Benjamin Graham, the author of the acclaimed book “The Intelligent Investor” said that he hoped every day to do “something foolish, something creative and something generous."
When I first tried this, I did the obvious or superficial — watch funny videos, draw, and give money. Lately, after reading books like The Big Leap and Working With The Law, I think I had it all wrong.
Perhaps something foolish is putting on humility — the willingness to learn new things and change our minds and habits, even stuff we’re already good at, so that we can do better. Creative is doing something with what we’ve learned. Then generous is to do something for someone else by sharing our gifts or what we’ve learned, without expecting anything in return.
So today, foolish for me was studying ink painting and getting comfortable with becoming a beginner again, creative is writing about this insight, and when I publish it and share it with the world, I think that counts as the generous part. Big or small, It’s all about getting it out there, right?