Innovator, There Is No Script

Wanderer, there is no path. The path is made by walking. — Antonio Machado

When you’re doing something for the first time, it’s helpful — and more efficient — to find someone who has done it before and learn how they did it.

There’s no need to cut through the brush if someone else has already paved a road.

Any established career has a path. Any mundane skill has a user guide.

The internet is filled with people offering you scripts for sales calls and challenging conversations, for marketing funnels and social media posts.

If you want to make your life easier, grab a template or a script, get the playbook, and follow it. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

At the same time, it’s important to recognize when those scripts and playbooks won’t help you. If you’re innovating a new approach, or charting your own path, those established scripts and playbooks won’t be much help — and they can be frustrating.

Leo vs Aquarius Archetypal Paths

In the zodiac wheel, the Leo/Aquarius axis illustrates this dichotomy. It’s a useful framework for thinking about which archetypal energy you embody in any area of life. Understanding your archetypal energy can save you frustration of trying to follow the wrong path.

Leo is the sign of the actor. Actors play a role and speak from scripts. They step into a persona, memorize lines written by other people, and rehearse those lines until they sound like they are speaking their own words.

Aquarius is the sign of the innovator. It’s the sign of the counter-culture — the people who don’t follow the mainstream.

Which Archetype Are You?

If you’re following a “mainstream” life trajectory, or work in a defined, established career, you’re in the “Leo” camp. There are playbooks and scripts you can follow to make life easier.

That doesn’t mean you have to follow them to the letter. You can always infuse a script with your dialect, dress up the role with your favorite colors. But refusing to use the playbook just puts you at a disadvantage.

Sometimes its easier to step into the spotlight if the words are written for you, if you don’t need to think about how to say what you do.

On the other hand, if you’re doing something that has never been done before, or your life path is outside the mainstream, you’re unlikely to find a script or playbook.

The point of innovating is to create something that has never existed before.

Creating your own path involves the work of cutting through the brush and paving a road. This is a lot of work — and that’s why many people opt for established paths.

Trying to fit your innovative spirit into a script will only result in frustration.

The innovator has no lines to memories, no persona to step into. They create the path.

To paraphrase Spanish Antonio Machado,

Innovator, there is no script. The script is made by doing.