What is a polymath? An informative brief on the polymathic mindset--Polymathics
Channel: Josh Coker
Date: 2014-06-30

In this video, Josh Coker outlines the polymathic mindset into three main areas.

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According to Wikipedia, "Polymath" comes from the Greek. Two root words; ‘poly’, meaning ‘multiple’, and ‘mathos’, meaning ‘subject’. In the Renaissance this term referred to individuals, who had expertise in multiple fields. 

AKA Renaissance man.

Today, more than any other time in history, we face complex problems. Problems that don't have easy solutions. Problems like world hunger and global warming. There is no one person that's going to come and solve those, right? It's going to require a multi-faceted approach. A polymathic approach.

So today, what I want to discuss, are three different areas where polymaths take an innovated approach to their problems. Those three areas are: 1) the questions that they ask; 2) how they embrace challenges, and 3) how they deal with the failures that will inevitabley happen. 

So with that being said, how many have you like to watch movies? Read books? Listen to music? Play video games?

How many have you know a teenager who can do all those things while talking on the phone and walking down the street. You've seen that before and I know some of you guys would want to go up to that kid and be like why?

But you see, not too long ago, a very well-known polymath by the name of Steve Jobs didn't ask why. He asked why not? And when he did he was able to invent one of the greatest innovations that ever hit mankind. If you want a better answer, you have to ask better questions. So, it's a simple shift from asking why, to asking why not? 

So that leads me into the second item which is the challenges that you're going to face if you decide to go after these dreams. You see, people aren’t going to just let you come in and make this noise without giving yousome sort of pushback, right? 

In order to really illustrate this idea, let me ask you a question. Did you know that Christopher Columbus and the Terminator have something in common? 

You see, Christopher Columbus came from a very lowly place in life, his father was a cheese maker. Yet over the course of time he kind of built a reputation, and he started mingling with courtiers and royaltys. Even then people told him: You’re never gonna achieve that goal. You're never gonna meet reach that dream. And as history would tell us, he sailed the Seas and found the New World. 

He broke the mold. 

What does this have to do with the Terminator? Arnold Schwarzenegger also came from a small little farm town. But he wanted to be a bodybuilder and his family told him, no, no, no. They even sent him into the military to try to stop him. 

He, every time someone told him, ‘You can't do this.’ he embraced the challenge. He thrived off that. He wanted to prove them wrong. As we all know he became one of the most renowned bodybuilders of all time. But then after that he said, ‘That's not enough. I wanna be a movie star. I wanna be a movie actor.’ People told him, ‘Arnold, you can't do that. You’re a bodybuilder. Your English is terrible and you wouldn't even fit on the camera anyways. We need someone smaller, you know. Someone like Humphrey Bogart. That's the kind of person that that works in movies.’

He said no, and embraced the challenge, and what happened. Well we all know that he became one of the greatest movie stars, one of the most famous movie stars of all time. But then he said, ‘No. I'm not going to stop there.’ He said, ‘I want to be a politician.’ 

And again he was told no. And again he drove through each roadblock to achieve his goal.

People are gonna tell you that it's impossible, and when they do that's when you know you've got something worth fighting for.

But that leads me to my third topic of discussion which is failure. 

You see, if you're going to ask big questions and you're going to take on challenges then inevitably you're going to fail. And failures okay but for a lot of people, failure is the end of the line. But see, polymaths take a different approach.

One of the greatest examples of all time of the polymathic mindset when it comes to failure, is Thomas Edison, and his invention of the light bulb. Legend has it, that it took him 10,000 attempts. In an interview a reporter asked, "how did you deal with all that failure?" and he said, "No, no, no. I found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb." 

Polymaths see failure as little bread crumbs that show you the path to success. 

That, my friends is the key to the polymath mindset. Ask better questions. To take on challenges. And look at failure as as building blocks.