Imagination is more important than knowledge, baby

You missed it, man! Last week's column was the most creative ever. Actually it was half of the most creative ever. This week is the second half of last week's - what it takes to be creative. Where does creativity come from? You learn it. How important is creativity in sales success? Very. How creative are you? Not very. Can you improve your creativity? Yes. Read a book on it. Practice it.

Last week we went over the first part of the basic elements that make up the creative capability. "Jeffrey, I didn't read your column last week," you say. If you want last week's offering, go to www.gitomer.com, and there will be instructions. And hey - get with it. You gotta read my column every week. Here are the rest of the elements that comprise your creativity. They will lead you to the understanding, awareness, and the ability to self-improve - assuming you're willing to make the effort.

The rest of the best " Studying creativity. The more you read, the more you will understand how others have learned and taught creativity. If you have not read the classic Michael Michalko book, "Thinkertoys" or his new book "Cracking Creativity" or any Edward de Bono book - "Six Thinking Hats," "Lateral Thinking" or "Serious Creativity" - I recommend you start from there and immediately progress to Dr. Seuss, the champion of creativity for both adults and children. No kid can read or digest Michalko or de Bono. Every kid can read, re-read, think about, learn from, and digest "The Cat in the Hat," "Yertle the Turtle," "Green Eggs & Ham," "Horton Hears a Who" or any of the Dr. Seuss legendary classics. My library has more than 25 volumes. OK, I've given you the titles. All you gotta do is buy them and read them.

" Studying the history of creativity in your industry. In order for you to figure out what is going on today, and project your brilliant ideas into the future, you need to have a firm grip on what happened yesterday and why. As an expert in sales, the books I find most inspirational were written somewhere between 50 and 70 years ago. There's always a new wrinkle in something old.

" Using creative models. Look at the concepts presented in the book "Six Thinking Hats" or "Six Action Shoes." They are classic models of creativity where the author, stand for, uses the colors of the hat or the shoe to convey a process. The easiest example of the model is a concept brought out in "Thinkertoys" called S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Scamper is simply a new way to look at an existing idea and asking yourself questions to improve it. Each letter in the acronym represents a different perspective from which to see creative ideas. The letters Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Maximize, or Minimize, Put to other use, and Reverse or Rearrange. If you take any object, thought or project and apply the the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. model, you will come up with new and creative ideas. The object of the model is to learn the practical science so that you can see there's a way for you to learn creativity, rather than simply be creative. Learn rather than be. One does not replace the other. One is simply an additional method or supplement to the other. Sometimes you do things or think things without really knowing "why." The "why" is never as important as the "is."

" Risk Failure. There's an old expression "no risk, no reward." I say, "no risk, no nothing." All creative people take risks. It's the nature of the process. Daring to think something new or try something new. The best example of creative-failure I can give you is Thomas Edison. He's also the best example of creative-success. He thought, he studied, he tried, he risked and he failed thousands of times. And he succeeded big time. Thousands of brilliant inventions and ideas. Tens of thousands of failed ideas and inventions. Wherever your creativity takes you, risk comes along for the ride - it's a natural part of the process. Enjoy the thrill of it like you would a roller-coaster ride. Fail to get a hit in baseball two out of three times for 20 years and you'll go to the Hall of Fame with a .333 batting average.

" Seeing your creativity in action. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing your idea put to use. No matter how small or grandiose, people tend to brag (be proud of) and take ownership of "their idea." "See that over there? Yeah, I thought of that." Even if it's just moving something from one end of the room to the other, setting up a new configuration of the same equipment or creating a slogan, there is huge pride in "seeing" your idea.

" The ridicule factor. Whatever your great idea is, there will always be someone ready to throw cold water on it. Ignore those people. They are jealous because they have no ideas of their own.

And for those of you who think all the good ideas are taken, look at the sport of ice hockey. It's more than 150 years old. But the goalie mask is only 30 years old. Wouldn't you think that someone could have come up with it during the first 120 years? Finally one guy (Jacques Plante) got tired of getting hit in the face with the puck! Hello. And once again, necessity became the mother of invention. And he created the prototype hockey mask.

There are a ton of other equally obvious ideas out there - your job is to be thinking about them. There were millions of people who "knew the game" of ice hockey, but only one who imagined a better, safer way to play it. Which leads me to the end. And the quote I found inscribed in the front of the book "Thinkertoys." I have read the book several times and ordered a case of them signed by the author, Michael Michalko. In it he had written, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I rest my case. The rest is up to you.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of "The Sales Bible" and "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless," is president of North Carolina-based Buy Gitomer. He gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be e-mailed at salesman@gitomer.com.