By Sandra Ani
Everything that has ever been invented by humans through history has been as a result of someone’s creative ideas.
We may not all have the same level of creativity as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or Steve Jobs. But each one of us can learn to become an Original — someone who creates and champions original ideas.
Originality is however not the same thing as new. It rather suggests that the piece of work or initiative in question was created personally by the artist, artiste, or poet and not a copy.
It’s important not to be a photocopy when you can be an original. This means you have to make effort to stand out and not be persuaded to do what everyone else is doing.
Originality should be evident in our work and intellectual properties. Originality stands hand in hand with creativity and to be creative you have to have many ideas
Scientist Linus Pauling advices;
“If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.”
Another way cultivate originality is to be curious and question the norm. Many of us encounter a familiar situation, and we don’t stop to question the default. Something is cumbersome or annoying or expensive, but we deal with it, because that’s just the way it is. That’s the way it has always been. Meanwhile, Originals don’t accept the defaults, they question it and generate Ideas to tackle it, be it at the workplace, in society, and even science !
Originality carries the notions of authenticity and genuineness. You are either a voice or an echo, a clear sound or noise. Does this, in any way mean you don’t learn from others?
Not at all! We learn, but how and what we learn matters. Learn the principle and not the method.
Principles are general, but methods are personal.
Always be you!