Seelig - Creativity rules: get ideas out of your head and into the world

For Michael, my superhero

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a letter that I had written to myself on the eve of my twentieth birthday. Reading the words scribbled on a lined notepad flung me back in time to an era when I was filled with big dreams, and even bigger doubts about how to achieve them. The letter poignantly describes how challenging it is to harness your potential and bring your dreams to life. It was also a stunning confirmation that the book I had just released, What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, which presented a crash course on making your place in the world, was what I wish I had known when I was twenty. Below is an excerpt from that letter:

I am going to be twenty this next month, and Im supposed to be a real person by now: an adult, responsible, having a purpose. I feel so far from that now. I want to be interesting, and I dont find myself interesting. I want to be intelligent, and Im not. I want to be the type of person I would like to meet, and it seems so fruitless.... Perhaps the goals I have for myself are ridiculously high and I should stop before I start.

Reading this letter was a reminder of how far I had comefrom a twenty-year-old filled with both excitement and anticipation about where to begin my journey into adulthood, to an adult who has managed to navigate a circuitous path to a gratifying profession. Like countless others, when I was in my twenties I was filled with a palpable drive to do something that was meaningful, but lacked an understanding of how to tap into my wellspring of energy to find a path toward that goal. Thirty years later, I believe there are three crucial elements needed to build a bridge to the future you want to create:

The first is an entrepreneurial mind-set that allows you to see the world as opportunity-rich. It is up to you to make your own luck, to see that most rules are recommendations, and to give yourself permission to challenge assumptions. Those lessons are captured in What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20. As I wrote in that book:

Boundless possibilities result from extracting yourself from your comfort zone, being willing to fail, having a healthy disregard for the impossible, and seizing every opportunity to be fabulous. Yes, these actions inject chaos into your life and keep you off-balance. But they also take you places you couldnt even have imagined and provide a lens through which to see problems as opportunities. Above all, they give you growing confidence that problems can be solved.

The second is a specific set of tools for solving problems and taking advantage of opportunities that you inevitably encounter along the way. Those are described in my next book, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, which illustrates how to harness factors both inside yourself and in the outside environment to unlock the pathway to invention:

Creativity can be enhanced by honing your ability to observe and learn, by connecting and combining ideas, by reframing problems, and by moving beyond the first right answers. You can boost your creative output by building habitats that foster problem solving, crafting environments that support the generation of new ideas, building teams that are optimized for innovation, and contributing to a culture that encourages experimentation.

And third is a clear road map for moving from inspiration to implementation. Thats the book you are holding now. Im fortunate to have the opportunity to teach these skills to students at Stanford University. As a professor of the practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering and director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)the entrepreneurship center at Stanford School of Engineeringmy role is to help young people identify and seize opportunities. Our goal at STVP is to foster the skills that will enable them to build their career, contribute to the organizations they join, and lead a fulfilling life. We do this in formal courses, extracurricular programs, and with workshops for students and faculty from all over the world. The essence of STVPs philosophy is captured in a slogan painted on our wall:

As this message communicates, entrepreneurship isnt just about starting companies. Its about starting anything! Entrepreneurship involves building the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to see problems as opportunities and to leverage resources to bring ideas to fruition. This is just as relevant to those who are starting a rock band or planning a trip around the world as it is to those who are launching a company. This book presents a framework for bringing your ideas to lifewhatever those ideas may be.

As with my other books, I invite you into my classroom at Stanford. The words in this book are designed to stimulate your thinking and your actions. I introduce general concepts and then offer stories to illustrate them. I also share my personal experiences, those of my students, and research related to the concepts discussed. Many of the examples come from innovators and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley; these are complemented by cases from around the globe.

At the conclusion of each chapter, I suggest projects you can do to reinforce the concepts. These projects are an important part of the experience: they provide stepping-stones for moving from ideas to actions. Some require a few minutes of personal reflection, and others require putting down the book and taking on a specific task. I strongly believe that all learning is experiential. If you arent actively engaged in the material, it wont stick.

I welcome feedback on how you used the book and the projects it has inspired. You can reach me at tseelig@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @tseelig.

Creativity rules!

Tina

H ow would you feel if you were judged by the worst thing you had ever done?

This is a question that one of the men at San Quentin State Prison asked my students when we visited last year. This visit was part of our course on creative problem solving, and the students challenge was to redesign the experience of going from captivity to freedom.

When I announced this project, the young people in the class were deeply curious and just as anxious about the field trip. None had been inside a prison before, and they were fearful that they would be in danger.

Despite their concerns, the students prepared themselves for the visit. Donning black clothing to make sure they were easily distinguishable from the men in blue, and carrying nothing but their drivers license, car keys, and a clear water bottle, the students and I arrived at the prison. It took over an hour to make it through several security checks as large gates banged shut behind us. The entry process was slowed further because the men were being counted when we arrived. Counting the inmates takes place several times a day, and if even one man is unaccounted for, they start again.

We walked through a courtyard, described by the inmates as the pathway between heaven and hell. On one side was the chapel, and on the other was the building that housed the men in solitary confinement. We then crossed the large paved enclosure where the men went for fresh air and exercise; it was surrounded by high walls with armed guards in towers. Finally, we reached the room where we met the men in The Last Mile program.

Founded by successful entrepreneurs Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, The Last Mile is designed to teach prison inmates business and technology skills that prepare them for life after incarceration. Along with other volunteers who provide expertise in a wide variety of fields, they meet with a group of forty prisoners twice a week for six months, teaching them about entrepreneurship and helping them develop competence in written communication, public speaking, and computer proficiency.