CHAPTER   1

Creativity for Noncreative People

I STARTED MY FIRST company when I was nine years old. I mean calling it a company is probably a very generous description. My friend Richard and I needed money to fund a very serious pursuit: we needed to buy baseball cards and fast food, which when you’re nine years old is a big deal. Our families were living paycheck to paycheck and could not afford to hand out any extra money, and so we knew that we had to take action ourselves.

Richard and I started a company with the operating agreement of a handshake. We had stumbled on what we thought was the best idea in the world, something that would bring in limitless amounts of money and make us rich beyond our wildest dreams: we were going to go door-to-door washing cars.

We quickly raided the garage and kitchen for supplies. We used hand soap as car-washing soap. He found a bucket. I had a ratty old hose that leaked. His mom had thrown out a vacuum cleaner that was putting out more smoke than anything else and barely sucked anything in. But none of that mattered because our plan was perfect. We put our inventory together and found that we had just enough supplies for our first wash. All we needed was that first client.

It wasn’t easy because we had no idea what we were doing. How could we get someone to let us wash a car for money? It was a high mountain to climb. Our second hurdle? How much to charge clients. We had no idea what we could get for a car wash. Twenty dollars? Two dollars? What would people pay for this service? We were clueless. Our third hurdle? If they opened the door, what would we say? How would that work? Who would talk first, me or Richard? It was far too much to figure out in advance, and so we did what any kid would have done in our case: we jumped in blind. We would figure it out along the way. We thought, Hey, what can possibly go wrong?

Off we went door-to-door to face countless rejections. Doors slammed. People thought we were nuts. Two kids knocking on a door with a hodgepodge of cleaning supplies saying that they wanted to wash your car? Who could blame people for slamming the door? And we were asking people to hand over their car keys!

Richard and I sat on the sidewalk after an entire day of hearing “no, no, no.” It was a dark moment. All seemed lost. But soon all our thoughts turned to figuring out how we needed just one person to say yes, and after that the floodgates to wealth would open. I will never forget it as long as I live. It was a late Saturday afternoon, and my best friend looked at me and asked, “What now?”

It was a defining moment of my youth that set me up to be the man I am today. Life is full of critical “what now” moments, and the way you react means far more than what has happened. This was a critical juncture in which a choice had to be made—a creative choice.

It was then and there that I was forced to decide what to do. And those decisions bred the first seeds of a lifetime of developing, tweaking, and tinkering with a formula that today I call The Creator Mindset. It’s a way of thinking that I am certain will change your life forever. I know because it has certainly changed mine and those of my clients all over the world: JetBlue, Microsoft, the NFL, EA Sports, American Airlines, AT&T, and many, many others.

The Creator Mindset introduces a new way of thinking that is not taught anywhere else. Some folks already “have it,” and you probably know a few of them. It’s that business owner who put out a coupon and got a host of new clients. It’s that engineering firm that did a big pro bono job and then secured a host of new accounts. It’s the company that gives you points for every dollar you spend and then gives away its product or service for free. All these examples make you think, How did he or she or they think of that? I wish I could do that. Well, the time for wishing and wanting is over. It’s time to get serious about training your mind to think creatively, and that’s exactly what this book and program will teach you.

The first and most important step in this process is believing one thing: everything about creativity can be learned.

Far too many people believe deep down that they’re not creative. I see it often when giving keynotes or consulting with clients. It depresses me because folks always think that it is someone else who’s creative—never them. Perhaps you are one of those people who believe that they are not creative. But understanding the concept that creativity is a tool—a tool like any other—will go a long way. And understanding that creativity can be learned just like anything else will put your mind at ease.

You can learn how to think creatively. It’s just that so little time and energy is spent on developing a road map to teach creativity as a tool. We are programmed to develop the analytical mind through the many institutions that exist today to propel analytical agendas. We as a society have shifted away from the creative mind—and at shocking peril.

For instance, we see this as clear as day when it comes to medicine. Modern medicine is so concerned with the physical instead of the mental because it’s much easier to mend a broken bone than it is to mend a broken mind.¹ Broken bones and physical injuries are tangible; we can see, feel, and touch them, and that is comfortable, familiar, and apparent. It’s simple to prove this and say to others: Look, I fixed the broken arm. But you cannot show someone that you’ve improved a person’s way of thinking. Creativity is the same. It’s marginalized simply because quantification of creativity isn’t possible.²

I’m here to show you that you can see creativity just as clearly as you see sales at the end of the quarter. You just need to train your mind to be able to see in a different way. I know that this is a revolution in thinking, and I think it’s fair to say that you’re probably starting to doubt this, but I need you to stick with me. Sure, this might represent a departure from where you feel comfortable and from what is familiar, but that’s okay. Why? Because as you will learn later in this book, comfort isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

OUT OF ALL ANIMALS on earth, we have been bestowed with the most amazing device that has ever been created. Not our sense of sight. Not our sense of smell. Not even our opposable thumbs (although having an opposable thumb is pretty awesome). Instead, the most impressive device that we have as humans is the brain. And what makes the human brain unique is its ability to be both logical and creative, which really are two ways of thinking that are as different as anything can be. Yet amazingly they live together within our brains! In one place. How incredible.

This power to alternate our thinking between the analytical and the creative³ at will may seem unimpressive at first, but it makes us unique because we are the only animals on earth that can do it. It gives us the ability to move creativity forward⁴ in our thoughts, and this is important to realize because The Creator Mindset really does introduce a revolutionary biological shift in the brain.

In recent decades, scientists have uncovered a phenomenon in the human brain known as neuroplasticity.^5,6 This amazing discovery has taught us that our brains literally can change. New synapses can connect as we take on new knowledge, neurons throughout the brain can break old connections and make new ones, and brand-new cells are always being created.⁷ This shift to thinking about the brain as a changing organism is revolutionary because until these discoveries were made, most scientists thought that the brain was fixed, meaning that after childhood the brain remained unchanged and was unable to learn something new. But we now know that this is not the case. It turns out that the brain has the ability to change throughout our lives almost on the fly as it learns and interprets new information. Think about that for a moment. How incredibly powerful is that? All it takes to activate this change is the will to learn something new. The declaration that you make today while reading these words on this printed page (or tablet or while listening to audio) can change your life profoundly.

Theodor Herzl said, “If you will it, it is no dream.”⁸ Turns out he was right. You just have to will it. This knowledge you accept can exercise your brain into new and different levels of fitness. The structure of the brain will change as it ingests new and different ways to learn, to solve problems, and to grow. It turns out that indeed you can teach an old dog new tricks.⁹ And not only that: our brains can physically rearrange themselves according to the input to which we are exposed.

Knowledge that we ingest physically changes the way our brains function. In describing the history of our understanding of neuroplasticity, Nicholas Carr writes, “The brain’s plasticity is not limited to the somatosensory cortex, the area that governs our sense of touch. It’s universal. Virtually all of our neural circuits—whether they’re involved in feeling, seeing, hearing, moving, thinking, learning, perceiving, or remembering—are subject to change.”¹⁰

This is good news on several fronts. It means that we can literally hardwire our brains to accept other ways of thinking,¹¹ including a way of thinking creatively.¹² There is nothing that cannot be learned.

This discovery came at the perfect time in our history. Today, it’s more important than ever because the analytical side of our brains has been on overload for far too long. It has been besotted with the love of quantification, multitasking, technology, data, and more. We are so heavily skewed toward the analytical that the creative part of the brain has been left to wither away like a plant that is not watered. We are not operating in the most optimal way possible. But with this new science, there is hope.

THE CREATOR MINDSET REPRESENTS a correction in the way the brain has been functioning. Like a real estate market that is out of whack and must recalibrate to current trends, our heavily skewed way of thinking is in dire need of correcting to be able to deal with our realities in the twenty-first century. But to be clear, I am not suggesting that you throw away all that has worked for you thus far and gotten you to where you are today. Analytical skills are important. However, in isolation they are damaging. Without uniting the analytical and the creative, we are operating on a half tank of gas. We’re never really using our full potential, always wondering why we are not happy, wondering why we aren’t there yet.

But as we begin to unite the analytical and the creative, we learn how to be a more effective leader, how to improve our bottom line, how to get ahead to that next promotion. We begin to create an environment that is ripe for opportunity, growth, and expansion in our market.¹³ On top of all of that, it just might make you a better person.

AS WE WRAP UP this chapter, let’s return to where Richard and I left off. We had no customers, but we had determination as we sat on that curb figuring out our next step. We were in search of something—anything—to save our business. In that moment, it occurred to me that we had to get creative in order to survive.

Ultimately, I decided to package our fledgling business as a customer service operation. Sure, we would wash your car, but we also would throw away all the junk on your lawn or porch. We would empty out the trash from your house and put out the cans on the curb. We would clean out and organize your car’s trunk. We would top off your windshield wiper fluid with soapy water. We would do extra things that are not necessarily related to car washing. And with that, we found a sales pitch rhythm when going door-to-door. We would sing little rhymes like “Junk in your trunk, not any more. Nir and Richard will wash your car for sure!” when folks opened the door. Sure, now it’s embarrassing, but at the time it worked.

We discovered that neighbors would purchase a car wash from us for different reasons. Some wanted to help out two kids. Some had a dirty car. Some hated hauling out the trash bins or cleaning off the porch. But ultimately folks were willing to pay a fair price of $5 a pop for services, some of which included washing a car. Sure, we got stiffed a few times, which was terrible and stung, but our customers and their concerns set up a lifetime of learning how to address problems from a creative perspective for me.

I know what you’re thinking: This creative stuff is neat, but how can it help me in my business? I have real deadlines, real inventory, real customers. And I need a plan for how to grow and improve my business to achieve very specific goals. And none of those goals are “creative” They are real fiscal objectives and thus need to be treated with gravity.

But I am here to argue that no matter what your goals are, without creativity you are merely operating your business like everyone else: set in the analytical without the benefit of the creative. No matter how optimal your thinking is, you are running the business at 50 percent of your available brainpower. Think about that for a minute. You are running your business at best on only half of your potential. Would you accept an invoice paid for 50 percent of the full amount? Or a vendor delivering 50 percent of the job? Or half your paycheck? Of course not. I know you wouldn’t, and neither would I. But that’s exactly what you are doing today and every day as you neglect 50 percent of your brain. Now is the time to activate it, so let’s get moving.