How do you inspire creativity?

[Trevor Chaumont]

For the last year or so, I've been working, saving, and reading every chance I've gotten. Making what I thought were the right moves, I've bought and sold small things, sticking the profit directly into my savings account. I've been engaging my city a bit more and looking for ways to improve a few aspects, yet nothing ever comes to mind. With the new year closing in, I look back on the last year and see that while I thought I was hard at work, I really got nothing done. I'm not asking "What did you do to get rich" and I apologize if that's how it comes off. I would just like to know what process you use to get the creative juices flowing, or what processes did you use before you got started that helped your mind look at things differently.

 

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[Gareth]

Stop trying to come up with something and start looking for solutions to problems.

This sort of stuff is covered in the book.

The SAAS idea I working on is not a new one. But it solves a problem I had with my businesses. And the other apps that ere out their have some serious shortcomings that Im fixing.

Even if the SAAS isnt a raging success, it will be fantastic for my business and personally I'm excited to implement it.

Again,

Look for problems to solve. Problems that affect a lot of people.

 

[Marlena]

When I want to get my creative juices flowing or I want to get a new perspective on things, I am looking for new experiences.

I am not sure if this is what you need, but maybe that video will help:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOaOZWq297Y

 

[Coalission]

Scratching your own itch is a popular way, but you have to be doing something where there's an itch to scratch, or where other people have an itch.

There's this company started by a guy who used to be just a straight affiliate, he ended up coding his own tracking platform to analyze campaigns because he couldn't find any solution out there in the market, and now the company's probably worth 9 figures.

Worse comes to worst, you solved your own problem.

 

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[Michael Burgess]

Travelling really did it for me... seeing new places, people, and things help you to look at the world in a different light.
Going international can show you what's really happening in the bigger picture, and help you to understand where you fit in all of it.

 

[OldFaithful]

Creativity can be hard to inspire, or "force". Creatives in my industry tend to intentionally shift focus to something completely different for a period of time. This allows the mind to process the issue/question and then you can come back to it with renewed perspective.

@Michael Burgess gave you some really great advice. There's nothing quite like getting out of your little community and seeing a part of the larger world. My suggestion is to take some time to look at the world differently and get out of your current rut. Then you may discover "needs" that you didn't know existed.

Best Wishes

 

[G-Man]

Personally, I threw all my shit in the trunk of my car and drove somewhere new. Sometimes a change of scenery is what's necessary.

 

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[liljmoneyswag]

Weed, lsd, shrooms

 

[LTH]

To me, creativity is not something you can force. It's something that you ALLOW to happen.

For example, I am a musician, and I write songs. In order for a song idea to become a finished song, I have to stop analysing and changing it and accept it as is. It will never be finished until I say so, it will never be perfect, but it is what it is.

Business ideas are like song ideas, you probably have already have plenty, you just need to stop trying to perfect them and let them be. Let the listener (the market) decide it's value.

To get BETTER ideas you probably just need to keep doing what you're doing; keep consuming information, keep hustling, keep working on your craft and the good ideas will come to you.

 

[Beijing]

Stop trying to come up with something and start looking for solutions to problems.

I'm not sure what the difference is between these two mental activities. In my mind, looking for solutions to problems is the same thing as "trying to come up with something."

There's this company started by a guy who used to be just a straight affiliate, he ended up coding his own tracking platform to analyze campaigns because he couldn't find any solution out there in the market, and now the company's probably worth 9 figures.

Worse comes to worst, you solved your own problem.

Most million dollar ideas seem to come to people who work in a particular industry long enough to understand the needs of that particular industry. The people who capitalize on those ideas are the people who have the skills to see it through.

This may go against the sidewalk/fastlane analogy, but a period of time on the sidewalk seems to do wonders for people who have creative and inventive capabilities, because it provides them with industry specific knowledge that they can then capitalize on.

Otherwise people end up pursuing producing consumer goods (or worse, private labelling consumer goods that already exist and are freely available), which is an incredibly competitive marketplace to say the least. I know one guy who is trying to private label wrist watches, which is an idea that one or two people have made millions on. The part of the story that you usually don't hear is that the individuals who did succeed in a big way may have had skills and knowledge that you and I do not. Simply private labeling a product that is already very available isn't really adding value. It's simply competing for one of the (increasingly smaller) pieces of a pie that came fresh out of the oven a long time ago.

Given the option of either, I'd rather be selling a product that helps businesses sell money, than trying to convince consumers to part with money to buy something that allegedly will increase their happiness.

Travelling really did it for me... seeing new places, people, and things help you to look at the world in a different light.
Going international can show you what's really happening in the bigger picture, and help you to understand where you fit in all of it.

True for some people. All else being equal, if you don't have an ideas to work on right now, you could do worse than to see and do some new things, learn a new language or meet and communicate with people that you would otherwise never meet.

This still isn't a substitute for developing the type of industry specific knowledge that is likely to lead to a winning new idea, but it could lead you down that path.

Creativity can be hard to inspire, or "force". Creatives in my industry tend to intentionally shift focus to something completely different for a period of time. This allows the mind to process the issue/question and then you can come back to it with renewed perspective.

Good advice. The trick to being a creative person is to learn how to get yourself into the right mental head space where the ideas start to come. Working all the time, being stressed out constantly are not good ways to do this.

To me, creativity is not something you can force. It's something that you ALLOW to happen.

For example, I am a musician, and I write songs. In order for a song idea to become a finished song, I have to stop analysing and changing it and accept it as is. It will never be finished until I say so, it will never be perfect, but it is what it is.

Business ideas are like song ideas, you probably have already have plenty, you just need to stop trying to perfect them and let them be. Let the listener (the market) decide it's value.

To get BETTER ideas you probably just need to keep doing what you're doing; keep consuming information, keep hustling, keep working on your craft and the good ideas will come to you.

This is true. The best skill a creative person can learn is how to quickly (and efficiently) test the viability of ideas. This always them to rapidly settle on one that might actually work.

This has been very true for myself. My industry is education and I've invented several products that greatly improve learning. However, I'm focusing on the one idea right now that is easiest for my potential customers to understand. I have other inventions that I'm prouder or and are more innovative, but I've placed them on the back burner until I have a trusted and established brand (not to mention, customers who have already tried one product, liked it and are now receptive to new ideas even if they seem crazy at first).

Fortunately for me, since I work in the industry, have access to schools where I can try out new ideas and collect feedback, so it's very easy to quality determine what idea has the most viability.

The bigger challenge, however, is being the person who has no ideas. This is tough. My suggestions would be to use your time to learn skills until you have an idea that you are ready to capitalize on. The ideal skills to learn would in most cases be:

• sales
• graphic design (you'd be surprised how quickly those one comes in handy)
• website design (at least an understanding should be gained, even if you outsource future work to a pro)
• copywriting
• using a website and Google adwords to test a concept with potential consumers

This is better advice, of course, for an 18 year old than someone who has limited time left to make it big, but no matter your age, if you have no idea to work on right now, then use that time to work on developing the skills that will come in handy when you do have idea.

Best of all, the most valuable thing you can learn, is how to remain disciplined and get hours of work down when an idea does come along. That is the biggest challenge for me (and what I have been teaching myself over the last 9 months). The ability to simply get some work done every week and moving steadily towards having a finished progress (rather than wasting my time waiting for the perfect moment to get some work down and letting the weeks slip by without making any progress at all).

 

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