Page 60 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

Your Career Highlights Film 51

superhuman limits when they need to. Their highlights films show
them going beyond the routine. As does your highlights film—that is,
your resume.
By definition, accomplishment is problem solving. And it’s very
nearly impossible to be creative without problems.
Even the fine artist has a problem. It’s called the blank canvas.
Or the slab of marble. Or the blank page. Or maybe paying the rent
is the problem. Even the successful rock star has problems. Maybe
it’s the last CD. “Can I top it?” “Can I grow creatively?” “Can I pay
for that new house with the Olympic-size swimming pool shaped
like a guitar?”

7

A QUICK DEMONSTRATION OF
CREATIVITY = PROBLEM SOLVING

Let me demonstrate how fundamental problem solving is to creativity.
Actually, you’re going to have to help me demonstrate it. Here’s what
I’d like you to do.
Ready? Be creative.
That’s it. Be creative.
Go ahead. Put the book down if you must. Now be creative.
Come on. What are you waiting for? Be creative, for pity’s sake.
Have you done it yet?
Are you ready to give up?
When I do this with people at my seminars, one of two things hap-
pens. The thing that happens about 99 percent of the time is nothing.
I’ll pick on someone in the front row. I’ll say, “Please be creative for
us.” And that poor, pathetic soul just sits there wishing he or she had
never sat in the front, wondering what you’re supposed to do when
asked to “be creative.”
See? You’re not alone in having a hard time figuring out how to be
creative out of the blue. Without a problem, that is. These on-the-spot
victims look around for answers, with looks that say, “What am I sup-
posed to do?” “I’ll give it a shot.” “I’ll try to be creative for you.” “But
just exactly what am I supposed to do?”
Think about it. How can you possibly be creative without a con-
text? And for all intents and purposes that context is a problem.
The other 1 percent of the time when I ask that person in the front
row to “please be creative for us,” I get the same look of shock, the hes-
itation, and the self-consciousness. But some people can only handle