Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Richard Florida has written about the creative class and I think I`m a part of it. I`m not an artist in any traditional sense, though I played saxophone and sang in choirs and stuff. But I tried retail sales as well as trying the 9-5 cubicle but just didn`t enjoy it. But having discovered Richard Florida and the creative class, I`m trying to figure out how to translate my creative abilities into money.

Any other Richard Florida / Creative Class fans out there?

Nobody yet knows what actually is the mind, or how it works, why it works, or what makes for creativity. But we do have an awful lot of observation goin` on. :-)

So far, it seems creativity is somehow associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, but that just seems to be true. It also seems that creativity is basically the ability to think in a nonlinear fashion. Things don`t always go from A to B to C.

Answers to a question usually are found in the question itself, which means forming the proper question often is a key process. In yours, I`d suggest that if you were to aks, "How can I be creative in finding a way to make money," you`d get a better use out of the concepts of creation.

It`s not that you turn creativity into money. It`s that you create money. That means being creative in developing products or services that in turn bring in revenues. Being an artist isn`t the same as being creative. However, artists usually are also creative.

I haven`t read Florida`s book, but there`s a whole lot of information out in the world about creative thinking and applying creative thought to practical problems. Your problem, Mr. Phelps, should you decide to accept it (theme from Mission Impossible fades in), is to create a business. :-D

I`m very right brained, hate being told what to do, I`m not a "good soldier" in any sense of the word, and I`m disorganized. To the point that in high school I was diagnosed with Executive Dysfunction by an educational psychologist. (Example one: I HATED writing papers because I had the ideal paper in my mind but could not break it down into smaller parts and organize it. Papers are complex monsters to me. I get paralyzed and can`t deal with it. Example two: My mind likes to wander, and I can quickly get bored and lose interest if I`m doing the same thing for too long.) I have great respect for our armed forces and those who serve. I support the troops and the mission, but I was not designed for military service - by my nature, I would do more harm than good because I would make mistakes. Mistakes in the military get people killed.

And I`m married.

When I did have a cubicle job, I was always coming up with new ideas that could be applied to the company. Some were used, many were not (but that`s ok - home run hitters strike out more often than batters just trying to get on base). So rather than slowly killing myself trying to be something I am not (namely: reliable, punctual, organized, submissive, by-the-book, letter of the law to the T, conventional, detail-oriented, Type-A, and left brained), I`m going to offer my services as a creativity consultant in two ways: 1) put me on a problem and together we will develop ideas and solutions, and 2) I can help others develop their own creativity to solve problems, create new products or services, improve processes, etc.

I`m never going to be a CEO or a manager. If for some crazy and wild unforseen reason I did become a manager or CEO, I would operate like Ronald Reagan did - have a core philosophy, identify three objectives to accomplish, everything else (including how to accomplish the objectives) is details, so go sort out the details. That`s right, I would delegate just about everything. I`m not a manager - it`s just not my nature. And I`ve tried nuture to make myself more left-brained but it`s just not going to happen.

I wish I could be more left-brained. I wish I could develop those skills. It would be very helpful. But like I said before, instead of trying to be something I`m not (and in so doing, driving myself to depression and insanity), I will "embrace the horror" and accept the fact that I was cut from a different cloth than most. It`s not right for me to follow the conventional and traditional path; I have to blaze my own trail.

And I love Star Trek!

Hmm...I`m just thinking of exercises to develop left brainedness. What about if you wake up each morning, stand up, tilt your head to the left (like laying your left ear on your left shoulder) then bang your palm against the top of your head?

Would your brains eventually leak into the left side of your skull?

I`m just sayin`, y`know?