What Matters More: Rules or Ideas

30 Sep 2025

8 Min Read

Dr Lee Yee Ling (Academic Contributor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

Contributed by Dr Lee Yee Ling, whose research focuses social sciences, curriculum development, and more. She can be reached at yeeling.lee@taylors.edu.my.

You’ve probably been praised before for neat handwriting, memorising pages of notes, or following instructions exactly as they were given. But think about it: when was the last time someone acknowledged you for asking a question that seemed strange, challenging a rule that everyone else accepted, or suggesting an idea that sounded almost impossible?

In most classrooms, the message is clear: get the right answer, colour inside the lines, and avoid mistakes at all costs. But here’s the catch. Outside school, the world doesn’t run on exam sheets. It runs on creativity, problem-solving, and people who dare to ask, ‘What if?’ Think of the technology you use every day, from smartphones to apps like TikTok or ChatGPT. None of these came from someone who just followed the rules; they came from people willing to experiment, fail, and try again.

Why Fear of Mistakes Kills Creativity

If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know how it feels to be scared of making a mistake. That nervous pause before answering a teacher’s question, or that hesitation when you want to suggest an idea but aren’t sure if it will sound silly. Fear of failure does more than just hold you back—it pushes you towards safe answers, repetitive work, and even self-doubt or disengagement.

The truth is, creative thinking almost always involves mistakes. Artists sketch, erase, and redraw. Scientists test dozens of theories before finding one that works. Entrepreneurs often launch businesses that flop before hitting on the idea that changes everything. Yet, in school, mistakes are usually treated as red marks on your paper, instead of stepping stones towards something better.

_{In the real world, before creating the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner, James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes that didn’t work. If he had stopped after the first few failures, the Dyson brand wouldn’t exist today. Image Source: TatlerAsia}

Companies like Pixar also treat failure as part of the creative process. Their films go through hundreds of storyboards and test screenings, with entire characters or plots sometimes scrapped after months of work. Each ‘failed’ attempt isn’t wasted—it’s valuable feedback that shapes the final masterpiece. Imagine if classrooms worked the same way, where getting it wrong wasn’t punished but seen as progress. Would you feel more confident sharing bold thoughts if you knew mistakes were part of the process?

The World Needs Innovators, Not Just Rule-Followers

Ask yourself: what does the world need more—followers of instructions, or creators of new solutions?

Look at the problems humanity faces right now: climate change, inequality, sustainability challenges, artificial intelligence, and global health crises. None of these can be solved by just sticking to a formula. They need people who can think critically, adapt quickly, and dream big.

_{At just 24 years old, Irish designer Olivia Humphreys created Athena after witnessing her mother’s painful battle with cancer. The device offers chemotherapy patients an affordable, portable solution that uses scalp cooling to reduce hair loss. Costing only one-twentieth of existing technology, Athena can be used outside hospital settings, helping patients spend less time on wards while receiving the same benefit. Image Source: Dyson Singapore.}

_{Or consider Elon Musk and SpaceX. In the early years, their rockets exploded again and again, sometimes on live television, watched by millions. Each failure cost millions of dollars and fuelled critics who said private spaceflight would never work. Many experts predicted the company’s collapse. But instead of giving up or sticking with ‘safe’ government-tested designs, Musk’s team treated every failed launch as a lesson. They refined, rebuilt, and tried again. In 2015, after years of setbacks, SpaceX successfully landed a rocket vertically for the first time in history.}

If your education is limited to copying, memorising, and obeying, it fails to prepare you for the realities of the modern world.

What Happens When You Stop Asking ‘What If?’

Think back to when you were younger. You probably asked endless questions: Why is the sky blue? Why do we dream? What if people lived on Mars? Curiosity came naturally, and every answer only sparked another question. Yet somewhere along the way, many students stop asking those ‘What if?’ questions. Why? Because it feels safer to stay quiet than risk sounding wrong.

_{But silence comes at a cost. When questions disappear, so do the possibilities for new ideas. Take Gitanjali Rao, who at just 12 years old invented a device to detect lead in drinking water after hearing about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She dared to ask, ‘What if kids like me could solve this?’ That single question led her to design a practical solution that earned her the title of TIME’s Kid of the Year in 2020. As she put it, ‘If I can do it, anyone can.’ Image Source: 5280}

To keep that spirit alive, you need more than just accuracy—you need originality. Imagine your classroom as a playground for the mind, a place where your questions matter even more than your answers. Picture lessons not as scripts you must follow line by line, but as springboards that launch you into new ideas. Rather than viewing teachers as gatekeepers of what is ‘right', see them as guides who help you explore, experiment, and push your curiosity further than you ever thought possible.

When students feel safe to share ideas, collaborate, explore open-ended tasks, and reflect on their learning, they take risks, embrace diverse views, and turn curiosity into creativity.

— Dr Lee Yee Ling

Rethinking What It Means to Be Smart

So, what does it mean to be ‘smart’ in today’s world? For a long time, intelligence was measured by quick answers, strong memory, and high scores in exams. Those achievements still matter, but they no longer define success on their own. Today, being smart is about something much broader—qualities that help you navigate uncertainty, work with others, and create change.

_{Take Parsa and Rohan Parhizkar from Malaysia, who, while still in primary school, created Minedu AI, an intelligent learning assistant that transforms Minecraft into a tool for education, aligning gameplay with the school syllabus. Their invention won them the Best Young Inventor Excellence Award at ITEX 2025, proving that creativity, imagination, and collaboration can matter just as much as perfect grades. Image Source: BusinessToday}

And they’re not alone. In business, leaders who succeed are not always the ones with flawless exam results, but those who can connect ideas across different fields, build diverse teams, and adapt when challenges arise. In science and technology, breakthroughs often come from collaboration—people pooling different strengths to solve problems no single expert could tackle alone.

That’s why being ‘smart’ today is less about memorising facts and more about asking better questions, making unexpected connections, and working with others to find solutions. Exams will eventually end, but these skills will carry you through life. The real test isn’t how much you can remember, but how much you can reimagine.

From Rule-Follower to Changemaker

Education should be more than just chasing grades or collecting gold stars. It should be about unlocking your potential, helping you discover who you are, and giving you the confidence to shape the world around you. The truth is, the future doesn’t belong to those followers of instructions—it belongs to those who can think creatively, question critically, and act with purpose.

When you’re encouraged to take risks, explore new ideas, and even learn from failure, you stop being just a rule-follower. You start becoming a creator, an innovator, a changemaker. Like the young inventors and pioneers you’ve read about, you too have the ability to turn curiosity into action and ideas into impact.

So, the real question is this: will you settle for being praised only for getting things ‘right,’ or will you dare to push boundaries, ask better questions, and create something the world hasn’t seen before?

At Taylor’s, we believe education should ignite ideas, not just test them. Explore Diploma in Early Childhood Education that value curiosity, creativity, and bold thinking—because your future deserves more than just correct answers.

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