“I’m not creative.”
“I had an idea once. It sucked.”
“I used to be creative. In first grade.”
“I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
“Creativity? That’s for other people.”
This is what billions of people tell themselves every day. There’s a good chance you’re telling yourself this too, as if being uncreative were preordained at birth and confirmed by your second-grade art teacher who took one look at your sad crayon drawing of daisies in a vase and deemed you uncreative for all eternity.
Most people think creativity is some kind of weird, woo-woo, rebellious, freaky, whacko thing. They equate being “creative” to being “artistic” and mistakenly think creativity is about artistic expression. Which means creativity is the sole domain of artists, painters, sculptors, writers, musicians and the like. Think iconic creative geniuses like Picasso, Shakespeare, O’Keeffe, Mozart, Michelangelo— all the way down to your hippie-dippie cousin who never got a real job and sells macramé art at hemp fests.
Society has pegged creative types with all sorts of odd, antisocial attributes. Like being ego-driven, as in “the bigger the ego, the greater the genius.” Messy, as in creative expression can’t be bound by the chains of discipline and neatness. And of course, free-spirited, as in not wanting to abide by rules, social norms or the use of deodorant.
But don’t confuse “artsy-fartsy” creativity for “business world” creativity. While these attributes may apply to Picasso and your hippie cousin, this cliched, cartoony version of creativity is completely irrelevant to the world of business. Creativity isn’t some weird, woo-woo thing. Creativity is the ability to approach a problem in a unique or unexpected way. But to what end? Artistic expression is one. But so is answering a business problem: reversing declines in YOY sales, refreshing a tired brand, improving employee morale, etc.
Being creative is an action, not a label.
The question isn’t, “Am I creative?” The question is, “How do I solve the problem in an unexpected way?”
How do you view things through fresh eyes? How do you open yourself up to a world of possibility? How do you let go and just have fun? You know, like a little kid. Yes, we were all once kids, and we were all creative. We let our endless curiosity guide us. We all let our imaginations run free. We expressed ourselves without fear or hesitation. Because we didn’t know any better. What the hell happened? How did we lose it? Contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei once said, “Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.”
Society at large has done an incredibly thorough job of reinforcing the great divide between the creative and the un-creative. It seems like the whole world has conspired to tell you you’re not creative: from your second-grade art teacher to your parents to your friends to your psychiatrist to your cubicle mates to your bosses to your very own kids.
I’m here to tell you that’s complete bullshit.
Bill Bowerman, legendary University of Oregon track coach and co-founder of Nike, famously said, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Similarly, I believe: “If you have an idea, you are creative.”
Have you ever had an idea? Of course you have. So has everyone else on Earth, which makes us all creative. You use creativity every day, and you don’t even realize it. It can be as simple as rearranging your workspace to be more efficient. Or as complex as coming up with a business plan for a new revenue stream. Thinking of different, unusual answers to solve, well, anything — that’s being creative.
So, you don’t have to be a Picasso or a macramé artist. You don’t have to be messy or free-spirited. And you can proudly use deodorant.
Godspeed, my creative friend!