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Carl Djerassi, a Self-Defined Intellectual Polygamist


It has become difficult to imagine love-making without the Pill or surviving allergies without antihistamines--both the creations of Carl Djerassi.

Djerassi emigrated from Austria to America after Anschluss and passed away in early 2015, going down in history known for his invention of the oral contraceptive pill, along with other contributions in the fields different from his first love, chemistry. Reinventing himself from a chemist to writer, art collector, and philanthropist, he used these different occupations as opportunities to excel in arenas that are only seemingly dissimilar to chemistry with its logic and experimentation - but were, for him, united by a common denominator of his intellect, effortlessly ascending on a spiral of perfecting the world.

What were the drivers behind his serially self-redefined being? His book "From the Pill to the Pen" explains his life - ambitious, articulate, but narcissism-free. Defining himself as an "intellectual polygamist", Djerassi defended this metaphoric term saying that "serious polygamy" treats every woman as God-given wife--and this is exactly how he's treated all his intellectual pursuits/occupations--and achieved extraordinary results every time. That's what intellectual polygamists do.

Women Equals

I have nothing against the term "intellectual polygamist" except that it sounds sexist; additional amplification can correct it. Research for my upcoming book found quite a few women immigrants with creativity extending into multiple fields, either voluntarily, driven by curiosity and self-expression, or out of their need to adapt to a foreign land.

Olga Perry, a female centerpiece of immigrant creativity gone wild, is an excellent example of intellectual polygamy.

She's an internationally recognized artist with the high awards for sculpture, painting and photography. "I make art because I must," she said. "It's a need, an obsession, an addiction." Born in Russia, she's been through colorful career changes: an engineer, OB/GYN doctor holding a Ph.D., major of the Russian Army, and business owner. But these successes didn't satisfy her intellectual-emotional thirst as she felt fed up with Russian institutions controlling her free spirit. In her 40's, she jumped across the oceans and cultures, a single mom with her daughter, two suitcases and little English.
Life in the US changed with the speed of her language acquisition: from baby-sitter, department store cashier, waitress, telemarketer, corporate manager - to CFO of a renewable energy corporation, she's done it all. Then came the art. It became her new passion. After only a year of drawing and sculpting in art school she made it big time too, a star fulfilling her lifelong dream to be an artist.

Olga's art - reflecting the prowess of her brilliant intellect, logic of the scientist, distinctive vision, and global experience - shows us what the artistic fusion of Renaissance-like professional transitions, cultures, and philosophies can harvest. Art in various media, even parody cook-and-talk shows on her video channel, are all expressions of her talent. Creativity-wise, she equals Carl Djerassi himself!

Five Things We Learned

Here's my 5 cents worth on connecting the dots between our amazingly creative fellow-citizens and our own progress as individuals and society:

1. Creativity's integrated in immigrants' nature
Solid research on creativity explains why immigrants can see things through several filters, unlike those native-born. In addition to the business case for immigrant creativity I've made before, we need to remember that creativity may also be driven by powerful self-expression in unrelated fields (e.g., Athena Tacha, from Greece, is an outstanding landscape artist, sculptor, and author of conceptual/self-analytical studies of aging).

2. Contrary to popular belief that to be a success we need to stick to one profession, intellectual polygamists prove otherwise
There's more to creativity than cross-cultural vision - there's a phenomenon of cross-professional vision. It happens when people change professions/occupations (and immigrants often do so out of necessity): the previous know-how delivers an added perspective/vision, which can turn into a huge advantage. Simply put, their fresh vision removes "professional blinders," a limiting factor for innovating. Thus, Lana Kim has reinvented herself from a Macy's super-salesperson, to stockbroker, to PR firm director, to author/speaker and radio talk-show host; Anne-Sophie Gueguen rose from European Commission manager to French-American Academy founder; Paulina Porizkova evolved from supermodel and actress to author/blogger, Izabella Miko developed from ballerina and actress to movie producer, etc. They've been willing - or had to - reinvent selves. The result? Their wonderful creativity, like a magic wand, enriched every profession they applied it to.

3. Intellectual curiosity can lead to intellectual polygamy
A new orthodoxy, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, sees obsessive focus as the key to unlocking genius--and this is probably true. However, intellectual polygamists such as Carl Djerassi and Olga Perry could re-focus, get re-obsessed by new ideas/professions, and succeed in various fields. In general, immigrants are more likely to turn intellectual polygamists because many just need to do things entirely different from what they've done back home.

4. Immigrants contribute big-time to America's well-being and culture
A risk gene is part of all immigrants' DNA: it's brought them to America to unleash their potential--and they're fearlessly pioneering all things new. Paraphrasing Einstein, immigrants enter the society/organization/team where certain things have been deemed impossible - and their unawareness makes them search for solutions--and break new grounds! The names of Arianna Huffington, Indra Nooyi, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer speak for themselves.

5. America needs to sponsor creative immigrants officially
We hold it as universal truth that America, the great nation of former immigrants, can benefit from more new blood, the talent ready to help sustain its global competitiveness.

Learning is Progressing

As the worldwide migration accelerates year after year, the nations who open their golden doors to inventive immigrants will progress the most. We, the people, do want America to continue being No.1. Unfortunately, our Congressmen, in their supposed infinite wisdom, stay stuck in their stale bipartisan game, playing from the position of strength, and bargaining endlessly over the immigration reform. History will not forgive them. And the American people shouldn't either.

Women are emerging as a major force for change. Countries that have invested in girls' education and removed legal barriers that prevent women from achieving their potential are now seeing the benefits.

Let's take Latin America. More than 70 million women have joined the labor force in recent years. Two-thirds of the increase in women's labor force participation in the last two decades can be attributed to more education and the fact that women marry later and have fewer children. As a result, between 2000 and 2010, women's earnings contributed to about 30% of the reduction in extreme poverty in the region.

In fact, for countries to leave poverty behind, both men and women need to get to equal and push the frontiers of equal opportunities even further. But to get there, we need to tackle three issues.

First, rates of violence against women needs to end. More than 700 million women worldwide are estimated to have been subject to violence at the hands of a husband or partner. Domestic violence comes with great cost to individuals but also has significant impact on families, communities, and economies. Its negative impact on productivity costs Chile up to 2% of its GDP and Brazil 1.2%.

Many girls and women have little control over their sexual and reproductive health: If current trends persist, more than 142 million girls will be married off over the next decade while they are still children themselves.

Sometimes protecting women from violence demands innovation. In Rio de Janeiro, the World Bank is working with the government to upgrade the urban transport system and make it safer for women through improved lighting, women's restrooms in all metro stations, and services such as women's police stations, women's clinics, and family courts in some of the major terminals. A similar initiative is under way in Ecuador. In Africa's Great Lakes region, we provide grants so that survivors of sexual violence get proper health care.

Second, women and girls still don't have the same opportunities and struggle to make decisions about their own lives. From the female farmer in Eastern Congo who is too afraid of marauding militias to work her fields, to the working woman in Rio who isn't on equal footing for higher-paid jobs, significant gaps remain. Women are often paid far less than men, while they also perform most of the world's unpaid care work. Globally, they not only earn less — they own less and are far less likely to have access to financial services and other resources that would boost productivity. If women had equal access to fertilizer and modern farm machinery, developing countries would produce between 2.5% and 4% more food. Across the developing world, more than one third of young women are unemployed, and many are discouraged from starting their own businesses or cannot get the credit to do so. It makes a critical difference that in Colombia, for example, more than 1,300 women from regions with high levels of violence are receiving training and support to start small companies.

Finally, leadership and role models can make a difference. I remember my first meeting with my management team when I became Indonesia's Minister of Finance. I was the youngest person and the first woman ever to hold that job. Everybody else in the room was male. I knew then that I had to work harder than any man to prove to them that I was capable. I am sure many women who have pushed through the glass ceiling have had similar experiences.

But women around the world remain sorely underrepresented in decision-making, account for less than 22% of the world's parliamentarians and less than 5% of the world's mayors. As of January 2015, only 10 women served as Head of State and 15 served as Head of Government.

We can do better. And we must. Because when women succeed they bring diversity into policymaking and inclusiveness into policy. When mothers are educated, they have fewer and healthier children. Studies from around the world — from Bangladesh and Brazil to China and the United Kingdom — show that when women earn money and have more control over household spending, they spend in ways that benefit children. They are powerful drivers of growth and formidable fighters of poverty. In other words, they are a force no country, no society, no company, and no family can afford not to unleash fully.

"Everything happens at 100, everything changes," Eileen Kramer told the Sydney Morning Herald. The enchanting dancer and choreographer has been receiving more attention than usual since she's entered triple digits, an age she describes as "magical."

However, more impressive than the fact that she dances at all is how she dances, with soft and sinuous gestures that move like billowing folds of fabric.



Kramer was born in 1914 in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, called Mosman Bay. She grew up interested in music and hoped to be an opera singer, until a performance by Vienna's Bodenwieser modern dance company captured her heart. It wasn't long before Kramer was dancing under Madame Gertrud Bodenwieser, as part of the first modern dance company in Australia. At 22 years old, Kramer considered herself a late bloomer when she immersed herself in the world of dance. Now, she's very likely one of the oldest choreographers in the world.

Kramer spent her life in various locations including New York, India, Paris, London and West Virginia. Last year, at 99, she returned to Sydney, Australia. "I wanted to hear a kookaburra. I wanted to smell a gumtree," she told ABC News.



In February Kramer was invited to be an artist in residence at Bundanon, Australia, in their Arts-in-Residence program. She's spent her time there choreographing "The Early Ones," a modern dance piece made in collaboration with rehearsal director Julia Cotton and composer Nicholas Lyon. Despite being blind in one eye, Kramer created all the sets for the performance and designed all the costumes.

"She's such a beautiful creative spirit and also a really physical body still at 100 years old," said dancer Anya McKee, "so that idea that you need to stop dancing in your 30s -- like I am -- or your 40s, and you have to get everything done before then, is just gone."

"The Early Ones" will be performed at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney on March 13 and 14, 2015.



Fundraising platform Pozible is now raising funds to support Kramer's current and future dance endeavors with an initiative called "Inspiring Eileen." The proposal, enacted by the Arts Health Institute, hopes to raise $26,000 by March 10 for the artist, who is currently living in a hostel for those at risk of homelessness.

For very obvious reasons, Kramer is officially our new heroine, both for her creative devotion and hypnotic talent, not to mention the fact that she's putting stereotypes about aging to serious shame. To live a long and happy life a la Eileen, try following her simple advice: "Try to do creative work, because if you're dealing with creative work you're doing something new all the time."

See videos of Kramer's magnificent dancing below, including clips behind the scenes from her upcoming work at Bundanon.