Creator
The Power of Q: Creative Geniuses
Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.
Anton Ego, in Pixar’s Ratatouille
It is becoming more and more evident that group creativity is becoming more and more necessary.
We now live in a world of very complex and global challenges. Many of the most important and pressing issues exceed the capacity and capability of one individual.
As a result, it is clear that in order to find solutions, collaboration with other people has become increasingly necessary.
Concepts of Intelligence
Most of us grew up with a concept of intelligence based on the traditional IQ test. The IQ test was originated by Alfred Binet (1857-1911) to measure, objectively, comprehension, reasoning and judgement.
Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet was motivated by a powerful enthusiasm for the emerging discipline of psychology and a desire to overcome the cultural and class prejudices of the late nineteenth-century France in the assessment of children’s academic potential.
The Past vs. The Present
The Past
Research indicates that many studies in different fields were done by single individuals who made significant strides and produced inventions, works of art, formulas, and other various pursuits.
A great example of a man that history has crowned as one of the “Great Renaissance Men” was Leonardo Da Vinci.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman — the epitome of a true Renaissance man.
He is famously known for paintings like “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa,” and for inventions like a flying machine.
Gifted with a curious mind and a brilliant intellect, Leonardo da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work.
His drawings, paintings and other works have influenced countless artists and engineers over the centuries.
Mona Lisa
In 1503, da Vinci started working on what would become his most well-known painting — and arguably the most famous painting in the world —the “Mona Lisa.”
The privately commissioned work is characterized by the enigmatic smile of the woman in the half-portrait.
The Present
The best research now emerges from groups and many science papers are co-authored, many works of art-creatively collaborated among individuals, even recent inventions and great ideas bear testament to the “great minds” behind them all.
Why is this you may ask?
The reason is simple: many of the biggest problems that we need to solve now require the expertise of many people from different backgrounds who can bridge the gap between each discipline.
Creative Thinking and Accelerated Learning
Michael J. Gelb is a world-renowned innovator in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning and leadership development.
He is also the author of How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci- Seven steps to Genius Every Day.
In his book, he states that at the time of the IQ test conception, the concept was considered a breakthrough, however, contemporary research now shows two significant flaws.
Flaw 1
The idea that intelligence is fixed at birth and immutable (unchanging overtime or unable to be changed).
He believes that although individuals are endowed genetically with more or less talent in a given area, researchers such as Buzan, Machado, Wenger and many others have shown that IQ scores can be raised significantly through appropriate training. Yeah!!
Flaw 2
The second weakness is the idea that the verbal and mathematical reasoning skills measured by IQ test (and SATs) are the sine qua nons ( an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary) of intelligence.
Managing and Growing your Creative Dreams
How Management relates to growth
One of the most powerful things about growing your creative dreams is that growth requires management. This especially applies to you if you plan on making your creative dreams public or bringing it to the marketplace.
The manager part of you is different from the creative worker part of you. The creative worker only knows how to physically work directly on the creative dream.
It’s the part that sews, paints, sings, dance, write or physically does something.
The manager part of you is the one who looks ahead, designs a system, or hires assistant for the creative worker.
Growth involves change, focus and strategy.
Growth isn’t necessarily good if the system that supports that growth is faulty or becomes strained.
Also remember that growth in business doesn’t always match human growth.
Camana Bay
Farmers & Artisans Market
As a vibrant town center constantly growing, Camana Bay is a must-visit for international visitors and locals alike. This event, taking place on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., will allow for 40 local vendors to showcase and sell a mix of their produce, local specialty food items and artisanal and craft products.
CAMANA BAY
A destination within a destination, Camana Bay is a vibrant town located in the heart of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory.
Situated on 685 acres between Seven Mile Beach and the North Sound, this mixed-use master-planned community is one of the first examples of New Urbanism in the Caribbean.
Developed by Dart Real Estate, Camana Bay offers more than 650,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space as well as 63 luxury apartments available for long-term lease, public spaces for all to enjoy, world-class shopping and dining, as well as family-friendly entertainment, events and attractions.
For more information, visit camanabay.com and keep up with the latest developments on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CamanaBay/) and follow us on Instagram (www.instagram.com/Camana_Bay/).
Teams
Another part of managing and growing your creative dreams is assembling a team to help you. We form teams all the time without calling it that.
The dictionary states that a team is: “A group of people working or playing together as a unit”.
Did you also know that families are a kind of team? Growing creative dreams calls for us to form teams because we can create more in a community than we can by ourselves.
When you make a creative dream real, it is then separate from you and needs support in order to grow.
A team is an excellent kind of support, and the right kind of team is the best type of support.
Marketing
Growing your creative dreams may involve marketing.
If you are at a public stage with your creative dreams and wish to share it with more people, you will need to know something about marketing.
If you choose to involve your creative dreams in the world of trade and commerce, use some of your energy to become informed about what that means.
It can be extremely exciting and rewarding to share your creative dreams with the world and receive compensation in the form of money.
You can then use that money to fund more creative dreams.
Success however is not the answer or the solution, but part of a greater system.
Your response to and management of your success is pivotal in nourishing yourself and your creative dreams.
Success can also:
• Expand and accelerate your creative dream
• Cause you to choose to be apart of a team
• Bring you in contact with wonderful people and things
• Assist you in making your other creative dreams real
• Support other people’s creative dreams
• Activate brand-new creative dreams
Success can also activate arrogance, egotism and entitlement.
Teachers and Mentors
We can be self-taught and taught by others. Teachers can appear in books, videos, films or by our experiences.
Mentorship Training Manual
A Mentor
A Mentor is already doing/living something you want to do or live.
I’ve learnt that the mentoring process is both a practical and alchemical process.
Practical, because you can imitate or practice what he or she has done and apply it to your own life.
Alchemical, because his or her energy and your energy merge and change both of you.
Mentors can mentor very briefly or over a lifetime. It is a gift that continues to give throughout generations.
Multiple Intelligences
In his modern classic, Frames of Mind (1983), psychologist Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences, which concluded that each of us contain at least seven measurable intelligences.
And guess what else I learnt? In Gardner’s later work with his colleagues (another prime example of group effort), they catalogued twenty-five different sub-intelligences. Wow!
Let me add my own intelligence to the following prime examples (7 being a prime number after all. Get it? Lol!).
Seven Types of Intelligences and Genius Exemplars other than Leonardo da Vinci
Meaning of Genius Exemplar:
1 : extraordinary intellectual power especially as manifested in creative activity.
2 : a person endowed with transcendent mental superiority specifically : a person with a very high IQ.
7 Types of Intelligences
• Interpersonal/Social- Queen Elizabeth I, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi
• Musical- Mozart, George Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald
• Verbal/Linguistic- William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Jorge Luis Borges
• Logical/Mathematical- Stephen Hawkins, Isaac Newton, Marie Cutie
• Spatial/Mechanical- Michelangelo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Buckminster Fuller
• Interpersonal (self-knowledge)- Viktor Frankl, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa
• Bodily/Kinesthetic- Morihei Ueshiba, Muhammad Ali, F.M. Alexander
The theory of multiple intelligences are now accepted widely and when combined with the realization that intelligence can be developed throughout life, offers a powerful inspiration for aspiring Renaissance men and women.
See my previous article: The Intelligent Person