Importance of Artistic Hobbies

I painted this portrait of Kavi-Guru Rabindranath Tagore last week. I felt great about it! And I feel that it is extremely important to have an artistic hobby.

The most original people don't have the deepest expertise, but the broadest perspectives.

Artistic hobbies train us to think creatively and give us access to new ways of solving problems. What we already have is good for INCREMENTAL GROWTH. However if you need to RE-IMAGINE the current model, you have to think creatively!

Take Nobel Prize-winning scientists, compared to their peers, they're 2x as likely to play a musical instrument, 7x as likely to draw or paint, and 12x as likely to write fiction or poetry. In some cases, they directly credit art as a catalyst for their scientific Eureka moments - like Einstein calling the theory of relativity a musical thought or Galileo seeing mountains on the moon because he was trained in a drawing technique that involved shading.

Steve Jobs said that one of the non-negotiable qualities he always looked for while hiring employees is creativity and people with artistic bent of mind.

While coaching employees, I always ask them what are their hobbies because it provides great insight into their personality, creativity and passion.

Well, you may think you are not very creative. And I'm insisting you to at least try. If not painting, probably playing an instrument or writing poems or blogging or making toys. There are end number of things that you can do. Dr. Edward De Bono said,

Creativity is a skill, which everyone can learn. It is true that some people might be better than others just like everyone can play tennis but some people are better than others.

You will never know until you TRY. I've tried... and I've tried without any formal training!