The Creator Mindset summary

At this point, you might be thinking: But I’m not creative. I don’t paint or play a musical instrument. I have a serious profession. I’m a manager!

Stop right there. You are creative! Creativity is as central to the human experience as eating and breathing. We all use creativity in our professions, no matter what we do. If you’ve created a coupon to attract more clients to your business, that’s creative. If you’ve automated a process at work and saved yourself a bunch of time, that’s creative, too.

As adults, we make up all kinds of excuses to avoid engaging in creative pursuits. We say things like, “I don’t have the time to learn” or “I don’t have the talent.”

But think back to your childhood – you never used to make excuses like that! When children want to do something, they do it. If they see building blocks, they think, Let’s build a spaceship. If they see a keyboard, they think, Let’s play a tune. And if they fail the first time, they just try again.

What’s the most valuable asset a business has? Here’s a hint: It’s not machinery. It’s not patents, either, or even real estate. It’s people. People are the most valuable asset a business has because they possess something that none of those other things ever will – creativity.

But do businesses today make the most of their staff’s creativity? Not as much as they could. To tap into their employees’ creative potential, leaders first need to possess the right qualities. 

You might be ready to start applying creativity to your business, but it’s not always easy to know where to start. So why not go back to basics, and take a good look at what you already have in place? After all, when you have a firm grasp of how your business operates, it’s also easier to envision how it could operate differently. 

Sound daunting? Well, that’s where the trinity of creativity comes in. The three parts of the trinity are concept, idea, and execution. By considering each one with regard to your business, you can gain new insight into how it works, which can have profound implications for how you think about and run it.

In 1975, a man called Steve Sasson invented the world’s first digital camera while working for the photography company Kodak. The device weighed 8 pounds and looked more like a homemade bomb than a camera. It consisted of 16 batteries, a cassette recorder, and dozens of circuits all wired together. The photo quality was, frankly, terrible – the photos were just 0.01 megapixels and in black and white. But still, it was the world’s first digital camera.

However, Sasson’s digital camera was not well received. In fact, none of Kodak’s management liked or understood the invention. It was even perceived as a threat to their analog photography business, so the company didn’t pursue it.

On September 29, 1982, twelve-year-old Mary Kellerman woke up with a sore throat and a runny nose. Her parents gave her a pain reliever and put her back to bed. But a little later, they discovered Mary lying lifeless on the bathroom floor. 

Mary was one of seven people who died in the span of a few days. They were the victims of poisoning; someone had tampered with the drugs, inserting cyanide-laced capsules, seemingly at random, into bottles of Tylenol.