Thanks for Listening: Vol. VI (Part1)

Dear listener,  

Listening to the quiet whisper of our inner selves, following our intuition, and carving our unique path is a journey that spans a lifetime. Some of us find purpose early, while others seek it repeatedly throughout life. It’s reassuring to know that many extraordinary visionaries discover their calling later in life. 

I can certainly relate, as my own path has been one of ongoing transformation. From leaving a leadership role in media to founding a philanthropic foundation, and now embracing a personal artistic journey, I stand at another crossroads. After a rich period of creative exploration and the deeply vulnerable step of sharing my work publicly, I find myself turning inward once again. 

In the pursuit of new perspectives, fresh experiences, and continued growth, I’m excited to embark on a new journey in higher education at the Otis College of Art and Design. As I begin this chapter, I reflect on the ideas of timing, success, purpose and passion. This edition of the Generous Listening newsletter focuses on listening to that inner whisper—on having the courage to explore something new and the determination to persevere, even when the road is uncertain. 

May we all have the strength and grace to listen generously to our hearts and embrace the changes we seek, at any stage of life. 

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı

Society today often celebrates “early bloomers,” those who seemingly achieve fame and success early in life. Conventional wisdom suggests that mastery requires an early start, immense focus, and perseverance (consider Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000-hour rule”). But in reality, many of the world’s most remarkable talents changed course along the way, specialized in more than one area, and found recognition later in life. 

Paul Cézanne had his first solo exhibition at age 56, with his work starting to sell by 60. Julia Child didn’t enroll in French cooking school until she was 37. Vincent van Gogh explored careers as an art dealer, teacher, bookseller, and street preacher before starting to paint at 27. Tadao Ando left his professional boxing career at 29 to pursue architecture, despite having no formal training.

In some recommended reading we provide at the bottom of this newsletter, author David Brooks discusses the benefits of “diversive curiosity”, what he describes as the ability to wander into a broad range of interests in a manner that seems to have no rhyme or reason. 

Some of the greatest masters, from athletes to Nobel laureates, musicians, artists, inventors, and scientists, have refused to remain confined to one field. They think broadly, embrace diverse experiences, and continuously cultivate new interests. Curiosity is their driving force in life. These exceptional individuals remind us that a life of exploration and growth often leads to true mastery. 

“Sometimes a dream almost whispers. And I’ve always said to my kids, the hardest thing to listen to—your instincts, your human personal intuition—always whispers; it never shouts. Very hard to hear. So you have to every day of your lives be ready to hear what whispers in your ear; it very rarely shouts.” 

— Steven Spielberg 

Watch Steven Spielberg’s Harvard University Commencement Speech

We are delighted to share that the Generous Listener podcast is back, with bi-weekly episodes hosted by Vuslat Foundation director Merve Çağlar, interviewing a roster of thought leaders, creatives and changemakers who stand out for the persevering curiosity and capacity to listen.

On ‘Listening for Solutions’, Merve sits down with David Bornstein, co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and renowned journalist, to discuss the power of listening and how it has shaped his career. David shares his journey from software developer to journalist, recounting pivotal moments of deep self-reflection that led him to focus on solutions-driven narratives. 

Listen here  

This month at the Book Club, discover titles that explore:

1) Late Bloomers: The Hidden Strengths of Learning and Succeeding at Your Own Pace
By Rich Karlgaard
 

2) Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity
By David W. Galenson 

3) Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
By David Epstein 

4) Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
By Daniel H. Pink

5) Second ACT: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You about Success and Reinventing Your Life
By Henry Oliver 

“If there’s some part of you that’s questioning your career, it’s important to listen to that. Our hearts sometimes know ourselves better than our minds do…Knowing that at the outset — that any career change will probably be followed by more changes, in varying degrees — can help you keep things in perspective if and when you start to re-evaluate things once again.”

–Michelle Obama 

Are you looking to reevaluate what makes you happy and what you are truly curious to explore? Are you searching for a new direction? Why not try this. 

The “Feedforward Interview” is a listening tool developed by Organizational Behavior expert Avi Kluger. An alternative, or prologue, to a performance review, the FFI was initially designed to achieve better alignment between employees’ needs and organizational practices. One of the goals of this tool is to create positive change and a hopeful forecast for the future through sparkling self-evaluation. In applying the tool to oneself, the FFI can also help you tease out your inner whisper. Through asking yourself a series of questions, the idea is to elicit a success story, discover a personal success code, and discover how to feed this forward.  

Try asking yourself the following: 

• What is an experience at work during which you felt at your best, full of life and in flow, and you were content even before the results of your actions became known? 

• Would you be happy to experience a similar process again? 

• What was the peak moment of this story? What did you think at that moment?  

• How did you feel at that moment? 

• What were the conditions in you, such as things you did, your capabilities and your strengths that made this story possible? 

• What did others do that enabled this story? 

The conditions described seem to be your personal code for reaching happiness and success.

If this is so, think of your current actions, priorities and plans for the near future and consider to what extent they incorporate all of these conditions.  

Read more on the FFI here 

“If I had not studied Latin in school, I wouldn’t have found it as easy to comprehend the structure of language. Had I not danced, I might never have really listened to music and known I could compose something. You see? I understood early that not everything I did was going to be a masterpiece, but I would try to do it the best I knew how. I’ve listened to an inner voice and had enough courage to try unknown things. And I think everything in its time.”  

– Maya Angelou

1)

You Might Be A Late Bloomer
By David Brooks 

The Atlantic 

“The combination of a high need for cognition and epistemic humility is a recipe for lifelong learning. Late bloomers learn more slowly but also more deeply precisely because they’re exploring on their own.”

To Read

2)

The Beginners Hall of Fame:
Six People Who Found a Creative Calling Later in Life or For Whom Recognition was Long Overdue 

By Jason Chen
T – The New York Times Style Magazine  

To Read

3)

Late Bloomers 

By Malcolm Gladwell 

The New Yorker  

To Read