So many creative breakthroughs result from weaving together unlike threads:
• Georges de Mestral, a Swiss electrical engineer, didn’t cook up the science behind Velcro in a lab. The principle came to him looking at burrs picked up by his dog on a hunting trip.
• Back in 1986 in Colombia, Beto Perez was teaching an aerobics class. One day, he forgot his music tape. Why not substitute merengue and salsa tracks instead? Presto, the birth of Zumba!
Sometimes, simple resourcefulness cobbles incredible creativity. On other occasions, it’s the willingness to make the most of unexplained links between the wildly unconnected. Almost always, it’s the power of intuition. Intuition is what disconnects button-downed, linear thinking. You’ll never find the unfound by racing to it with the fastest engine on the block. Turn down an appealing side street. Suddenly, you can be face to face with a gigantic possibility. Who knows? Maybe even the next Apple…Patagonia…or Amazon.
(Art: La Combe III 1951 – Ellsworth Kelly – my favorite artist)
