Be creative as an entrepreneur- Do’s and don’ts

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”, as quoted by Apple founder Steve Jobs is a complex notion.

Creativity is primarily associated with art and artists. Few of them understand that creativity and business are related. Creativity without strategies is simply art and business without creativity is just a mundane job.

Those who can mediate these two fields achieve a perfect balance of money and self-satisfaction. But, perfection is that far-fetched mirage which diminishes with time. Many start-ups aim at achieving this ideal state of everlasting success. The most often used phrase in such scenarios is “be creative”. At this some only blink their eyes, others give it a royal ignorance and not just that, some simply doze off. The primary challenge in such contexts is to understand the following-

“What is being creative?”

“How much will it benefit us?”

“How can we be creative?”

Such numerous questions haunt us when we are expected to try something new.

To make things easier, here are a few guidelines of how to be more creative followed by some of the cons of creativity in your business.

Think out of the box

Creativity not at all means doing anything extravagant or out of the world. Creativity essentially is looking at things in similar ways as others do but think something which others haven’t. “Thinking out of the box” probably means the same. Have the guts to think, to ask and to speak.

Change the view: Rephrase the questions and problems

Everything is in our mind. It is important for us to control our minds and not vice versa. Positive outlook matters a lot in anything that we pursue. What might seem to be a negative situation can turn into an affirmative opportunity with a slight change in the perspective. There will be times when problems like “we are unable to finish our target on time” occur. This mini statement comes across to be an everyday chanting but few of us realize that the thought in the first place is responsible for the hindrances. The next time you wish to complain say, “what can be done to finish our target on time?”. This change in attitude stimulates creative thinking and the problem vanishes.

Ideation

The process of ideation is analyzing new business opportunities, current developments and the potential competitors in the market. Its main purpose is to generate ideas that can be used to generate, develop and evaluate new ideas, processes, and strategies for new products or services.

Many businesses hold these ideation sessions where brainstorming is done.

Various ideation techniques can be adopted. Some are mentioned below:

Question the assumptions: Make a point to question different assumptions made at different stages of development. When practiced at small levels, new ideas can be generated and organized.

Define a wish-list: This technique is a great way of involving all the members and developing team bonding. Without imposing any restrictions, allow the flow of all creative ideas. These ideas open the gates to innumerable possibilities to choose from.

Redefine the opportunity: Make a point to note down the objective of your firm or project. Enlist a few keywords from the same. Make alternative objectives from the keywords. Compare all the possibilities, adopt trial and error, at the end of the iteration you reach a precise objective of your firm.

Till now we have come across a list of creative ideas influencing the business in a positive manner.

Now let us go through some potential hurdles creativity poses to your business

Creativity is abstract and impractical

Creativity has no bounds and the brain has a supreme power of imagination. Usually, the ideas that arise from the bounds of imagination are vague and non-achievable. The potential hindrance faced by many businesses is the implementation of these creative ideas.

Adjustments in short term are roadblocks for long term

Ideas are ever changing, ever growing and ever rising. Every idea can be thought upon, dwelled upon and improved upon. But these small adjustments in the name of creative inputs make it harder for implementation of the same.

Mirage of satisfaction

Creativity, when seen through the lens of logic, is restless. Any inception of creative idea makes one impatient to “reveal-it-all”. It is a human error that they can’t keep the new ideas to themselves. The more one speaks of it, the more it remains redundant. It shows the false hopes of achievement. This mirage of satisfaction is deteriorating in the long term.

Distraction

Too many ideas, too many possibilities, and too much creativity often deviate one from their goal. Some novel ideas in the mundane tasks reduce the boredom and bring life to the monotony. But few of them in the impulse of excitement seldom realize that those extraordinary ideas are impractical on the technical grounds.

Also, the modern method of working is affecting our potential creativity. Although technology and its resulting gadgets are meant to make life simpler, most of us are severely addicted to their smartphones. This results in major distraction from the generation of creative ideas as we become dependent on gadgets more than our brains.

Conclusion:

Having seen both the pros and cons of creativity in business, it is important for us to understand that there is no perfect algorithm for success in business. With a creative vision make a point to be perseverant in pursuing your goal. Keep the faith and learn from your mistakes. Try to strike a perfect balance between creativity and business.