But, one day, something clicked in me—I went out a little further than where I would have usually and led my first photography class with an eleven-year-old. One session led to another, and then another, and then another. I realised I was enjoying it. I realised he was enjoying it. And it kept going. So, how do you discover if you’re cut out for something, like being a writer or a chef or a teacher? To be a "Novelist," Haruki Murakami writes in Novelist as a Vocation, “there’s only one way to find out: you have to jump in the water and see if you sink or swim.”

You Will Always Long to Return

In 2020, a friend introduced me to stand-up paddling which involves you getting up on a surfboard with a paddle in hand and paddle out into the sea. Our routine begins by heading out early in the morning, and paddling till about fifty to a hundred meters from the shoreline, but still within a safe distance of the ships. I recall the mixed emotions—a bit of fear of colliding with a ship, yet an overwhelming sense of tranquility. The stillness, with water gently rippling from passing boats and the distant hum of speed boat engines, created a serene atmosphere. My feet, for sure, weren't able to touch the ground, but it was an experience unlike anything on land, where peace and quiet enveloped me, and I could hear subtle thoughts circulating in my mind. I told myself that if I needed to find peace, this is where I must be. It’s a special place. Going out of your depth will bring about new experiences, and with new experiences come new expectations. So, what happens when you’ve gone out of your way, made the bet, looked stupid, and it turned out good? Will you look back and say that the past was better? The old was better? No! You’ve changed, and you should. “Once you have tasted flight,” Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, once you venture out into the deeper ends of the water and found something new and fresh, “you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”