Creativity and the American Dream

Jon wrote a blog, posted February 13^th, describing a store that sells your belongings on eBay. You and the creator, Art Fine, mutually profit with the sale of your stuff. Jon labels Fine’s creativity as the American Dream with a twist. He (Fine) is building up from modest beginnings, as a disciple of the American Dream should, but with the aid of a relatively new phenomenon: the internet.

To live the American Dream, you not only need to be hardworking and smart and personable, but also creative. Jon’s example reminded me of a few others who were similarly creative, and now have lots of money or, in one case, a house.

In Vanity Fair a few weeks ago, I read a short article on a twenty-one year-old in England named Alex Tew (I know he’s not from America, but whatever). He recently began attending a three year university in England and needed a way to finance his education. Alex bought a domain for a hundred dollars and created a web site with one million one hundred pixel squares. He sold off each square for a dollar each to advertisers. A million squares equal a million dollars. But he actually made over a million dollars by putting the last one thousand squares for sale on eBay. The final square of advertising space was sold to a winning bid of $38,000. Uhh? Are you serious?

Another person, Kyle MacDonald, began with a single red paperclip. He is, as he writes on his website, “making a series of trades for bigger and better things.” Ultimately he wants a house. So far he’s traded the paper clip for a fish pen, the fish pen for a doorknob, the doorknob for a Coleman stove, the Coleman stove for a generator, the generator for one beer keg, one neon Budweisier sign, and one I.O.U. for a keg’s worth of beer, the beer keg, neon Budweisier sign, and I.O.U. for a keg’s worth of beer for a snowmobile, the snowmobile for a trip to Yahk, the trip to yahk for a van, the van for a recording contract, the recording contract for one year free of rent in a house in Phoenix, and finally, the year free of rent in a house in Phoenix for an afternoon with Alice Cooper. Amazing.

Another person sent out one million e-mails asking people to send one dollar in exchange for the secret to making a million dollars. Now, just like the Million Dollar Homepage of Alex Tew, if a million people send you a dollar, you just made a million dollars.

Why can’t I be that creative?