When we look back on our childhood educations, it’s remarkable how much time we’ve invested learning information that we’ve subsequently never applied. Some would argue that the higher purpose of school is not to learn information but rather to learn how to learn. However, there’s one pervasive lesson that both school and society ­­have so deeply and so insidiously ingrained into our collective psyche, we’re largely unaware of its profound counter-­creative impact on our lives. This one belief single­-handedly curtails our creativity and inhibits innovation.

So what is this limiting belief?

The illusion that there is a right way and a wrong way... and the associated pain and humiliation whenever we “get it wrong.” Not wanting to suffer such ridicule, we quickly and instinctively learn to go through life avoiding “mistakes.”

Yet, it is through “mistakes” that we learn. When a toddler attempts to take his or her first steps only to stumble and fall down, we don’t tell them they’re use...