The common unfortunate story of the three brains.

Photo by David Clode on unsplash.com

"There once was a shop selling brains," so goes the story. "The first was an American brain, the second was Chinese and the third was an African brain."

"A buyer walked in and wanted to purchase one of the brains. To his surprise, he found out that the African brain was the most expensive of them all, so he inquired why it was so. 'You see, the African brain is the least used brain of them all, right now as you see it right there, it is as fresh as new.' The brain salesman replied..."

Have you heard of this story before? It is usually well constructed by a motivational speaker or a financial guru as they try to encourage the African child to be more creative.

I believe this story was created to insinuate that most Africans and/or African  countries at large are in a relatively unpleasant position than they would otherwise desire, because Africans do not think, they do not use their brains.  Most probably, this rather unfortunate story is backed up by (Africans') relatively low contribution to international development and global innovation in most areas such as technology, science, and business.

Now, I highly doubt the creative person behind this famous story is/was an African, because if he/she is/was, he/she would have known that the African brain is one of the most if not the most used brains on the planet.

Think about it: a person stricken by all these different calamities, challenges and oppression does not think? It is noteworthy that the systems and financial challenges of Africa indeed force many Africans into thinking, into creative thinking or, at the very least, fantasizing on a solution to their problems.

Children as young as three years old walk miles to fetch just five liters of water and even more miles to get to school; a teenager somewhere is leading a home_ taking care of at least four younger siblings, and you think such a one does not think?
It is totally erroneous, if not completely disrespectful to imagine that his/her brain is merely as fresh as new and not as creative. You have not had it all smooth yourself, whoever you are who came up with that conclusion. I suppose you can as well relate to how many times you've thought about the solutions to your own challenges, very creative solutions, that is.

I have personally interacted with quite a fair number of African youth to know for sure how creative and innovative we all are overwhelmingly enthusiastic with all the brilliant ideas we have.

At this point I see the "brain buyer" angrily going to the brain seller to get his money back, on finding  out that the African brain is, in fact, also very much used.

"Why is this story a big deal?" you may wonder. It is a big deal because it distracts our focus from the actual problem to a fictional problem. If we think lack of creativity is the problem, then we spend our dear lives trying to come up with a big idea that befits the description of being creative, yet if our eyes and minds are fixed on the actual challenge or challenges, we are on our road to greater success.

Okay then, why is Africa's contribution in areas such as technology, science and solving global problems low?

Of course, many factors contribute to this. However, I am so convinced that it is NOT lack of creativity and innovation, but rather limited efforts in the actualization of ideas, among other challenges like unfavorable polices, corruption, etc. Yes, limited efforts in the actualization of ideas is my focus point in this blog article, not racism or that sort of thing, not even close to that at all.

Our ancestors so loved the western items that they gave up the actualization of their own ideas and simply settled for the wondrous foreign instrumentation. Our ancestors and leaders gave up so much the actualization of our original ideas and policies to simply adopting to the foreign ones that we have totally lost faith in our own ideas and completely forgotten the whole process of actualization of ideas.

When you listen to the amazing stories of the great innovators of today, you sooner or later realize that these people didn't start with a big creative idea. They started with a small, not-so-creative idea, put it on ground and along the way they kept on building on that idea that we now see as a whole, and  it gets us to think that we also need to come up with some mega jaw-dropping ideas in order to be considered creative, or our brains as used as other brains.

The story of the three brains blinds us from understanding the power in just making that small, not-so-cool idea come to life, because we are looking for an airplane-making idea or another Microsoft-like or Facebook-like idea that will wow the whole world just over night.

I am very privileged to be a part of an amazing team at Born Outstanding Limited (B.O.S), that is helping to make the actualization of ideas a normal thing to the African child through talent development, among other objectives. 

I am also very privileged to know a number of other organizations helping the African youth with their startups, and navigating the challenges of fully actualizing and sustaining an idea.

A big creative idea is not one we have not yet heard of or thought about, it is one that is solving a problem. 

What is that idea that can help you solve a problem that you face and many other people are facing too? 

That right there is a big amazing jaw-dropping idea!
You want it to be unique? Different?

No worries, since it is you working on that idea, and there is only one you, it will be unique, because you yourself are. Your personal touch and feel will add that spice of uniqueness and difference to your idea.

Nice to serve once more.

Let's meet again next Wednesday.

Thank you!