Let Creativity Empower You

On The Path Of Winners

Let Creativity Empower You

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

 

EVERY advance in human life begins with an idea in the mind of a single person. Thus, more than anything else, it is ideas you generate that will enable you solve your problems. Ideas are the keys to the future. You cannot achieve anything of value except to the degree to which you think creatively, doing something new and different from what has been done before. All it takes is a small innovation to lay the foundation for a fortune and launch you into great success.

  The first corollary to this principle of creativity is that your ability to generate ideas is unlimited. Ideas are the vehicle you can use to take yourself from where you are, to where you want to go. Your duty is to generate as many ideas as possible, evaluate them against your current goals and then take action on them. The greater the number of ideas you can develop, the greater the quality of the ideas you have available to you.

  There is no obstacle that you cannot overcome in life with the power of thought, with the power of concentration and with the power of ideas. The second corollary to this law comes from Napoleon Hill who said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.” Your mind is designed in such a way that it cannot create an idea that it cannot bring into reality. The very existence of an idea in your consciousness means that you have within you the capacity to turn it into reality. The only hindrance is how badly you want it.

  The third corollary to this matter comes from Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “Imagination rules the world.” Every gadget around you was originally an idea in the mind of one person. This entire-man-made world is the result of thought brought into reality. Another accessory to this rule comes from Albert Einstein, who said: “Imagination is more important than facts.” This assertion confirms occasion in your past where the facts say one thing but your creativity enabled you to overcome the odds and you achieve the impossible.

  An insight at a critical moment can be a turning point in your life. All great changes in life begin with an idea that enables you to see things differently and take action that you would not have taken otherwise. There is virtually no limit to what you can accomplish except for the limits you place on your own imagination.

  To apply this law, you must practice mindstorming. This is a method of generating ideas in order to achieve a goal. Here is how it works: select any goal or problem. Write it as a question on a sheet of paper. Then write 20 answers beside it. Choose one of your answers and take action immediately. Your taking action keeps ideas flowing to you all day long. The more you practice this method, the more and better ideas you generate daily. This will activate your brain cells and increase both your creativity and intelligence.

  Do this exercise everyday and you will be amazed at the quality and quantity of ideas that spring from your imagination. Moreover, by being flexible in your life goals, you attain success. Indeed, success is best achieved when you are clear about your goal and are flexible on the process of your getting there. The  most creative and optimistic people are open, flexible and fluid in the face of the inevitable changes they are required to make as they move toward their goals.

  Contingent upon being flexible is the continued experience of resistance and frustration, often an indication that you are doing the wrong thing. Whenever you feel you are trying hard and getting too few results, you must stand back and re-examine your plan. Be sure the goal you are working for is still the goal you presently desire. You should consider changing either your goal or your strategy. Be more concerned with what is right than who is right.

  Develop the mindset of a computer programmer who knows that his first design of a programme would be full of bugs. Which is why he has to rework it, seeking perfection. But no computer programme ever works perfectly the first time it is run. So you have to rework it line by line to remove the defects. By the same token, whenever your plans do not bear fruit, stop and re-evaluate the situation. You could be wrong in your present course of action.

  Revise your plans until they are faultless and are able to move forward smoothly without frustration.

  Attendant to flexibility is that you are as happy and free as the number of options you have available to you. Your freedom and happiness are determined by the number of alternatives that you have developed in case your first exercise of developing alternatives enables you to think more clearly. However, sequel to this is that crisis is change trying to take place. Whenever you experience crisis or roadblock, stand back for a moment and ask yourself, what change is trying to take place here? What is the message this crisis is bringing forth? In any situation a crisis is an indication that something is definitely wrong; and needs rectifying.

  Thus, a justification for being flexible is that an errant assumption lie at the root of every failure. So be flexible to avoid impending failure. Every failure comes from an incorrect assumption that you made and accepted without question. Therefore at every point of decision-making in the fulfillment of your goals – you must clarify the question your assumptions, particularly when things are not going as expected. Your willingness to question your assumptions and accept error is the most important quality that will ultimately lead you to great achievement. Flexibility is the most important quality you can develop to succeed in business.

  Our champion this week is Thomas John Sargent, the American economist specializing in macro-economics, monetary economies and econometrics. He is currently a professor of economics in New York University, USA.

  As at 2011, he ranked 4^th among the greatest economists in the world. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics in 2011, together with Christopher Sims for their empirical research on cause and effect in macroeconomy.

  Born in July 1943, Sargent earned his B.A from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, being the most distinguished scholar in his class. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1968. He held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania (1970-71), University of Minnesota (1971-87), University of Chicago (1991-98); Stanford University (1998-2002) and now Professor of Economics at New York University. He has been a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford since 1987 and a member of the board of the Penn Institute for Economic Research at Pennsylvania. At the moment, Sargent is teaching as a fellow at Seoul National University in South Korea.

  Sergeant is one of the leaders of the rational expectations revolution, which argues that economists can and do predict the future with their scientific model. Rational Expectations was introduced into economics by John Muth, then Robert Lucas and Edward Prescott took it much further. Moreover, Peter Hansen and Sargent adapted and extended robust control theory to achieve overwhelming results. I have concentrated on highlighting economists because they have solved Nigeria’s economic problems, we are poor, only because we are too docile and lazy to apply economic solutions.