From consumer to creative

One of the skills a maverick possesses is being able to connect lines to dots that others don’t realise are there. But what are the things that help them see where the lines should go. The first answer that comes to mind is creativity. But what constitutes creativity? How do you foster creativity? And who is creative?

Generally society refers to someone as being creative when they can produce things such as music, art, films and anything else in the creative industry.  But mavericks exist beyond the creative industry. Mavericks dare to go against the grain, they dare to ask the questions which other might be too embarrassed to ask and they tend to consume different types of knowledge. These traits are what enables a maverick to be able to draw the lines in a direction others don’t see.

Consumption of different media and knowledge brings different perspectives, ranging from industry perspectives to cultural perspectives. This brings about new questions and riddles to solve which leads to further consumption of new media and knowledge. This continuous loop ensures a continuous stream of perspectives. These perspectives enable oneself to not only be creative but also use this creativity in different ways for different settings.

To give a better perspective of this. Personally I am a huge anime & manga consumer. One of my  favourite anime/manga is ‘One Piece’, the manga started in 1997 and is currently still being published. The author is known to drop hints/clues to future events, characters and locations years before actually revealing them to the reader. As his characters and stories tend to be loosely based on real life events and people, the community around the manga is loaded with theorist who give input using different sources. Sources range from history, mythology, science and even physics. An example of this is how one theorist linked a geographical location of a fictional country to the workings of a trompe.  Here is the link to the video  ( I advise you to start at time stamp 8:20 ). As these type of connections are not in plain sight, the theories are based of miniscule details which the average reader would just gloss over. 1 dot is in the manga but the line is drawn to real life physics and then the line goes back to a dot in the manga. As a consumer I learned about the workings of a trompe, 1 fictional mystery which might have been solved and how the smallest detail can lead to great insights. These lessons could lead to future unexpected breakthroughs.

Here are some practical examples of how different perspectives lead to industry innovation:

• BMW’s iDrive system which was inspired by gaming industry controller standards,
• Mc Donalds drive thru concept which is based on Formula 1 pit stop
• Baby buggy which van be folded based on an airplane’s retractable landing gear
• And not to mention all the innovation brought about by simply looking into everything nature has to offer. (ex wings of an airplane, aerodynamic construction of Japanese bullet train both based of different birds)

All these solutions required creativity and the open-mindedness to learn from other sources, to then apply them to challenges one may have to overcome. The consumer becomes a creator and since the solution came from a realm beyond the industry wherein it is applied the creator is seen as a creative.