Expanding Education to Catapult the Successful Application of Creativity in Emerging Entrepreneurs

Running Head: CREATIVITY EDUCATION IN ENTREPRENEURS 1
Expanding Education to Catapult the Successful
Application of Creativity in Emerging Entrepreneurs
Courtney Huntzinger
13 December 2018

CREATIVITY EDUCATION IN ENTREPRENEURS 2
Our current society, now more than ever before, is filled with creative ideas, innovative
thinking, and entrepreneurship in ways that previous generations hadn’t reached, accepted, or
even encouraged. Everywhere we look, new businesses, mobile apps, artists, etc., have
established unique concepts, opened up markets we didn’t know we had or even needed, and
profited off of providing people with convenience, guidance, or pleasure.
Throughout my absorption of this course’s content and theories, and my personal
endeavors as an entrepreneur and creative individual, it has become apparent that although there
is an abundance of creative passion I see within others, today’s society, and even myself, there is
a tremendous problem caused by the significant imbalance of application and execution within
this creative plethora. The real issue that our millennial-focused, technology-based world has
now comes not from lack of creative thinking or ideas, but from the absence (or sometimes just
the apparent absence) of education, resources, and empowerment to bridge the gap between
innovative ideas and entrepreneurial success.
My project marks the beginning of tipping this scale, of obtaining that balance between
people’s endless creations and inventions and the reality of their success. By providing budding
entrepreneurs and creatives with the relevant tools, education, and self-development to bring
their ideas to life, this project is creating in itself the future foundation of progression. Tapping
into the uncharted territory of ideas in hiding, the project performs as a one-stop-shop from
vision to reality, while maintaining a minimal budget. The power to create, execute, and prosper
from creativity is within each undertaker my project will reach- they just might not know it yet,
and that is one of the many skills they will learn.
The entrepreneur holds the key to groundbreaking innovations and concepts; we are just
giving them the direction and know-how to open doors. The progressive philosopher and French
moralist Joseph Joubert once said, “He who has imagination without learning has wings but no
feet.” My project equips entrepreneurs with expansive, interactive education, the “feet” that will
guide them on long, amazing journeys. Their first steps are then supported with the resources,
connections, and encouraging, collaborative environment I have implemented through the rest of
my project’s services. Suddenly, creatives don’t neglect their entrepreneurial ingenuity as

infeasible and way too difficult, but dive into it as a tangible business to release their creative
motivation and harness a lifestyle based on originality and inventiveness.
Firstly, a few factors helped comprise the thought behind the website’s structure and the
system of networks within these services that will support entrepreneurs’ growth. I would like to
mention that the role of independent contract developers, and the actions entrepreneurs can take
in utilizing them, within our start-up incubator website will unfold along with the creative and
educational process, or might offset a well-prepared business model ready to be implemented.
Just as the constructivist learning theory defined how I was even taught the theories these
specifications stem from, it shows itself in the continual emphasis the project will place on
integrating information and action as a combined process.
According to Sawyer (2012), “when arts are integrated with instruction in another content
area, such as math or science, that other content area is learned more effectively” (p. 391).
Providing entrepreneurs with the technical skills and real-world application of their creative
efforts or concepts can only bring about the enhancement and foolproof execution of their
original idea. Many two-part resources will exist in our educational services that focus on the
understanding and comprehension, and then shift to individuals’ interpretations of how it would
manifest for them.
Furthermore, I have tried to enhance this knowledge management with the proper
transference and network support mentioned in connectivism solutions for exponential
knowledge development and inference. By allowing developers to expand upon entrepreneurs’
ideas, we are opening up exponential creativity through the “connection of disparate ideas and
fields can create new innovations”(Siemens, 2013, p. 3). Similar to weak ties that Sawyer (2012)
explains as being “more strongly associated to creativity”, this network emphasis fosters these
collaborative relationships and therefore innovations by connecting like-minded creatives and
specialized ideas (p. 259).
I also wanted to ensure optimal creativity in the entrepreneurs through organic
management and expansive leadership. In regards to management setup, “Burns and Stalker
made the seminal argument that organic organizational structures (decentralized, with flexible
policies and procedures) are more likely to promote innovation than mechanistic organizational

structures (centralized control and formalized procedures)” (Sawyer, 2012, p. 258). By allowing
individual creative freedom, and eliminating pressures or forced organization, people will
connect with the right resources and network, and passion will remain forefront. Startups need to
remain flexible.
In addition, providing diverse leadership that can cover a multitude of industries is crucial
in cultivating innovation and a truly supportive learning environment. Lastly, the use of an
incentive program and competition aspects will help entrepreneurs see their personal progress
with along-the-way helpful rewards, as well as test out their skills in a productive way through
productive comparison and interpretation. Sawyer (2012) highlights that market competition as
an incentive to innovation, leading to new discoveries in hopes of a competitive edge. (p. 292)
As I delve into the specific categories the educational services branch covers and
explores, and why they are theoretically included, I will connect how our entrepreneurial
services support and expand upon this newfound knowledge to propel the implementation of
business plans built from ingenuity.
The creative process is of course already in motion when entrepreneurs come to my
project, as the nonconformist recognition of their own ideas brought them to exploration. Most
likely they’ve identified a problem and resolved it with an original idea they are now hoping to
bring to life. However, this project focuses on the action theory, placing the creative emphasis on
realization through educational tools and execution through resources and developers. By
learning what the creative process is, and how to apply the eight steps to their goals, they will
only take their creativity to the next level, taking on the challenges of the unexpected and
altering what needs to be fixed.
Many may begin employing the resources without knowing what will emerge in their
final result of their start-up. It also aids in developing the divergent thinking that’s probably been
occurring as they enter this project and new world, and shifting it into convergent thinking to
narrow down focus or solution. Guest speakers, seminars, and online tools can help define the
creative process, but network support can also aid the individual applying it to their own idea if
they are having trouble breaking down the stages.

Although a domain-general initiative is taken in most education efforts, this project will
increase domain-specific education. This is based upon the notion that “there’s substantial
evidence that large portions of creative ability are domain-specific” (Sawyer, 2012, p. 58). In
hopes of catering to each entrepreneur's physical idea extract and carry out their creative visions,
I believe this incubator website would be more successful by creating vocational interest or
domain-distinct sections without excluding entrepreneurs to define themselves too narrowly.
Many might end up participating in several areas, but this just adds to the project organization
and compartmentalizing creative efforts and labor. An especially-promising potential domain
division within this project’s resources and services is Holland’s proposal of the six vocational
interests. This could assist in building a more specialized platform for entrepreneurs to use and
navigate through, maintaining necessary and relevant tools and information for those areas.
My project returns entrepreneurial focus to creative insight by continuously allowing for
expressive interpretation. The workshops available combat fixation as a cause of stagnancy by
continually supporting development and trial-and-error instead of perfection in one specific
solution idea. For instance, while in one of our creative workshop classes, leaders won’t denote
an idea or solution as “wrong” or “right”, but instead bring the focus back on divergent thinking
until a single solid idea has converged. Going against a Gestaultist view on insight as a sudden
moment, I believe the entrepreneurs involved would benefit more from ongoing inspiration and
the instillment of a work ethic that emphasizes the extended creative process and “small, mini
insights occur throughout the work day”(Sawyer, 2012, p. 418).
This idea that grit, determination, and persistent labor can contribute to insight leads into
the coverage of self-care and positive thinking patterns that could affect entrepreneurs. Although
the connection between mental health and creativity have been debunked, there are many aspects
of personal status that could enable, or hinder, the creative process and business model
execution. Following a humanistic, Csikszentmihalyi-inspired approach, our educational services
should cover personal fulfillment areas that promote one’s well-being and higher functioning
levels of thought. Because “creativity is a state of ‘peak experience’ or ‘flow’, residing at the
very top of Maslow’s hierarchy along with self-actualization”, the entrepreneurs must satisfy

their basic and social needs, and strengthen their self-esteem and independent strengths in order
to maximize their creative abilities (Sawyer, 2012, p. 171).
Realizing their full potential, and in turn, fully realizing their creative endeavors, depends
upon stability within oneself and consistently satisfied hierarchy needs. By opening up the
dialogue about issues or obstacles that might block the entrepreneurs from self-actualization, and
therefore complete creativity or entrepreneurial success, they can use the information and
resources offered to gain fulfillment or assistance with any internal barriers slowing or
negatively affecting the creative process.
As the entrepreneurs expand their knowledge of the craft or steps needed to create their
vision, they will need to be granted analytical feedback. Expanding upon our support of and
information about self-actualization-related matters, personalizing entrepreneurs’ progress
through self-reports might help not only establish creative process status, but also evaluate that
individual’s perception of themselves and their work through intrinsic evaluation. This may be
reliable especially in Big-c concepts brought in by entrepreneurs, helping project associates to
guide them in the necessary direction. Although Big-c creativity is absolutely encouraged and
expected, it is assumed the project will mostly end up catering to daily-life creative products and
concepts, which could be most accurately assessed by the Consensual Assessment Technique
(Sawyer, 2012, p. 41). Through a collection of field experts, product designers, and industry
developers that will be project associates, one of our services during the creative process will
encompass CAT methods of rating one’s product for improvement and verification purposes.
While the specifics of these tests will vary depending upon the entrepreneur, general outlines
will allow the experts to provide entrepreneurs with the most effective responses. A good portion
of the entrepreneurs may find this aspect of our resources can establish credibility and help them
secure competitive funding, which is discussed later as a large component of our entrepreneurial
services.
It will also help the entrepreneurs establish their target audience more clearly and define
what the final result of their idea adds to or fulfills for their potential customers. As they go
along learning about and moving through the stages of the creative process and constructive
criticism, market research will become a large factor in measuring progressive success. Our

resources will offer market testing, and simultaneously marketing and promotional expansion. In
addition to guest speakers about brand ambassadorship and representation, information and
application workshops will teach effective marketing techniques and channels for personalized
target industries and audiences. As entrepreneurs establish their marketing areas and content
more clearly, trade show opportunities, networking events, and media exposure will be attainable
resources and practice for execution. Social media and branding aesthetics are also important
factors of marketing and sales the project will educate entrepreneurs on, allowing their creativity
to seep into all areas of the business including the promotional imagery and implementation.
Through their individualized combination of services used, entrepreneurs will consider
bootstrapping and resourcefulness as a necessary means in navigating my project’s incubator
website and resources as well as life in general as a creator and innovator. The way in which they
choose to utilize and apply resources and funds to their own projects will cycle into more
creative thinking and unique integration practice. Although my project associates will help to
strategically connect the dots of business planning, it is up to the entrepreneur to remain true to
their creativity and base all aspects of their execution off of original thinking.
As the entrepreneurs enter into the stages of negotiation, competitive funding efforts, and
investor presentation, our educational resources shift to include public-speaking, proposal
writing, and investment information as well as legal and financial education necessary in opening
and maintaining a legitimate entity. Worksheets and plan writing courses will prepare individuals
for meeting with the accountants, business establishment firms, and investor connections that
will be available to them. Additionally, professional presentation techniques include materials to
teach Adobe and other physical presentation tools, as well as meeting spaces where
entrepreneurs can conduct their business meetings in a cohesive and familiar environment.
In reference to Renzulli’s three-ring theory of giftedness, where ability, creativity, and
task commitment emerge, it is specified they occur “within the context of personality,
environmental, and affective factors” (Sawyer, 2012, p. 393). Although this has been most
effective in gifted education, it can certainly be applied here. By rendering an educational and
experiential variety of sources that support creativity-based personality traits, such as those

ascribed by Berkley researchers regarding personality assessment, the context of personality can
become valid in the three-ring theory (Sawyer, 2012, p. 64).
Environmental and affective factors can be controlled by our actual incubator website and
educational platforms, as well as the aforementioned meeting spaces and curation of appropriate
and beneficial events and workshops. As a part of the creative process, stage three, the
environment will influence the expansiveness or even direction of creative thought and
workflow. It is also important to project onto entrepreneurs the ability to discern what is usable
or not within their environmental context as they shift into the evaluatory basis of stage four. It is
my hope that these recognitions of personality and environment will facilitate the right context
for the three-ring theory to come alive, and the entrepreneurs to flourish.
These factors can inhibit the coordination of ability, creativity, and task commitment,
along with schedule implementation and labor categorization. Above all, these factors will help
provide self-assurance needed to thrive in areas that may be more difficult for some creative
individuals.
In relation to the investor presentation, negotiation is another aspect of focus in the latter training
of my project’s services. Creative thinkers need to be able to explain and exemplify their final
innovation with proven results as to how their thinking was more whimsical burst of
imagination. By breaking down their original insight that prompted the onset of
entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur will be able to get across the meaning behind the creative
result and how they got there.
Backed up by the testing and research in earlier stages of the education and application
process, the entrepreneurs should be able to relay their creativity in logical and relatable
circumstances. Although their ideas may begin as abstract, my project walks them through the
implementation to an extent of real-life application, among actual Shark Tank -like endeavors.
This also ties in with the personal self-care and positive thinking previously mentioned, as a
confident and secure individual will encompass their brand and promote their venture in the most
complete way possible. Confidence is derived from extensive practice and preparation, which
will be known by any entrepreneurs involved in my project as the staple of continuity.

Another area of expertise lies in the ability to expand upon initial ideas or launches and
use product response and feedback to improve and grow the idea and execution process.
Sometimes this may involve going back to the drawing board for a revival in creative direction,
or it may entail taking current processes and adding new and improved aspects to continue the
business’s evolution. Cultural background and influence may decide what is considered novel to
the entrepreneur, but in general, the process of adaptation and growth need to be a forefront
principle in creative thinking if commercial or tangible success wants to be achieved.
It is not just business-related growth and evolution that need to be considered as
entrepreneurs maneuver through the incubation process and resources, but also the effect of the
process on themselves as creators and observers of the world and worldly problems. Sawyer
(2012) expresses entrepreneurs as “people who can recognize opportunities- what creativity
researchers call ‘problem finding’- and have the motivation to pursue them, while remaining
focused on value creation- what creativity researchers would call ‘appropriateness’”(p. 255).
As these budding business owners interpret their own abilities and how they apply their
creativity to what they would like to improve or invent, they may sense an evolution within
themselves. They make see things differently, identify different issues, or even just alter as their
entrepreneurial personalities emerge from entrapment. A core motivation behind this project is to
guide entrepreneurs with education and services, but also guide them as creative individuals on
an ever-changing path to greatness. After all, we are tapping into the future of invention, societal
or technological advances, or brand new product consumption.
Not everyone is able to attend a four-year university, manifest their skills and thoughts
into an airtight business plan, and obtain an office space while generating substantial capital
to-voila!- end up with a fully functioning and influential company. Many just end up giving up
on one’s personal ideas and ventures, settling for a stable but unfulfilling nine-to-five job, and
spending one’s retirement dreaming of where their imaginations could have taken them. I am
breaking this cycle and showing those same individuals the power they have right in front of
them to turn their intangible creations into reality, without sky-high tuition rates or thousands of
dollars in start-up loans. My project aims to focus on education in accenting and implementing

creative thinking, and following up with the appropriate resources needed to evaluate, execute,
and promote the entrepreneurial endeavor.
The content and process of the services my project offers are heavily based around the
theories and manifestations of creativity I have learned in this course. Although each
entrepreneur may differ in the exact knowledge and resources needed, depending upon what their
creative ideas and business goals are, the entrepreneurial and educational services provided will
aid in establishing a distinct plan that can transport their idea or goal from Point A to Point B
while remaining in full “creative expression” mode and gaining the confidence and skills needed
to synthesize the learned information and maintain moving forward. It is inevitable that the
proven personal comprehension and application each entrepreneur experiences throughout
project interaction will gain the momentum and confidence needed to move forward, cycling into
success and continued motivation and action.
By curating a range of entrepreneurial services that complement what is being learned,
entrepreneurs can quickly shift their new skills into tasks that act towards an end goal. As
mentioned in the introduction of this project, it is not creativity and innovative thought that our
society is lacking, but the inability for people to harness that into obtainable results. My project
walks emerging entrepreneurs through the confusion of creativity can bring and the seemingly
overwhelming amount of steps required to gain a completed product.
Seeing as “more diverse groups are more creative”, my project will include diversity in
its resources, workshops, and group gatherings, as well as how it organizes its events and
think-tank style discussions and group activities (Sawyer, 2012, p. 233). In addition,
domain-specific specializations and education will assist in bringing very different ideas to life.
Furthermore, each entrepreneur will possess varying personality traits that will need attention in
different aspects. Cultivating self-esteem, confidence in knowledge and comprehension, and
feedback from live sources and real data will aid in the fulfillment of what these entrepreneurs
may be lacking or need more of. The division of my project and selection of project associates
will be based solely upon the growth and expansion that will benefit the entrepreneurs.
Developers are included in this as well, playing a huge part in the execution, and therefore
creative problem solving and implementation of the entrepreneurial ideals.

The more this is encouraged throughout basic education channels and extracurricular
activities early on, the more a confidence in creative and entrepreneurial ability will come about
in those who possess it. Hopefully, mechanisms and networking systems can expand upon this
idea of creative-funneling, and the focus on entrepreneurship that is emerging will turn into
actual assistance in realizing creative concepts and potential innovations. Enhancing creative
thinking with education and curated real-life application were the basis of my project, and will
continue to build a foundation for creators and entrepreneurs to come.

References
Sawyer, K.R. (2012). Explaining creativity: The science of human innovation (2nd ed.).New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Siemens, G. (2013). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Introduction Journal of
Instructional Technology.

Expanding Education to Catapult the Successful Application of Creativity in Emerging Entrepreneurs

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