( a.k.a, Creative geniuses, masterminds,
adventurers, inventors, strategizers )
“I want to put a ding in the universe.”
— Steve Jobs
What is an Innovative Rebel?
As an innovative rebel, you cut new paths and break glass ceilings. You are always in search of new techniques, tools, opportunities, and technologies to help your students learn, create, and discover information about themselves and the world that they live in.
When met with a barrier, innovators use their creative superpowers to go over, under, or around; always driven by an internal need to follow their own path and change the world while they do it. Through their inventions, adventures, creative solutions, and discoveries, rebel innovators create the vision for change to happen.
Examples of Innovators: Hedy Lamarr, Marie Curie, Isatou Ceesay, Katherine Johnson, Ada Lovelace, Amelia Earhart, Elizabeth Blackwell, Christa McAuliffe, Helen Keller, Galileo Galilei
How To Release Your Inner Innovative Rebel
Look outside the box.
Innovators are often frustrated by the status quo, and will resent environments that stifle their creative impulses. As an innovative rebel you need multiple sources of inspiration (things to make lessons better/ideas to make better systems to inspire) to feed your creative spirit, along with supportive environments that embrace and encourage your often atypical approaches toward problem solving and teaching.
Don’t let the excuse “it’s because we’ve always done it this way” hold you back from making things better.
Be afraid but do it anyway — even if you are the maverick.
This is the same advice that I give to ninja rebels. Oftentimes, people will say no to an innovative idea simply because they just can’t see (or understand) how it works. To get these folks onboard, find examples to back you up. Or, do a small prototype and show them how it’s done. Depending on the situation, it may be to your benefit to do it anyway so that you can win people over when they see how it is done.
Find your inspiration.
The creative process is like breathing. In order to exhale brilliance, innovation rebels must also breathe in inspiration. Otherwise, you may burnout of ideas! Find communities of like-minded innovators and share ideas. Take a notebook (or a recorder) wherever you go so that you can catch those precious ideas whenever they come.
Want to know your rebel archetype?
Learn About Your Other Rebel Archetypes
