Despite current praise of novelists, playwrights, artists, musicians and other kinds of creative people, the behavior that leads to these careers is often discouraged during childhood, adolescence and beyond. This is not just a matter of people trying to protect their loved ones from a career that won’t pay the bill. Acceptance of authority–being obedient, respectful and polite, following rules, and showing more respect to those in power–is often indicative of a conformist. Creative people make judgments and evaluate situations for themselves, which means that they often do not do what they are told. Their actions are based on their own internal beliefs and desires. A number of them are often non-conformist who really do not care if they fit the standards that society expects.
This often begins during the years spent in school. Researchers in creativity have found that the creative characteristic, inquisitiveness, can be exhibited by talking a lot or demanding responses, especially by younger students.[1] How else can they find out about new things? On one hand educators praise intrinsic motivation, while dreading some students that are intrinsically motivated. If one of these students actually becomes famous, the teachers will often “forget” how difficult they were.
Both creative adolescents and adults are open to new ideas and critical of other’s ideas. This is less of an inherent conflict for creative students than it is for adults. The creative person tends to have fewer friends because many view criticism as a sign of rejection.[2] As a person who is inventive in writing, art, music and other fields becomes older, they will not remain the same. They often prefer to work alone not because they desire solitude, but because they sense others are wary of their non-comforming behavior. Their remoteness, a form of self-protection, is often viewed as snobbishness.
The love-hate relationship with creativity and the creative person is not limited to education. In most aspects of life people desire the product of creativity, while avoiding the producer of the creative. This is complicated by the fact that artists, writers and musicians can become enemies of their creative cohorts in the competition to achieve. Some that would like to gain fame in creative fields, don’t shy away because of the problem with earning a living as much as the fear of rejection for being different and difficult.









