Creative confidence: What poetic license is to poetry is what creative confidence is to industry

The voice of industry is the voice of creativity and leadership. Creativity is thinking outside of the prescribed formulas. Creative confidence or entrepreneurial leadership is acting outside of the prescribed formulas, that is, applying innovative solutions to problems and to opportunities to enhance and to enrich people’s lives. Creative confidence sees the word ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ as ‘I’M POSSIBLE’. Entrepreneurs are creatives and thought leaders who by virtue of creative confidence imagine possibilities and take responsibilities. Possibilities are responsibilities.

Creative confidence is essentially about the entrepreneur’s capacity to exercise creativity and execute it into innovation. Without innovation, we doubt creativity. Similarly, without implementation, we doubt innovation. Creative confidence is the entrepreneurial freedom to take a creative idea from indoors into industry. It is the capacity of an entrepreneur to turn a creative idea into a lucrative opportunity without regard to the prescribed formulas for entrepreneurial success, and to the resources an entrepreneur currently controls.

Bold entrepreneurs are confident creatives who compete with the competent in order to extend the frontiers of innovation. An entrepreneurial undertaking goes beyond mere passion, creative confidence and leadership competence are the pillars of the entrepreneurial spirit. What vision is to leadership is what innovation is to entrepreneurship. Just like vision is the bedrock of leadership, innovation is the bedrock of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are visionary innovators, confident creatives and competent leaders who transform the economy by creating business opportunities and modernize societies by solving social and environmental problems.

Creative confidence comes with possibilities and responsibilities. The entrepreneurial spirit rises and falls on creativity and leadership. Creativity comes with imagination, while leadership comes with implementation. Creative confidence is the capacity to imagine possibilities and also implement them.

Confident entrepreneurs are unrepentantly creative due to their encounter with the reality of creativity in shaping and transforming economies and societies. Innovation is what creativity looks like, it is the reality of creativity. Creative confidence is an evidence of a touch with industry. What we try indoors does not give us as much confidence as what we try in industry. The same is true for poetry – public speaking, public performances, etc. What poetic license is to poetry is what creative confidence is to industry. No one develops confidence by learning how to drive in a parked car. Students who are deployed into the various sectors of industry for an industrial experience are most likely to develop creative confidence due to their exposure to practical innovation and innovative practices. No one develops creative confidence by learning theories alone, but by blending them with reality.

Putting creative confidence into perspectives among brands, it will be insightful to look at research & development as a booster of creative confidence. R&D is the bedrock of knowledge and innovation. Research is the driver of development. Knowledge drives innovation, while leadership drives the implementation of innovation. Businesses or brands that often innovate have a culture of deepening their R&D. For these large corporations, leadership rises and falls on research outcomes. Business decisions emanate from the strength of research findings. Here, investor’s confidence supersedes creative confidence. Watch out for my next article on investor’s confidence.

Likely sources of creative confidence:

Creative confidence can come from “entrepreneurial gymnastics” – More often than not, entrepreneurial geniuses in the process of exercising their creativity muscles, think outside of the prescribed entrepreneurial formulas. Entrepreneurial gymnastics is simply exercising an entrepreneurial idea and executing innovation through ideation and implementation, respectively. Entrepreneurial gymnastics may not lead to innovative solutions or successful innovations, but ideation effort put into the experimentation of an idea is one of the building blocks of creative confidence. After every successful ideation, an experience is garnered. In every unsuccessful implementation of an innovation, an experience is also gained. Entrepreneurial failure just like success, can also be a source of creative confidence. Success is the mother of confidence, failure is its father. An entrepreneurial experience is the mother of creative confidence.

Creative confidence can come from successful innovations – Every successful innovation was once an entrepreneurial idea. It is quite amazing to see how an ordinary idea morphs into a ground-breaking innovation. Factors such as funding, technology application and research & development, contribute to the successful implementation of an innovation. Creative confidence is at the mercy of entrepreneurial success. Remember, entrepreneurial success is a function of the entrepreneur. It is the entrepreneur that develops a business plan, deploys technology and decides on the direction of development through an investment in R&D. Machine does not innovate, man does. Creative confidence doesn’t come from artificial intelligence, it comes by diligence in arts.

Creative confidence can come from research findings – Research often leads to the development of generalizations, principles and theories. Creative confidence is the freedom to think outside of generalizations, principles and theories. Advances in knowledge and technology advance creativity and innovation (entrepreneurial confidence). Innovation is what knowledge and creativity look like. We doubt knowledge and creativity without innovation. Creative confidence can come from applied knowledge, knowledge gap and a deliberate deviation from conventional knowledge in the usual entrepreneurial gymnastics of trying to challenge and shatter the status quo.

Creative confidence can come from customer pain points – Studies have shown that customers can also become co-creators of value through effective customer brand engagement platforms. When consumers communicate their pain points, they co-create utilitarian value by suggesting ways they can be better served by a producer or service provider. There is a tendency for businesses to confidently leverage this opportunity to implement solutions that address these pain points, especially when the complaints are frequent and become frequently asked questions such as “Why can’t the solar panels be doubled?”, “Would it be possible to have a digital version of this product?”, Can I get a different flavour of this drink, perfume or soap?”, etc.

Creative confidence is the driver of perpetual innovations. Everyone is creative, but not everyone is an entrepreneur. An average entrepreneur believes all things are possible with creativity and leadership.

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