Why is it that our children have turned out so innovative?
Recently our son Daniel was awarded with the Innovation award at his workplace where he serves as Technology Director. It was a recognition for being creative, but specifically for creativity in problem solving. The presenter noted that Daniel is not only great at coming up with ideas, but also at knowing which ideas are worthwhile, and then questioning what the best solutions should be. He also noted that this past year Daniel designed the foundation for a project that in turn has brought the greatest increase in revenue in the history of the company. Kudos, Daniel!
So it makes me wonder, where did this innovative mind set originate? Not that my husband and I are taking all the credit!! But still....
Could it have to do with his upbringing, being raised by two self employed artists who had to think outside the box simply to pursue our chosen artistic careers? We have often thought our three adult children are successful in their various endeavors largely because of the innovative artistic culture in which they were immersed.
They saw, for example, what it took for us on a day to day basis to produce our art, find our customers, perfect our workmanship, handle customer complaints, maintain a working studio, and juggle our time to still have a routine at home.
One of my fondest memories with our first child was when his daddy would “leave for work “ after breakfast. He would make a big deal out of saying goodbye, with kisses and hugs to our one year old son and I. Then he would go out the front door, walk around the house and enter the back door to his studio (which was our garage). There was only one wall separating us from dad, yet it was enough of a separation to provide each of us with our needed privacy and routine. Daddy would reappear at lunchtime, and afterwards repeat the process of leaving for work. This allowed him to work from home without our young son knowing (and innocently interfering with) the work.
We often took our children with us to work. I had a holiday window painting business that was lucrative and fun, and all three of our young children were involved hands-on with it. They got to see not only the fun part, (painting holiday themes) but the design phase (me sitting at our son’s swim meet with sketchbook in hand designing windows for a client between the 50 free and the breaststroke), the marketing phase (going in person to local businesses and announcing “Hi, I’m your holiday window painter!”) the real time scheduling phase (hurry, mom, we’ve got three more stores to paint before it gets dark!) and the customer service aspect (I am so sorry, my paint cart collapsed when my son was cleaning up, and now you have a mix of red and green paint all over the sidewalk! Let me come back in an hour and get that cleaned up for you, and by the way, no charge for the window painting!)
I once had a great conversation with a fellow artist pertaining to that very question. She and her husband were talented craftspeople who designed and built marionette puppets and sold them at art and craft shows. Their grown children are successful professionals, all of whom are creative in their various problem solving skills. Our conversation revolved around how we made our living as self employed artists and our children were brought up in the environment of studios, workshops and the hustle it took to pay the bills. We agreed that the lifestyle we lived and the day to day need to solve challenges creatively made a lasting impact on our children.
Our daughter Morgan expressed a great interest in painting and showed much promise by high school. One day we set our studio up so that the three of us could each sit in front of an easel. My husband had selected a photo that we would use as a starting point. We sat Morgan between the two of us and he basically said, “take this brush and do what I do”. (Actually our studio motto is “shut up and paint”). She obediently painted by following dad’s lead, and by the end of the day had a beautiful painting.
She is currently working as a professional videographer, and is passionate about the artistic avenue of the camera.
Our other son Jesse is a personal trainer. At age 25 he started his own Dojo, and provides excellent coaching for his clients. He has overcome obstacles that would make most people run for the hills to get to this point in his career. Not too many years ago he was working in our family business, where he learned valuable skills of innovative thinking while on ladders and scaffolding.
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