Values Quotes – William Inge on Originality

Todays quote is from William Inge, an author, professor, Anglican priest, and former Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.

A discerning quote of Inge was:
“Originality is undetected plagiarism.”

That might seem like a mixed message, and it is. It’s meant to make you think.

As a differentiating value, Originality means the ability to think and act independently. It also means producing something fresh and unusual.

Occasionally someone gets a creative idea from a surprise experience or through serendipity. In such cases they find something they weren’t looking for.

Most of the time, it comes through hard work and repeated efforts to solve a real problem, like Thomas Edison making over 10,000 attempts before inventing the light bulb.

Originality is akin to R&D, or Research & Development. But I’ve often heard the reference to R&D as Research & Duplicate. Why? Because as Inge alluded to in his quote, many so-called original ideas are actually just a slightly modified version of someone else’s idea. Yes, someone may have worked independently and produced a fresh idea. But it came through undetected plagiarism – studying what others were doing to solve the same problem. And that’s fair game.

So if you value originality, consider that there are likely others who are also thinking about the same challenges as you, at the very same time. But don’t let that stop you from pushing forward with your original ideas. You just might turn it into a real winner before anyone else detects and challenges you for plagiarism. And in the end, whoever is first to market generally wins!

 

Today’s value was selected from the “Creativity-Uniqueness” category, based on the e-book Developing Your Differentiating Values.