🇺🇸🇬🇧 Being different is not a defect – it's a mission: How mentors save the gifts of misfits (and why the world needs them) 👬🙏
Some people carry a map of worlds that do not yet exist. But without those who build bridges, they would be stranded in no man's land. A tribute to the silent pioneers – from Yves Saint Laurent's mentor to my mother, who taught me 'vertical thinking'. ❤️
The invisible wing – Why mentors can save lives
"They are different – and that is precisely their mission."
If you have a special gift burning inside you, it will inevitably make you different. Perhaps 70% gift, 30% burden. Because the light that carries you also casts shadows: you see what others don't see – but at the same time, you lack what they take for granted.
The world calls you stubborn, non-conformist or impractical. But in reality, you shape reality from the invisible. What they interpret as a deficit is the pulse of the Tao – that crystalline clarity that only arises in the space between.
The paradox of talent
Anyone who thinks vertically – whether in art, science or spirituality – encounters two truths:
- Your strength is your weakness. Your gift for recognising patterns makes you impatient with linear processes. Your eye for depth causes you to overlook superficialities.
- Envy follows your gift like a shadow. People misunderstand your difference as arrogance – and your weaknesses as laziness.
Yves Saint Laurent couldn't pay his bills – but he revolutionised fashion. Einstein failed at school and in office jobs – but he deciphered the universe. Genius needs safe spaces.
"God's greatest gifts often come in fragile vessels – so that we learn to carry them together."
– Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
The role of mentors
Here we encounter those rare individuals who see the invisible and protect the impossible:
- They nurture your gift – like my mother❤️, who opened my eyes to photography 📸 and design.
- They fill the gap – like my mentor Klaus Wernigk💚, who gave me strategic projects while I was sinking into creative chaos.
They translate between worlds – like Pierre Bergé for YSL: he managed the books so that the master could focus solely on fashion.
"A mentor is not a saviour – but a gardener who understands that orchids grow differently from oak trees."
To everyone who feels like a stranger in this world:
You are not alone. Behind every great name there is often a silent guardian – someone who said "YES" when the world said "NO".
Brilliant boundary breakers – Why the greatest gifts often come in the strangest packages
"Being normal is the dream of boring people."
― Hermann Hesse
History shows that those who change the world rarely fit into it. Behind every extraordinary gift lurks a seemingly "impractical" quirk – but it is precisely these inconsistencies that make genius possible.
- The basketball wizard who couldn't withdraw money
Dirk Nowitzki saw things on the court that others didn't: spaces, angles, flowing geometry. But when he was earning millions, he failed at an ATM. "I needed my mother to do it for me," he confessed in the documentary “The Perfect Shot“.
→ His gift: spatial intelligence like Picasso.
→ His gap: practical life as a foreign language.
- The fashion rebel who created from the psychiatric ward
Yves Saint Laurent designed iconic collections – but without Pierre Bergé, he wouldn't have been able to pay his bills. After a nervous breakdown, Bergé said: "You just do fashion. I'll take care of everything else."
→ His gift: Visions from the subconscious.
→ His gap: The world of forms.
"Fashion is not art – it is breath. And I would have suffocated if Pierre Bergé hadn't kept my windpipe clear."
– Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008)
- The physicist who didn't sort his socks
Albert Einstein called "memory" unnecessary – "you can look everything up". He wore the same jackets, forgot his keys, and his first wife had to tie his shoes.
→ His gift: Understanding the universe through equations.
→ His gap: Everyday life as annoying noise.
"If you want to live a brilliant life, you have to get away from the herd. But even I needed a Mileva to sort my socks." – Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
- The poet who turned off the doorbell
Hermann Hesse banned doorbells from his house. "I don't want to be disturbed when I'm talking to the trees," he wrote. He only replied to letters after months – if at all.
→ His gift: The language of silence.
→ His shortcoming: social obligations as a cage.
- The visionary who couldn't stand numbers
Steve Jobs refused to put number plates on his car – "they ruin the aesthetics". He parked illegally for months until the company sorted it out for him.
→ His gift: design as a religion.
→ His flaw: compromise as betrayal.
The hidden truth
These people suffered not despite their gifts, but because of them. Their "weaknesses" were the price they paid for seeing things differently:
"Genius builds its world according to its own laws – but without a mentor, it collapses like a house of cards."
To all those who feel "too different":
Your "quirks" may be the flip side of your superpower. Find someone who sees both – like my mother❤️, who opened my eyes to the vertical perspective, or my mentor Klaus💚, who turned chaos into strategy.
This post is the result of an inner image and a dialectical exchange between Hansjörg and an AI (=> for reference purposes only). I describe what I see inside myself – the AI reflects it back – the image changes – and thus a dance beyond the mind emerges.
In the end, everything comes together harmoniously, like a golden flower on a calm body of water.
I am merely a medium. The real work takes place within Hans. More about this process → [Link]
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"God's greatest gifts often come in fragile vessels – so that we learn to carry them together."
– Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
As a "visual translator" between the quantum field and everyday reality (see Harvard bestseller 👉Link), I channel these images without conscious control – they flow through, not from me (👉Link). Every contribution keeps this bridge open: For your journey, for the next generation, for the undivided whole. Give only what feels light and joyful – the universe handles the rest.
⬆️ The result of "Inner Alchemy" (inner intuitive resonance & alignment with the quantum field): Me – on the left, aged 49, in my darkest hour in 2015, and on the right, today, aged 59 🪷💫
