15*15 CREATIVITY EXERCISE SERIES —4

Imagine 15 ways of creating value and contribution

This is your opportunity to go on creative adventures of innovation

In this series (15*15), I design and present you 15 adventures and challenges in 15 days. I am developing these challenges in real-time — I hope you do enjoy and benefit from these exercises.

The goal of these challenges is to help you expand your imagination and exercise your muscles of creativity. This is the 4th day and 4th installment of that series.

Our fourth-day challenge is about imagining 15 ways of how you can create value for the world.

How can you contribute to the world?

What are some of your visions and wishes that you want to bring to life?

How will you create breakthrough value?

What legacies will you leave behind you?

Your goal will be to imagine, dream, and brainstorm different scenarios and visions to create your value and contribution to the world.

Your Challenge: Find 15 ways of creating value and contribution

Think about exciting contributions, projects, wishes, and you want to bring to the world.

What are the things that you want to create to add value and contribute to the world?

In this exercise, you will be thinking of 15 projects to help you create your legacy (i.e. your professional, creative, or intellectual body of work over the long term).

Here are some ideas to get you started and to help you conceptualize your own contributions:

• You might create a new business, a new product, or a new service. You can create a brand (or multiple brands) of your own (lifestyle, sports, health, food, consulting, coaching, media, publishing etc.)
• You can develop your own entrepreneurial or artistic projects. You can create your own Kickstarter or Patreon page to find your fans. You can create your own portfolio of artwork and curate an art exhibition.
• You can create your social media assets. You might start your own blog, podcast, or YouTube channel. You can create multimedia projects, curations, and digital content on areas you are passionate about.
• You can write a book (or multiple books) on areas where you can share your unique experiences, perspectives, knowledge, thinking, and ideas with the world.
• You can address some of the wicked/global problems in the world (such as poverty, inequality, global warming/climate emergency etc.). You might start a charity or an NGO to create positive change for communities that you care about.
• You can develop a stream of inventions or innovations or patents that will change the world. You can contribute to emerging and cutting edge technologies in AR, VR, artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D printing, or other areas that excite you.
• You can create your own TED talk, masterclass, and/or online course.

What are your ideas?

Please make a list of all your ideas. Try to develop 15 project ideas.

Inspirational videos: A curated playlist to help you find your own projects and contribution

I have curated a couple of inspirational video resources for you. They cover everything from entrepreneurship to innovation, from arts to creativity. They will help and inspire you to carve your own path. Here they are:

Now, it is your turn: Please finalize your project ideas now.

Please finalize your list of 15 projects and contributions.

For each project, feel free to write, doodle, and visualize your ideas. You can also make a list of small actions to bring them closer to reality.

Try to come up with 15 different projects and try to aim for a diverse range of projects (entrepreneurial, creative, service/community projects etc.)

For the purposes of this exercise, please do not delve into too much detail for each project. Aim for 3–4 minutes of thinking/writing for each project. You do not need to develop the project fully. Try to write down the minimum viable project description (you can think of some bullet points or just a snapshot). If you want to go deeper, leave it for later.

If you do not have the time or the will to complete all 15, you can develop ideas for several projects for now, and leave the rest for later.

You will benefit a lot from exercising your creative muscles and getting out of your comfort zone. If you do the exercise above, you will strengthen your creative muscles 15 times. We need to give our brain creative challenges every day. If we make this a habit, the process will help us rewire our brains to be more open to creativity.

It is important to start small and treat these exercises as play. They are small experiments in imagination. They work much better if you stop judging your ideas and obsessing over feasibility, quality, or depth. All projects start with small steps. Small actions are all that you need to get started on these projects. You will instantly jump in the water without thinking. Thinking too much hurts your creativity because it paralyzes you. Every creative or entrepreneurial act starts with taking a leap of faith into the unknown. Each time you jump into the unknown makes you more adventurous, open, and creative.

The world needs your unique ideas, inventions, contributions, models, innovations, and art. Creating your creative assets is one of the best investments you can make for the long term. You need to allocate time every day in your calendar to create the things that only you can create and bring to the world. You need to create the book you want to read, the music you want to listen to, the product that you want to buy, and the artwork you want to see (Austin Kleon’s advice). Remember that the asset creation game is a marathon and it is never too late to start your own game.

I will finish today’s post with two inspirational commencement speeches from two iconic entrepreneurs of our times: Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

See you in the fifth episode of this journey tomorrow.

I hope we can contribute to the world in the best ways that we can.

Fahri

Fahri Karakas is the author of the Self-making Studio. You can explore more here.