Creative Individuals

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Joel’s newsletter on Creative Individuals, August 19, 2009

An ezine about Creative thinking, Coaching, and Making a difference

Creative thinking can help you plan a party, or it can raise you up to the ranks of the top influential people in the world. It depends on your vision, the resources you use, how you apply creativity, your degree of focus and your level of persistence.

Creative thinkers are found in all fields. Here we look at some top creative individuals today (listed by Fast Company). These are people who are using creativity in various ways to make a difference in the world, build successful businesses, create new technologies, start trends, and change lives.

* Shai Reshef observed the high tuition costs (not to mention living costs) of colleges, which put higher education out of reach for many people. Tapping the power of the ubiquitous Internet, he founded University of the People, a tuition-free, Internet-based university, that makes higher education available to those who otherwise could not afford it. Although University Of The People is still in its early stages of development, the concept has the potential to bring university level education to vast numbers of people, even in remote corners of the world.

* Blaise Aguera y Arcas, who holds patents in video technology, created Photosynth, a technology for combining digital images, allowing you to zoom in, out, and around the images and to view them from all different perspectives. See his TED talks demo.

* Scott Schuman started a trend with a very simple creative idea - photographing fashion on the street in NYC. He simply goes around and shoots photos of people wearing interesting fashions, and puts them on his blog, called The Sartorialist. He also travels to centers of fashion in Europe. Now his blog is the talk of the fashion industry.

* Jane McGonigal, of Institute for the Future, combines fun, technology, and learning by creating games. One of her online games, Superstruct, gets players to imagine what the future would be like in 2019. They have to decide what actions to take to deal with world problems just like those we have today. Some of her games are even required playing in companies, to get employees and managers to think creatively.

* Thom Mayne, a well-known architect, uses bold creative expression in building design. His firm's designs take into account the use of the building as well as the local conditions and environment. The results are strikingly creative works of engineering and art, as you can see here.

* Jon Rubinstein found that time pressure can be a strong motivator for creative ideas. Back when existing digital music players were cumbersome to use, Jon Rubinstein led the creation of the iPod in less than a year, which contributed to Apple's surge in growth, and led to a whole subculture of the digital revolution. His team had to creatively solve a number of technical challenges to make the device work, but the result was well worth the effort!

* Hayao Miyazaki combines artistic creativity with creative thinking in writing Japanese anime. His Spirited Away was the top movie of all time in Japan. His creative imagination comes into play in the characters, creatures and story.

These are just a few of the top creative individuals in the world today. I find it fascinating to read about their work, not only for the ideas themselves, but also for the inspiration it gives me to be more creative myself.

Are their ideas any different than those that you or I could think of? Not really. They had the persistence and resources to follow through and see the results, but they started out from the beginning, like everyone else.

Want to learn how to be more creative? Contact Joel Remde, joel@joelremde.com, 973-701-1007.

Creative thinking tip

Find out about other people who are creative and learn from them. You can look them up on the Internet, read books, or better yet, talk with them directly.

How did they come up with their creative ideas? What was involved in carrying them out? What challenges came up and how did they overcome them?

Here are some ways that this will help you:

* It will help you learn how the creative process (or processes) works so you can use it yourself. * It will show you that creative people are basically the same as you and me, and if they can do it, we can too! * It will help to inspire you to think creatively and to follow through on your ideas. * It will stimulate your thinking, especially when you study creative people in a variety of fields.

You might find that you are especially inspired by certain people; however, it helps to broaden your scope and learn about those in very different fields, too. Creativity is enhanced by cross-fertilization.

By learning from others who are successful in what they do, we can become more successful ourselves. And that goes for creative thinking, too.What are your creative ideas?

I'd love to hear about some creative ideas that you have (or have had), whether or not you've carried them out. Please let me know if it's OK to print them in this newsletter and whether I can use your name. Thanks!

Quote of the week

" Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert)

This quote says to me that the creative process isn't only about experimenting; you have to decide whether the results have value and are worth keeping. Certainly, allowing mistakes is a basic principle of creativity, otherwise you'd be too rigid and would always stay within the lines. An artist can sense what looks good or what will work. But it also takes some boldness when that involves breaking some conventions, or making use of the "mistakes."

Learn more about The Creative Thinking Coach at www.coachjoel.com

Perspectives by Coach Joel Remde

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