WorldWide Drilling Resource

Creativity and innovation abhor too much freedom. I like to imagine creativ- ity as a prisoner trying to bust out of jail. When your resources and opportunities are limited, you must become innovative. Think of Clint Eastwood in the true-story movie Escape From Alcatraz , breaking out of prison with a nail clipper. An even better illustration is the World War II movie The Great Escape . It is an amazing tale of ingenuity. Men with little to work with escape from a German prisoner of war camp. In addition to digging three tunnels without shovels, they made hand-drawn traveling documents and identification papers that looked authentic enough to pass for ones made on a printing press. Now that was a box to get out of! Without boundaries to challenge us, we wouldn't be as creative. The exception to this rule is political constraint - government regulation stifles creativity and shuts innovation down. We shouldn't have to worry about being arrested (remember Galileo) just because we have a radical idea. On the other hand, government can stimulate innovation, but what it has to do is . . . as a French economist once said, "Laissez-faire," which is understood as "get out of the way!" More specifically, what the government can do to stimulate innovation is to: reduce taxes, reduce regulation, return to a sound currency (like gold), reform K-12 education, and reform product liability law. In other words, untie the hands of innovators. Robert Robert is an innovation/change speaker, author, and consultant. He works with companies that want to be more competitive through innovation and with people who want to think more creatively. For more information on Rob, visit www.RobWilsonSpeaker.com or contact him via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com 54 DECEMBER 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Wilson cont’d from page 52. The WWDR office will be closed December 24th, 25th, and January 1st, to give our employees time to spend with their families. Limited staff will be available between December 26-31. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!