In my view,
Mark Twain expressed a great deal of wisdom with
these words: “Thousands of geniuses live and die
undiscovered — either by themselves or by
others.”
The fact that so many people haven’t
discovered they are geniuses is a major reason why they
toil away at jobs they hate and don't make as money as
they are capable of earning. As is to be expected, most
corporations aren’t about to help their employees
realize they are geniuses for fear of losing them.
By geniuses, I refer to individuals with
the potential to make a difference in this world and be
rewarded for it if they ever get around to developing
and using their creativity. Unfortunately, most people
have allowed organizations, educational institutions,
and society to suppress their creativity for so long
that they don’t realize how creative they can be. Truth
be told, most people can be more creative and, in turn,
more successful.
Very few people do
anything creative after the age of
thirty-five. The reason is that very few
people do anything creative before the age
of thirty-five.
— Joel Hildebrand
In this regard, there are two principles
for creative success — one general and one specific. The
general principle is that virtually everyone has the
ability to be more creative and accomplish extraordinary
things in this world. The specific principle is that
almost everyone has volunteered to be exempt from the
general principle. Put another way, few people spend
time, effort, or thought cultivating their creative
ability, which is an essential element for achieving
real success in life.
Your
wealth can only grow to the extent you
do.
— T. Harv Eker
The majority of adults don’t get halfway
to reaching their full creative potential due to their
self-imposed limitations. Sadly, many people have
suppressed both their desire and their ability to be
creative for so long that they think they are naturally
uncreative. You may be one of them.
How many times have you said to yourself
or others, “If I only had the creative ability to pull
that off?” All told, each one of us has greater
inventiveness than we exhibit in ordinary life, but most
of us are unaware of it, or refrain from using it.
Again, there is no heavier burden than great potential
that we are squandering. To deny our creativity is to
lie to the world and, worse, to lie to ourselves.
A man would do well to
carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down
the thoughts of the moment. Those that come
unsought for are commonly the most valuable,
and should be secured, because they seldom
return.
— Francis Bacon
Creative thinking, if diligently
practiced, allows each and every one of us to accomplish
feats that appear to be unattainable miracles to those
who don’t practice it. Creativity combined with action
is a simple, easy, and surefire way to achieve health,
wealth, and happiness in our lives; it is also an
invaluable tool to help us experience harmony in this
fast-moving and constantly changing world in which we
live.
There is no
expedient to which a man will not go to avoid
the labor of thinking.
— Thomas Edison
Use your brain. It's the
little things that count.
— Graffiti
If you are serious about attaining true
success in this rapidly changing world, start with the
premise that from both a financial and a personal point
of view, your most valuable asset is not your job, your
house, or your bank account. Plain and simple, it’s your
creative ability. Your creative mind has great value
because it can solve problems.
All employers have problems that they
pay employees to solve. In the same vein, individuals
have various problems, such as needing something to
entertain them, that they pay others to solve.
To be blind is bad, but
worse is to have eyes and not to see.
— Helen Keller
Make visible what, without
you, might perhaps never have been seen.
— Robert Bresson
The more you reason the
less you create.
— Raymond Chandler
The value you place on your creative
mind should be at least one million dollars because you
can use it to generate many times this amount over your
lifetime. This makes creativity the poor person’s
wealth. Indeed, when you list the monetary value of your
personal assets, the grand total should make you a
millionaire simply by including the value of your
creative ability.
You, too, can joyfully earn a decent
living if you develop your creative side and in doing so
provide an imaginative product or service that people
want. In fact, it’s harder to suppress your creativity
than to use it. Everyone has the deep-seated desire to
produce something innovative. In everyone there is a
creative person wanting to break out and make a
difference in this world.
All things considered, your creativity
is your biggest asset. Put another way, you are already
a millionaire — your creativity makes it so! You must
recognize the latent genius within and stay in the habit
of being innovative if you want to attain true success
in your life. To maximize the use of your creative mind
is to maximize the career and financial aspects of your
life.
