“A training ground for entrepreneurs”: how creativity shapes business thinking. Interview for the business portal RUSBASE
Before launching their first business project, some people take courses: they develop entrepreneurial thinking, study business models and change their mindset. But that is not the only way to mature and decide to start your own business: sometimes doing creative work works just as well.
Dmitry Bulkin, photo artist and author of a course in creative art photography, explains how creativity helps you get ready to open your own business.
The school of creative art photography has existed since 2011. Over this time I have repeatedly seen some students move from being employees to running their own businesses. Sometimes people come to the course with an inner need that has already matured, and sometimes they decide to make the leap during the course, wanting to get away from a job they do not love.
I do not set myself the goal of changing people’s approach to life; it happens by itself. I only add fuel to the fire.
Creative thinking is production
Creative thinking is focused on creating something material. This defines the algorithm of action – we can no longer discuss for the sake of discussing, we always have to do things and bring what we have started to its final goal. That is why a creative person is directly connected with production, just like an entrepreneur.
Through creativity we acquire skills aimed not only at generating the idea itself but also at carrying it out. To create a creative work, you have to go through the same path an entrepreneur goes through. We face many problems and nuances that bring us closer to people who make products or provide services – we simply have different forms and goals.
Developing will
There is a belief that photography is an easy art because the camera does everything. But when a person starts treating photography as creativity (rather than just taking pretty holiday pictures), they run into serious problems.
It turns out you need to be able to do a great many things for a photograph to work out, and to work out regularly. First of all you need will. Photography is an individual sport: if the photographer does not want it, nothing will happen. If the photographer cannot physically get themselves up and act, nothing will happen, however much they want it.
Only you and only your interest
Nobody in the world cares whether you do something or not; it is only your interest. In creativity, if a person has not created a work, it does not exist. The same in business: if a person does not create a product, they do not exist as an entrepreneur.
The action itself gives birth to the person, whether the object is creative or economic. In this case you are a personal, self-motivated action brought to a result. A person who already has experience of creating something in art finds it much easier to decide to create something in business too.
An emotional salary
A salary is not only money. It is also recognition, reputation, status, the atmosphere in the team, personal growth. The bigger the social capital, the more valuable the salary. And that is a different form of payment – an emotional one.
A creative person needs to express themselves, to give the most of what they have. This is one of the answers to the question of why people who come to creative courses often leave their usual jobs. They realise that they are living people and need something more than just getting a salary – they need self-expression. And once they have this emotional income, they understand its value and no longer settle for less.
A taste for life
Burnout is one of the biggest problems of our time. It happens not only because people work round the clock, but because they have no strength or desire for self-realisation. There is a feeling that life is passing in vain.
Creativity is an outlet. People who know the pleasure of creating perceive life more fully and discover their emotional side, and after that, as a rule, there is no way back. A person who has tasted the freedom of self-realisation will find it very hard to go back to just shuffling other people’s papers and being invisible.
The skill of working with reality
If in painting the material you speak through is paint and canvas, in photography it is the surrounding reality. Working with reality is a good training ground for entrepreneurs: it develops the ability to rely only on the resources that are really available.
A photographer cannot fantasise about something the way a painter or writer can. They pay attention to their surroundings and use only this resource, only here and now.
Such practice brings people back to life and teaches them to get things done.
Now imagine: say we need to hold an event, but there is a lockdown and events are not allowed. We have three options: dream about how good it would be without the lockdown; accept that the lockdown is reality and give up this business; or accept reality and figure out how to hold the event under these conditions.
The third way of thinking is the thinking of a productive photographer. They know what they want and look for it, and if it is not there, they find alternative solutions, but they do not give up on the task.
Attentiveness and flexibility
A creative person is usually passionate about exploring the world. For modern business, being inattentive to changes happening every second is like death.
Flexibility, a position, a broad outlook and widening your experience let you find a solution where you did not expect to find one.
Many attempts and improvement
Photography is a multi-stage process. First you decide what exactly you will do, then you look for real objects, capture them, load them into the computer, select the best, adapt them to the materials, and only then print.
It is important to stay in shape and keep your interest to the end: for something to work out, you have to go the whole way. If necessary, go back and redo it, do not give up. When we face such a process, it teaches us well to make many attempts, not to drop things halfway and to come back to them many times to bring them to the desired result.
Start-up culture has developed the idea that you can launch with a minimal base and then keep improving the product. And this is very similar to creative work – you do not wait for peak form, you start as soon as you can, but keep improving yourself and every work you make.
Developing courage is easier and cheaper
People are often shy about showing themselves in public – not only going on stage or showing a painting, they are also afraid to voice an opinion or an idea. Creativity is a space where it is easier and cheaper to develop courage.
Here you quickly understand that it is impossible to please everyone, that judging an idea is always subjective, and, most importantly: if you really want to, you must do it, if only for your own inner pleasure. Maybe people will like it too.
How creativity develops entrepreneurial thinking
it helps turn an impulse into producing a concrete result;
it strengthens willpower;
– it develops a sense of responsibility;
– it introduces you to an emotional salary;
– it builds the habit of enjoying everything you do;
– it teaches you to work with reality rather than fantasise;
– it teaches you to use circumstances to your advantage;
– it helps you not to give up halfway;
– it fundamentally strengthens self-confidence.
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Source
https://rb.ru/opinion/art-and-business/?fbclid=IwAR3OlT5xw6WygMY4QF6LJI1FXYSVqoyzpzH_7_uyXUXUmyKWs6DRd2hZKLo