Monday, January 6, 2014

“Making The Choice To Be Creative” - ’Rotimi Odejayi



The OXFORD ENGLISH Mini-Dictionary, the Fifth Edition defined the word “creative” to mean “involving creation or invention; for an individual to show imagination and originality.” A creative youth for instance is one who come up with a newest invention breaking out of the existing status quo. What our nation and the world at large is looking out for are creative youths…so they can be celebrated. The challenge before us today as youths living in a digital world is to dare to create as well as be creative. The world is looking out for an innovator, please will you be one? Please “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth through your creativity’’ – RUMI
This issue of creativity reminds us of the incidence that happened in a certain city between a sage and an equally wise boy. The later actually brought a tactical question for this old wise man to answer so that He could confirm how wise or otherwise this man really was. This mischievous boy went to the man holding a live bird within the hollow of his palms. The bird was held tight inside his palms. This boy with the intention of testing how intelligent this wise man is jokingly asked him, “Sir, can you tell me whether the bird kept in the hollow of my palm is alive or dead’’. Through wisdom, this old man knew fully well that the boy reserve the right to the status of the bird’s life. Should he say, “the bird is dead’’; the boy will simply open his held palms and free the bird. And if he answered, “the bird is alive’’ the boy can snorf life out of the bird kept in the hollow of his palms. The wise man then pondered for a while and answered the imp, “the status of the bird either dead or alive is in your hand’’. It is in your hand. So also is creativity, it is in your hand. The reason is simply because “creativity is not attained by chance, you can only be creative by choice, and as a matter of fact will demand a diligent choice for that matter. Your action to this all – important subject of creativity or inaction is simply a choice that will eventually depicts the kind of difference you will make in life or in you becoming a mediocre. None of us will be a mediocre in Jesus name, Amen…Recall it is your creativity that makes the difference. Dare to be creative.

Here is a practical scenario of a creative individual as opined by Pablo Picasso, “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun’’. The pivotal point here is that, there is literally no new thing in the world. That newest invention is actually an upgrade of an existing project. This affirms the Yoruba proverbs that says ‘’There is no new thing under heaven’’. Let us look at this practical instance every quickly. When I started surfing the internet a little over a decade ago, was the prevalence of the social network hi5.com. After a while was an innovation from Mark Zuckerberg in facebook. It is on record that within one month facebook had over forty million Subscribers. Another set of creative individual went ahead to create something a-bit distinct to facebook in twitter.com As if twitter is not enough in November 2010, a newest creative breakthrough came up in instagram.com And now we have the latest discovery in the social media network in keek.com, with each of them (though social media network) having their unique features. I am convinced we too can create something unprecedented here in the next twenty-four hours. And that is why we are here today. To not only inspire you, but train you on how to design website and develop applications. We are not here to play and this workshop is an intensive hand-on practical session with a view to making creative youths out of this digital world. Please note that we are not here to joke but we are to create. By tomorrow each of us must show – case our project for the world to see. Let us get some messages on creativity from the words of Steve Jobs “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”.

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