How Creativity Can Make You Millions — Part I
Part 1: What Happened To The Million$?
What can I do? Who can I talk to? Where should I go? How do I make quick cash? How can I make sure? What is the answer? How do I ...anything?!?
Creativity.
Creativity is not reserved for artists. Creativity is not an elusive muse for a gifted few. Creativity is not a talent or a special something someone is only gifted at birth. Nor is creativity a prophetic calling only the bravest (and craziest) may pursue. Creativity is a skill; like making a power-pivot table or public speaking, organizing 5 years worth of tax filings or managing 5 peoples’ calendars.. If a skill is important to you, you will figure out how to not only build that muscle, but flex it. Creativity is a crucial skill in business, especially in negotiating crucial deals, or selling a consumer product.How do you build the creativity muscle? Just like any building muscle. First, you think, “Dang! Wish I had some guns worthy of a hot girl summer?!” Then you hit the gym. You might watch some YouTube videos on arm weight workouts, you might consult a personal trainer, you might ask your diesel friend, but at some point, you put your head down and you work out. You wouldn’t expect muscle to build overnight. You’d check your results by flexing in the mirror, maybe a selfie happens that never makes your profile. You might want even more muscle, so you increase your workouts with weights or frequency or both, and try another one of those hot tips from the gym trainer, your friend, and Muscle magazine.
Simple.
You want something. You learn how to make it happen. You practice. You iterate. You improve. You set higher standards. And you keep building.You know what else responds to this exact same approach, creativity. In fact, there’s an entire graduate school at Stanford University built around this theory, because even the smartest and best scientists, engine mathematicians, and non-creatives realized: creativity is the holy grail in problem-solving and designing the world’s million-dollar-making products and services. Why is creativity so undervalued? Why do we push creativity to the side for hard skills like math and science? When did creativity get allotted to broke and suffering artists? Back in THE DAY, Plato was the first to ponder (no surprise there), “Will we say, of a painter, that he makes something?” Creation had been left to the gods. Language lacked a term that adequately described the process of human creation. Throughout antiquity, They argued that the writer creates but the artist imitates. Once the Christians entered the debate, They decried only God can create. Art was merely craft defined by rules, best delegated to trades people. Until the 18th century, even during the renaissance, the debate ensued; does art simply complete God’s creation? It wasn’t until SCIENCE got involved in the 19th century that creativity was understood as a human activity where something new is discovered. The problem was Science decried new is worthless without evidence and proof to defend it’s value. Suddenly, the #trend shifted from faith to facts, and if it wasn’t quantifiable, how could sell it in the Industrial age. Numbers even beat out the variety of battling for our increasingly limited attention. Fast forward 100 years and you can barely find the arts in public school, or creativity being encourage by teacher or parents. Ok, now that we understand the history of creativity, why does it matter? Creativity doesn’t just help us write better social media posts or make cool art. Creativity is the foundation for living a fearless, abundant life. Creativity is how we can influence our world, instigate change, and improve our communities. Creativity allows us to connect with our children, friends, and strangers in mind-blowing, but effortless ways. In my most humble opinion creativity is the single most important factor in determining your success, and I will not only defend but prove these theories in part 2 (yay science!). Learn how creativity changes the way you think, and the expenoential results you gain when you build your creative muscle.