Dean Hunt asked this question on his blog recently: “In your opinion, is creativity something that we are born with? Or can it be taught/learnt?” He’s English (or is it British) so he spells words like “learnt” wrong but that’s OK. I knew what he meant. Creativity can be learned. It took 3 seconds to type “how to develop creativity” into a search engine which spit out over 3 million results. But this opens up a bigger can of worms.
We’re all born with everything we need to be wildly successful. There might be a few exceptions but I don’t know what they are. Sure some people might seem to have an easier road than others because they are children of wealthy parents or whatever.
The reality is that the road to success is paved with challenges and obstacles that must be overcome no matter who you are. Thousands of people born into poverty have become successful and thousands of people born into situations with every possible advantage have turned into miserable failures.
No matter what seemingly insurmountable obstacle you face, chances are someone else has already overcome it. If you were born with half a foot or half an arm, you can pretty much rule out a career in professional sports, right. Wrong! The guy who kicked the longest field goal in NFL history (Tom Dempsey) did it with half a foot. And Jim Abbott pitched a no-hitter in the major leagues with half an arm. On the Internet, there’s a 13 year-old kid named Carl Ocab ranked number one for the highly-competitive search term “make money online.” I think I first heard of him on Dean’s blog too.
So what’s your excuse? There are no good excuses. If you say you can’t do something, what you’re really saying is that you’re not willing put forth the time and effort necessary to do it. Simple as that. And if you think you can’t develop creativity, make money online, or whatever, you’re right.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” - Henry Ford
Henry Ford had an eighth-grade education and most people told him his idea for mass-producing automobiles was crazy. He didn’t listen to the morons. Apparently neither did Tom Dempsey, Jim Abbott, and Carl Ocab. Good for them. The sad thing is that the moron might be you. Who are you listening to? I hope you’re not listening to some “inner voice” that’s telling you what you can’t do.
Success is simple…but don’t confuse simple with easy. The fact is that most people aren’t willing to put forth the effort and persevere over all the obstacles in order to achieve success. Saying or thinking you “can’t” is nothing more than a convenient excuse.
Do you want to learn how to succeed? Check this out:
Six Simple Steps to Certain Success
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3 Comments
There’s hardly anything truly original out there, since everything is relative, and there’s always some sort of common thread to be found between “new”, “original” ideas and something similar, but from the past.
People need to relate new items to something similar that they’ve seen in order to define it in their minds.
Thanks,
Dan
http://danielmcgonagle.name
Hey Daniel,
If everything is relative, how can you claim that in absolute terms? You should rethink that one.
Robert, the best thing I have ever seen on any adult being able to reclaim their creativity we were each born with:
“The Artist’s Way.” I’m not kidding, dude, this book changed my life.
Hi Robert,
A book that I recommend about creative problem solving is Jack’s Notebook by Gregg Fraley.
It is an unusual format for a biz book, b/c it reads like a fable but I learned many creativity skills as I enjoyed the story. It teaches a creative problem solving process that can be applied to business settings, or to one’s life.
As a relatively new leader in a corporate setting, I found it very valuable. Hope you like it, too.
Cheers,
Linda
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