In the long-run, the worst time to be an ‘individualist’ or ‘non-conformist’ would be when trying to learn something new or navigate in strange waters. It is very difficult to follow instructions when one is ‘going their own way’. Usually when we are impetuous in this regard, we end up wasting time and resources when we need to do everything over again, since it wasn’t done correctly because we didn’t follow directions.
While being ‘out of the box’ is seen as (and is) mostly always intelligent BECAUSE it diverges from the norm, when learning an ‘art’ or a ‘science’ it can only be logical for us to see at least how something COULD be done (and is). So being really smart AND sensible is staying in the box just long enough to see what is going on with people who know how to (and who are) actually doing something successfully.
They say to gain the mindset of a successful person (and to