Countries like India and China have some great talent: Educator of Nobel Museum

The Nobel Museum, Sweden, expects to see more Nobel laureates from India in the coming years. Museum educator, Tobias Degsell, was in Pune for a workshop on creativity for corporates. The workshop was part of the Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week, instituted in memory of Swedish innovator and philanthropist Alfred Nobel. In an interview with Bhagyashree Kulthe, Degsell elaborated on why the museum is expecting more people from Asian countries to become Nobel laureates and why Indians deserve to be among them.

Why does the Nobel Museum hold workshops on creativity?
The Nobel Museum houses exhibits on Nobel laureates. All the people, who won the Nobel Prize, were creative people who thought of new ideas and put them into action.

In order to motivate more people towards creativity, the Nobel Museum, Sweden, holds workshops. The museum aims at motivating the people towards creativity, which is a common factor among all Nobel laureates. We aim to encourage them to think of new ways, to collaborate with like-minded people and put their ideas into practice and become problem-solvers.

Can you elaborate on creativity and what are the factors involved?
It is the ability to think differently and act on it. Everyone has this ability, but very few people work on it.

Alfred Nobel had a definite purpose when he invested all his wealth in instituting Nobel awards. He himself was an enormously creative person with more than 300 patents to his credit. The ideas that led to inventions are not necessarily very big ideas. The laureates worked on small ideas in collaboration with others.

You feel that more Asians will bag a place among Nobel laureates in future. Why?
Earlier, Europeans dominated the scene. But the situation is rapidly changing and Asian countries, especially China and India, are producing great talents.

This is mainly because of good education and good democratic process that provides with a proper environment for creativity. People here are getting better and more opportunities to present their ideas and explore them.

What does India need to do to motivate creative people and produce more achievers?
India needs to train its people to take failures positively and go on pursuing their ideas.

The overall system in India suggests that ‘failure’ is something really bad and to fail is not quite right. Instead it needs to create an environment where youngsters will take failures positively and go on working on their idea. Push them, motivate them, and tell them that failure is a stepping stone to success.