“Creativity Is Not an Accident, It Is What You Earn”
You’ve heard of people who have Eureka moments, that ideas come to them uninvited. It might seem like creativity comes out by accident, the truth is that even unexpected creative breakthroughs have been earned.
Author Scott Burkun thinks creativity stories that seem light and funny are misleading. Successful, creative people actually pay more attention to their mistakes and accidents:
A recent NYTimes opinion called Cultivating the Art of Intuition by Pagan Kennedy said:
“A surprising number of the conveniences of modern life were invented when someone stumbled upon a discovery or benefited from an accident: microwave oven, safety glass, smoke detectors, artificial sweeteners, X-rays. “
What is overlooked is that these accidents were earned . Each of these professionals spent years working on solving difficult problems, and then, when an accident happened, they chose not to ignore it, like most of us. They decided to study the accident. How many of us study our accidents? Basically we run and hide from them. An interest in one’s own mistakes is a much more interesting attitude towards life than one who is simply chasing intuitive serendipity. The use of “accidents” is a great concept that Kennedy mentions, albeit briefly, and I wish that was the focus of this article.
What were your unexpected victories? What accidents that you overlooked could lead to the bigger breakout?
In other words, get back to work. This is how creative breakthroughs come about. Inspiration is there, but it has to find you at work.
Creativity is not an accident | Scott Burkun