How intellectually vulnerable are you willing to be?

Opening a stubborn jar is a universal human struggle

Opening a stubborn jar is a universal human struggle.

Even if we do use brute force, then wrap the jar in a rubber glove, smack the lid with a spoon, run it under boiling water and whip out one of those handy silicon kitchen openers for old people with arthritis, sometimes, that stupid lid still won’t budge.

It’s infuriating. You almost have to convince yourself that you’re not ever hungry anymore.

Unless, of course, you hand the jar off to somebody else around the house. Somebody who has no emotional stake in the outcome. Somebody who will open the jar in three seconds without contorting their face into a mask of hatred and rage.

There you go! Thanks for loosening the lid for me. Enjoy your pickles.

The creative process works in a similar way.

What stands in the way, though, is when we want to be right. And complete and prepared. And wholly protected as we walk into the board room with our idea tucked under our arm like a prize.

We want to be the one who opens the jar, and nobody else.

Sadly, that level of security isn’t always available to us. Sometimes we have no choice but to be intellectually vulnerable. And humble enough to share our ideas with the group before they’re fully formulated.

It’s like a particle accelerator for creativity. We throw the idea into the void, let it hit the wall and shatter into a million pieces, and we trust that someone on our team will pick it up and run with it.

And no matter who ultimately gets the credit, we can take pride in the fact that we loosened the lid.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How intellectually vulnerable are you willing to be?

* * *

Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
scott@hellomynameisscott.com
www.nametagscott.com

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