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Negative Capability

It was when I looked deep into the eye of a dying sperm whale, a whale that could have killed me but chose instead to spare me. I saw my own reflection in that eye, and I was struck by the awesome intelligence of the creature before me.

by Captain Paul Watson

All my life I have had to listen to critics telling me that what I am doing is foolhardy, counterproductive, impossible, or reckless. It has never bothered me. What people say and what they accuse me of has never been a concern to me. I’ve never been bothered about failing and I’ve never allowed feelings of doubt or uncertainty to restrict me from focusing on my objectives.

In 1817, John Keats observed what he described as “negative capability.” He explained that negative capability is “when a person is capable of acting through uncertainties, mysteries and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”

Keats wrote that what is more important than talent or work ethic is the ability to step into and push through doubts and uncertainties. Those who possess negative capability, who can sit with uncertainty, who can spend months or years working on something while knowing that there is a real possibility no one will care about it or if they will succeed — they often possess another quality. They do what they do, not as a means to some end (money, fame, awards, etc.), but for the sake of doing it, because it is a challenge.

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