In the particular lies the Universal

James Victore, a designer whose work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, gave this talk in 2014. He points out that brilliant creative minds, from Steve Jobs to Tina Fey to Banksy, are mavericks and renegades who tell their stories, spill their guts and reveal themselves for our progress, enlightenment and entertainment.

Like everyone, they feel the heat of failure, defeat, humiliation and financial ruin, but they do the work anyway, putting their lives and ideals into it, and the world loves them for it. Victore’s message is that your opinions, intelligence and history matter too, but you have to do the work: draw on the most personal parts of your life, your opinions, stories and experiences, and you create something meaningful not only to yourself but to others.

The fear, the struggle and the critics inside and out shouldn’t stop you, he argues, because the world is waiting for your gift. The talk contains strong language.