Inspirations …
As I reflected on my inspirations in creativity and innovation, among the most prominent figures that came to mind were: Linus Pauling, Walt Disney, Viola Spolin, Sid Parnes, Socrates and JFK. Their observations and preoccupations more or less define most of the foundation and breadth of what I aspire to do in my life of creativity and innovation.
One of my favorite quotes ever is from renowned biochemist, peace activist and Nobel laureate Linus Pauling …
“The secret to having a lot of good ideas, is first to have a lot of ideas!”
I am a guy with lots of ideas, so I like this. No idea is a waste of time entirely, because it takes even the bad ideas to arrive at good ideas. Linus was the first to teach me this.
Walt Disney is another hero in the field of dreaming and implementing the dreams and I have two favorite quotes of his …
“Think. Dream. Believe. Dare” … and … “I love doing the impossible.”
At one time “Snow White” and Disneyland were impossible dreams and Walt bet his entire livelihood to make those impossible dreams happen. As has been said, “Build castles in the air, then build foundations under them.” Walt did just that — and a Cinderella castle at that!
Volia Spolin and Sid Parnes are iconic to me because they represent the ying and yang of creativity. Sid was a co-creator and proponent of Alex Osborn’s Creative Problem Solving method (CPS) and Viola Spolin essentially created the lexicon of improvisation games, theories and best practices. Sid and Viola are two sides of the same coin in my mind. Viola famously said, “We are born knowing everything, and then we grow up.”
And Sid recalled that a young student once said to him, “I get you — You were born old and you grew up to be a kid!” You will see me refer liberally to these two icons throughout my posts on this blog.
Lastly, I picture Socrates and John F Kennedy above. Both were big influences on me. Through the writings of Plato, Socrates taught me the “Socratic Method” of inquiry and discovery — and that the noblest pursuit was inquiry into the nature of truth and virtue — answering the question, how might we best live? Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I would add my own: “The unlived life is not worth examining”.
These other heroes no doubt also knew that — and I grew into political awareness during the presidency of JFK who called us all to the challenge of living life fully for the betterment of humankind. Central to the Greeks’s concept of democracy was that it was every free citizen’s duty to be involved in politics, and JFK called a generation to action in the belief that our collective actions in cooperation and through government could change the world — to go to the moon, create a better society, and a more peaceful world through initiatives like the Peace Corps. So you will see me get into politics here and there when appropriate, and sometimes when it is not appropriate. And because it is so central to who I am, maybe not so here and there. These are trying days that call us to action.
Creativity and innovation permeate all realms of our lives. They are fundamental to survival — for example, central to evolution as Darwin conceived it — species always finding better ways to adapt to challenges and changing circumstances. So, creativity is imbedded in our DNA and surges through our veins. We have creativity because it is our constant challenge to improve our circumstances and our world. In short, we have the gift of creativity specifically because we have problems to solve and challenges to conquer. With this blog, I hope to get at that BIG time.
With that, I welcome you to this journey on my blog and leave you with this cartoon. It is a favorite of Sid Parnes …
