Ideas on Demand: A crash course on creativity. Bust creativity blocks, 10x your ideas, and become an idea machine. (10x Impact)

by Miliind Harrdas

A large majority of things that we consider as facts are just assumptions. They blind our vision, making it impossible for us to see the obvious. Take the case of Swiss watchmakers. Once, they ruled the global watchmaking industry. At some point, they made around 65% of all the watches in the world. This success created enormous wealth for the Swiss watchmakers. It also created a set of ‘facts’ based on which the entire Swiss watch industry operated successfully for a long period. Now, what were those facts? Fact # 1: A watch has to be mechanical. Fact # 2: It needs to have wheels, levers, gears, and mainsprings. Fact # 3: It needs to tick. Interestingly, Max Hetzel, who was a scientist working for a Swiss watchmaking company, challenged all these assumptions and invented a quartz watch that was even more accurate than the mechanical ones. Overnight, all the ‘facts’ mentioned above became just a bunch of assumptions. The story didn’t end here. He took his invention to many Swiss watchmaking companies, who outright rejected it. For them, the points stated above were still facts. And a watch that didn’t comply with the facts couldn’t be a real one. Hetzel then showcased his invention at the World Watch Congress. The Americans and the Japanese just took one look at it, and the rest is history. Assumptions blinded the Swiss watchmakers from seeing an obvious opportunity and resulted in their downfall. The American and Japanese watchmakers didn’t have the baggage of assumptions...