CREATIVITY is the MOST important quality of a successful entrepreneur

A boundless imagination that is constantly innovating and seeing the world through a different lens — this is the ultimate key to business success.

This is an amazing gift very few entrepreneurs have and the ones that do excel in amazing ways. The reason is because their imagination is trained to be constantly innovating. They see the world differently.

"With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice."  -Oprah Winfrey

The most fascinating for me is a creative buyer's perspective on opportunities that I present. I remember when I first made the switch from selling houses to selling businesses I would always be used to doing my valuation on the property (comps etc) and I would give my professional opinion (house is easy all it is is size, yard, bathrooms, kitchen, year built). This is totally different in businesses. This is a different type of sale that involves “the potential to grow fast” (what it takes and how fast it can get there). Everyone sees this differently. Now that I am experienced I never give my opinion unless the client asks me. I present the facts and let the buyer decide. I learned this from a buyer that called one day on a car wash we had for sale. We must have presented this same car wash to about 50 buyers before he called. Everyone that saw it told us how terrible it was. They said the rent was high and it was way overpriced. This buyer did not see it that way. This buyer was a different kind of entrepreneur. He was also a successful inventor and very creative. He saw the world differently. He wanted this business. He saw this as a gold mine with huge potential. We worked for many months putting the deal together. 

On the other hand, some business owner's lack of creativity can be detrimental to their success. Some creativity is essential, from the operation of the business, the creation of the product, and most significantly in the marketing. Advertising agencies are very successful because they recognize this need.

 Creative partnerships are excellent. Facebook and Apple are great examples.

Most breakthrough discoveries occur when two or more disciplines collide. Most people are afraid of collisions, but creative collisions are to be encouraged, because they allow you to view a problem from a new perspective.

Creative problem-solvers are often able to connect two distinct areas of expertise and can translate potential solutions from one field to an unrelated area. 

                                                      About creativity:

 Creativity is a bigger predictor of success in life than intelligence. 

Most educational institutions and businesses still value intelligence over creativity. This may be because intelligence is easier to quantify, easier to manage, and easier to identify, whereas creativity can be difficult to spot because the most creative people often struggle in school. This makes it hard to discern the difference between a potential troublemaker and a truly creative person, who could bring great benefits to a company if their creativity were properly harnessed. A business should consider hiring for creativity in addition to intelligence.

 Creativity actually needs structure to flourish, but not so much structure that it is crushed.

Creative problem-solving works best when harnessed with highly focused and disciplined thought. The trick is being rigorous, but not rigid, in your work. Scientists who study creativity say it is essential to combine two modes of thinking, convergent and divergent, to have creative breakthroughs. Convergent thinking is highly analytical and focuses on arriving at one correct solution given the available data, whereas divergent thinking generates creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.