How to become a Creative Genius

This is an article I have read which captured my attention from the very first lines:

When we measure the creativity of young children, virtually all of them will record as being ‘highly creative’. However, only a small percentage of adults register as being ‘highly creative’.
What happened?
Schools have crushed creativity. We were told to color within the lines. We were taught to follow instructions. The goal inschool is to get the “right” answer. Unfortunately, if you’re afraid to be wrong, you’ll never be creative or original.
The job of education is to produce employees who follow instructions. And to this endeavor, they are doing avery good job. However, in terms of creativity, they are falling terribly short.
This is one of the most unfortunate realities in our current education system.
To undo this, we must continually exercise our creative juices. In the following link you can find 6 tips for expanding your creativity:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-become-a-creative-genius.html

Tips for personal brainstorming

Everyone has problems and challenges that need solving; they're an inevitable part of living. What many people don't realize, however, is that most of them can be overcome using a simple, focused program of personal brainstorming. Here are some practical tips to help you increase the effectiveness of your personal problem-solving skills:
Step 1: State your problem clearly


Before you start, firmly plant in your mind the idea that your problem can and will be solved. Your job is to find that solution, using personal brainstorming.

State your problem clearly and concisely in one sentence at the top of a blank sheet of paper. Then write down everything you know about your current problem or challenge. Try to isolate and write down specific factors or trends that have contributed to it. Keep in mind that a problem, clearly defined, is already half solved.

By gathering all of the information that you know about your challenge and laying it out in front of you in tangible form, you enable your most powerful problem-solving tool -- your brain -- to see connections, interrelationships and implications in the information you've collected, which would not be obvious if you just kept all of this information in your head.

Think about people who have faced problems or challenges similar to the one you are facing. What strategies or solutions did they use? Then determine if any elements of their solutions can be adapted to your current situation

Step 2: Brainstorm solutions

As you review your problem statement and supporting information, write down any ideas that occur to you. Don't censor yourself at this point; there will be plenty of time to evaluate your ideas later. Write down every idea, no matter how far-fetched. Your goal at this stage of the personal ideation process is to generate a large quantity of ideas.

Ask yourself: How would a person who is an expert in this area solve this problem? You might want to try this exercise using famous people from history, creative thinkers such as Albert Einstein, or other leaders and innovators that you respect. Your goal for this exercise is to perform a bit of "slight of head" -- to whack your thinking into a different frame of reference to generate fresh ideas and insights
Divide your problem into its component pieces and write each of them down -- perhaps in a mind map or outline that shows the relationships between each element. Then, try brainstorming ideas for each one. This "slice and dice" technique often works well when you're faced with complex or multi-dimensional challenges.

Envision an ideal future goal or outcome. Then work backwards to the present, writing down the steps you would need to take now to move toward that objective.

If you find yourself running out of ideas too quickly, don't give up. Keep working at it until you have written down at least 20 possible ideas or solutions. Many times, the first 5 to 10 ideas you write down are top-of-mind solutions; often the best ideas take more concentrated and prolonged brainstorming to emerge.

Conclusion

Your subconscious mind likes closure. When faced with an incomplete picture, it works to complete the mental image by inferring the missing information. Your mind works the same way on an unsolved problem or challenge; it loves to dive right in and get the job done.

In closing, remember that you can solve your problems and capitalize on new opportunities using personal ideation. All you need is a pencil, a pad of paper and a quiet "thinking spot" to tap into your creative muse.

Chuck Frey is the founder of InnovationTools ( http://www.innovationtools.com ), a Web site that provides entrepreneurs and innovators with one of the best collections of resources on business innovation, creativity and brainstorming on the Web


Read more: www.creativityforlife.com

Find at About.com!

The Website which always stroke my attention is http://www.about.com/. Whenever I was ‘googling’ on a topic or a field of my interest, I was always able to find information on it. It is a site which has a clear-cut value proposition for its visitors: http://www.about.com/gi/pages/promise.htm

About.com is an “online neighborhood” having experts sharing their knowledge on a wide variety of topics with visitors. Indicatively, one may find information on:
“health care and parenting issues to advice on travel, cooking, technology, hobbies and more”. It “offers solutions in the form of over two million hand-crafted, original articles, recipes, product reviews, videos, tutorials and more”.“Founded in 1996, About.com was acquired in March 2005 by The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT). Today, About.com is recognized as a top 15 content site and one of the largest producers of original content on the Web”.


Have a look at the Components of their Business Model

TED/ Ideas worth spreading

"At the MIT Media Lab's new Fluid Interfaces Group, Pattie Maes researches the tools we use to work with information and connect with one another. You will see a demo of a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense, this device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data."

Have a look at the demo, as well as the full bios of both Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry at: http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

'The Secret to Creativity'

The secret to creative thinking is to start with good problems. Then you need to turn those problems into thought provoking challenges. After that, great ideas will almost invent themselves.
Almost every creative idea is a potential solution to a problem. Einstein's theory of relativity was about solving a discrepancy between electromagnetism and physics. Post-its were about finding a use for not very sticky glue. Picasso's cubist paintings were about solving the problem of representing three dimensional space on two dimensional canvases. And so on and so on.
Before you even think about generating ideas, you need to turn your problem into a challenge. Because if you start generating ideas to solve the wrong problem, you may have great ideas - but they will probably be lousy solutions.
Here is a very nice example:

A self-employed woman is window shopping and sees a beautiful dress. She thinks that it would be perfect for an upcoming reception where she hopes to impress prospective clients. Sadly, the dress costs €3000 and her bank account is nearly empty. She thinks to herself: "how could I earn €3000 in order to buy that dress?" She might come up with some great ideas.
But the truth is, her problem has nothing to do with the dress. Her problem is that she needs to develop new business. One way to do that is to acquire new clients. Wearing a stunning dress to a reception might be one method of solving that problem. But there are many more solutions - and a lot of them are probably more cost effective than a €3000 dress, particularly if she hasn't much money.
Instead, she should be asking herself: "How might I acquire new clients for my business?" or better still, "In what ways might I develop more business?"
The latter question or challenge might lead to ideas like offering existing clients new products or services; increasing her prices; asking for referrals and other activities that have very little to do with new dresses and a great deal to do with building her business.

Most people are like the woman in the story above, but creative people know better!!

Read more at: http://www.jpb.com/creative/secrets.php

How much energy does your house use?Ask Google

How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your fridge or your dishwasher? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood? Studies show that access to your household's personal energy information is likely to save you between 5–15% on your monthly bill, and the potential impact of large numbers of people achieving similar efficiencies is even more exciting.
Google promises to solve these issues with their new beta project dedicated to home energy monitoring. They are working on a tool called Google PowerMeter which will show consumers their electricity consumption in near real-time in a secure iGoogle Gadget. Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to their home electricity consumption right on their iGoogle homepage. The graph below shows how someone could use this information to figure out how much energy is used by different household activites.

Source: http://www.google.org/powermeter/smarterpower.html

From Business Failure to Business Opportunity

This is a great story, showing how one can turn business failure into business lesson!

The story of George and Mary Ann Clark!They have a great product – carbonated milk – but have struggled mightily in making a thriving company out of it. Fully 10 years after they opened for business, the Clarks finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The Clarks invented a fantasy beverage for kids and parents: real milk that is carbonated like a soft drink! And now their e-Moo and RPM (Refreshing Power Milk) product lines – in fun flavors like Bubble Gum and Orange Sparkle – have made their way into 31 school districts, serving tens of thousands of students, around the United States.
But their company, Mac Farms Inc., could be so much more than it is. Only now do the Clarks believe that they’re solidly on a path to long-term success. “It would have been easy to give up, but this wasn’t just a blind labor of love,” says George, who is 72 years old. “There was clearly a market need out there and also a market opportunity, and we were given a unique chance to solve the problem.”

The appeal of a genuine dairy beverage with soft-drink bubbles would seem to be a no-brainer. But it still took about a half-million dollars to get off the ground. The Clarks were willing to invest much of their life savings, but they needed more capital. So George made a move that can be successful for startups: seeking business financing from a potential supplier. The dairy-farmer members of St. Albans Cooperative Creamery in Vermont – the same savvy organization that once bankrolled another startup called Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – ponied up because they saw the potential for e-Moo to increase fluid-milk sales.

George sees now that he and Mary Ann made a crucial mistake right out of the gate: they failed to line up enough outside capital for the company, which forced them to rent an existing production facility in Cooperstown, NY. The results were potentially devastating on two fronts. First, the market readily bought in to the Clark’s concept, but they proved unable to satisfy the demand. And second, during the early stages, when the innovative nature of e-Moo was starting to attract news-media attention from all over the country, the Clarks couldn’t take full advantage of the public relations spotlight due to that inability to keep up with orders.

Keep reading on how they managed to turn this failure into success: http://www.startupnation.com/articles/1236/1/business-failure-opportunity.asp