Creativity

Recently a friend called up. "You are in the cover of Time Magazine," he said. I already knew it because earlier I had read the "Person of the Year" of Time which in the past featured world known leaders. This time it featured the ordinary individuals, that means "YOU." And true! When I got a copy of my subscription, I found the Magazine has, instead of a frame of a picture of a cover personality, it had a mirror that reflects the one looking at it.

I looked at it and saw myself. Yes, I was in the cover of Time Magazine. Imagine! Time Magazine, with its world wide circulation.

And Time explained well why it chose "YOU" in its cover. And the explanation is logical. The Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle had a "Great Men" theory of history. He wrote that history of the world is but a biography of great men.

Carlyle, by the way, is the author of the book, "The French Revolution" which is considered the most authoritative history of that historical epoch in France.

Carlyle believed that it is the few, the powerful, and the famous who shape the collective destiny of mankind. Then Time said, "This theory took a serious beating this year." People who shape our destiny is you. But Time Magazine refers to the YOU as the people who control the Information Age.

***

At first I wanted to dispute Time. In every period of history, the destinies of mankind were always shaped by the leaders. What would a country be without good leaders but chaos. A chaotic community is a leaderless community.

But when Time said, YOU refers to the people of the Information Age, it is right. And who are the people in the Information Age?

These are the people in media. It is the information they give that influences the thinking of people. The other day ABS-CBN interviewed me and Edgar Cadagat in its Morning Show. The topic was political issues. I said, political issues will depend on how media will present and interpret them.

The victory or defeat of a candidate, national, regional, or local will depend greatly and to a very large extent on how media takes up the issues.

This is the Information Age.

Before Guttenberg invented the printing machine, the powerful tool was the pulpit. The pulpit was overtaken by the press.

***

I strayed. When I sat down to write this, my thinking was to write about the creativity that Time Magazine showed by putting every reader in its cover.

Yes, every reader who has a copy of that Magazine only has to look at the cover and see his face there. Tricky! The other day I was talking with managing director Amado Villacarlos of Sunshine Cable TV 14 and Jun Lapu-os, managing director of MediaPro, advertising arm of Sunshine Channel.

I showed them a copy of Time Magazine and told them, in every human competition, be it business, politics, or whatever, a creative individual cannot be beaten.

I have been impressed by the creativity of both Amado and Jun, both formerly connected with television broadcast, Amado with RPN and Jun with ABS-CBN. We have Rene Tan also with us, former manager of RPN TV 8.

***

When I look at politicians preparing for the 2007 election I can already detect who are creative and who are not. I cannot mention them but I could see the pattern.

The creative will beat the not creative. It could be some of them have think-tanks, people who just sit down there and think and plan.

In big cities or in national elections, they hire top caliber public relations people to do this. And they are very costly.

But that's what you pay for people who are creative.

Their innovativeness is what beats you.

***

I interviewed Romeo V. Niere Jr., a Tay Tung high school graduate who is now one of the successful young men in America. He is the son of my friend Romy Niere and the late Lorna Vicera. They live in Austin, Texas. Jun is a well paid tax consultant of big businesses in Texas.

What makes people succeed in the U.S.? I asked. It's hard work, passion for work, innovativeness, and creativity, he said.

Americans are hard workers, committed, innovative, and creative, he said. Sad but true, many of our people want to take things easy.

He is spending his vacation here with his classmates in Tay Tung.

We hope we can develop in our people the culture of hard work, innovativeness, and creativity.

That's how to excel.*

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