Values Quotes – Edwin Land on Creativity

Welcome to Values Quotes. I’m Robert Ferguson.

Today’s quote is from Edwin Land, an American scientist and inventor best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation in the 1930s.

A brilliant quote from Land is:
“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”

Wise words from a very creative inventor.

As a differentiating value, Creativity means the mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas and concepts.

Land was a man who generated a stream of new ideas and concepts throughout his life.

Just consider his development of instant cameras that made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in less than 60 seconds – long before anyone could imagine digital cameras. His creative process also led to many inventions, from the 3-D glasses used to watch movies, to the ability to control brightness of light necessary for LCD displays. Can you imagine how we would use our computers, tablets, and smart phones today if it weren’t for his work?

But for all of the inventions that Land contributed to society, there is a trail of failures. It was a normal part of the journey to success. In fact, creativity is not necessarily about a discovery itself, but rather the process of generating new ideas that leads to a new discovery.

So, if you value creativity, what processes are you following to generate new ideas? If you follow a good process, you too can become known as a very creative inventor.

 

Today’s value was selected from the “Creativity-Uniqueness” category, based on the e-book Developing Your Differentiating Values.