3 min 📗
Circa 1995, a teenager is being chased by police from an unfinished graffiti art project on a train.
He hides under a lorry while the police scour the area.
He thinks, “I can’t keep this up; it takes too long. I’ve either got to pack it in or find a faster way.”
In the dim light under the lorry, he sees the fuel tank is stencilled: ‘FILL TO THE LINE ONLY—DO NOT OVERFILL.“
That inspired him to create graffiti stencils to speed up his creative process.
The results were amazing.
They were like art. He was so proud of them that he signed them under a pen name to hide his identity.
He saw himself as a Robin Hood-type character.
He signed his first graffiti art stencils as Robin Banks.
His mates shortened the name to Banksy.
Banksy graffitied witty, satirical images across the UK. Everyone was talking about his work.
Wealthy celebrities and art collectors began bidding wars for his art. Whole sections of walls were removed and sold.
Banksy’s first commercial artwork at Sotheby’s for $1.4 million.
It shredded itself and was valued at double that.
Banksy is a world-famous artist, with a net worth of $20 million because he leveraged divergent thinking to turn a problem into a solution.
(Source: Crossover Creavity by Dave Trott.)
✅ Step 1: Define the problem
Creating beautiful graffiti street art took too long. Banksy regularly got chased by the police from unfinished art projects.
✅ Step 2: Reframe the problem
How could one reduce the time to create graffiti art?
✅ Step 3: Turn the problem into the solution
Stencils. By creating the stencil in his studio, he could finish graffiti projects in a fraction of the time.
“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” —Friederich Nietzsche
Turns out this clichè is true. Sports psychologists studied elite athletes who were struck with adversity and severe injury.
Initially, they reported feelings of isolation and depression.
After they recovered, however, they reported a desire to help others through the same situation they had navigated.
They felt stronger for overcoming their self-doubt and injuries. Psychologists call this post-traumatic growth.
We turn our problems into solutions to help others.
Turning Pain Into Purpose
Samuel Morse was an inventor, painter, and multipotentialite.
Like many artists, Samual struggled to make a regular income.
However, his fortune took an upward trajectory in February 1825 when the state of New York commissioned him to paint the Marquis de Lafayette.
Whilst travelling, his wife Lucretia wrote to Samuel, telling him how proud she was of him.
They were expecting their third child at the time.
10 days later, Samuel received a letter from his Father telling him that Lucretia had suddenly died of a heart attack after prematurely giving birth to their child.
Consumed with grief, Samuel rushed back home only to find that his wife had already been buried.
Pissed off by the slow long-distance communication of letters, Samuel invented the Morse code.
Over 700 lives were saved alone from the Titanic when Morse code alerted Mayday after the ship hit the iceberg.
Morse code was used throughout World Wars and has saved millions of lives.
We all experience pain.
We all get pissed off.
Granted, this is an extreme example!!
But this creates our why.
When we can use our pain as a tool to help others, it’s no longer a chain holding us back and keeping us small.
The problem becomes the solution.
Life is complex
But it requires simple solutions.
We face problems big and small throughout the course of our lives.
We are born problem solvers.
Every successful business on the planet exists because it solves a specific problem for a specific person.
We have to turn our problems into solutions to help others.
I get that statements like this can come across as trite.
But it’s true.
Pain points become purpose.
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Loved the story of Banksy, I had never heard of him until now lol! What a great innovative thinker and rebel. Being a rebel myself in many ways, I love hearing stories of people going against the norm and showing the world their unique quirky self. Also, now I know how the morse code was invented... fascinating and an emotional story to it. Thanks for sharing this.
on the topic of finding a problem and creating a solution based on your own problems...that's hard to conquer. I guess you do mini experiments of your idea once you know there is an audience for it. And do surveying and interviewing people who might need your solution, to find out what they truely need.