I have never said to anyone … “I can’t do that.”

Rather, I have said to myself … “I have to find a way that I can do that.”, and said to others “Let me find a better way.”, and another option is “Let’s do something different to what’s been done before.”

Why do I do this? Because there are a lot of things I cannot do easily – and some things I won’t do it the the way others think it should be done.

When you say ‘it is the only way‘, I doubt it.
When you say that ‘it is the best way‘, I ask when last you checked/tested/tried.
When my work colleagues tell me ‘I have tried all the other options‘, I say “My turn.” I’ll get back to this in a moment.

When we conform to what society believes is the best, right or only way, evolution stagnates.

Me, every time someone says their is only one way.

My Turn

Earlier in the article I wrote: When my work colleagues tell me they have tried all the other options, I say “My turn.”

Whilst some might see this as patronising and condescending, my colleagues now revere me for my ability to find things where others have had no luck. Of course, I am infallible and occasionally have to concede defeat – but I keep those moments to a minimum.

Being born into a highly creative family has meant having to think fast and freely at all times. Every thing we did as kids needed lots of brainstorming to determine the best way to achieve our childhood-goals.

EXAMPLE : My brother built a BobaFett outfit.

Sorry no photos, but imagine a red bucket with a vertical slit down one side which had a slight horizontal slit about half way up. Vision was near impossible, but interesting. It unfortunately did not look like the premium electronic BobaFett helmet.

My brother had to have a working light-sabre to match the attire. Working? Not with a lazer, that was clearly not going to happen. But he wanted to be able to strike a person and leave a visual mark. No, he didn’t want to hurt anyone nor draw blood – but he wanted the ‘wound’ to be noticeable. The answer was quickly realised when we added a few ideas together:

One of the most important tools on our property way back in the 1980’s was a back-pack-water-sprayer. With its multiple uses in mind, by brother’s ingenuity saw the answer fairly quickly. The wound he wanted to see looked remarkably similar to a streak of water, similar to what happened when the spray-pack missed it’s targets by the merest of millimetres.

My smart-alec of a brother tried a few smart ideas which eventuated in wrapping sponge-foam around a broom handle. After being given a metal handle (with texta’d StarWars light-sabre buttons!), I became the guinea pig for the design. I can categorically say it does hurt to get your shoulder hit by a broom-stick, despite it being saturated in water.

Our Bobafett had a lightsabre thanks to my brother’s ingenuity. How does that tie into my creativity? Because I volunteered to be the guinea-pig, the guy that got hit, to determine the effectiveness the weapon. I was a part of history.

Sometimes we make history, sometimes we are part of history.