Play: The Beginning of Innovation

Remember those days of going outside and digging in dirt? Looking for bugs and blowing dandelions? Playing with your race cars and making rockets?

Do you remember making buildings and little things with blocks? Knocking them down to do it again?

Connecting colorful Legos; trying different angles to see if they fit? Do you remember combing your dolls hair and trying different hairstyles and putting makeup on her?

Do you remember mixing different color paint to create different colors? Do you remember connecting toilet paper rolls and drawing on them?

So what happened? What made you forget how to play? Did someone tell you it was wrong to enjoy yourself? Did someone dislike the joy exhibited while discovering and creating.

Play is what keeps us growing as humans and innovating. Play is what encourages us to try things without too much thought. Play builds confidence and makes us more creative and innovative.

We innovate the world around us as we edit ourselves. As we iterate and learn from various experiences and interactions.

To innovate is to improve and renew ourselves and our surroundings. So are you playing or have been told you’re too old to play and create?

The optimist is always playing for better. The pessimist thinks playing is beneath them. To be innovative is to acknowledge change and constantly play; to be continuously dynamic.