With my idea tucked under my arm like a prize

Opening a stubborn jar is a universal human struggle. 

Even
if we do use brute force, then wrap
the jar in a rubber glove, smack the lid with a spoon, run it under boiling
water and whip out one of those handy silicon kitchen openers for old people
with arthritis, sometimes, that stupid lid still won’t budge. 

It’s infuriating.
You almost have to convince yourself that you’re not ever hungry anymore. 

Unless, of course, you hand the jar off to somebody else around the house.
Somebody who has no emotional stake in the outcome. Somebody who will open the
jar in three seconds without contorting their face into a mask of hatred and
rage. 

There you go! Thanks for loosening the lid for me. Enjoy your pickles. 

The creative process works in a similar way. 

What stands
in the way, though, is when we want to be right. And complete and prepared. And
wholly protected as we walk into the board room with our idea tucked under our
arm like a prize. 

We want to be the
one who opens the jar, and nobody else. 

Sadly, that level of security isn’t
always available to us. Sometimes we have no choice but to be intellectually
vulnerable. And humble enough to share our ideas with the group before they’re
fully formulated. 

It’s like a particle accelerator for creativity. We throw the
idea into the void, let it hit the wall and shatter into a million pieces, and
we trust that someone on our team will pick it up and run with it. 

And no
matter who ultimately gets the credit, we can take pride in the fact that we
loosened the lid. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How intellectual vulnerable are you willing to be? * * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

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