I once gave a brief presentation on my commercial business. That was back when I was doing commercial photography and graphic design. This presentation was for a large group of business people.
Back then, while I was selling photography and design, I was also, like these days, selling creativity. Only then I was selling the creative idea.
I opened the presentation by asking how many of them felt they weren't creative. I was shocked at the number of hands that shot up.
These were business people, successful business people within the community. Many of them started their business on a dime and worked their way up to a high standing in the community due to their products and service to the community. And the majority of them didn't believe they were creative.
That tells me that somewhere along the line creativity became linked solely with the arts. You know, the capital A arts.
While creativity has everything to do with the arts, it also has nothing to do with arts. Creativity is a thought process. A doing process. It's a point of view. Sadly the view got skewed.
Being tied to the arts since I was quite young, sometimes it's hard for me to associate creativity outside of the arts. Then I start looking at the things that cause me problems.
While I think I'm fairly equal on the left/right brain thing, there are areas where I'm a creative failure while others who don't believe themselves creative strive creatively.
I've tried business plans (something I can say probably about 98% of the people with their hands raised created) and they never seem to work for me.
Problems arise when at the marketing aspect of the plan. It's not that I don't know how to market, I know how to play the game, but for me projecting into a reality that I can't see usually lands me flat on my face.
Vision statements present the same problem. I once engaged in a discussion with a business coach on the aspect of the vision statement and while I understood what he was saying, creating that statement based on events that may or may not happen just didn't cut it. I'm a fiction writer.
I create worlds and characters and plot twists based on an offset reality. Therefore, I can do the same with a vision statement and know it could never be true. Creatively I could write an awesome vision statement.
Creatively, I could not live it because it's not in the here and now. It's not that I don't have vision. My reality is just too close to home.
Now, let's turn the business plan and the vision statement around for the so called non-creative. It takes a great deal of creativity to produce both of these business pieces and works the same way as a capital A creative works with their art.
It takes projection and belief. It's not something you sit down and whip out in a matter of five minutes. There's a process involved. There's planning.
There are drafts and drafts until it matches the mission of the business. Long hours. Moments of frustration and elation. Venturing outside of the comfort zone.
Moments of self doubt. Thinking outside of the proverbial box. It's a creative project with a capital B. And this doesn't happen just in the business world or the art world. Creativity is life with a capital L.
Think about those moments when you were challenged. How did you resolve the challenge? What about the happy times in your life.
How did you get to that state of being? Think about the love you share with someone. Is that just magically there or do you creatively keep working at the relationship? And you thought you weren't creative.
Creativity doesn't begin with a capital A, it begins with a capital C. Every aspect of life has a creative core. Every aspect of life is a creative project. And you can label that creative core with any capital letter you choose.
Peace on your journey - Kerri
Kerri Williams is a fine art photographer and a writer on a lifelong creative journey.
You can learn more about her work and view her photography at http://kerriwilliams.net.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kerri_Williams
No comments:
Post a Comment