I was raised in an environment where creativity was encouraged. We were encouraged to express ourselves in a multitude of ways. My siblings and I were very musical and artistic and we were never put down by our parents but encouraged to keep expressing ourselves and pursuing our dreams. I learned to pursue my dreams and passions rather than what seemed like the logical choice for making money. It wasn’t about money, but being passionate and doing what we love. I am thankful to my parents for that, for nurturing creativity within us, without which it is impossible to be successful.

Lately, I have been watching this show on Netflix called Chef’s Table. I love this show, it is so inspiring hearing the stories of the world’s best chefs and how they became successful. A common theme I noticed, is these chefs became successful because they made the decision to stop following the rules and start following their hearts. They stopped cooking to please other people and began cooking in a way that was true to themselves, they stepped out of the box and let loose their creativity. These chefs would never have gotten to where they are at today if they did not take that risk.

Following your heart is not the easy way out. It can be risky and scary. It might not be a well-defined clear path, you may not know where your heart might take you and you also don’t know how people will react. Often, people don’t know what to think at first when they see someone being so true to themselves and willing to step outside of the box. It might offend people and maybe no one will like it or understand it at first. Many of the chefs in that show experienced that often when they first opened their restaurant, no one understood what they were doing, their food was too creative, too "out there", and people didn’t know what to make of it. But they stuck with their decision, they didn’t give up and they chose to stay true to themselves despite what people thought.

This idea of following your heart does not only apply to world-class chefs, it applies to everyone. You don’t even have to be artistic to be creative. You can be an engineer and be creative, you can be a programmer and be creative, a teacher, a business owner, the list goes on. Creativity simply means you are expressing yourself through what you do, you are making the product true to you and not being confined by the rules. In order to be successful, you have to step out and be yourself; if your passion is not there then it will simply be mediocre and no different than what everyone else is doing.

I encourage you to express yourself. What is your passion? What do you love to do? Be creative in that thing, invent something new, follow your heart and create new ways of doing things. Be brave and willing to step outside of the box of how things have always been done. This is creativity and it is the most important element of success. Go follow your heart, do what you love and do it in a way that is true to you.