GDP growth is at 1.3%. So?
There are plenty of people making a ton of money and getting lots of media attention. In less crazy times those employees, entrepreneurs, and political leaders would be derided as "crazy," or at least "mentally unstable." Not now. That's because the times call for the creativity, resilience, empathy, and realism of these kinds of folks. That's what Dr. Nassir Ghaemi says in his new book "A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Link Between Leadership and Mental Illness."
Head of the Tufts University Medical Center Mood Disorder Program, Ghaemi digs under the cliches about so-called "mental illness" and turns up its assets. It was exactly those traits which are hard-wired into the DNA of those perceived as "mentally unstable" which equipped them to reframe what was into what could be.
A stunning example Ghaemi gives is William Sherman. A serial failure, he blossomed in the chaos of the Civil War. He noticed that the traditional way of war was to fight soldier-against-soldier until one side gave up. How inefficient, Sherman decided. He decided that the way to win more efficiently was to destroy the South's economy and its high morale. He did that by burning Atlanta and other cities. The rest is history.
Creativity, hammers Ghaemi, is not solving a familiar problem in a novel way. Rather it's the ability to pick up on that nobody else sees what the real problem - or opportunity - is.
Breakthrough thinkers in the paranormal [who by the nature of the work are usually classified as a little crazy] understood that mainstream acceptance was blocked by the population's veneration of the scientific research. Therefore, reframers such as Jon Nowinski, head of Connecticut's Smoking Gun Research Agency[SGRA], embedded methodical investigation into paranormal work. Discussions, lectures, group processes, and documentaries at SGRA focus on separating fact from folklore, and how that has been done, including with technology. Here is a typical Nowinski presentation.
The new normal is to not expect the old normal. Ghaemi's book "First-Rate Madness" is well-timed for guiding companies, investors, and voters to consider developing fresh criteria for the kinds of folks they need.
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Posted by: Dallas angel investor | March 18, 2012 at 11:58 PM