CREATIVITY/ RESOURCEFULNESS/ INGENUITY:

“The law of creativity

Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Every advance in your life begins with an idea of some kind, and since your ability to generate new ideas is unlimited, your future can be unlimited as well.”

Moments of expansion of mind have led to the greatest ideas/discoveries of man throughout the ages. Expansion of mind is that state when one begins to perceive a different dimension in relation to one’s existence, which until that time remains concealed. Though all see apples falling off trees, yet it took a Newton to realize the law of gravity. It is a split second when the consciousness takes an evolutionary leap from the instinctive to the intelligent and intuitive plane. Expansion of mind can occur naturally in any one and at any time. But by practice, this state can be achieved.

Ø The contribution: There was a wise king who had 3 sons. He wanted the wisest and the ablest to be the king. So he decided to test his 3 sons. He told each one of them to fill the old palace with something and gave them one gold coin each.

The first son thought that his father had gone mad. How could he fill the whole palace with something with such a small amount? So he squandered the money on booze.

The second son thought that garbage was the cheapest thing available for the given amount, so he filled the palace with the garbage.

The third son pondered over and applied lateral/divergent/out of box thinking to do something special. He bought and lighted candles & incense sticks and filled the whole palace with light and f
ragrance.

2. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. An old friend who once saved your life. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?

Hint: You can make everyone happy.

Your car can only contain one passenger, so whom should it be?

Answer: The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus

3. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man?

Hint: The police only know two things, that the criminal's name is John and that he is in a particular house.

Answer: The fireman is the only man in the room. The rest of the poker players are women.

4. A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it's raining. What is the explanation for this?

Hint: He is very proud, so refuses to ever ask for help.

Answer: The man is a dwarf. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.

5. How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground and live?

Hint: It does not matter what the baby lands on, and it has nothing to do with luck.

Answer: The baby fell out of a ground floor window.

6. A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the child is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this possibly be?

Hint: This has nothing to do with adoption or time travel.

Answer: The surgeon can not operate on her own son; she is his mother.

7. There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

Hint: A alternate version of the problem is... Saradhi, Nick & Ted win a raffle contest. The prize is three hard boiled eggs in a basket. After discussing how to divide the prize, each take one egg. Nick & Ted get hungry and so eat their eggs. One of the original eggs is still left in original basket.

Answer: The last person took the basket with the last egg still inside.

Think up ideas. Ideas control the world. Every idea is the beginning of a reality. Your own ideas will determine your success. The person who produces a constant flow of ideas for improvement is indispensable. He/ she will never be replaced by automation or computers.

“The law of innovation

Business breakthroughs come from finding faster, cheaper, easier ways to perform a task.”

Generate ideas –

to improve products/ methods/ yourself;

to reduce costs;

to increase sales/productivity/ profits etc.

Combine, refine, modify, and clarify your ideas so that they will be more useful.

Ø An Indian farmer died leaving behind 17 cows for his three sons. The will advised the eldest to take one-half, the middle one to take one-third and the youngest to take one-ninth. Since there were 17 cows, they were having problems in dividing.

One day an old uncle heard about this dispute. He decided to come with his cow and do what was needed. Their uncle added his cow to the 17, making it 18. The eldest landed up getting one-half or nine cows; the second one –third or six cows and the youngest one-ninth or two cows. Having given away 9+6+2=17 cows, he walked away with his cow. He had done what was necessary.

GEMS:

ü Creativity is the adaptation of known ideas or the creation of new ideas.

ü Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know....Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.

ü The way you activate the seeds of your creation is by making choices about results you want to create. When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped. All too often people fail to focus their choices upon results and therefore their choices are ineffective. If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

ü Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

ü Curiosity leads to success.

ü I keep six honest serving men; they taught me all I know. Their names are what and Why and When, and How and Where and Who.

ü Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say ‘why not’?

ü Business breakthroughs come from finding faster, cheaper, better, easier ways to perform a task.

ü The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

ü To solve your problems, bend your thinking and seeing

ü 3 and 3 can make 6, 9, 0,1,27, 33 etc. Therefore think and use imagination.

ü Think. There is always a better way.

ü Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.

ü Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

ü Every creative act involves...a new innocence of perception, liberated from the cataract of accepted belief.

ü Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few people engage in it.

ü There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world and that is an idea whose time has come.

ü Man's mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled.

ü Desire, like the atom, is explosive with creative force.

ü Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

ü A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

ü I have no particular talent. I am merely extremely inquisitive.

ü A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.

ü There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; its what we do with them that's important.

ü You never suffer from a money problem; you always suffer from an idea problem.

(from my book "10 Fundamental Rules of Success", Publishers: PUSTAK MAHAL, New Delhi)
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