In order to be creative (or innovative), you must be allowed to have bad ideas.
I recently encountered a situation where I felt that I had to be good at everything I did. When I did something different, and it didn’t work out, I was made to feel bad. In addition, that experiment was later interpreted as a lack of competence. The people doing the judging, really didn’t understand the need to fail when you are being creative.
If you aren’t allowed to fail, then you wont risk anything. Suddenly, every idea become a “safe” idea, and you are no longer creating, you are simply doing it the way it has always been done.
So, the next time you approach someone who appears to have a “stupid idea”, remember not to judge. A creative person needs the opportunity to do stupid things now and then in order to develop that brilliant idea.
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