"Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting"
About this Quote
De Bono pitches creativity less as a mystical gift than as a practical fuel source: motivation, hope, access, and enjoyment. The phrasing reads like a clinician translating a slippery human phenomenon into a set of predictable psychological effects. “Motivator” is doing strategic work here. He’s not praising creativity because it produces masterpieces; he’s praising it because it changes how people feel while they work. Interest becomes the gateway drug to effort.
The repetition of “Creativity gives...” is intentionally democratizing, almost manifesto-like. It’s a quiet rebuke to cultures that treat creativity as an elite personality trait or an arts-adjacent luxury. When he says it “gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone,” he’s smuggling in a politics of participation: if systems are designed to invite idea-making, more people can find a lane where competence is possible. That’s the subtext behind his larger career, from lateral thinking to the “Six Thinking Hats” method - creativity as a skill you can structure, teach, and scale inside institutions.
“Hope” is the most revealing word. It frames creativity as an antidote to the deadening loop of routine: the sense that tomorrow will look exactly like today, and that effort won’t change outcomes. By promising “a worthwhile idea,” de Bono isn’t guaranteeing success; he’s defending the psychological payoff of possibility itself. The closer you read it, the more it sounds like a workplace intervention disguised as a life philosophy: make room for novel thinking, and you don’t just get better solutions - you get people who can stand being there.
The repetition of “Creativity gives...” is intentionally democratizing, almost manifesto-like. It’s a quiet rebuke to cultures that treat creativity as an elite personality trait or an arts-adjacent luxury. When he says it “gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone,” he’s smuggling in a politics of participation: if systems are designed to invite idea-making, more people can find a lane where competence is possible. That’s the subtext behind his larger career, from lateral thinking to the “Six Thinking Hats” method - creativity as a skill you can structure, teach, and scale inside institutions.
“Hope” is the most revealing word. It frames creativity as an antidote to the deadening loop of routine: the sense that tomorrow will look exactly like today, and that effort won’t change outcomes. By promising “a worthwhile idea,” de Bono isn’t guaranteeing success; he’s defending the psychological payoff of possibility itself. The closer you read it, the more it sounds like a workplace intervention disguised as a life philosophy: make room for novel thinking, and you don’t just get better solutions - you get people who can stand being there.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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