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One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

Edward de Bono

I’m a very loyal and unreliable friend.
EDWARD DE BONO

Friendship Loyalty Myself
Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.
EDWARD DE BONO

Employment Teaching Thinking
Every valuable creative idea must always be logical in hindsight. If it were not, we would never be able to see its value.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Idea Value
The solid wealth of insurance companies and the success of those who organsie gambling are some indication of the profits to be derived from the efficient use of chance.
EDWARD DE BONO

Chance Company Insurance Solid Wealth
We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
EDWARD DE BONO

Better Improvement Perfection Problem Solve Way
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Believe Business Data Executive Ideas Mindset Perspective Science Wrong
Do we have the will to make poverty history?
EDWARD DE BONO

History Poverty Willing Yourself
If you do not design the future, someone or something else will design it for you.
EDWARD DE BONO

Design Future Yourself
You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction.
EDWARD DE BONO

Direction Hard Yourself
Once a new idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought. There is a sense of immortality in a new idea.
EDWARD DE BONO

Existence Ideas Immortal Spring
The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.
EDWARD DE BONO

Arrogant Effect Sin Thinking Treat
It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attention Change Humor Mindset Paid Philosophy Reason Surprise
Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.
EDWARD DE BONO

Company Competition Death Focus Thrive Ultimate
Creativity is a great motivator because it mades people interested in what they are doing.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Greatness Interest Motivational People
A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
EDWARD DE BONO

Complete Memories
Some people drift along like a cork on a river, feeling that they cannot do anything except drift, moment to moment. This is an attitude of mind. Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attitude Construction Exception Moments People
Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.
EDWARD DE BONO

Brain Change Concept Human Pattern Perception Tolerate
Don’t criticise a hypothesis, come up with a better one.
EDWARD DE BONO

Better Criticism Oneself
This new meta-system is very much in favor of the self, but a self that is based on a proper sense of dignity, not on an inflated ego. A person who dare not admit he is wrong inflates his ego but weakens his self.
EDWARD DE BONO

Dignity Himself Proper System Weakness Wrong
Man owes his success to his creativity. No one doubts the need for it. It is most useful in good times and essential in bad.
EDWARD DE BONO

Bad Creativity Doubt Essential Man Need Success
What is urgent will always take precedence over what is important.
EDWARD DE BONO

Important Urgent
In the art world, creativity involves aesthetic sensibility, emotional resonance and a gift for expression.
EDWARD DE BONO

Aesthetic Art Criteria Emotional Expression Reason World
There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Doubt Human Resource
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Different Establishment Order Pattern Way
Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour.
EDWARD DE BONO

Basis Creativity Thinking
You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people’s hearts, and that’s hard enough.
EDWARD DE BONO

Enough Hard Heart Hold People Religion Rule Tradition
A characteristic of intuitive solutions and new ideas is that of being obvious once they are discovered.
EDWARD DE BONO

Character Discover Ideas Intuition Solution

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

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One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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