What is creativity? Apparently, Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. That’s the textbook definition. For Lagos entrepreneurs, we may need to amend that definition a little. Creativity is the act of turning even old things into new realities. This sounds more like innovation, and so it should. The lines are not at clear where one stops and the other starts. How many concepts or ideas are really new in the world of business, truth be told?
If you can use your imagination and turn a bland, boring or old invention or idea into a fresh and attractive new thing, or breath new life into a stale idea or product, you have succeeded in being creative.
Put plainly, your success in business depends to a large extent on just how creative you are. How well can you do a regular thing in a fresh and interesting way that will get buyers (or readers) on your side? Since we are throwing buzzwords around today, let us throw in yet another – strategy. While there are huge textbooks which go on and on and on teaching and preaching strategy, we will reduce the definition to one word – different.
The best strategy in business is the one which makes you stand out the most. If you can successfully differentiate yourself from the rest, your strategy is excellent. Let us now put it all together – to be successful in business, you must stand out. Your product or service must be differentiated from others in a good way. To do this, it must be that your ‘strategy’ sets you apart from the crowd, which means you have been able to ‘innovate’ effectively. To innovate, you must be creative.
NOW THIS BEGS THE QUESTION – CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT?
Well, we are about to try, and if you hang around for another 300 words or so, we may answer the question suitably enough for our collective use in business:
Read outside your business sector
This is probably the best way to boost creativity, yet one of the easiest. The idea to make cameras more useful came from studying biology and nature and the way the eyes work. Not from getting buried inside science books. Look for inspiration from all sources, not just your own field. Remember to write down ideas no matter how far-fetched they seem at first.
Go out
The more people you meet, the more you learn, the more ideas you get. No one grows by staying in his own small world trying to do it all by himself. Attend social events, business seminars and conferences, even child dedications. It’s about who you might meet, not what the event is about.
Get a hobby
Join a gym, run at the stadium, walk on the bridge, play football, adopt a local beer parlour. The aim remains the same – if you share interests with other people, they will open up to you more easily and can reveal ideas which you may not have thought of before. Listen and learn. Every chance meeting is a potential life changer.
Watch TV
Once called the ‘silly box’, the television is being tipped to take over the world of ‘infotainment’; yes, even over and beyond the reach of the web. With increased broadband speeds, video content is clearly the future, and there is no limit to what is available on prime TV and internet TV channels like youtube and Vimeo.
Mingle with young people
These little people are full of unbelievable new ways of seeing things, uncorrupted by experience. Just as importantly, they know what is trending more than we ever could and so can serve as a useful source of what is current.
Go menial
Offer to do some housework. Clean, cook, do the washing up. Ironing is particularly tedious so maybe we can give that one a miss. But, do these chores alone. It gives you time to think without stressing. Allow your mind to open up without the pressure of thinking for business or thinking for work or money. The results can be staggering.
Odira Onyenso
Edited: Ifeanyi MAduka
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