A Wise Man Can Always Be Found Alone! Really???

I came across this meme on Instagram the other day:

"A wise man can always be found alone. A weak man can always be found in a crowd."

This got me thinking. Obviously it is related to the theme of my blog but is it necessarily a correct assumption? Are wise men found alone and weak men found in crowds?

Before I answer this question let me define the word crowd. According to the New American Oxford Dictionary, crowd is a large number of people gathered together. Another definition is a group of people who a linked by a common interest to activity.

Anyway, the answer to the above question is yes and no. If a man has a purpose in his life and he believes in it and is willing to break down barriers to achieve that purpose then a lot of his time is going to be spent alone working on it and making it happen. Obviously at times he is going to need and want the help of others. He is going to ask advisers and mentors for their advice but proportionally a lot of his time is going to be spent by himself getting s**t done.

I think another meaning of this meme is that sometimes you have to go against the underlying thinking of society, to go out on a limb, to risk humiliation to get something that you believe in done.

Most of the famous inventors probably did that. They had an idea and they went out and did it but they had to detach themselves from the crowd. They had to risk being ostracised from the crowd to deliver on their vision.

Being ostracised from society is something that is biologically hard to take. Throughout the history of man we have stuck in groups purely to survive. 30,000 years ago if you ventured out on your own, you might have never come back. So we stayed together. These days are different because we don't have to deal with tigers or wolves looking for their Sunday dinner but the idea of staying together as a group remains. So when you are staying with the group you are not necessarily being weak, you are just doing what comes naturally over thousands of years of human evolution.

In summary, yes you are going to have to go out on your own to accomplish something. The wise part is to find something that is good for you as a person and suits your strengths.

To be in a group is not weak at all. You are being you and anyway, many heads are better than one on occasions and you may come up with the next biggest and greatest idea.

Choose what is best for you, what is best for your strength and weaknesses is the most important thing and go and do it. Generic advice I know but that is what is takes.

I'm writing this on December 13, 2017. I never knew who made that quote but I saw that it could be Bruce Lee. So thank you to him.