Xiao Wang has been good at math since he was a child. In middle school, he even won second prize in a city physics competition. Both his parents and he himself thought he was more suited to studying science. In college, he majored in computer science. After graduation, he joined a computer company.
He has a good sense of fashion. His PowerPoint presentations at work are always praised for being good-looking. Many colleagues even ask him to help revise their presentations. He is afraid that too many people will find him and become his own trouble. So every time he only uses 60% of his effort. But other colleagues still praise him and are grateful. Once he met a senior HR person who said he was a right-brained talent. This shocked him as he had always thought he was left-brained.
But in fact, when he was in elementary school, he was already the class representative for art class. It’s just that art class is a minor subject. Everyone just thinks it’s an interest and doesn’t realize it’s a talent. Or an “unimportant” talent that has nothing to do with advancement. So his talent was not valued by parents and teachers.
If you have had similar experiences, congratulations, such experiences indicate that you are a very intelligent person. The brain itself is a whole and smart people’s left and right hemispheres may not develop synchronously during growth plus the school education is biased towards the left brain so many right-brained people often think they are left-brained early on but the truth is that both halves of their brains are actually very strong it’s just that the right brain is slightly more dominant this kind of person is actually quite common Leonardo da Vinci may be one of the most famous.
This phenomenon actually occurs not only in right-brained people but also in many left-brained smart people whose right brains are also very strong. For example Einstein played the violin very well and another physics master Planck was also proficient in piano. Going back further astronomer Galileo was also an art-loving young man.
After human society entered the industrial society due to the increasing importance of science and technology left-brained talents are usually identified early on and carefully cultivated but right-brained talents are often overlooked or even trained as left-brained talents but the best path for talent development is to follow their own talents also known as “authenticity” it is extremely fortunate for a person’s career development to follow the path where talent and interest overlap they usually have successful lives.
But unfortunately once a right-brained person fails to develop this talent during childhood it is very difficult for them to truly become masters in the art field as adults although this is not absolute it is mostly true for example those who have achieved success in music most of them started playing instruments at the age of four or five as people often say the 10 000 hour rule it takes at least ten years of training to grow into a field and art often requires even longer training even if you have explosive talent you still need a long training process.
However fortunately there is still a position that is very suitable for those who have undergone left-brained professional training but are essentially right-brained talents it is the innovation position especially the leader of the innovation team: product manager innovation is a very comprehensive talent requirement it requires both left and right brain abilities back then when Apple founder Steve Jobs wanted to develop a graphical user interface operating system but felt that the original people in the company did not understand this new system up to his expectations so he decided to start over and set up another team he required new recruits to have both engineering skills and artistic flair.
Having both engineering skills and artistic flair this requirement is precisely replicating Jobs himself Jobs’ young story was connected with radio electronic components but we know that Apple’s success was due to Jobs’ true “authenticity”: artistic talent his arrogance sensitivity all are characteristics of right-brained talents and this is exactly what innovative talents need perfect combination bringing together knowledge and abilities from both halves of the brain.
What should a left-brained person do if they discover that their dominant brain is the right brain when they grow up? Don’t hesitate you should go into innovation or at least try innovation!