“Adjusting the Sails”

Name: Ben Bracken 

Major: Sports Leadership and Management, General Business 

Hometown: Cincinnati 

Fun Fact: I have a really large collection of vintage hats/ clothes 

Resilience, Failure, Adaptability 

Life is not always going to be sunshine and rainbows. Not everything is going to be perfect and go exactly the way you think it should. Have you ever heard the phrase, “We can’t control the wind, but we can adjust the sails to reach our destination.” Although this may sound cliche, I think that it brings about a lot of truth in the effects positive thinking can have on creativity. In my past, I’ve experienced many shortcomings, failed many times, and have dealt with a great deal of adversity. 

However, it is only through each of these incidents where learning has taken place in my life. Failing often and failing intentionally enhances creativity since we are more inclined to evaluate these failures. It ignites curiosity in an individual and allows us to ask the right questions to move forward and make progress. When we go through these failures, we learn to.. - Silence our VOJ’S more often 

- Judge ourselves/others less 

- Take more risks 

- Ask better questions 

- Create more ideas 

- Create novelty 

- Develop more innovative solutions 

We are all diverse beings and creativity reveals itself differently within all of us. This program teaches you that failure is a stepping stone in the creative process. It is only through making sense of our own failures, where we find the path to our creative selves.