"Handle with Care"

In his book, "The Element", Ken Robinson talks about the power of creativity. According to Robinson, creativity, in a nutshell, is about tapping into one's own individual strengths and passions, in order to successfully turn ideas into action. (my summary, not his!).
When a person loses their job in a difficult economic climate, (such as we have right now), it is crucial to think differently and to become more imaginative in order to generate innovative and creative ideas, which can make the most of the opportunity that has been presented to them. I use the word opportunity lightly for now as it can take some time to realise that great opportunity can arise out of redundancy and unemployment for those who are willing to take a risk and think outside the box. We all have our own Unique Selling Point after all so it's more important than ever to identify it and package it properly.


In "The Element", Ken tells the story of Beatle George Harrison whose solo album in 1988 featured a song called "This is love". At that time, all singles released from an album would typically feature an original 'b' side song. Harrison didn't have another song written which he could put on the 'b' side. However, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne happened to be hanging out in his LA home at the time, so these five rock legends got together in a casual setting with no major recording studio and produced a song for Harrison. This song was titled "Handle with Care" which became one of Harrison's most memorable songs. When his agent heard it, he wanted an album. What happened next is history. Five guys, with limited time and resources, with only their natural talents and abilities, got together and produced an album and this makeshift band became known as the " Travelling Wilburys". Their album became one of the top 100 best-selling albums of all time.

I suppose you might at this point ask what has this got to do with losing your job? Well, what this story proves, is that firstly, with a real understanding of our talents, we can create great things individually, but secondly and more importantly, when we combine our talents and skills with others we can create amazing things!