Sensationally Creative - The Paradox of Creativity

Sensationally Creative
The Joy of Thinking Big

The Paradox of Creativity

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A resource vital to modern day business and personal success remains largely unused by the majority of us.

This resource is more powerful and plentiful than financial reserves, physical assets, supportive friends, and loyal customers. The resource is our personal creativity; it is a renewable resource and does not cost much to develop. If used properly, our creativity can become our most important asset for achieving personal success.

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

Creativity is a resource we all possess; few of us use it well, however. The reasons are many: Some of us are unaware of the power of creativity. Some of us are aware of it, but do not know how to use it. Some of us use our creativity but not as often as we should. Some of us are afraid to use it. Only a small minority of us have come close to tapping this personal skill for its full benefits.

This website is about how to enhance your creativity. How do I know that your creativity has to be enhanced? I don't. However, I have made a few interesting observations over the last few years while teaching creativity, however.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have.
— Emile Chartier

A strange paradox is evident; the people and organizations who most need to have their creative abilities enhanced are the most resistant to participating in any related learning activities.

The opposite is true with creative people and innovative companies. They are most eager to look at new ways and not-so-new ways to stimulate their creativity and generate innovation.

A good example is Grant Lovig and his staff at Company's Coming Publishing. They helped Grant's mother, Jean Paré, market over 28,000,000 of her Company's Coming cookbooks in a Canadian industry where 5,000 copies is considered a bestseller.

With their phenomenal success in innovative marketing, the staff at Company's Coming are one of the last groups I know which need a lesson in creativity or business innovation. Nevertheless, years ago Grant and his staff were most receptive to a creativity seminar which I conducted for them.

Many people and companies need to know more about how to be more innovative. They could benefit immensely from improving their creative thinking. There is a Catch-22; because they don't understand the benefits of creativity, they will never take steps to learn about it. Of course, they will never understand the benefits until they take steps to learn about it.

Why do the highly creative individuals of this world spend time on enhancing their creativity? The enhancement of creativity is like most self-improvement activities. Self-improvement is not a destination; it is a journey. Even creative people in this world have to practice and remind themselves what makes people creative and successful.

The thing that separates successful people from the less successful ones is that the successful people are always taking part in interesting journeys of learning. They are doers. They continually strive for self-improvement. The less successful are not doers. They may be interested in destinations but resist making the necessary journeys. Without journeys come no new destinations.

The journey of learning helps us get to new and exciting places. My wish is that all participants in my seminars and readers of my books find themselves on a worthwhile journey like the wonderful one I have had in learning about creativity and teaching it to others. Bon voyage.

Note: The above has been adapted from my book The Joy of Thinking Big.

Ernie J. Zelinski, Author of The World's Best Retirement Book