In Celebration of Curiosity

"Opinions are like a$$holes...everyone's got one." Not an uncommon saying, but one of my favorites from my deceased Grandfather. I get a LOT of unsolicited advice presented as objective fact-based truths about my LinkedIn profile, and incredibly, about my cover photo. Essentially the criticism is that it means nothing and is not representative of anything I've done or my personal Brand.

Let me set the record straight on that.

My five year old son has a severe developmental impairment called #angelmansyndrome; it profoundly impacts motor planning and cognition, rendering him incapable of speech and making tasks like dressing, bathing, self feeding, using a toilet, even balancing on his own two feet for long periods difficult. He sees all kinds of heroic therapists who work on various areas of his development. But as we all know or should know, the same way a child's education shouldn't begin and end with school, my child's therapy doesn't begin and end with his sessions. So I integrate challenges and therapy into every activity I can, particularly ones he enjoys as endorphins and serotonin shift synaptic activity into high gear.

Two years ago, I inherited a family piano and noticed he likes to "play". By that I mean he doesn't just bang away at it like his older "typical" cousins and most children. He seems to really enjoy exploring upper and lower register keys as if he's almost trying to be musical (and I believe he is). I decided to turn his curiosity and love of the piano into a therapy tool to teach him colors. As you can see in the photo, each octave is marked with a color. When he sits down to play, I have cards with corresponding colors ready nearby so I can jump on the opportunity. After several weeks of work, I can now hold up red and he hits the red keys, always accompanied by my verbalizing the color so he associates the the sound of the word as well as the color with the corresponding piano keys. Occasionally he initiates so he'll hit a colored octave and look at me, and I hold that card up and vocalize the color. After a while I added the word for the color to each card. So he saw a patch of red and saw "RED", creating the association between those letters/symbols and the color. And after some time he responded by hitting the appropriate keys. Eventually we got to the point where I could just say say "Blue" and he would hit the blue keys, or just hold up the blue card and say "show me blue" and he would hit the right keys. So...yes...I taught him his colors. Taking it further, I started showing him cards with the color removed, just he word for each color. And with fairly regular accuracy, he would respond to the sight of the word by hitting the appropriate keys. I would describe that as "pre-reading" because it's debatable whether he really internalizes that as a word in concept or whether it's just a "picture" that correlates to a color. Regardless, it was considered stunning progress by his therapists.

So this visual that apparently doesn't represent my Brand or Values needs to go? No, sorry. It's not going anywhere. My Brand is about "innovation", "curiosity", "ingenuity", "problem solving", "creativity", "passion" and "commitment".

Primarily I'm just incredibly proud of my accomplishment. Have you, naysaying "expert" climbed that mountain? I seriously doubt it. Have you, "expert" even bothered to ask about the image before suggesting taking it down? NOT A ONCE. Do YOU possess curiosity? No, you don't.

The greatest managers I've worked for, greatest teachers I've had and my most beloved friends and colleagues all possess many of those qualities: curiosity, innovation, commitment, passion, a desire to solve problems and fix things and ingenuity. The are "why?" and "why not?" people. They are "what if?" people. In short they are people who approach the world from the perspective "I want to make [that] better. Let me find out as much as I can about it and find a better way.

In my career, some of the most consistent criticism I've received is "you're too much of a "why" person. JFDI (#iykyk)." And I really don't take that as criticism as much as I sometimes have to and force myself to be a drone.

Yep, some of you will think this is highly derivative of the "Ted Lasso" episode where he advocates for people to be curious, not judgmental. But not everyone has an AppleTV subscription, and there are a lot of people who seem to miss the deeper messaging of that show and just enjoy the belly laughs. Fine by me. No judgements.

And for those of you who ARE CURIOUS, my son is doing great, beyond where his doctors and therapists hoped he would be at age 5, and we press on harder. A slight defect on one gene may encumber his spirit, keeping it from soaring to the heights he deserves, but I will keep combining the professional help he receives with my God given curiosity, innovation, commitment, passion, desire to solve problems and and ingenuity for which I am eternally grateful to ensure he's moving towards the life of independence and dignity he deserves.