What is a Black Swan?

It is that rare person who refuses to settle for less than what is available. Black Swans never are satisfied with easy ideas or concepts.

They want the unadulterated truth as we know it to be presently.


Everybody told me when I was a kid too, "follow my heart". So I did, it got broken more times than you can imagine. It turns out getting crushed was the best thing that ever happened to me because I realized rejection was not an impediment to me winning. It caused me to question the rejection every time I faced it.

Every time I got shut down I asked why and learned more about the many facets of discomfort. I found the better my question where the more I began to hear acceptance. Discomfort created wisdom that got me to yes. Rejection is a challenge seeking an opportunity for success. All genuinely creative ideas are initially met with rejection since they necessarily threaten the status quo. The greatest people in life are the ones who reject convention because they abhor settling for less than that is available.

"Settling" makes my blood boil. It's an absolute insult to innovation! It destroys passion. It introduces the degeneration of the soul and totally undermines our imagination and ability to think. It also dilutes the whole notion of what it means to be in control of our destiny, in my opinion.

 

Why do I reject settling for less than I deserve? Learning from my past discomforts and rejections have prepared me for success. Our past failures and the fears of fuel uncertainty when we are de-focused. Failure focuses me on the prize.

Most people only change when they have a sense of certainty. I change on the dime when I sense chaos. This rapid adaptation has come from the lessons of rejection and failure; they are my hormesis for success. Courage is going after something you want after multiple failings. There is more fulfillment in life knowing that you never settle, you do, you tried, rather than settled without a fight.

When you refuse to settle you win more than you lose. Successful people will always look back and say they chose their life, and they refused to settle for less than they deserved.
— at Kruse Longevity Center.

 

Black Swans never settle for ideas that are poorly thought out.

 

I am challenging the future of learning @ Kruse Longevity Center.

I've begun to set my own course in what I think learning should be in January 2019.

We learn throughout our lives. We learn to adapt to change. We learn to learn. Can we be inspired to learn and find pleasure in it? Can teachers nudge us to find that thrill? Who has nudged you to become better than you were yesterday?

And can technology help us in our endeavor, or does it limit our attention?

How much are we and our societies willing to invest in learning?

It is worth the time and money and who is paying?

By studying how our brains think, we try to understand how we learn today.

How will we learn in the future?

My center will be something that delves deeply into this aspect of healthcare. It is an untapped area of medicine in my opinion.

We train thinkers. Real thinkers are rare. We call them Black Swans. Why do we do this?

Black Swan's question everything. Have you ever asked yourself why this is true? It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most about life. They teach us how to think. Think well is the main credo of the Black Swan. If you give folks a rapid answer, all they gain is a little fact. Will they ever invest in thinking to come to understand how the answer was obtained? No, they will not. Never reinforce poor thinking in a student. Instead, challenge them with a phenomenal question and they'll look for his own answers if they are Black Swan material.

Many Nobel Laureates have emphasized in their writings how important their teachers have been to their success.

How has a teacher inspired you to reach extraordinary amidst the ordinary you've settled for previously?

Teachers who walked me through museums and taught me how to question things, and how to question things I was taught to believe were true but were not. How we think about our beliefs/truths & biases are what really sculpt the perspective of how we see the world. The people who taught me to question it all, is who inspired me never to settle for less than my mind allows.