How to Be Innovative #2 Don't Think About Failure, Think About What Have You Learned

“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat”

Steve Jobs, 2010

Many of us are brought up believing that failure is a bad thing. Our early childhood experiences typically involve being laughed-at for getting things wrong. Although we have to learn the difference between right and wrong and what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, we are often not taught how to learn from our mistakes.

The famous inventor Thomas Edison story tells of how he invented the light bulb. He tried more than 2,000 experiments before he got the electric bulb to work (although, I suspects that it was not exactly 2,000 experiments. It just mean lots of failed experiments). A reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times, Edison responded, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000 step process.” At every stage, he learnt what worked and what did not. If he had given up at stage one, the world would be a darker place today!

The problem we have today is that we have a low tolerance for failure, especially in evangelism and business environment. Failure or the perception of failure is often treated with dismissal, although the reality is that although the expected results may not have been achieved, those involved learned a valuable lesson. A 1976 study carried out by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, on the reasons for major engineering failures, found insufficient knowledge to be their primary cause. The more information we have, the less likely we are to fail, so engineers today are more likely to get things right by learning from what didn’t work in the past.

This is true for all aspects of our lives, whether it is work, at home or during leisure. We need to learn from our mistakes rather than trying to forget them and move on. In every situation, it can be worthwhile jotting down or take a mental note on what has worked and what hasn’t. Commits it to memory because it can provide a useful reference when you face a similar situation or a new challenge. Don’t think about failure, instead think about unexpected outcome!

Practical Suggestions:

§  If something hasn’t worked, don’t focus on the failure, instead think about what did work and learn from it

§  Think about what hasn’t worked for you in the past and reflect on how you dealt with the situation and what you leaned. What this a positive or negative or growing experience? Did you come out of the situation a better person?

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Genius is 99 Percent Inspiration

The celebrated inventor Thomas Edison is well known for his statement: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” While I believe that hard work is essential to a life of real success and fulfilment, I think that being filled with a deep sense of inspiration and commitment to making a difference in the world is an even more important attribute.

All of the great geniuses of the world were inspired and driven by their desire to enrich the lives of others. When you study their lives, you will discover that this desire became almost an obsession for most of them. It consumed them and occupied every cell of their minds. Edison was inspired to manifest the visions he saw on the picture screen of his imagination into reality. Jonas Salk, who discovered the polio vaccine, was inspired to help others from suffering from this dreaded affliction. And Marie Curie, the great Nobel Prize-winning scientist, was inspired to serve humanity through her discovery of radium. As Woodrow Wilson said, “You are not here to merely make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

How inspired are you in your own life? Do you jump out of bed on Monday mornings or do you simply lie there with a sense of emptiness flooding through your body? If your level of inspiration is lower than you know it should be, read a good self-help book or listen to a motivating audiocassette program. Attend a public lecture by someone you admire or spend a few hours studying the biography of one of your heroes. Start spending time with people who are passionate about what they are doing in their lives and dedicated to making the best out of life. With a healthy dose of inspiration, you will quickly raise your life to a whole new plane of living.

[From Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma]

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Purpose Stimulate Breakthrough Idea

“A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance”

(Gary Hamel)

I’m fascinated by the life of Thomas Edison. Anybody who can give the world the electric light, the microphone, the storage battery, the phonograph and a thousand other inventions, is worth studying. Historians say he was driven by one word: PURPOSE. Not pleasure, not popularity, not even personal gain, but – PURPOSE. Purpose stimulates breakthrough idea.

Here are some of the recorded principles by which he lived:

1)    Work to obtain all the knowledge you can about what you want to achieve,

2)    Fix your mind on your purpose. Persist! Seek! Use all knowledge you can accumulate or learn from others,

3)    Keep on searching no matter how many times you meet with disappointment,

4)    Refuse to be influenced by the fact that someone else tried the same thing and failed,

5)    Keep yourself sold on the idea that a solution to the problem exists somewhere, and that you’ll find it.

Then he added: “The trouble with most people is, they quit before they ever start.” Anyone can come out with idea, brilliant idea, but without purpose the motivation even to start will not make idea into a reality. Quitting is idea-destructor. Purpose, “fix your mind on your purpose” is a great idea-stimulator. Because of the vision and purpose that God puts in Nehemiah’s heart, he can rebuild the city wall. Nehemiah (of the Bible) didn’t conquer through brilliance (remember, most creative people in the history are school dropouts), he conquered through persistence, perseverance – and yes, prayer. He never quit. He have a purpose. In spite of the criticism, in spite of the pressure, he refuse to give up – that’s why he rebuilt Jerusalem. Purpose stimulate breakthrough idea.

What inspires you? What could you do to make this world a better place? Could you improve your local community in some way that contributes to the greater wellbeing and safety of its residents? Could you invent something or come out with ideas that will improve people lives and create awareness in your campus, church or community? Can you come up with a creative breakthrough that will challenge your potential and develop your personal skills? Will you use your God given mind and knowledge to come up with a way to raise funds for your favourite charities and causes?

What is your purpose?

Purpose stimulate breakthrough idea

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Common Blocks to Creativity #1: Fear of Failure

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize

how close they were to success when they gave up.” (Thomas A. Edison)

From our childhood, success is usually rewarded and failure is punished, so some of us develop an exaggerated fear of failure. Such individuals are likely to avoid competitive situations, situations in which they are likely to be compared to others. A strong fear of failure makes us avoid risks. At times, it makes us take excessive risks to have an alibi for failure.

Although some fear of failure is useful in mobilizing us for a task, excessive fear of failure prevents us from acting at our best. The fear of failure mind-set often say to themselves: “It’s never work”; “We don’t have the time”; “It’s not in the budget”; “The Boss will never go for it”; “We’re always done it this way”; “That sounds stupid”; “Let’s see what the committee thinks”; “It’s not our style”; “I’ve seen that before somewhere”; “The last person who suggested that doesn’t work here anymore”; etc. These killer-thought-phrases destroys ideas before they have the chance to prove themselves. Fear of failure avoid risks and thus expelled many new unproven ideas. What a lost!

The acceptance of failure as necessary part of life is the best way to get rid of this block. No child would learn to work if it was excessively afraid of falling. Failure is a necessary as success in learning new skills. Failure simply means that we have to try harder, or that we have to take a new approach. It does not mean we are no good but that we have found new ways not to fail again. “I have not failed,” said Thomas A. Edison, “I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” This way failure can be a tremendous source of information and a powerful spur to growth and improvement. Do not fear. If you fail, try again!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

References:

1.      Lifelong Creativity: An Unending Quest by Pradip N. Khandwalla (Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2004).

2.      Breakthrough Thinking: Using Creativity to Solve Problems by Nick Souter (ILEX, 2007)

Barriers of Creativity #4: "Be Practical"

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #4: “Be Practical”

            Remember when you suggest something and someone says it’s impractical? Kills your enthusiasm doesn’t it? Unlike any other God’s creations, human beings possess imagination. Our thinking is not limited to the real and present. We can imagine – and imagination is the first step in creative thinking.

            But the problem here is too many people always think of the practicality of things. “Your ideas”, they say, “must be practical.” And practical is what they know until then. We haven’t even tried the idea yet to see whether it works and it is already shot down. Frustrating. But creative people are perseverance and stubborn. They do not give up easily. For them, there is a place for practicality and there is a place for possibility. Remember Mr. Thomas E. Edison? He failed almost a thousand times before he finally invented the incandescent light bulb that evolves into the many type of lights that we’re using now.    

Cultivate your imagination.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Creative People are Daring

Reepicheep the Mouse from Chronicles of Narnia is a small and daring creature :) 

For the creative, thinking is an adventure. Because they are relatively free of preconceived notions and prejudiced views, creative people are less inclined to accept prevailing views, less narrow in their perspectives, and less likely to conform with the thinking of those around them. They are bold in their conceptions, willing to entertain unpopular ideas and seemingly unlikely possibilities. Therefore, like Galileo and Columbus, Edison and the Wright brothers, they are more open than others to creative ideas.

Their daring has an additional benefit: It makes them less susceptible to face-saving than others. They are willing to face unpleasant experiences, apply their curiosity, and learn from those experiences. As a result, they are less likely than others to repeat the same failure over and over.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Taken from Vincent Ryan Ruggiero’s The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought (8^th Edition), (United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007) pg. 90

How-To Generate Ideas #12: Be More Like a Child

A stick + Something round + add more friends = Fun!

“The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child” (Thomas Edison)

Curiosity is not the quality reserved for the gifted few. Virtually every child is boundlessly curious. But overtime many of us lost our childlike curiosity as we grow up. We stop searching for challenges and exploring new ideas. Thus, Jean Piaget the psychologist suggests: “If you would be more creative stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.”

It is the child in you who is creative, not the adult. The adult in you drives to Arena Sukan sport centre and pay for the futsal court. The child in you goes barefoot and plays in the street for free. The adult lifts heavy weights in the gym. The child climbs the trees and play in the playground. The adult thinks too much and too meticulous because he have too many knowledge and set by too many boundaries, rules, assumptions and preconceptions. The child however is innocent and free and does not know what he cannot or should not do and sees the world as it actually is – not as it appears according to what we know previously or taught to believe.

Jack Foster in his book How to Get Ideas said that adult tend to do what they or other people did the last time. He continues: “To children there is no last time. Every time is the first time. And so when they go exploring for ideas they explore a land that is fresh and original, a land without rules, a land without borders or fences or walls or boundaries, a land infinite with promise and opportunity.”

To generate more ideas we need to be like child again. Let the child in you come out. Play with matches. Play the piano with your chin. Ask crazy and most honest questions. Draw pictures and colour the tree blue and the grass orange and the cloud pink. Run barefoot at Taman Rimba Recreation Park. Eat ice cream and sit by the sidewalk. Sing or whistle in the elevator. Throw rocks. Create toys. Have fun. Be like a child – and you’ll be surprise by how many new and fresh ideas you gets!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)