Difference between Creativity and Intelligence

People with high creativity are often mistaken as people with high IQ. People with high IQ might not be creative. High intelligence is required to build a robot but a lot of creative thinking was required to conceptualize and create the first robot.

IQ tests give us a fair idea about an individual’s intelligence but creativity is very difficult to measure. The highest IQ score  recorded is 228 and it belongs to Marilyn Vos Savant, an American magazine columnist, author and lecturer. Albert Einstein’s estimated IQ score is 160; Bill gates shares the same score with Albert Einstein. Are you surprised?  For most of the super geniuses it is their creativity which differentiates them from others.

Yet there is one more important difference, the one between creativity and vision. The geniuses we are talking about were also great visionaries. All creative people are not visionaries. Visionaries see things which others cannot see; they are highly intuitive as well. People might make fun of visionaries in the beginning but they are the ultimate winners. I was surprised to read in one of the sites that telephone could not be used for the first 15 years after invention because people thought it was not useful enough.

A vision is not enough to become successful. You need a lot of passion and courage to follow your vision. When you have the vision and have passion to pursue your dream, it’s time to use your intelligence in executing the idea. An idea is worth nothing until it is executed.

Have you heard about the Bill Gates think week? Bill Gates’ bi annual Think Weeks best exemplifies the power of creative thinking. He takes leave twice a year for a week to read ideas sent to him by Microsoft employees and ponders on avenues to improve his organisation. That is how visionaries function.

At the end it is hard work. Imagine the effort which went into building organizations like Infosys and Airtel. Sometime back I saw a television show on entrepreneurship where the Infosys co-founder Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy said “A ship is safest at the harbour, but it is not where it is supposed to be. It must go out into the high seas and face the challenges of nature.”  An entrepreneur is similar to the ship who finds true credibility by confronting challenges. That is the statement of a great visionary packed with the flavour of determination, passion and courage – all in one.

To conclude I must say that intelligence is just the one leg and you need the other leg - creativity to stand out and make a difference.