Do you need an original idea to be successful?

Rabbi Landau answers that “you don’t have to invent anything to be successful.” Often the easier path is to pick up where someone else left off.

People spend their whole lives searching for an idea nobody has thought of. But Rabbi Landau points out that Rolls-Royce didn’t invent the car; they made it perfect. And the person who invented the car was building on the person who invented the engine.

King Solomon said, “Ein kol chadash tachas hashamesh,” there is nothing new under the sun. The one who invents something “goes through the whole struggle, has to hit every wall and has to figure out everything, just to get to that point.” When you pick up where he left off, “you’re not starting from the bottom. You are starting from where they stopped.”

That is why King Solomon also says, “Tov acharis davar mereishiso,” the end of a thing can be greater than its beginning. “So sometimes the smartest move isn’t to be the first, it’s being the one who begins higher.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Success does not require inventing something new. You can start where someone else stopped.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Many people feel they must come up with an idea nobody has had, and that continuing what others began has less worth. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau describes this as a quiet but real pressure.

What may be behind it

The first inventor has to hit every wall to reach his starting point. The one who comes after him begins from that point and can go further.

Deepest human truth

“The end of a thing is better than its beginning.” In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the one who completes gives purpose and wholeness to everything that came before.

More questions from this teaching

• What does “there is nothing new under the sun” mean?