There’s a dangerous myth in the American psyche that I think kills an inordinate amount of great ideas.
It’s the myth of the lone genius.

Elon.

Kanye.

Beyoncé.

Taylor Swift.

The list goes on.

We look at these people with their immense levels of success and think “How did one person do all of that?!”

It turns out, the answer is simple: they didn't.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being a hater. I’m not saying these people haven't accomplished impressive things. That would be ridiculous.

What I’m saying is that they didn’t do it alone.
Neither did anyone else.

In fact, when you dig into any successful person’s story, you’ll usually find one of three common backstories:

1. The first group of people came out of a creative community. The members of that community inspired, encouraged, and supported each other, and that support allowed individual members to succeed far beyond what they could have ever done on their own. Sometimes one of those people happens to explode in popularity that far eclipses the rest of the group, but the original energy came from the group.​
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   Beyoncé, if you’ll recall, was originally a member of Destiny’s Child, which was one of the most successful female music groups in history. Even as a solo artist, she has credited as many as fifteen cowriters on a single song. Do you know what that’s called? It’s called collaboration. It's called teamwork. It's called community.
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2. The second group is a little different. These are people who genuinely do have an unbelievable amount of talent all on their own. But that talent is almost always paired with an unbelievable amount of baggage.
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   These people would love to write the great American novel or cure cancer, but first they’ve got to pay the bills, help the kids with homework, pack the lunches, mow the lawn, take out the trash, and fix the sink. By the time all of that stuff gets done, there's no time or energy left for creation. Then one day, along comes a spouse or partner or benefactor or friend who says “I can see you have so much potential, but I can also see that you’re never getting off the runway if you have to carry all this. So how about this: How about I take care of this stuff while you go do the thing you were put on earth to do?"
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3. There's a third group, too. This group has a unique quality that enables them to succeed far beyond their peers.
   That quality is called “Rich Parents”.

Regardless of which path they take, many successful people make the same move once they get to the top: they hire a PR firm to edit everyone else out of the story, quietly deleting all the links from their Wikipedia page until it looks like they’re the one true hero — the lone genius who did it all themselves.

It’s a cute little trick, but it’s all a lie.

In reality, nobody does anything by themselves. Every single person’s success is a result of two things: the hard work and dedication they put in, AND the help they were given by the people around them.

These days, you can build a multi-million dollar company that has zero employees. But guess what? You still aren't self-made, because you built that company with a laptop that was designed and built by other people. Your business runs on software that was built by other people, on an internet connection maintained by other people, using payment processors built by other people, delivering goods and services on roads that were paid for by other people.

See it turns out, creativity is a team sport.
Because life is a team sport.

So often, the reason we can’t solve the problems that are keeping up at night is that we think we have to do it ourselves.
We have to be the one to come up with the breakthrough so that we can get all the credit.

But that's a trap.

Not only does it lead to egomania, it also leads to isolation and loneliness. It leads to cutting yourself off from help, which means your solution takes longer to arrive (if it ever arrives at all).

But when you let go of the desire for credit and glory, you open the door to collaboration and teamwork and partnership. Not only do you get more stuff done, faster… you also have more fun. Because it turns out, life is better when you do it with other people.

If you're feeling stuck this week, here's a thought: Maybe the reason you're stuck is because you think you have to do this whole thing yourself. Maybe the key to your breakthrough is sitting inside someone else's head. And maybe you'll only find it if you're humble enough to ask for help.

Happy Friday, friends. Make it a good one.

Kyle Scheele
Helping Launch Better Ideas, Faster.
​www.KyleScheele.com​