We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ric Dragon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ric below.
Ric, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
The phrase “neuro-divergent” is often used around here. Perhaps it begs the question of what is normal, or if even such a thing exists! But if we work from the position that there is NOT a normal, that we are all different in our ways of perception, of self-motivation, self-authoring, then we’re less apt to be comparing ourselves with one another.
I know, for example, that I’m not so effective of sitting in a chair listening to a lecture. Or even watching a video presentation. But if I know that I thrive on more dynamic ways of receiving information, then I know it can go into areas of being a “super power.” And I know that the others that are on my team have their own ways, and that often, a big challenge is for us to each know the other.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a painter/artist. But like a lot of creatives, I’ve had to do a lot of different things for living. And at one point in my life, I started playing around with computers. And before long, I started producing websites; and that segued into being the founder and leader of a digital marketing company. I ended up writing a book that was published by one of the largest business book publishers in the world. I ended up traveling around the world as a speaker, I was for a period, a professor of marketing at NYU. But always with this feeling that I wasn’t where I needed to be, which was in my studio painting. And finally, when my child drove off to college, I concluded a business deal to sell my part of the company to my business partner. Within a year, I´d packed my bags, and moved to South America. I’ve been in Colombia now for eight years. And I have indeed been focusing on my painting. It’s absolutely wonderful. But there was a part of me that was restless. And about five years ago, along with another co-founder, I started an art and culture center in the mountains of Colombia.
While that project has been an extremely ambitious project that has a lot of different components, it has taken off.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
So I’ve got these two sides. On one side, yes, I’m an artist, I’m in my studio painting on the other side. I’m a co-founder and executive director of a nonprofit foundation, which I love. I think if I had simply gone off and lived on the side of a mountain, I would have been lacking community. And I don’t know where in the world my community is, so perhaps I created one. Here, we are, in fact, creating an intentional community that already has over half a dozen members. We have an artist residency, in which artists visit from all over the world. We have a large, fundamentally private park of over 240 acres. It’s an incredible project. And it serves to do a lot of wonderful things for a lot of people that feels good.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I think for me, I was the classic out-of-place person: I didn’t go to college for business. I didn’t even last very long at a college for art. I’m pretty much a self learner, and always have been. As I mentioned before, we talk a lot about neurodiversity and we recognize that everyone possibly is non normative, that we all have our quirks or funny ways of learning. I get obsessed with things. And I’ve learned to allow myself to follow some of those obsessions. And in doing so, I tend to be a high density learner. If I’m not obsessed with something, it’s almost impossible to do it.
And so for that reason for a lot of people I’m not the best person on the team. I’m not a good employee. But in the right circumstances, that neurodiversity has become a superpower. I think a big part of my own personal learning curve is not only recognizing that, but learning how to manage those things to make the most impact.
The other thing that I think has been an eye opener for me is that I’ve had my big, hairy, audacious goals, or big, hairy, audacious dreams. And I’ve gotten to see a lot of those come true. And I think it’s not the end. I go on to what is the next big hairy audacious goal, I have a whole portfolio of big, hairy, audacious dreams. But it’s wonderful to have seen some of those come through and believe that you can make these things come true. And so I would discourage anyone from allowing other people to discourage themselves or themselves from those big dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: ricdragon.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/ricpdragon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ric.dragon/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricdragon/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RicDragon
