The 10 Life Lessons From Edward De Bono That Will Change The Way How You Think

They will help you learn to adopt a creative mindset that uses indirect approaches to solving life’s problems.

Edward De Bono is a Maltese physician, psychologist, author, inventor, philosopher, and consultant. He is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

He is well known for coining the concept of lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It involves ideas that may not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-step logic.

He discussed this concept in his book, “The Use of Lateral Thinking” published in 1967. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote the book “Six Thinking Hats”, and is a proponent of the teaching of thinking as a subject in schools.

Here are 10 of his lessons that will aspire to change the way how you think. They will open the doorways of your creative soul and spark an interest in finding newer ways of seeing problem spaces inspiring you to build a better life.

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns to look at things differently.”

Creative thinking is not a talent; it’s a skill that can be learned. One of the best examples of creative thinking can be substituted as follows,

Suppose you have 4 knives, and you are asked to stand a glass of water using those 4 knives. Now a normal person would say, how can we use knives to place a glace of water on them. It’s impossible, not quite.

Well, you can actually pull that off using only 3 knives — what you need to do is place each knife on top of the other.

Where the first knife is placed on the second, and the second is placed on the third, and the third is placed on the first making an isosceles triangle.

Now you can place that glass perfectly on it.

See what I did there, just like this one. We have to be creative in our solutions. Sometimes it will only take minimal effort to come up with solutions to solve a complicated problem by paying attention to the patterns as well as breaking out of established patterns. Thus, seeing the problem in another unusual way to solve it through a creative means of thinking.

“If you never change your mind, why have one?”

I have a very dear friend, whom I adore to bits. Back in the summer of 2016, he one day left university without telling anyone. I called him up and asked why did you leave the university and your degree just like that. He told me that his friends fought with him, and he can’t even bear them and thus he thought to leave.

To me, this sounded a very strange and unreasonable way to just leave all your studies just because he had an ego clash with those people. So I tried to help him get back to the campus, at first he didn’t want to change his mind.

It took me at least a month before he even paid attention to what I was saying. He, later on, came back and joined a newer program — only shortly after leaving that as well.

He perhaps can be substituted as a perfect case study for this quote, as it underlines the unreasonability of someone who won’t use their mind for their actual well being.

A mind is a precious gift when exercised to make your life better, if you strive for the solitude of mind — well that is even better because you will achieve something that my friend never tried to i.e. peace of mind.

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

One of my life’s motto after being an Entrepreneur has taught me one fundamental concept and that is, ideas without execution are no more than words on a sheet of paper. Even at times, the startup will fail even if you keep on waiting for the actual outcome to arise — it never comes, you have to make it happen.

“The ideas, that you conceptualize have either been done or are being and will be done in the foreseeable future — they will only stand out on who executes them and how they will be executed to solve what problems?”

Edward de Bono in his book “Letters To Thinkers” talks about an argument known as “the same as” where he proposes a solution when an idea is similar to what is being done currently. The best way it will stand out is “what’s the difference” between your idea and the one that organizations are currently using in their disposal.

I have seen people during my entrepreneurship journey who underestimate the opponents that are competing with them. They believe that their idea is going to solve X problems in Y minutes with Z efficiency.

But what they don’t calculate is the risk they are trying to take without properly strategizing their cards in a row. Instead, they throw them all together and significantly lose the race before it even starts.

This is why an Idea should be first practically prototyped so that it can garner results. Which we can use to predict how our strategies might affect the desired outcomes. Otherwise, that idea is practically meaningless.

“Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.”

A joke can ease even the most tensed of situations. I would love to share something, of an excerpt from my life. I was in regional startup competition we made it to the finals, it was our day to submit the results of our marketing plan. We walked with confidence, and one of the primary investors made a pun,

Congratulations, You’re rejected.

Now you can understand what our situation would be. But he did that to break the ice, for us it felt like a WTF moment. But it was humorous when we walked into the presentation room, we all laughed together.

Afterward, I gave a subtle presentation and thus scored an investment of around 8000 USD for our startup with a distributed equity of 40% to the investor.

The whole discussion I had with him, was a pretty humorous one. I understood that this guy is serious as I could see he was tired listening to people who were in the final phase. So that moment of saying the above pun was to enlighten himself and the environment as well.

I took that into notice earlier on, and I had a jab at it as well. He told me that he would like to see me market their product through their system, and I agreed, which later on failed as their product had flaws, but it was a great experience.

I learned a lot. If I wouldn’t have taken the humorous comment and let my emotions do the talking. I wouldn’t be standing there, I would have just waltzed out as anyone would who would take it personally. Thus humor is the most enlightening of activities there is to thinking.

I take great pride in my haiku writing journey, Following is one of the humorous renditions I have written called Shit Happens.

walking in the park one day — pigeon shoots his shit on my friend’s head, poop

“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.”

This truly brought a smile on my face, as I know a way perhaps we all know of it which we can use to make that memory happen again. It is one of the gifts of our minds, that help us to reminisce upon the memories we have made through the years we have lived.

What a beautiful way to sum a memory up! I believe that some memories no matter how hard they are for us to accept, the moment we do them and let go is the moment we free ourselves. This is such a philosophically rich statement that the memory that causes us much can be removed just like that if we stop caring about what it did.

I believe when I was younger I used to daddle on old memories unable to leave them. As they reminded me of suffocating teenage years but I was able to relieve myself of those worries when I stopped caring.

Thus, I know that what has happened does become a memory but you don’t let that memory control what you have in the present. It will never happen, and You are here now. Know that you made it.

As the incident that’s attached to the memory won’t necessarily happen again. Because we will choose differently and wisely for our well being next time.

“Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.”

Our inability to perceive something is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of us committing mistakes. We never truly put time into understanding something before making an action, thus we never truly see what could become of our actions in a multitude of perspectives.

It’s that our choices aren’t logical, It’s because of the incapacity ourselves that we are unable to understand something as we don’t try to. We all have been in the position of making decisions that never really were thoughtful. They affected in the worst of ways possible and we had to pay the price for those mistakes.

This can easily be understood by the saying of a very famous and renowned man named Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who said,

“The most ignorant of those who are ignorant is the one who trips over the same stone twice.”

Thus, it is our mistake and our inability to perceive the dangers that lie through our choices, that are never properly thought-out. Therefore, we need to be able to think creatively. So that we can overcome difficulties that lie in one’s ignorance towards a subject matter by reading and seeing it all the other ways available to us.

“Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.”

The key to a happy life is as simple as not keeping expectations from anything or anyone. I know this seems like a difficult statement. We all keep expectations, but there is a way that I usually employ to help figure out a solution to keep my happiness intact.

I only expect 1%, of everything from anything and anyone in life.

Using my talents, I try to gain an insight into one percent of everything. I mean all of us can generally do just that. Having a 1% goal keeps me in check of my talents and what I expect to achieve.

Most of the time, I usually achieve a far higher output by setting a goal but applying maximum effort. It gives me the thrill to do it with gusto.

But you might be wondering, where does the 99% go. Well, that 99% is the difference, or let’s say the risk of the effort I will put into achieving that one percent.

Set goals that you can meet when you'd do that, you will have a higher chance of experiencing happiness than ever before.

I am the kind of person who tries to achieve 1% off by putting my maximum effort to reach my goal, but I always expect less and Give more.

I can assume say my goal is set to 1%. Even if I fail which I will — considering the 99% risk I’m taking, I will still be able to relish gratefulness when I achieve that one percent. It will help me to learn ways I never thought possible.

All my happiness is riding on that single percentage, which I can fairly make using my talents with minimal effort. Usually, I am surprised by the results because I can meet my goals tenfold, and also It gives me an insurmountable amount of joy to know that I made my goal and then some. One of my life mottoes is,

It’s better to be one percent of everything than to be 100 percent at one thing — As it is a reasonable way to put 99% effort into expecting a 1% positive self-sustaning result.

This is why always we have to be creative in how we need to proceed in our life whether it’s our happiness, our survival — being creative helps us to deliver better results in building a happy self-sustaining life. You will certainly achieve far higher results with that guaranteed one percent of unlimited joy.

“If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.”

When I was a teenager, I asked and waited for help. I even asked God for an answer, yet only after I started to run. Did he respond to my questions? Waiting for the right time never comes to those, who never made their mind to make them in the first place.

I tried so hard to think of ways to survive as a teenager, back then I was going through a rough patch. No one was there to pick me up, I did not wait for opportunities as my life depended on it. So what I did was I created my own.

The risk of creating a window of opportunity is usually high in certain scenarios. In my case, I had nothing to lose except my life which I wanted to preserve. I was able to do just that but not by waiting. By trying to find ways to free me from the hell hole of the life it had become.

You will fall many times, It will hurt, you will break but get back up and then keep running, keep running until you reach your home where peace awaits. If you stand idly by and let things flow it won’t matter whether you’re a good man or a bad.

What matters is you make every choice serving as an opportunity to make things happen for your well being! That is what you need to do, I write every day. I was writing when my grandmother passed away, I kept writing.

I did not lose hope. I kept on working, every day till I reached where I am now. I will never advise anyone to stand there among the crowd. Instead, I will reach my hand towards the ones that want out.

But remember, this one thing I never asked for anyone but myself. That is what you need to understand. You have to stand up for yourself. I suffer from anxiety but that has never stood in my life when it came to a bully aching to punch the living shit out of me. I never gave up, even though they never won a fight and I never hurt them, just disabled them during a fight.

You can either let life roll you over, or you can stare it right in the eyes, and say, “Try me.” Thus, remember you are the one who will change their life, no one will come to your rescue but yourself. It’s time you wake yourself up, choose to run free — happiness awaits at the end of those choices.

“We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.”

One of the best examples I can give you is Neman Ashraf, he is perhaps one of the most influential writers of Quora and a genuinely awesome human being. Neman is an ordinary police constable, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his love for writing.

Neman grew up in a poor household, with nothing to his name. And because of poor resources, he was unable to get a formal education. But that didn’t stop him from pursuing his creative passions. He bought a laptop perhaps through his small salary, it cost him a lot perhaps in 2014, and he joined the platform.

I have been following his answers and his exciting perspective that shows how you can garner excellent results by hard work and using your creativity to break free from the systemic poverty that has been placed upon you.

There are perhaps thousands of people I know just like him that have broken free from the poverty that was placed on them through an inequality distribution system of wealth.

He used his creativity to make a name for himself and thus helping people see life differently through his words, and love for writing as a whole. Our creativity is something that helps us break free from the shackles of ignorance, poverty, and vice-versa.

“An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgments simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.”

In my experience as a mentor, I have perhaps failed many times. I have understood how my choices will impact what percentage of results. This has given a great amount of insight to decipher what are the patterns that are needed for someone’s survival and what needs to be removed for their fruition.

I like teaching, and as a part-time educator — I use my expertise to good use by highlighting the things people are good at helping them to become great at it.

It is perhaps a simple process of lessening the effects of their weaknesses as opposed to increasing their strengths. It helps them to gain effective self-confidence in their efforts and that helps us to achieve our mutual goals.

We should put a greater emphasis on the “why”, “what” and “how” but also on the “when” and “where” as well. Everything matters otherwise we leave room for error. Some errors may arise from outside sources that are not controlled and it’s perfectly fine about that.

That is what a mentor can do, someone who has achieved an excellent level of understanding what needs to be the input, and what doesn’t. They can guide you in making better decisions that yield greater results. We can become an expert even without a mentor, and that is perhaps how I became one.

The best way to do that is by paying attention to the patterns and signs of all things that are happening in that problem space. We will remove the things that are concerned with us, only focusing on the things that we need to fulfill to achieve our goals.

One example is as follows,

Suppose three men are rowing a boat, the boat has 6 leaks but only three men in the boat to fix it. Also, the boat is nearing the shore, One could say you can swim there. But there are sharks surrounded by the boat. How will they make it to the shore?

One way is to stop thinking about the sharks in the water, removing that factor will ease you to think clearly. Those sharks are just like the incomprehensible factors that will undermine your work unless you let them affect your progress.

Secondly, two of them can use their hands and feet to stop the leaks. but how will the one guy row the boat all by himself?

This is the tricky part.

See this is where true creativity comes in, how can those two men help the man who is rowing the boat? Now this question, whenever I ask in seminars, is probably the hardest and people find it impossible to answer.

The answer is, perhaps very simple but it involves an amount of risk that they have to take. I will adjust the responsibility of clogging the leaks to one man while the rest try to row the boat to the shore.

There’s also one catch that perhaps not many ask or think for example which one of the men is the strongest, which is the second and then the third. There are different ways you can work around a problem, questions such as these get you to think.

Knowing which choice will impact what outcomes while removing the things that don’t matter.

As this is an open-ended question, the solution depends on highlighting the concerns and removing the unconcerning things when you are faced with such a situation — That’s what makes one an expert. That is what you can do to become one as well.

Thank you for reading.