Many of you will be familiar with the popular proverb, “curiosity killed the cat,” – inquisitiveness leads to danger, but is this really the kind of emotional guidance young people should be taking forward into their careers?

We’ve all grown up in a school system that suppresses curiosity; classes have become a one-way stream of information that adheres to the strict guidelines of curriculum and anything that falls outside is seen as irrelevant and so children stop asking questions.

Fortunately for the industrial economy this system worked perfectly, young people would enter to workforce, wait to be told what to do and then would comply with out any further questioning.

Nowadays as jobs become scarce and competition forces companies to constantly innovate, curiosity is coming back into fashion. Big corporates are spending millions of pounds hiring Knowledge and Innovation teams to start thinking entrepreneurially and asking the question “What if?” – Schools are yet to catch on.

The proverb “curiosity killed the cat” actually origination from “care’ll kill a cat” first recorded in the English playwright Ben Jonson‘s play Every Man in His Humour, 1598. Although he uses ‘care’ in terms of worrying for others, I think it’s time we rethink this statement…

Care should kill the cat.

Artists die with their craft. If you’re not asking questions – you’ve not been been inspired, you’re just doing what you’re told. Curiosity has no right answers and that’s what’s scary but only by staying curious will you be open to finding what you truly care about.