Session 2:
Entrepreneurial Creativity
This next few sessions of the program are about winning Entrepreneurial strategies. You're going to learn about creativity, productivity and leadership, as applied to the Entrepreneurial space. In this session we're going to focus on creativity, and we're going to learn how to use our minds to connect ideas and things together in new combinations... so we can actualize and achieve success in business and in the world.
Your imagination is a critical component of your Entrepreneurial tool kit. It's what sets you apart. Most people think you must see something before you can believe it. But the Entrepreneur learns how to believe in something BEFORE they can see it. This is how they create new and innovative products and services. You must also get the belief that by doing the necessary things, you can become a successful Entrepreneur. To believe it,you have to actually go in and create the belief. Remember, it's not seeing to believe, but believing to see.
There are 2 ways to view the world: either the world is set and can't be impacted by us...
Or the world is changeable and you can learn how to impact things. If you have the second mindset, you will claim more power in the world. When you believe it, you will start to see it. Part of creativity is creating your own beliefs, your own reality, and your own way of viewing the world. But as you're doing this - as you're creating your own unique perspective - check in with reality and see if it's correlating. If you go too far, you'll be creating your own reality but it won't match up with what's really going on. And that's not going to help you, your business, or the people you're trying to serve.
There are 2 kinds of creativity: proactive and reactive. Reactive creativity is basic problem solving. Something happens and we must react in the moment in a creative way to solve the problem. The other kind is proactive creativity. This is where we consciously and willfully set time aside to engage our creativity and produce something new. It doesn't strike most people to set out specific time to be proactively creative, but it's very important that we do it. It's the highest power we as Entrepreneurs have.
I want to introduce you to the idea of the "Critical Counter-Intuitive." It comes from my observation that the path to success is usually not obvious and is typically counter- intuitive. Us humans evolved in a time that doesn't exist anymore, and we're no longer well suited for the reality we find ourselves in. It's changed so much over the past several hundred years with technology, etc. We now find ourselves in an environment where pretty much everything we need to do to succeed is not the thing we'd automatically do.
For example, if you have some wheat, the natural thing to do is eat it. The counter-intuitive thing is to store it until spring, plant it, and harvest it in the fall. If you're mad at someone, the natural thing is to assume you're right and they're wrong. The counterintuitive thing is to see that if you were them you would have done the same thing, and see things from their side. If you're attracted to someone, the natural thing is to call them 3 times a day and tell them how much you like them. The counterintuitive things is to relax and allow some mystery and intrigue to happen. When you're starting to work in the morning, the natural thing is to check your email and dive in. The counterintuitive thing is to analyze what you need to do, identify the top priority for the day, and work on that with single-minded focus before even turning on your email and allowing other people's agenda to become your agenda. The Critical Counter-Intuitive is often the path to success.
Another important idea is that of Emergence. When several atoms get together and form a molecule, the molecule is an "emergent property." Those two atoms have linked up and now there's a higher order property called an molecule. It has new and distinct features and functions. Put molecules together and you get a cell that has unique properties. Put cells together you get tissues... tissues together you get organs... organs together and you eventually get a human begin. At each new level a new Emergent comes into existence.
It's not really accurate to say that a higher level thing is just the sum of the lower levels. You can't say a sentence is just a collection of words. When a sentence is made, it become more than just a bunch of words. It's operating on a higher order of existence.
Another important term is "Meta," which means thinking at higher levels, or zooming out.
When we see things from a higher perspective, we practice a skill that allows us to see the world differently and allows us to be successful.
Here's why Meta and Emergents are important to business. Success is not a cause and effect result. It is an EMERGENT. It happens naturally when you put together a unique set of components. It happens on it's own. It's not a simple "cause and effect" result. It's an Emergent on a higher order. In every area of life - health, relationships, or money -success is always an Emergent. Most people try to do one thing and hope is causes success as an effect. But that's not how it works. Even becoming a successful "Entrepreneur" isn't a cause and effect relationship. Entrepreneurship emerges when you put certain skills and behavior in place.
