Creativity: The nature and types of ideas
‘ Creativity is a free gift that still needs to be nurtured. It is the gateway upon which the universe freely delivers ideas through our spirit for the betterment of our lives and that of others. It’s left for our mind to master how to ’ invoke it
The mind is so much like a parachute. It only can work when it’s open. There are three main components of our lives, the spirit, mind and body in that order. When the spirit functions right, it aligns with the mind to manifest ideas, insights and concepts that disrupt physical, enterprise and bodily things. Ideas rule the world. And Africa needs people with quality ideas to spark a new era of a quantum leap. Now than ever, from politics to enterprise systems, we need creative ingenuity.
Most people don’t know how to get to a state of creativity, a shift in mental equilibrium. At the right entropy-enthalpy state, your spirit generates to your mind great ideas, insights and concepts. Only a few get to that creative state, the ability to think different.
When we all think alike, then no one is thinking. It’s important to think different. Think out of the box, as a matter of fact, think like there’s no box.
Today, let’s explore the dynamics and natures of quality ideas in business. In doing so, we master how to duplicate them. There is a trend to creative people and nature of their ideas. There are different types of enterprise ideas, lets group them into the following categories:
1. Simplified idea: Here, you want to make a process and task much easier for your users (e.g Instagram’s layout using just photos as against Facebook, or Whatsapp which for me was Blackberry messenger but without a pin). It’s an idea that simplifies a process.
2. Me too ideas: With this type of idea, you take an already existing idea but then you introduce it to a new market / geography (e.g Maxgo, regarded as the Uber for bikes in Lagos; with an app, you can call a bike to come pick you up). Another example will be Alibaba, it’s more like Amazon from China.
3. Virtual idea: Moving a business to the internet (e.g Wikipedia, which is like encyclopaedia on the internet, drop box which is like hard drive on the cloud/internet). They are mainly disruptive.
4. Remix idea: This refers to combining two or more ideas together ( E.g Slack for example is an online messaging at the same time a team collaboration app that still makes all content searchable. With Slack you can work with your team on a group and still with the same app place an order for some food).
5. Mission impossible idea: Doing what haven’t been done: Virgin Galactica, is more like an airline to the moon. It is to take us to create real estate and space travel accessible to the general public.
Beyond types of ideas, there are trends to having ideas. Find out lifestyles, people, places and time of the day that stimulates your creative juices. Then stay there more. For example, I have learnt to leverage on the power of 4AM; I think better at that time of the wee hours. Long walks too. When I am in flight, it comes pouring, so I have learnt to have a jotter or a notepad app close by. Ideas are volatile and they sublime, learn to condense them into a note else you may forget it. I have learnt to also be open to everything and attached to nothing. I used to be secretive, now I share ideas, after all, that’s what they are for.
Creativity is a free gift that still needs to be nurtured. It is the gateway upon which the universe freely delivers ideas through our spirit for the betterment of our lives and that of others. It’s left for our mind to master how to invoke it.
Ideas, dreams and goals are somewhat over rated. At any given point, it’s never one person per idea or dream. It rarely comes out fully formed, hence a need for collaboration. While we attribute the first sets of touch screen key pads to the likes of Apple with the itouch and iphone, it may interest you to note that Casio had a touch screen watch from way back in 1984 (same year as the original Mac) where you would draw numbers on the screen using your finger to write a 1 or 3 or plus or minus. Biblically, even more than one person saw the dream and vision of the birth of Christ talk less of the birth of that your small idea that you have been hiding. Dreaming is not a fruit of the spirit, it’s a gift of the spirit. It’s a free gift, so don’t be greedy or stingy with it.
I remember Mo Abudu a few years ago saying to us dur ing my Moments with Mo shoot that it’s better to own 10% of something that makes sense than 100% of nonsense! She followed that principle and today owns Ebony Life TV. It’s better for it to be stolen or collaborated on than for it not to see the light of the day because you hid it. The heaven in us through the spirit manifests mainly as ideas, insights & concepts. Better yet, dreams. Also, it’s safe to sta te that universe freely gives ideas and dreams in abundance so it ’s not j ust you, anyone can have them. Execution is the main thing. And in execution seek team work. Just like Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants”. Find shoulders, ask questions and keep an open mind. After you have an idea, do a Feasibility and environments scanning of it; if it passes the test, then set a goal, set r ight thestrategy and Structure for achieving it. And then ruthlessly execute and follow through. In that order, it’s really that simple.
The world is waiting on you for that next big idea . But true leadership begins with us leading our innate selves to purpose till it positively affects others. It pays, I can practically say that.
Remember, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. Lead your idea.