The power of creative thinking

BY DANIEL COLE

Creativity: The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness. Think about this, considering the fact that there were no iPods before 2001, do you think Steve Jobs knew with absolute certainty that the iPod will sell before developing it? Probably not, but that’s the power of a creative mind. If customers were asked to improve the music listening experience back in a day where CD or MP3 players ruled, they likely couldn’t have envisioned the iPod. In other words, it wasn’t customer feedback and survey reports that drove Jobs’ innovation; it was a complete ingenuity on Jobs part, with a combination of a world-class creative team and a great marketing strategy.

Interestingly, Steve Jobs didn’t invent the iPod; he developed it. He improves on what already exists, the CD players and the MP3 player of his time. Some of the most successful ideas are not original. They are expanded versions of old ideas. In our quest for innovation, we are often tempted to defy existing conventional reasoning and carve out a new path. Sometimes, this can be counter-productive.

So many people credit Henry Ford with the manufacturing assembly line.

But Ford didn’t actually invent the assembly line. He decided to use it to produce cars after visiting a meatpacking plant where such lines were used to process beef. His big idea was to reappropriate the concept, to develop it in another area. But it was such a significant jump in manufacturing that we remember him inventing it himself, much like Steve Jobs with the iPod.

We are all creative beings; only we don’t often harness our power of creativity. Creativity flourishes in an environment that is tolerant and accepting of failure. As a child, we all grow up inquisitive; asking questions and questioning our environment, but somewhere in the borderline of childhood and adulthood, as we seek social inclusion, we become acceptive of the results and answers society presents to us, consequently, we become conditioned to live, think, act, and behave in a certain way.

While we acknowledge the creative geniuses, both dead and alive, whose intellectual produce has changed our world and aided our existence, the truth is, it takes courage to be different. It takes courage to not be in sync with the majority. It takes courage to question dogma, and it takes courage to hold on to one’s ideal. Do you know the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was driven away from society for realizing the moon was made of rock? At the time, when many Greek city-states treated the sun and moon as divine entities or gods. He was tried for impiety and sentenced to death in a trial by the Athenian court.

Do you know Confucius spent much of his working life in exile? Aristotle accused of impiety, one of the crimes that got Socrates the death penalty. Do you know Jesus Christ faced rejection, as his beliefs and practices were not in full conformity to the traditions and practices of his time. The point is, society is a system of normalized averages. And standing out, thinking differently, may come at a cost of social exclusion.

To harness your creative power, use your imagination, and don’t be afraid of risking failure. Nobody could have thought a couple of years ago that we would travel in a Hyperloop or experience Virtual Reality. But it happened because of one person’s imagination. Imagination takes us to realities that were never explored. Albert Einstein has rightly said, “Your imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

Be curious and always ask “why.” To remain creative, stay informed. Read the works and books of the creative minds in your field.  Reading is the mark of a curious mind. Work with creative minds like you. The cost of ingenuity is not isolation; it is selective association. Join groups and community that will help foster your creative ideas.