Porchlight Interview
A Q&A with Nir Bashan, Author of The Solution Mindset
by Porchlight Book Company
Nir Bashan's latest book will help unleash your inner creative genius and transform every challenge into an opportunity with powerful problem-solving techniques.
In a world filled with bad news, renowned author and creativity expert Nir Bashan finally offers some good news: Each problem we cause ourselves as humans, we can also solve as humans by looking at the world with curiosity. In The Solution Mindset: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving, Nir Bashan provides you with the tools you need to unlock your creative potential, both at work and in your personal life. This compelling book helps you overcome complex challenges by showing you exactly how to tap into your innate creativity, making the impossible possible.
Whether dealing with global issues like worldwide pollution or corruption, or localized issues like floundering sales strategy or not getting a promotion at work, The Solution Mindset presents actionable strategies drawn from real-world examples that empower you to address even the most daunting problems creatively. The book introduces readers to practical tools and techniques you can easily apply every single day, offering a profound new perspective on the world of creativity and problem-solving.
The Solution Mindset is perfect for leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, or anyone seeking to enhance their problem-solving skills and restore their faith in humanity. By embracing the methods outlined in this book, readers will not only elevate their personal success but also spark a chain reaction to spread creative thinking throughout their world and inspire those around them to solve the most pressing problems.
Nir Bashan recently took time to answer seven question from Porchlight about his own book, and shared what authors and books have inspired him as an avid reader and author of nonfiction.
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Porchlight Book Company: Writing a book is no small undertaking. What compelled you to write this one?
Nir Bashan: There is so much bad news going on in the world today. Everywhere you look there are stories of greed, destruction of natural resources and other maladies that seem to come out of every corner of the earth. Yet I have repeatedly seen quite the opposite in my day to day life as a consultant and keynote speaker.
What is going on here? Is it true that indeed the world is a horrible place, or is there hope for humanity?
In The Solution Mindset, I found that not only is there hope for humanity, there are people all over the globe that are so inspiring and so uplifting in everything that they do which made me want to write this book. The commonalities across all these people doing amazing globe healing work was that they were all creative. So I covered stories from the educational system in Africa to the coral reefs of the oceans and unpacked creative gems that will inspire you, motivate you and restore your faith in humanity.
Then I took these stories and extrapolated some creative tools that anyone can use. Be it in your personal life, work life, or your work the community and beyond.
This is a “feel good” book in a world that has often ignored all the wonderful and amazing creative initiatives going on.
PBC: Writing (and reading) always prompts as many new questions as it offers answers to the ones you came to it with. What is one unanswered question you encountered as you wrote the book that you are most interested in answering now?
NB: By writing The Solution Mindset I uncovered the question of the dissemination of information. And I found that media all over the world tend to gravitate toward the occult, the fringe, the extreme and radical. And I tried to figure out why.
Through the process of writing The Solution Mindset I uncovered that regardless of the pursuit of clicks or advertising revenue or other drivers of media bias, the truth is that good news is uninteresting news. And that shocked me.
Most people across the globe, most times, do not engage in abundant greed or a willful destruction of resources. They just live their everyday lives following the rules. And as a result, most of the media out there comes from shock value instead of quality, inspiration and goodness. I am most interested in answering the question now of why that is, and how to get more good news out into the world to showcase the amazing stories of humanity that are out there everyday.
I hope that readers take away their innate God given ability to solve problems with creativity and innovation as only humans can. No AI can do it, no machine can do it. Only human beings can solve pressing issues with humanity, empathy, courage and understanding.
PBC: If there is only one thing a reader takes away from reading this book, what would you hope it to be?
NB: The Solution Mindset shows us that all the problems we have gotten ourselves as humans, we too can get ourselves out of by being creative about our solutions.
I hope that readers of The Solution Mindset restore their faith in their fellow human beings. And use creative solutions in their everyday lives. In a world so focused on analytics and spreadsheet logic, I hope that readers take away their innate God given ability to solve problems with creativity and innovation as only humans can. No AI can do it, no machine can do it. Only human beings can solve pressing issues with humanity, empathy, courage and understanding.
PBC: One of the great things about books is that they tend to lead readers to other books. What book[s] related to this topic would you recommend people read after (or perhaps even before) reading your book?
NB: I would argue that I love books perhaps more than anyone, and I read non stop. I only read nonfiction, and I read abut a book a week. And the nonfiction world is so exciting. I talk in my book about this very questions and suggest a reading list, here are some of my favorites that come to mind without listing out several hundred which I do want to do but will not:
1. John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
2. David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature
3. Anything that Candice Millard writes
4. Same for David McCullough
5. Anything by Cicero, Plato or Socrates
PBC: What is your favorite book?
NB: Oh man, that’s like picking a favorite child. No way can I answer this question in any way shape or form. There are simply too many good books out there and my favorite book just may be the next one I read!
PBC: What are you reading now?
NB: I just finished Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War by Gerri Willis and I have In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman on next.
PBC: Do you have any future projects in the works that we can look forward to?
NB: I have another idea for my next book. This time the book will be about balance. And how to find it in everything that we do. It is an exciting project that I will begin writing in the fall.
About the Author
NIR BASHAN is a top business speaker leading innovation for high-performing leaders and individuals around the globe. He is the founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset® LLC, where he helps organizations and leaders foster a culture of innovation with his groundbreaking creativity keynote speeches that supercharge business models.
