We’ve gotten really good at creating elites. We’re not that good at creating economies to sustain them.
I’ve followed Hugh McLeod for a couple of decades at this point, and have one of his artworks on my wall — a gift from my parents for my 40th birthday. When McLeod arrived in NYC, his “only canvases were a handful of blank business cards in his pocket” and he’s gone on to build an enviable art business.
This post on the gapingvoid blog makes a really simple but important point. We’ve got an oversupply of elites, and the way to deal with this if you’re one of them is to focus not on “innovation” but by going upstream to focus on creativity.
It’s an easy enough problem to understand. We’ve gotten really good at creating elites. We’re not that good at creating economies to sustain them.
But it’s not just MBA’s, frequent fliers and $7,000 handbag makers. Every business faces this problem.
Too many cars, not enough drivers. Too many art galleries, not enough collectors. Too many restaurants, not enough diners. And on and on.
We live in a world of oversupply where most markets are standing-room-only.
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Innovation is something that only comes after the real work is done. And the real work is creativity which is upstream from innovation. Always.
A lot of people in business cringe at the word, “creativity.”
It’s vague, it’s overused, it’s a word more often associated with flakey artsy types than hard-nose movers and shakers trying to get things done.
But it doesn’t matter if you dislike the word or not, you’re basically dead without it.
Source: gapingvoid
Image: Jr Korpa