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How to be creative in the world of entrepreneurship?

Creativity It is a word that is commonly associated with the world of artists or childhood, but we rarely land on the serious reflection of how much the human being needs it in all stages of his life. Of course, creativity is not the exception for the entrepreneur, whose first step to exist as such, is to create a new idea, that will drive him to undertake.

That idea that may appear as an epiphany will require all your creativity as an entrepreneur to be able to materialize, especially if you are one of those who bet on innovating in the market.

Creativity is always based on an abstract and non-concrete idea that can be inspired by things, objects or situations that already exist. Thus, creativity involves working with what we already have at our disposal but transforming it (to a greater or lesser extent) to create something completely new with it. Creativity is, at the same time, an abstract projection of something that can be built, which is why it always involves an exercise of looking towards the future through that element that is created.

For Steve Jobs“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. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

But how do we get to that point? Is creativity something we are born with or something that must be forged? The perspectives of specialists are interesting. For example, for the Spanish science popularizer Eduardo Punset, it is something inherent to humanity: “We all have a talent, we all have the ability to be creative; and most of us live without knowing it, often convinced that the creative person is someone who knows how to compose melodies or write poetry.”

For the British writer and expert on the subject, Ken Robinson, “creativity is learned in the same way as learning to read.” As you can see, it is something that can certainly be worked on.

This is a process that must be worked on in order to start seeing results. The goal will be for creativity to eventually lead you to innovation, which is the materialization of the previous process.

For the expert in innovation issues, Jeff DeGraff, there are five types of innovation:

The mimicry. Which is the most rudimentary form of creativity. It is the basis of the learning process.

Bisociative. A term coined by novelist Arthur Koestler. It refers to how our conscious rational mind can connect rational thoughts with intuitive ones to produce so-called breakthrough moments. EurekaBisociative creativity occurs when a familiar idea is connected with an unfamiliar idea to produce an innovative hybrid.

The analogue. It means that we can take something we think we know and use analogy to make it unfamiliar. Artists call this 'defamiliarization'. For example, Albert Camus often told his stories from the point of view of a fly. Consider what your strategy-making process would be like if it were done from the point of view of your children instead of your shareholders or customers.

The narrative. It is about as the story is told. Stories can easily be deconstructed and reconstructed to make different versions or new concoctions.

The intuitive oneIntuition is as much about receiving ideas as generating them and is more about a level of freeing the mind. It is an effort beyond the organic, which definitely requires some training. For example, meditation is recommended in this case.

And again, how to get to this point? Some tips:

Get out of your comfort zone. Always try hard in everything you do. If you feel you have outgrown one way of doing something, find new ways that force you to exercise all your abilities. Read, listen, experience new things.

Be confident. In the world, humans generate millions of ideas all the time, some great, others not so much. But sometimes the great ones are not developed due to a lack of confidence. That is why it is important to prepare yourself and learn to see a problem from different angles.

Valuation of ideas. This is the time when you start to put your idea into practice. It would be good to list, classify and select those ideas that you have been creating during the different steps of putting your idea into practice. Try to understand how important they are and establish a hierarchy between them.

And being patient is a key step. Being creative is not the same as generating good ideas all the time, and it is not usually a spark that comes out of nowhere. Being creative is more about a process that depends a lot on observation, reflection and listening to yourself.