The first time I watched the television series "Spiderman," I marveled at the creativity that went into producing the show. I was so young back then, and all I could think about was "Spiderman."
From the plot to the execution, everything was on point for me. I thought to myself, “Can the sting of a spider really make me become a spiderman?”
The movie got me really hooked, and it was one of my favorite movies back then.
Each riveting part of Spiderman is an excellent example of creative minds in action.
Whenever you mention Spider-Man, Marvel legend Stan Lee comes to mind.
He is a creative genius, or at least that’s what everyone who has ever seen the Spiderman movie thinks, and they are right.
But do you know that Stan Lee’s idea of Spiderman was rejected when he first pitched the character to his boss at Marvel?
In an interview with American television and radio host Larry King, the late Stan Lee revealed what his boss said to him when he told him about his idea.
He said, “I walked in, and I said I have an idea for Spider-Man, a book called Spider-Man about a teenager who has a lot of problems." Stan Lee went further. “My publisher said, in his ultimate wisdom, ‘Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard.” He continued, “First of all, people hate spiders, so you can't call a book Spider-Man. Secondly, he can’t be a teenager — teenagers can only be sidekicks. And third, he can’t have personal problems if he’s supposed to be a superhero — Don’t you know who a superhero is?”
But Stan Lee went ahead with his plan, and Spider-Man became a hit. The comic book sold millions of copies worldwide, and in no distant time, his boss, Martin Goodman, came running to his office and said, ‘Stan, do you remember that character of yours, Spider-Man, that we both liked so much? Why don’t you do a series of them?’.
Every creative idea that has transformed the world has passed through a torrid test.
The difference between the ones that succeed and the ones that don’t boils down to how one can overcome the obstacles hindering their creativity.
Robert Allen once said, “The only way to be creative is to believe that you are creative”, and this belief should set you on the right course.
Logic dictates that the more you think you’re creative, the more creative you become. Always hold on to your ideas, Allen says, even the ones you think are bad; you’ll never know when they are actually good ideas in disguise.
We must understand that there are blockers to creative thinking that we may not know about that prevent the growth of new ideas.
Some blockers to creative thinking include:
i. Fear and self-doubt — There was once a proverb that stated, "Fear is our greatest enemy." The biggest barrier to original thought is fear. We hesitate to express our opinions out of fear of mockery or rejection, or we hold back because we believe our views are ridiculous.
ii. “There is only one correct answer” — This stubbornness turns off the flow of creative juices. You become rigid and incapacitated.
iii. maintaining the status quo — We would rather conform to the norm and stay on the beaten path so as not to disrupt the peace and spirit of the team. This is also an extension of fear. We feel safer in the sea of sameness, rather than in the field of battle.
iv. Too hasty in making judgments — We can often lose the ability to see the positive aspects of our ideas because of habituation. We fail to even give it a shot.
if we must birth our ideas to life and see them flourish then we must avoid these 4 barriers at all costs.
When you begin to trust in your ideas, your creative powers begin to grow stronger and stronger.
You must understand that the possibilities of today, were once impossible until someone has to give himself permission to make the impossible, possible.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not creative. You are creative and always remember that you have greatness within you.
