CREATIVITY WITHIN NORMALITY BY JEFF VOSS

As a future entrepreneur, my mindset has always been set on finding and creating the next big thing. Looking at the visionaries throughout history, I was amazed by how people came up with such powerful and impactful ideas. Companies like Apple and Tesla which perhaps define a generation with their technological prowess and creativity.

When you plan to build a company from the ground up to the scale of these industry giants, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the vagueness and potential choices for your answer to “What is the next big thing” – and I was. 

It was until one project in an entrepreneurship class where this was my roadblock. After being given the task of reporting what I had learned during the semester back to the professor in the most creative format possible, I spend weeks ideating what format would best fit my message. Approximately five hours before the due date, it finally hit me. What am I good at and have experience in? I then choose the one on top of my list, creating companies and their business plans.

Within a short few hours, I had finished my project; creating a B2B company essentially teaching the lessons of the class to large corporations who often struggle with creativity at a large scale, using similar techniques used in the class. A name, slogan, logo, and case study (of my work) were all implemented into my project, and thus, Creatives Co. was born.

The project not only surprised my professor but myself as well. When in the heat of deciding what format to use, I had become overwhelmed and lost in the possibilities. Exhausted, I went back to the basics and innovated upon those to create one of the best projects I have ever made. 

This semester it became apparent to me that perhaps this trend continues elsewhere, even to the companies that aspire to compete with. To my surprise, the answer to this question is often yes! Apple’s original Macintosh, often regarded as one of the best innovations ever, was simply a new idea implemented into present technology. Rather than making a computer for businesses, Apple made one for home-users. Tesla, a company with a higher market cap than any other automaker in the world, simply replaced a car’s engine with an electric motor and batteries. 

So, perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves isn’t “What is the next big thing?” but rather “What is the next big improvement?”