Creative People Don't Do These 4 Things
By: Andy Taylor
Tags: Creativity, Creative, Entrepreneurship, Work, Self

Everyone likes to think they’re an ideas person, but few actually are.

Until you stop doing these four things, you can’t call yourself creative and expect anyone to take you seriously. Avoid these behaviors, and what remains is a future full of brilliant ideas:

1.) Creative People Don’t Worry About The Competition

Coming up with something entirely new is virtually impossible. Someone, somewhere, will already have thought of something similar before.

This annoys some people who think they’re creative. They get obsessed with what their competitors are doing and try to do the opposite.

They’re just falling into a trap which true creatives sidestep gracefully.

The best idea is the one that solves the exact problem in front of you, right now.

If it has attributes in common with someone else’s solution to a different problem in the past, so what?

Don’t break copyright — those rules are there for a reason — but don’t get dragged away from a good idea just because someone else has done something similar once upon a time.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

Come up with the best idea you can in your problem landscape. Execute to the best of your ability. Do it your way. Do it better.

Let the competition worry about itself.

2.) Creative People Are Not Afraid To Let Ideas Go

Come up with ideas long enough, and you realize that ideas are cheap.

People who think they are creative get so wedded to their favorites that they miss opportunities to come up with something even better.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

In the creative industries, you meet so many people hung up on an idea they won’t let go. They think the world misunderstands their genius.

Just consider for a moment what a ridiculous attitude this is.

You’re right, and the whole world is wrong? Now and forever? Really?

Come on. Be reasonable.

Truly creative people understand that coming up with ideas is a process — nothing more, nothing less.

Research and practice high-quality creative techniques, and you can generate hundreds of great ideas every day.

Just like any other process, creativity can be learned, practiced, and improved.

Don’t fall for the creative genius myth.

If you look at one Picasso painting and think — he’s just a genius — you’re ignoring his years of graft delivering creations which were less-than-genius before it.

Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash

3.) Creative People Don’t Get Annoyed By Criticism

I understand it is frustrating when your pet project gets shot down at the final hurdle.

But, guess what? Whoever shot it down just did you a favor. That idea doesn’t work. Great, one more ruled out.

It is now more likely your next version will succeed.

People think it’s sexy or cool to be creative. And those who see themselves as creative (but aren’t) get very defensive when someone questions their genius.

True creatives shrug, smile, take the lessons, then go away and come up with a whole load of even better ideas.

4.) Creative People Don’t Worry About Their Creativity Being Restricted

Fake creatives hate feeling restricted. Try to put any realistic conditions on their ideas (such as cost, time frame, or practicality), and they throw their hands up in frustration.

True creatives relish restriction because it only makes them better.

A mountaineer searches out the most challenging peaks and ascents. In the same way, great creatives search out problem landscapes full of boundaries, where the need for innovation is the most pressing.

Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

Let’s say I ask you to come up with an idea for a TV advert for a car (one area of advertising which sorely needs more true creativity).

You can do anything — no restrictions.

You might suggest cars on mountains, sweeping helicopter shots, and rock music.

Boring. We’ve seen it before.

What if the restrictions are — under £500 budget, we can’t get a big film crew due to the pandemic, and there’s no budget for music. Now, what do you do?

You get creative.

How about a battle of the voiceover artists delivering the car maker’s slogan? And the winner is the person you least expect (or the Producer giving the instructions to the actors).

How about making the ad itself about the world’s trickiest brainstorm? Everyone is trying to work out how to do an advert for a car without all the usual tropes (and coming up with more and more ridiculous suggestions).

How about you get the engineers who made the car in a kitchen? Get them to make a cake instead of a car. The end line could be: “We’re much better at making cars than cakes.”

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

These are all more original ideas than what currently passes as a car TV ad.

I came up with them in less than a minute. These ideas were easy to generate because of the restrictions in place.

If you get annoyed — instead of fired up — by restrictions placed on you, then you’re not a true creative.