The vast majority of us are ‘great consumers’ – not necessarily in the traditional sense of the word ‘consumer’ (the buyer of things) but, rather, in the sense of consuming (using up) things – food, energy, resources, relationships, etc. and not necessarily in the typical use of the word ‘great’ – to be good at something, but rather, in the use of it as a measure of size.
As a reality of life we must consume or we, as human beings, will die. This post is NOT a guide on how to save energy or why we should treat our environment better (although that is certainly not a bad thing), no, it is about moving from the consumption mind to the creative mind.
Most of us become so wrapped up in our consumption lifestyles that we completely forget that we do in fact know how to create. After all, as a life form, if we didn’t create babies the human race would cease to exist, if we didn’t create forms of communication such as cave paintings or books we would have lost all of our history and the lessons passed down through generations.
We tend to look at entrepreneurs as great creators – they create never before thought of businesses and technology, they create a new way to deliver an old product or service, they figure out a way to transform a previous methodology or system to improve productivity… the list goes on and on.
The question becomes – Is one a creator that becomes an entrepreneur after turning their creation into a business OR is an entrepreneur forced to be creative to survive in business…?
The answer is, All of the Above. Also, keep in mind that businesses and their owners are consumers (in every sense of the word) as well. The truth is that all people are creators and consumers. As mentioned above, unfortunately many people’s creative side gets buried deep under their responsibilities and everyday ‘life’.
So, how do we reconnect with our creative side. The first step would be to look back to when we were young – somewhere between 5-10 years old and remember what we enjoyed doing; did you like to paint, take things apart, draw, write, create plays for your parents to watch…? Think back… That may be the ‘tool’ you will use to reconnect with your ‘big person’ creativity… You may find that you have a knack for mentally disassembling things and in doing so you may find a better way to create a new ‘mousetrap’. You may find that the exercise of sitting down to write opens up many new thoughts about a passion that has been buried under ‘life’ for years.
Remember, being entrepreneurial is monetizing a thought/goal/dream… If you are able to think freely and allow your mind to reach a creative state you may have the next great business deep inside of you.
It’s not just for other people, Living in Entrepreneurial Freedom can be for everyone.
