“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
– Albert Einstein
From the time they can grip a crayon, what do we do?
“Try to stay in the lines, honey!”
We might as well hook up an industrial-strength vacuum and suck the creativity out of them.
And, even still, years after Ma & Pa told us to “stay in the lines,” sometimes, if we’re not careful, our business becomes an industrial-strength vacuum. Or our heavily regulated and under-siege industry does, and, as ol’ Ross Perot would say, that giant sucking sound is all our creativity rushing away… A lot of our success will be dictated by how much of it we can hold on to – or rediscover…
So, what is creativity?
Creativity is about getting outside the lines, sort of. Even better, when we get really good at it, it becomes about hatching the idea and making it something incredible, and then – only then – putting lines around it and showing the industry / world / audience that it’s so cool they wish they’d have thinked it up! (Yes, I meant “thinked…)
I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the Broadway show, Suessical The Musical, but a lyric from that show rings true here. Near the very start of the show, the Cat in The Hat and a little boy get us rolling toward a world where “a person’s a person, no matter how small,” as they bring to life the story of Horton Hears A Who.
The Cat In The Hat sings:
“I can see that you’ve got quite a mind for your age!
Why, one Think and you dragged me right onto the stage!
Now, I’m here, there is no telling what may ensue
With a Cat such as me, and a Thinker like you!”
“Oh, the thinks you can think!
If you’re willing to try…
Think invisible ink!
…Or a stair to the sky…
If you open your mind,
Oh, the thinks you will find
Lining up to get loose…
Oh, the thinks you can think
When you think about…”
For me, it’s Sharpee® markers and a Levenger® tablet. For you, it might be the back of a napkin and a pencil from the golf course, or a pen borrowed from a waiter or waitress. Whatever it is, get your hands on it, wrap your mind around it and see what kind of thinks you can think – and there’s no telling what may ensue….but I bet some of it will make a difference.
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