Are You a Creative Genius?
The chances are that you are...or at least you were !
Children are amazing with no inhibitions or past experiences to fog their creativity. In fact we all are or at least we were a creative genius at some point according to NASA scientists. The good news is that we still can be even as we move deeper into adulthood.
I recently read an interesting article on "IdeaPod" that discussed the education system and how it may be designed to "dumb us down" and forge us into obedient workers.
This is a contentious issue but please bear with me.
School and the Education System
I'm not afraid to say I was bullied at school and it definitely affected my time there and my exam results. However, even when times were good, I never really felt connected with much of what I was learning.
At school, I remember just doing the work required to get by. Did I really need to know a lot of what I was being taught? Would I ever learn anything about the real world?
Maybe I was at the wrong school or had the wrong teachers but I never felt that interested in what I was learning. Some will say it is the parent's job to teach such things, outside of school, but for many this just isn't possible, practical or feasible.
However, when I was out of school, it was a different matter altogether.
Outside of School
At 13 years old, I got into photography and received my first film SLR camera back in 1980. I was so hooked that I chose photography as an option for the following year at school. At this time, I also built my own darkroom in the loft of our family home.
I would spend hours up there developing and printing all the awful photos that I had taken that day. During photography classes at school, I would on occasion correct the teacher (much to his annoyance).
Around the same time, I was into astronomy in a small way. I bought a telescope and became frustrated at its lack of "reach". After taking it apart I was astonished to see that my 45x telescope also had a marking for 60x but the groove wouldn't allow it to go that far.
I simply got a file and worked away until it allowed me to reach that magnification. Viola! I had a new 60x telescope!
At 14/15 years old, I also started learning machine code and even wrote a small program (with graphics) on the ZX Spectrum. At 16, I stripped a 50cc motorbike down, cleaned it and put it back together again...and it still worked.
I knew I wasn't dumb but my results at school didn't reflect that.
Creative Genius
Anyway, back to the point of this article. The piece I read at IdeaPod spoke of how NASA wanted to filter out the "creative genius level" academics within their organisation to help progress things such as the space program.
They did this using a very simple method, and it worked.
Moving forward, they felt compelled to test this on a group of 1600 children from a very early age and the results were staggering. An incredible 98% of kids aged 4-5 years old showed genius tendencies in how they tackled a simple task*.
*Think "how many uses can you find for this paperclip" simple.
Five years later, they did the study with a similar group of 10 year olds and the results fell to 30%.
At 15 years old, the group scored only 12%.
When finally testing a large group of adults, the results were sadly and incredibly only 2%!
Some believe that these findings are a direct result of (for the majority of us) our education dumbing or having dumbed us down. Not to make us stupid but to steer us in a direction that fits us neatly into society and a certain way of life.
Playing devil's advocate for a moment
What if everybody received a far superior education that truly allowed us to express our creativity to its full potential whilst teaching us higher life skills? One that taught us "real life" lessons and encouraged us to follow our dreams, become self-employed perhaps and not go the established (and luckily now diminishing) route of:
Who would then do the more mediocre jobs in society? I won't mention any for fear of offending anyone but I have done my fair share of those jobs believe me.
Cynical? Maybe but I have seen it happen. You only have to look at the number of students leaving university with degrees into a workplace without decent jobs or careers these days.
If I were king!
If I were in charge, I would love to see everyone getting the best education possible allowing creativity and genius to shine through. I would then make it mandatory for everyone to spend two years, post-education, doing those mediocre jobs. Like a modern day national service.
This way, everyone wins.
Now this won't apply or resonate with many of you so I won't go into more detail on all this here. However, if you are interested, you can watch the TED video at the end of this page to learn more.
What's the Point?
Well, the point is that no matter what your age is, you can still fire up that creativity and finally do something for yourself. At any point in your life, you can take control and change direction completely.
After all, I left the corporate world after 10 years in London and literally started again...from scratch.
Because of this and my willingness to succeed with my online business, I have spent 15 years working for myself which has allowed me to:
Now You and Your Creative Genius!
This may resonate with you, it may not but if it does, there is a way forward. If you are unhappy with your lot and want to reignite that creative person in you, start today.
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday" - Don Marquis
All you need to do, if you haven't already, is sign up to our free course. This could easily start you on the road to financial freedom and give you back your precious time!
The Original TED Video
Author: Nick
Nick has been internet marketing since 2005 and has sold over £2million worth of his own and other people's products all over the world. He also won the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award for South and West Dorset in 2011 and loves teaching others how to succeed.
