Creative genius inside all of us

In my first year of working in marketing, someone compared marketing activities to planting a garden. To get the fruits and vegetables, we had to plant the seed, nurture the soil, remove the weeds, add sunlight and water. It takes time but marketing will produce results just like potatoes will grow in the right conditions.

Can creative ideas work with the same analogy?

Ideas are thought impulses that we connect to a perceived need in the marketplace. Ideas can be simple. Ideas are not easy for some of us. It comes down to creativity.

We all have creativity in our DNA. Creativity is like a muscle. If we don't use it, we goes into hibernation like a grizzly bear.  There was a point in our lives in which we all thought we were creative.

Something happens around grade school that robs many of our ability to tap into our right brain. I blame the educational system. Spelling, mathematics, and language rides shotgun in our car, while art, music and theatre get stashed in the trunk, often forgotten it exists.

If you consider yourself one of those non-creative types, try planting some seeds. Take up a musical instrument. Play for fun by hopelessly pounding away or take a few lessons. Practice daily. Compose your own score, with your own words. Does it matter if it's any good? Good is a comparative construct. It's your piece of art. It's your contribution to the world. It is as original as you.

If music isn't your thing, trying painting, sketching, or illustrating. It's your choice if you want to take a course. It doesn't matter if you anyone thinks it's good. Good compared to what - Picasso? It's good because you are nurturing your soil.  Keep going. Practice daily. You'll find techniques that will inspire you. You'll try things that won't work. But you'll learn.

Maybe you always enjoyed literature. Start writing about simple things that you observe. Maybe it's the interaction between a mother and a child, or maybe it's the sway of trees in the winter wind. Don't worry about detractors. Haters hate us, 'cause they ain't us. Keep going as you remove the weeds. The things that don't work, in your mind, you'll stop doing. The techniques that do work, you'll continue.

Feed your creativity. Add sunlight and water. You'll see growth. You'll see the world in a way you never saw it before. Do it daily.

Jerry Seinfeld attributes his comedic success to writing jokes every single day. Some were good. Some were terrible. It was the act of committing to the process of writing everyday that made him the highest paid comedian on the planet.

Potatoes don't grow in the shade. And neither can your ideas. Share them. Don't worry about the opinions of others. You have genius inside of you.