A Lemonade Stand. An America’s iconic for a child’s first business. It was a summer-long tradition—a lesson learned by children across the country about the basics of starting and running a business.
Was it just child’s play? Or wisdom learned from our children.
We use the term “you’re just being childish!” as a sign that someone is behaving, dreaming dreams beyond the realm of what’s possible. And being unrealistic.
Should we want to live in a world devoid of childlike wonder and imagination?
The answer is undeniable yes! It’s tricky, though, and much harder than we might think. This sense of wonder isn’t appropriate for every situation.
After all, you’ve spent decades having that part of you squeezed out—locked away in a corner of your mind
Allow yourself to engage in Blue Sky Thinking, a grown-up code for thinking like a kid again.
Why would you want to do this?
For an entrepreneur, having access and the ability to tap into that sense of childlike wonder can be a fabulous way to unleash your full creative capacity.
What makes children creative is that they don’t know what’s impossible. For kids, there are no limits. And there are no hurdles that the power of imagination cannot overcome.
Actual progress becomes possible when you dare to dream and let your inner child out. People who let their inner child explore and see the world through different, younger eyes made perhaps every significant advance human civilization has seen possible.
Humans couldn’t get to space and walk on the moon. And it was impossible, right, until it wasn’t.
Dreamers got us there—dreamers who weren’t afraid to let their inner children out. Robert Goddard, the pioneer of space flight, often found his ideas ridiculed and rejected by his peers, who insisted that they were outrageous and impossible.
But why does it work? What is it about childlike thinking that makes it such a powerful tool? The answer is difficult to understand.
You might get a clock if you ask a child to draw a picture. Maybe you will get a cloud. It could be the sun. Kids are not familiar with punching the clock. Anything that made that mind.
This is about oblique angles. Ask an adult if you want a logical answer to any question.
Ask a child if you want a stunning, surprising, creative solution to any question.
If you’re engaged in any creative pursuit, approaching whatever you’re working on from a child’s perspective can be a powerful tool that can lead to astonishing insights and solutions.
“I think I was very naïve early on, but that also meant I didn’t know what couldn’t be done.”
Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs
