How creative do you think you are?
What stops many people fully benefiting from their creativity, is that they don’t think they are creative. They wrongly assume that unless an idea has never been pondered before and is plucked from the sky, it isn’t creative. Yet, when we examine the most creative people in any area of art, science or business, we find this to be a fallacy.
Creativity and making connections
As the late Steve Jobs famously said, creativity comes from connecting things. People who think they are creative look for connections. For example, millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked, ‘why?’
- Blogs (or Web Logs) came from connecting websites with the idea of diary writing or journalling.
- The underarm, ball-style deodorant was invented by Helen Barnett Diserens, when she made the connection between a ballpoint pen and applying deodorant. She saw the potential for the pen’s ballpoint system, to be adapted to deliver deodorant.
- Henry Ford connected his experience of 19th century meatpacking plants in Chicago and Cincinnati, with the production of automobiles and created the automobile production line.
If you want to produce more creative output, a great place to start is to look for more connections. This post on how to become a creative thinker, will also help you.