“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”—Benjamin Franklin
CHARLIE D’AMELIO
In 2007, a three-year-old named Charli D’Amelio turned her living room into her own personal dance stage. Recognizing her spark, her parents cultivated her artistry. For ten years, she trained in the rigor of competitive dance, solidifying fundamentals that would later transform her life.
In 2019, while dancers were still primarily focused on the traditional path to success, Charli saw an opportunity to leverage her skills and express herself in a new way. At the core of her strategy was one clear tactic: adaptability.
Around this time, TikTok shook the world. TikTok was a new social media app that was all about sharing short, creative videos. Their platform thrived on creating content around recent trends with popular background music. Charli’s ability to quickly adapt to these changes, choreographing catchy dances to trending songs, made her stand out. She catapulted herself to stardom, amassing over 150 million followers in a few years. Her style of short, engaging, and rhythmic dance videos became a standard on TikTok. She went from riding trends to shaping them. She popularized several dance challenges, dance moves, and songs.
Charli’s story shows how important it is for creators to be adaptable. By being open to new ideas and using them to be creative, Charli became the face of dance in a generation backed by digital entertainment.
ADAPT OR DIE
Adapt or die. That’s the fundamental rule of nature. Charles Darwin hit it on the head when he said, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” While the concept is known for its application to surviving life, it also applies to the survival of your creativity. The creative process is full of surprises, so creative geniuses adapt in ways most people can’t. Their fluidity is a superpower.
It touches every aspect of their life. On a small scale, it’s how they react to mishaps during their creative process; a mistaken drop of paint on their canvas, an error in their code, or playing the wrong key on the piano. On a larger scale, it’s how they navigate their ever-changing industries; the impact of A.I., a shift in fashion trends, or a new genre of music.
At the root of adaptability is optimism. Optimism convinces you there’s a solution to every problem. It gives you hope there will always be a way to leverage incoming change. Most creators perceive these changes as a threat, but creative geniuses view them as an opportunity. When you teach yourself how to engage, learn, and adapt, you will thrive wherever the wind takes you. There’s beauty in each season.
YOUNGER GENERATION
Have you ever felt misunderstood by the older generation? Do you complain about the younger generation? This dichotomy happens because each generation enters society and completely changes how we do things. Sometimes it’s minor changes, but other times it completely shifts traditional ways of thinking. This leaves the older generation feeling disdain toward the younger ones. Their music sounds different. Their fashion feels nonsensical. Their movies lack substance. Their ideologies are outrageous.
An article written by the BBC compiled a list of the most common complaints about Millennials and compared them to records from the past. They found that history repeats itself. Records dating back thousands of years revealed that humans have always criticized young people about similar things. The older generations, spanning centuries, always think the younger generation are lazy, self-obsessed, immature know-it-alls who are ruining religion and spending too much money. The truth is it’s not solely a Gen X’s view on Millennials. It’s the natural order of the world. Millennials will think the same about Gen Z, Gen Z will have the same opinion about Gen Alpha, and history will continue cycling.