‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference,” wrote Robert Frost. Over a recent five-week period, I had the joy and privilege of guiding the latest cohort of Bangkok University’s MBA-i programme through my favourite course, Creative Leadership, which is based on my Genius Journey method.
The Genius Journey allows candidates to gradually expand their minds to embrace the unusual mindsets of extraordinarily creative leaders, to learn about advanced creativity tools and how to increase the odds of experiencing a Eureka moment of breakthrough creativity.
Session by session, participants discovered what it takes to shift from being a hardworking business mind to becoming a fluid, purposeful, creative leader.
And at Stop 8 of the Genius Journey, they faced a mindset that is as essential as it is uncomfortable: Stop being habitual, static and inert. Start to move, change and flex yourself.
FROM STATIC TO ELASTIC
On the morning of our fourth creative leadership session, we ventured far beyond classroom walls. Why? Because flexibility, adaptability and mobility can’t just be discussed. They need to be experienced, activated and embodied.
So we left the comfort zone and stepped into a “tribal survival mode” — a primal-style outdoor excursion across the park-like university campus, dappled with sunlight after the morning rain. Our travellers moved together as a collective primal hunter group, navigating unfamiliar terrain, making group decisions, adapting to changing paths and performing physical and mental challenges along the way.
Through the sweat, movement and laughter, they began to reconnect with a truth as old as our species: Humans survive not because we are the strongest or the fastest . but because we are the most adaptable.
It was a kinetic reminder that flexibility — physical, mental and emotional — is the real superpower of a creative leader. Or as Charles Darwin put it: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Inspired by the moment — and using the opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone — I introduced a new Genius Journey exercise: Walk Your Own Path.
It’s simple yet profound. Each participant was asked to take a solo walk back to the starting point of our excursion. No pre-set route, no destination. Just the freedom to follow their intuition — to turn left or right based on impulse, to stop when something caught their attention, to notice what feelings, sensations or curiosities arose and to adjust their path accordingly.
This is not just a walk — it’s a living metaphor for the creative life.
Here’s the truth: Creative leaders do not walk in the footsteps of others. They carve their own paths. They deviate. They pivot. They stumble into detours that lead to new opportunities. They resist the gravitational pull of convention and dare to trust their own inner compass.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
One week later, the Genius Journey travellers delivered presentations on creative leaders who inspired them — figures they had studied for five weeks. And guess what theme kept emerging?
The courage to walk a different path. Here are some examples:
Steve Jobs dropped out of college and started Apple in the garage of his parents’ house. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” he later said — and undoubtedly, he didn’t.
Jeff Bezos left a secure, high-paying Wall Street job at 30 to chase the unknown with Amazon after discovering the exponential growth potential of the evolving World Wide Web. “We are our choices. Build yourself a great story,” he once said. And he did. “If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting.” Choosing a different path isn’t always popular, but it’s often where innovation begins.
Richard Branson launched a student magazine and later a record label that signed unheard voices. As he once reflected, “Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.” That philosophy led him to follow his joy, not the crowd — and to create new paths where none existed.
Bill Gates walked away from Harvard at the age of 20 to start building Microsoft. As he once put it, “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”
Each one made a bold turn off the well-trodden road. Each one flexed, adapted and chose change. And it made all the difference.
So let me ask you:
Are you walking your own path?
Are you a creative who boldly travels the path less travelled by?
Or are you following in the safe, predictable footsteps of others?
Creative leaders who truly change the world don’t follow templates. They live with purpose and make meaning. They embrace discomfort and temporary setbacks. And they move, change and flex until their inner genius finds its own harmonious balance to navigate a fundamental paradox.
Creative leaders must cultivate stable routines (to simplify the complexities of life) while also stepping out of their comfort zones (to keep up with the ever-evolving flow of business and life).
At Stop 8 of the Genius Journey, creative leader candidates learn how to develop the cognitive flexibility and adaptability required to juggle such paradoxes. The road to genius doesn’t come with a map, but it does begin with one choice: To walk your own path.