If you resolve to do anything this year, do more. If you resolve to do more, do it well.
- DO MORE
We are conditioned to celebrate singular or specialist expertise. We feel good if we master something and at this time of year there is often a focus on acquiring a new trick, ticking off a new destination or even doing less of one thing so we can concentrate on doing the right thing. If we want to grow, to achieve more and create something new there is a simple lesson based on the greatest innovator of all – Leonardo Da Vinci.
Steve Jobs needed inspiration from somewhere, and he turned to Leonardo as the ultimate model for all innovators. His ability to create was not the result of some sort of divine gift but came from an imagination that he developed himself by will and ambition. Leonardo was more than a great painter – he was an astronomer, mathematician, engineer, architect, sculptor and even more besides. It wasn’t as well as all of these interests that he was an inventor – it was because of them.
His 550 year reputation as a force for creativity is of course testament to a talent which is impossible to emulate. However, what can be followed is Leonardo’s insatiable curiosity and fascination with observation. By being interested in so much, by knowing so many things, by being restless in his search for understanding he created ideas that were fantasy to others but a fantastic possibility to him.
Psychologists have proven that true creativity emerges when we make associations between thoughts when we connect multiple unrelated ideas and think about solving problems. We attempt to recreate this effect in business by bringing together cross-functional multi-disciplinary teams of all the talents. This can help, and we can all contribute more as individuals if we each bring more; we can bring more if we show more curiosity, more imagination and gain more experience.
Creativity is a multiplier – if we do more, more happens.