I was listening to a podcast on fairy tales and as the narrator shared the backstory of Hans Christian Anderson, his quote to his Mum before he left to be an actor got me thinking.
“I’ll become famous! First you suffer cruelly, and then you become famous.”
Many times, I have read and heard that suffering makes you more creative. You need the pain to be artistic. More the suffering, better the work of art. Whether it be a painting or a song or a story. So, does grief make you a genius?
On her site, psychotherapist, Mihaela Ivan Holtz, presents it the other way around. That “life struggles, depression, anxiety, creativity, relationships, PTSD, and addictions" can be released through a creative outlet. Therefore, when you are sad, the process of immersing yourself in writing, singing, acting, painting is one way to find closure or at least numb the pain.
Hans Christen Andersen was born into poverty, his parents a shoemaker and a washerwoman. Then he lost his father when he was 11, who he was close to. By 14, he decided he wanted to be an actor but was unsuccessful.
However, luck was on his side when a Royal Theater director recognised his talent for stories and funded his education. But then he was bullied to the extent he had to finish his schooling with a private tutor.
Living in poverty then going on to be with the rich elite inspired The Little Mermaid. His struggle to fit in inspired The Ugly Duckling.
Just to test this out, let's pick some random famous people. Based on this theory, these people had some type of suffering in their life that may have sparked creativity. Let's see if it is true.
Beethoven: as a child, he was beaten by his abusive alcoholic father.
Robin Williams: bullied in school, was an introvert, and lonely because both his parents worked. Even as one of the greatest actors and comedians of our time, he battled with addiction and then depression and eventually gave in, taking his own life.
Oprah Winfrey: As a child, she'd been beaten bloody for little things, and was sexually assaulted at 14, got pregnant and thrown out of her house by her mother.
Elon Musk: He was an awkward child, and his father was emotionally abusive. He was also bullied and beaten up in school, once so bad that he landed in the hospital.
There are more famous people who had d Children who fought their demons and some into their adulthood. So I went in search of happy childhoods of famous and talented people. Still searching...
If you know of happy kids who grew up to be brilliant in their field, drop their names won't you? There's so much research on the power of stress to make us more creative but not enough of the opposite. Aiks!!
Hmmm, well like they say that "what doesn't kill you, make you" For all the people that endured most of those hard times, torments and suferrings, they are the ones we are clapping and cheering today. They didn't succumb to what life presented them with and from their challenges, sparked their creativity. I don't know any happy child either with a successful life. Everyone always have a story to tell and until they do, we never know what they had to pass through.