The Ordinary: A Launching Pad for Awe

I've started reading some memoirs as a part of my research in regard to what drives people to go in search of awe, in search of something greater than what they can see from their current circumstances.

In reading about Steve Jobs, I've learned that he was adopted as a child. Many people who have worked with Jobs claim that being adopted was the shaping moment of his personality. Del Yocam said "I think his desire for complete control of whatever he makes derives directly from his personality and the fact that he was abandoned at birth."

Jobs himself said that finding out he was adopted "made him feel more independent" but claimed that he has "never felt abandoned. I've always felt special." Later, Jobs would go on to spearhead the "Think Different" campaign, the advertising movement that ultimately changed Apple's status from "silly toys" to "the cutting edge creative computer."

But in order for someone to think differently, the majority of people have to think the same. If we all thought different, then there would be no room for individuality, for that groundbreaking moment when something supersedes what we ever thought was possible and raises our expectations to another plain. We need the ordinary to launch into the extraordinary. So shouldn't we be encouraging the ordinary folk, too? Shouldn't we be praising the mundane, the routine, and the people who just want things to stay the same?

Or does enough of that already happen on its own?