Entrepreneurs have a tough job.
They are responsible for leading and inspiring diverse teams of
all sizes while carrying the pressures of the business on her or his shoulders.
All the while, they are often looked upon to be the creative mind of the
organization, spewing out remarkable and amazingly unique ideas like an open
faucet.
Being creative, however, gets more difficult if you allow
yourself to fall into the paradigm that creativity is linked to originality,
especially since originality is completely subjective and will always be
relative to the experiences of others.
Creative minds throughout history have
long embraced the idea that to be creative, you need not necessarily be
original, nor should you concern yourself with the opinions of
others. Consider these insights of some of the greatest creative minds
throughout history.
“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation”. -- Voltaire
The common misconception is that to be creative, you need to be
churning out one-of-a-kind ideas. Often, the best new ideas are just
better iterations on older ones.
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns
in order to look at things in a different way”. -- Edward de Bono
Creativity also comes from looking at existing challenges from
alternative angles.
“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected”. -- William Plomer
Other times, an idea blossoms from tapping into and pulling
together many different and relatively unrelated ideas.
“Making the simple complicated is easy. Making the complicated
simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”. -- Charles Mingus
Sometimes, simply improving on an existing idea, making it easier
to use or understand, will result in an amazing new innovation in and of
itself.
“Creativity comes from the conflict of ideas”. -- Donatella
Versace
Getting out of your comfort zone, where
most individuals like to operate, will provide you with a completely
different perspective and will most likely spark creativity.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative
people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t
really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”. --
Steve Jobs
The simple truth is that creativity is like a muscle: the more you
work it, the stronger it becomes. Regardless of how original or creative your
ideas are, you should be engaging in the act of creating, over and
over again.
“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the
recordings of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.
He cannot inflame the minds of his audience”. -- Henry David Thoreau
Remember that you can and should find inspiration even when you
are not operating in your creative routine, as long as you are willing and
ready to allow yourself to react to it.
“My work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of
deep significance.” -- Calvin ofCalvin
and Hobbes
It is just fact that great creativity, regardless of how original
it might be, will often be misunderstood at first. The level of
misunderstanding is often directly proportional to the uniqueness of an idea.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said
faster horses.” -- Henry Ford
If your creativity routine leads you to ideas that may be
perceived as unoriginal or outlandish, do not give up on them quickly. You
may be on to something that is just too complex for others to
comprehend. Learn how to communicate your idea effectively so others will
understand and rally behind it.
Creative originality is also highly subjective to the people you
are sharing it with. You cannot allow yourself to get distracted with the
opinions of others, as great creativity is rarely inspired by the
masses.
Before you get down on yourself for failing to come up with
the next remarkable idea, just remember that the simple act of creating is
remarkable.
So what are you waiting for?
What are some of your favorite quotes about originality? Please
share with others below.
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