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“Encourage wild ideas.”

– IDEO’s mantra

I was recently asked if I’m a creative person.  Thanks to the readings and experiential learning in this course, I responded yes.  I realize that I’ve moved past the “he” paradigm, in which one solitary genius is “blessed” with the gift of creativity.  At this time, I feel like I’m embodying the “I” paradigm by seeing creativity as a part of everyday life-  specifically, in the way I approach my schoolwork, interact with the people around me, and think about the future.

I have come to a crossroads in my life and I am deciding between:

For the first time, I feel like I’m able to apply what I’m learning in theory to my everyday life.  Why do there need to be binaries?  Why can’t I do it all?  Why can’t it look more like this:

acaswissentramerica

or

praxswissteachUSA?

In the quiz we took on the first day of class, I discovered I’m a “diverger.”  I learned that I’m a lot more of an innovator than I had ever considered before- that I have more ideas than I’ve given myself credit for in the past.  I always took myself as the “planner,” or an “implementer,” but never as an “inventor.” Imagine my surprise when we took this quiz and I was pegged as someone who comes up with great ideas- this immediately freed up the mental constructs I had of myself and expanded what I think I am capable of doing.

Further, what I learned from our walk around Zurich is that people have taken on amazing, inventive and exciting entrepreneurial ventures.  People are creating spaces where community is fostered and grown.  They are transforming companies to meet the ever-changing wants of society while caring for the environment.  They are enjoying their lives “despite having” to work by creating jobs that are joyful and fulfilling.

In light of our walk around Zurich, and having watched The Full Monty, I  realize that a large drive for entrepreneurship has to be the need for money and/or a desire to make a profit while creatively using available resources.  Another tenet of business is intuiting the demand of locals and going above and beyond the offerings made by others.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to again play with my business idea.  Before this class, I was much more risk-averse; I had considered starting a business, but had never gone through with it for the fear of failure.  Challenging myself to come to this process with a childlike sense of innocence, of being open to grace and possibility, and knowing that it might fail and that’s okay, has allowed me to move forward on planning my business.