Today I came across a quote from Elon Musk criticizing the education system. He argued that it was designed for an older era, focusing too much on memorization and factory-style training, rather than nurturing creativity and problem-solving skills.
I don’t fully agree with this. For the past few decades, our culture and media have been overwhelmingly encouraging creativity. Everywhere we turn, we are told to “think outside the box.” Ideas are not scarce anymore—what’s scarce is the ability to execute those ideas and bring them into reality.
The real challenge is not imagination, but execution: how to take a spark of creativity and make it work in the real world.
In academia, people often prefer the idea of “waiting until everything is perfectly prepared”—what some would call “winning through stillness.” But in reality, no matter how smart or well-prepared you are, unexpected situations will always arise.
True “stillness” doesn’t mean inaction. It means subtle, constant micro-adjustments beneath the surface. It is a state of ongoing movement: observing carefully, testing in small ways, making continuous corrections, and adapting instantly to what’s happening.
This principle is also reflected in martial arts. Yi Jing Zhi Dong—to overcome stillness with stillness—doesn’t mean standing frozen. It means probing with the smallest actions to sense your opponent’s reaction, then refining your response in real time. The stronger your foundation, the more risks you can afford to take, and the bolder your attempts can be.
The same applies to business and management. A company’s resources and fundamentals are like a fighter’s skills. The stronger the base, the more experiments it can run, and the bigger the risks it can withstand. Creativity sparks the idea, but execution—trial, adaptation, and persistence—is what determines whether the idea survives and thrives.
Creativity is the spark. Execution is the wind that spreads the fire.
