Category Archives: Creativity
To create, a person must…
The Paradoxes of Creativity posted on Google+ by creativity expert Roger Von Oech which state that to create, a person must:
- Have knowledge but forget the knowledge.
- See unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder.
- Work hard but spend time doing nothing.
- Create many ideas yet most of them are useless.
- Look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different.
- Desire success but learn how to fail.
- Be persistent but not stubborn.
- Listen to experts but know how to disregard them.
- Understand that rules are important, and yet break them constantly.
- Understand that good ideas must be relevant, yet constantly be thinking about irrelevancies.
- In order to live a life of abundance, be free from desire for abundance.
- Truth has many faces. Yesterday’s Truth can be today’s Untruth. And this is true.
- Develop a sophisticated eye, but learn to see like a child.
- For good ideas to come, you must be in control and yet not in control. You must try hard yet hardly try.
- To create a person must reject conventions yet work within them.
The simple half step principle for innovation
There’s a very interesting article on the history of camouflage in the Atlantic. It profiles one of it’s leading innovators, Guy Cramer, and a new concealment innovation called Quantum Camouflage.
Though the history of camouflage up to today is very cool, there is a paragraph I want to highlight regarding Guy Cramer’s thinking about innovation. (more…)
Laughter sets your mind free
A few days ago I was part of a brainstorming session for a client who recently opened a new restaurant in Mexico. The goal of the brainstorming session was to come up with ideas on how to create an experience that would make customers talk about it to their friends.
With that in mind, I proposed an idea:
What if we create a drink called Pulpo Enamorado that when delivered by the waiter, the customer gets a pie in the face?
Result: Everyone started laughing!
It caught everyone by surprise. Totally unexpected. (more…)
Do you love creating?
Last week I asked if it’s possible to innovate without loving what you do. There were plenty of comments and the reactions were mixed. Most think it’s not possible because people have to be passionate about the work they do. I’m not going to argue with that.
What I will argue is that you can become passionate about just about anything if you have the right intent in mind. The context, topic, initiative is just the vehicle towards your purpose.
With that said, I think the next obvious question to ask is: Do you love creating?
I love to play.
For me it’s not so much about creating, what matters to me is making a meaningful impact. Period. If no meaningful impact is delivered, it’s a failure. (more…)
Is it possible to innovate without loving what you do?
I spotted this question on a Linkedin group and thought I post it here.
My answers is: Yes, it’s possible.
Interestingly, HBR posted an article about why you shouldn’t do what you love last week. I encourage you to read it if you haven’t already.
Here’s the thing about innovation:
Most people who are considered innovative don’t really set out to ‘innovate’. They set out to solve a problem they have/saw because they either see nobody doing anything about it, or they are personally dissatisfied. (more…)
Imagination: one of the most important qualities of an innovator
If one of the most important qualities of an innovator is the ability to imagine, it is hardly surprising that children should be among the world’s most important innovators.
Bingo!
A few days ago I was on a train when a mom and her two children (both girls about 5 and 7 years old) sat next to me. One of the girls (the 5 year old) asked the other: What phone number do you want when you grow up?
The other girl gave her answer. It was looong number.
This whole interaction brought a smile to my face. To a typical adult, this is a kid being a kid. Asking dumb questions. But if we want to innovate, these are precisely the types of questions we should be asking and the type of ‘what if’ attitude we should be encouraging and practicing.
Imagine if we could choose our own phone number. Wouldn’t it be cool? This attitude brings up all kinds of questions and interesting thoughts. Just imagine if we could personalize our whole life.
What if our clothes, cars and everything we use daily would be personalized for us?
We could go on and on with this exercise and find all kinds of ideas that we could turn on their head. The point is to think without constraints and let your imagination free. Ask yourself, why, what if and why not.
Every once in awhile think like a kid and start asking dumb questions, the world needs you to.
Fail Harder
Ad house Wieden+Kennedy created the above mural. Over 100,000 thumbtacks were used over 351 hours to create this typographic mural that spells out Fail Harder, a message that underlines the importance of failure during the creative process.
First time I saw this mural was on the movie Art and Copy, which I watched again a few hours ago. I felt inspired to post it here and share it with you!
Here’s to the crazy ones 
