Have Your
Efforts Been Ignored Lately?
You're In Good Company

The modern world is full of blind spots. The future is perpetually around the corner, invisible to mere mortals, no matter how wise. More than a few brilliant people have been forced to eat their words as the following boo-boos will illustrate:

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
-Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
-A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who wants to hear actors talk?"
-H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
-Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
-Response to Debbie Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
-Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"
-Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
-1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training."
-Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
-Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
-Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." -Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." -Charles H. Duel

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
-Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
-Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon- Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
- Bill Gates, 1981

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?"
-Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home"
Ken Olson, Digital founder (1977)

 "Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value."
-- Boston Post, 1865

 "The world is coming to an end in 1950."
-- Historian Henry Adams, 1903

 "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
-- Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Milliken, 1923

 "A rocket will never be able to leave the earth's atmosphere."
-- The New York Times, 1936

 "Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."
-- Producer Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

 "If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
-- W.C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954

 "You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck."
-- The Grand Ole Opry's Jim Denny to Elvis Presley,1954

 "By 2000, politics will simply fade away. We will not see any political parties."
-- Visionary and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, 1966

                                      
Keep An Open Mind: Creativity Comes In All Sizes

Here is our experts' best advice on how you can tap a gusher of creative juices at your company:

Produce a culture of creativity. Encourage a free flow of ideas in the workplace. Develop a tolerance for eccentricity. This may be a bit of a challenge if you're a starched-shirt kind of boss, but you will need that patience.

Creative types tend to harbor curious concepts of dress, hairstyle, hygiene, or work habits. But as long as they don't drive clients or other workers from the office screaming, you'll be okay.

At TellSoft Technologies, a Colorado Springs startup, the company's co-founder dismantled his cubicle and replaced it with patio furniture, complete with lawn chairs and an umbrella. (The marketing department countered with a Caribbean theme.) Consider it a small price to pay for genius, which is as difficult to find and make bloom as a rare orchid.

"You can't force someone to be creative," says Anirudh Dhebar, associate professor of marketing at Babson College's F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business  "Let creativity emerge in a comfortable forum."

Click here to read the whole article.

KEEP THOSE NATURAL BORN CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING

Karyn Buxman, MSN, CSP, CPAE

"I'm brain dead," Sheila moaned over her coffee at break. "I wouldn't recognize a fresh idea if it jumped in my face and wiggled. I'm just not creative. Am I too left-brained? Where do you get all your ideas?"

What is creativity? Like humor, it seems to be a mindset, a process, a way of looking at things. Researchers once believed that creativity was found primarily in the right hemisphere of the brain; they believed "right-brained" people were more creative. Now researchers speculate that creativity involves both hemispheres, that it's a combination of both analytic and intuitive thought.

Are you a creative person? Even if you don't think of yourself as creative now, chances are at one time you were. Studies have shown that 90% of all 5 year old children are creative. However, researchers found only 10% of all 7 year olds to be creative. And sad to say, only 2% of all persons age 8-45 had significant creative juices still flowing. (Does that mean that after age 45 we're working with a creativity deficit?) Why is it that as children we're able to tap into our natural creative abilities only to be stymied later as adults? Perhaps it's because we're taught early on to be logical, to look for the right answer, and to be serious.

As we grow older, our creative tendencies are squelched. I believe we can re-learn creativity and get back in touch with our natural abilities. Here are 5 tips to help you get back in touch with the wealth of imaginative, inventive and artistic ideas inside of you.

Break habits. Have you ever found yourself or your coworkers doing things only because "that's the way it's always been done"? We perform many of our daily tasks without even thinking about them. While this can be helpful at times, it can also be a means of blocking creative thought. Break your routines. Roger von Oech, expert on creative thinking, terms this "giving yourself a whack on the side of the head." Try sleeping on the opposite side of the bed. Take the scenic route home. Try a new seating arrangement at the dinner table. Listen to a style of music that's not familiar to you (country western? opera? rap?) Eat dessert first. These simple jolts in your routine can lead you to new ideas.

Ask why. Children are naturally curious. Anyone who has even been around a toddler knows their list of "whys" goes on and on. "Why do dogs bark?" "Why is the sky blue?" "Why are our eyes different colors?" To answer any question only leads to another question. Yet adults are quick to respond with the right answer. Period. End of discussion. Try being open minded. Instead of assuming the right or most logical answer, ask why. See what new thoughts this provokes.

Look for unlikely connections. It's customary for us to think in terms of logical connections. But to break out of this line of reasoning, think of "what if." What if men could become pregnant? What if clothing was edible? What if cars could be fueled with food? Items that we take for granted were once someone else's "what if": What if stairs could move (escalators); what if you could combine phones with copy machines (faxes); what if you could cook food without heat (microwaves). One beer company aired a tremendously successful ad campaign by combining unlikely objects and events, such as sumo wrestling and high diving or cows on surfboards. Ridiculous? Exactly! And these commercials made their product memorable to their viewers.

Take risks. Many folks are afraid of coming up with creative or unusual ideas because they don't want to look foolish. Others have been rewarded for years for coming up with the "right answer" and fear coming up with the "wrong answer." Samuel Smiles once said, "He who never made a mistake never made a discovery." Creative persons are willing to risk appearing foolish or silly. It takes a strong self-esteem to risk being different or to risk failure. Believe in yourself and be a risk taker. And reward your children or coworkers for taking a leap of faith with an imaginative idea.

Take time to play. Like creativity, humor is a mindset, a perspective, a way of looking at things. Children are naturally creative. One reason is that they are playful with their ideas. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, "As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it." Try putting your next problem-solving meeting in a JEOPARDY format. Begin a budget meeting with a joke or embarrassing moment from each participant. Instead of calling on persons with their hands raised, toss a Koosh ball or other toy around for permission to speak. No one thinks twice about scheduling time for work, but many consider play frivolous. And yet, a light and playful attitude stimulates creative thought that can actually increase productivity.

I can think of no occupation that couldn't benefit from creative thoughts and fresh ideas. Businesses move ahead by innovation. The ability to be creative and innovative lies within you. Take that first step now and experience the benefits of humor and creativity today.

Don't Be An Ape: The Tragedy Of Not Thinking For Yourself

Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the Banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.

After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result--all the apes are sprayed with cold water.

Turn off the cold water.

If, later, another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes will try to prevent it even though no water sprays them.

Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.

Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced.

Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?

"Because that's the way it's always been around here."

Sound familiar?

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