Why was ABBA so successful and why does the band that played last weekend in my local pub struggle? I ask myself this kind of question countless times. The answer both amazes and baffles me.
As we all know, the reason for the success of the ABBA was their incredible creativity, the beautiful songs they came up with in a series.
In contrast, the reason why the band in the pub struggles is because they play ABBA and others. That is, they lack the creativity to make and play their own songs.
I see this all the time and everywhere. When I was a kid, the greatest people on earth were The Beatles. They made their own songs and a ton of money - however, the bands that played The Beatles made cents.
Every time I see success I ask myself whether the reason is creativity. In fact, it shows up everywhere: Einstein's Theory of Relativity could be seen as creative; Bill Gates approach to computing, either; Ernest Hemingway's novel writing could also be seen as creative.
As a matter of fact, creativity is everywhere. Nobody likes having the same food everyday and many people make untold combinations of existing food items to renew their flavours daily. A soccer game can never be repeated. You can never find two people with the same personality. Some home gardeners never do their gardening the same way two times. Some women never dress the same set of clothes in two occasions and always dress one that is unique. The examples are innumerable.
I am convinced that creativity is both something that only certain people have and something that we all have. The difference is in kind and amount. Talented people have huge amounts of creativity of a special kind. Other people have small amounts of creativity of ordinary kind.
I'm convinced that, at least for this latter kind, we all have it. Which begs the question: could we work it out and make ourselves great? I feel positive about this.
But first, let me try to find out what creativity is? I think creativity is mostly the ability to come up with something new and original. Now, this can be done in varying degrees: some people make variations on something already existing, like some photographers do; and some people come up with something radically different like a music band makes a new hit song.
On the other hand, we all experience some degree of creativity in daily routines. I never shave the same way two times. When you stir your coffee in the morning, do you perform the same number of circles with the teaspoon every day?
It's this that makes me think that creativity is accessible to all. What we probably have to do is to become conscious of it in our daily lives and try to increase it, to cultivate it, to breathe it. Sitting in a rocking chair every evening is, according to some, a good way to start since it stimulates right-brain activity.
Some people who might not see themselves as creative may actually have with themselves some considerable amount of creativity, but have never explored it. I, for 17 years living in Australia, always dismissed my mild talent for writing, this on the self-defeating thought that I would never be able to speak fluently, so hard English seemed to me.
I think also that the discipline our parents so lovingly imposed on us when we were young could be an impediment to creativity. And social pre-concepts are sometimes heavy on people trying to become more creative: a regular person is seen as predictable and therefore trusting; a creative person may be seen as insane.
As a rule, I believe that most people, given the necessary training, could develop substantial amounts of creativity and apply it to their quest for self-fulfillment. I think, though, that some people, and perhaps those bands playing The Beatles and ABBA in pubs, are just plain deserving their pay in cents.
Now, if you have large quantities of creativity concentrated in one area of expression, how is it like? I imagine that these people feel very early in life that they must do something, like Mozart had to do music, and cannot conceive life in any other way but to exploring their talent. In my minuscule dimension, I discovered at the age of 10 years, after doing a 4th grade examination where I wrote a small fictional text that the greatest thing on earth was writing. And all through my life I have felt the need to write.
To this kind of people, intense hard-work is the only way out from potential to actual success. And they must do this work because undeveloped talent suffocates oneself.
