The Creator
“When you can’t get a job,
you start your own business.”
– Walt Disney
GETTING THINGS GOING
On the Wealth Dynamics square, Creators sit up at the top, bang in the middle of introvert and extrovert. Sure enough, Creators come in two forms: the introverted creators are the inventors, inventive and able to multi-task on many new ideas at the same time. Introverted creators such as Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Bill Gates will focus totally on the creative process and let others run their business.
The extroverted Creator is a pioneer: innovative but focused, creating not just products, but business strategies as well. Extroverted Creators such as Richard Branson have multiple businesses but with others running each business. Both are visionaries and motivate others by their drive and innovation. All add the most value when they are free to create. The more they stay in their creative space, the better their creations become.
HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Creators are best when their heads are in the clouds. At altitude, they can see the big picture, and will rely on their intuition more than any market research to guide them. Their over-optimism is their greatest strength when it comes to their vision and their greatest weakness when it comes to what they believe others can achieve. As a result, many Creators succeed in their creation, only to fail in their execution.
Creators are naturally intuitive, so tend to get involved in their own creativity, which can cause friction with others. They are big picture thinkers, which can often mean missing the details. Their drive gives them the momentum to spark their creativity, but this drive can also exhaust or disorientate others. As a result of this double-edged sword, Creators are often described by others as the best communicators and the worst communicators at the same time.
Creators are excellent at getting things started, but often terrible at completing. With a passion to always be occupied with the next big thing, many Creators also over-stretch themselves. They come up with a great idea that will bring them success, only to drop it before it has been properly executed to go onto something ‘more exciting’. As a result, there are plenty of Creators with half-finished projects and the next big thing just around the corner.
Many Creators also happen to believe they are the best at what they can do – mainly because their brain often forms solutions or reaches conclusions that appear faster than others around them. The fact that these solutions may not be the most thorough is a mere technicality. In any event, this habit leaves many Creators getting involved in areas where they add little value, and when they get the ball they often run so fast they shoot over the horizon leaving the team behind.
Those Creators who have turned their back on their creativity have often done so as a result of others criticizing their lack of attention to detail, or their inability to complete the task at hand. Unsuccessful Creators are those who either have seen their creativity as a distraction in the serious business of earning a living, or who have become a victim of their success – living the consequence of some creative idea they had in the past, whether it is a company they set up or a career path they have entrenched themselves in.
The Creators that have made it have set up a structure to allow them to stay in their creative groove every day, with great teams and partners to execute. They know what value they deliver, and are crystal clear in owning that value through their equity, patents and trademarks. They are also generous in the way they share the pie, aware that it is only through the efforts of others that their creations can be fully leveraged.
Wealth Dynamics Creators 