Posts Tagged ‘new ideas’

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

For me, 1999 was a difficult year. For the first time in my life, I struggled with an English class. This had never happened before. English classes (book analysis, essays, poems, etc) had always come very easy to me. So, my freshman year of High School I decided to take Advanced English and push myself a bit. Push myself, I did. I was finally reading books that were at and above my level. I was expected to analyze them past the surface level, and it was fantastic. I loved the pressures that were put on me, the fact that if I wanted to do well I would have to go above and beyond what was expected. While this was one of the most difficult classes I ever took (okay, calculus was up there too), after my first year of it, I was even further in love with writing and reading than I already was. To this day, I know that the Advanced English classes I took were the beginning of my career in blogging. Once you get the writing bug…it’s impossible to get rid of.

In the media world, 1999 was a scary thought. Who could forget the hype they created over the end of the millennium? The world was going to end. Poof, money gone, banks destroyed, computers crashing, life as we know it would be no more. People stocked up on water, food and pulled their money into safer places. So what really happened? Well, a lot of people got drunk, the world didn’t end and January 1, 2000 was just another day.

I am very creative on my own. Give me my computer (with Internet access of course!), good music, no interruptions, fresh coffee and something to snack on and I’m set for the day. The problem is, interruptions are inevitable, coffee runs out and sometimes good music can’t be found. Or I’m just human and far from perfect.

Einstein couldn’t change quantum theory on his own. He needed collaboration. He needed Bohr.

We all need someone that can look at our ideas and add to them, tear them down, build them back up, stronger, more efficient and definitely better.

But it’s scary, right? You have created something brilliant, it sounds flawless…perfect. And then you tell someone about it and they start asking questions. What if this happens? What if that goes wrong? What if your calculations are off? And all you want to do is beg them to stop…because you don’t have the answers. Your idea isn’t perfect, and thank goodness it isn’t! Having an imperfect idea is the start to something great, because at least you have an idea.

You have somewhere to start, something to build from.

I would be a little worried if every idea you came up with (and I’m talking about the generic ‘you’ here) was brilliant. In fact, I might not want to know ‘you’.  I want people I interact with to be imperfect, to make errors and come up with ideas that need work. Because perfect people really scare me. Perfect people are no fun to talk to, not good to work with and definitely no fun at parties. Perfect people irritate me. I’ll take ‘you’ imperfect, with lots of crazy wild ideas that through collaboration, can become brilliant life changing ideas.

What are your thoughts on collaboration? Do you like collaborating or does it bring out the fear of “someone won’t like my idea” in you?

Einstein liked inventing phrases such as “God does not play dice,” “The Lord is subtle but not malicious.” On one occasion Bohr answered, “Einstein, stop telling God what to do.”

(I know the quote doesn’t quite connect..but I liked it!)