I have often described myself as a creative thinker. It’s not an exercise in self-aggrandizement, it just happened to be the quickest way I could sum up how I love brainstorming, white boards, quizzical questions and looking at things differently. “Creative thinker” has become somewhat tired as a descriptor though, and to think creatively may not be the loftiest goal. It certainly can’t be the end game, otherwise we fulfill the old IBM commercial with a room full of people “ideating” and seemingly accomplishing nothing.

Perhaps we got it backwards. Do we want the emphasis on thinking or creating? I would argue the world has no shortage of creative thinkers. We have a wealth of ideas spoiling away like excess food in the dumpsters behind your favorite restaurant. What the world is actually starving for is not just imagination. It craves courage with wisdom, initiative with judgment and a reckless abandon tethered to integrity. We have the resources, but fail to deliver them.

Your friends, our culture, the global community… we are all aching for thoughtful creators who understand they cannot afford to let their talent and efforts remain on a dry erase board. We need THOUGHTFUL CREATORS to help MAKE a new world, not just imagine it.