The Lack of Emphasis on Creativity

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” – George Lois

Nowadays, I feel as if there is a lack of creativity in society. We create curriculums for children to learn in school through rote memorization and standardized testing. In the age of digital technology, memorization is not as important as creativity. Society has room for creative people to implement different strategies to better society.

The school system is lagging behind the way the world works. And as a result, many people struggle with such issues as paying the bills in order to make ends meet. In a way, the school system is just another form of child labor. Children “learn” in school, then they go home and are expected to finish extra homework, meanwhile potentially missing out on a great childhood that emphasizes play with contributing to society. The limitations on their social contributions is through a few hours of community service such as it is expected to be completed in high school. The system is designed for people to settle for jobs.

I believe that this age is shifting. Now, it is easy to access labor through services such as Fiverr. You can hire people for cheap to produce certain goods or services. So people are confused as to what they should be doing in this day and age.

Will jobs become obsolete?

I believe that jobs will not become entirely obsolete. As the demand for creativity grows, the more competitive the job world becomes. And as you can witness nowadays, people who suffered from financial loss from their retirement funds are now currently taking on low wage jobs such as being a cashier at Walmart. In order to make it in the job market, you have to consistently prove your worth and learn how to adapt to the changes in the market.

I think it’s a safer bet to focus on creating your own business or becoming self-employed. Enhance your skills daily through reading, taking courses (offline or online), or just researching various topics that interest you online. If a 15-year old can make money off a smartphone app they’ve created, so can you. It doesn’t matter if you are old. Age is just becoming an excuse. You can learn how to build up skills that are valuable to society, and that you can use to your advantage.

When you first start off as an entrepreneur, you may not make much, simply because you do not know how to market your skills or talents. But after time, after trying various ideas, something is bound to stick and is bound to make you more than enough money to pay off your bills. It takes some time, dedication, and research in order to make this happen.

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, you can learn how to make money passively on the side. For example, you can blog, write ebooks, create YouTube videos, or invest in real estate. There is bound to be something that you are interested in that you can dabble into passive income with. Passive income is great for anyone who needs a break here and there, as opposed to being a slave to your job. All it takes is a little bit of learning, and it can be exciting to try as well. Create a job for yourself rather than allowing others to dictate what you must do in order to make money in this world.

Homeschooling

Homeschooling is for everyone, including the adults. Or as Leo Babauta likes to call it: unschooling. In this form of education, you are at home and learning different skills based on what your interests are. This leads to more creativity and fun in learning numerous subjects. For example, you can learn how to cook or you can learn how the stock market works. The sky’s the limit. You don’t have to succumb to a structured system where you may be forced to study subjects that don’t appeal to you. You get to choose the subjects, and you can learn how to apply those subjects in the real world instantly.

If you’re good at cooking, you can share recipes online. Maybe you could even start a cooking course such as through Teachable. If you choose to study about the stock market, you could learn how to invest over time (of course, while being careful). The cool idea behind unschooling is that you can learn virtually anything and figure out a way to make passive income through it.

Creativity is the key behind living such a lifestyle. As I’d like to call it, it is the age of creativepreneurs. We no longer how to struggle to make it big in any industry that we put our minds to. Rather, creativity is the exploration of problem-solving. There is no limit to how many ideas you can run with, thanks to the Internet. So where will you start first? (;