This Coupon Entitles You to One Free Superpower

-By Jaime Willis

"Leaders are born with the innate talent to question conventional wisdom." 

-John Agno

Conventional wisdom, according to wikipedia, can be defined as ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field. Such ideas or explanations, though widely held, are unexamined.

It's the second sentence that is critical here.  Conventional wisdom is something we assume to be true without requiring additional proof.  Which means that conventional wisdom is sometimes outright wrong and many times is incredibly limited.

Fran Allen

For example, conventional wisdom in the past said that women were not good in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

Someone forgot to tell that to Marie Curie, who won a Nobel Prize in Science for discovery the radioactive elements Radium and Polonium.

Someone forgot to tell that to Fran Allen, who was the first female to win the Turing prize for her advancements in high performance computing.



When you decide whether or not you can accomplish a task, are you falling prey to a belief in conventional wisdom?

Did you always wish you had a superpower?  Well here is one free for the taking:

Decide that the Old Rules do NOT apply to you.

Illustration by Natalie Dee

Conventional Wisdom can literally be brushed aside by simply refusing to believe it.  Can you imagine how dull the Olympics would be to watch if all the athletes were sure that the last World Records couldn't be broken?

Can you imagine how amazing you will feel accomplishing a goal you didn't think was possible for yourself?

I hope that you take your new superpower to heart!