By Tiyana Nasr
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – Creative confidence is a mindset that requires tolerance of risks and the possibility of failure, an American University of Sharjah professor said during an online presentation in the innovation and entrepreneurship course taught by Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine on June 22.
Associate Professor of Art and Design Dr. Zinka Bejtic said that creativity can help people discover ways that will allow them to thrive, but sometimes it is lost due to the lack of confidence a person has.
Speaking to 21 students during the event, she said that if confidence helps people embrace their creativity, and this will allow them to start thinking innovatively.
However, she cautioned the students that they need to look at failure as education and start working on having a growth mindset rather than a fixed one. That is because, she said, to help evolve their creative mindset they need to allow themselves to fail.
Bejtic said that accepting failure is difficult because society is programmed to judge and criticize everyone’s ideas immediately, which then breaks the cycle of creation.
She urged the audience to change the way they think by brainstorming and experimenting with inventive ideas.
“Individuals don’t grow into creativity; they grow out of it, or rather they get educated out of it,” said Bejtic.
