I just watched this great TED presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. I have never heard him before but found out about him through Mitch Joel (another great inspirational marketing guy). If anything else, please watch the video for our children's sake!
Sir Ken quotes Picasso of saying, "Children are all born as Artists!" Our educational system focuses more on the three "R's" than it does on the arts. Our culture does not endorse being an artist as a career. It is when the child paints a purple cow, that the teacher or parent says, "Johnny, cows are not purple, lets look at some real cows". Some kids will notice the painting of the purple cow and laugh. Unfortunately, they have set a trigger in Johnny's head and the seed will remain planted.
When teaching in various institutions I have heard the same comment, "I can't draw, I am not an artist." I always went out of my way to explain we all have the creative talents it has just been suppressed. To get good at anything in life, you need to practice every day! I can't think of any athlete that took a year off and could at the top of his/her game when they returned to competition.
In my own business, I talk to people that have grand visions or dreams and I have to find subtle ways to get these to fruition. Trying to reverse the process of negative reinforcement takes twice as much work. So you have to work in baby steps to see small successes.
In marketing, the big keyword is ROI (return on investment) that businesses have learned. If I spend $5000.00 on the postcard campaign promoting our Winter Special can I make that $5000.00 back in 1 or 2 months. As I am learning now, is that with Social Media and branding your company (blogging, networking, etc) it may be a slow process but it is what our new generation of kids will understand. You can't fight the process, take a chance.
© 2010 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved.
