The person I'd like to talk about is my cousin Arjun, who runs a small events business in Pune. We grew up in the same building, so I've watched his mind work since we were kids, and honestly it never seems to switch off.
His ideas are mostly practical ones, which is what I like about them. When our grandmother turned eighty, everyone wanted a big hall and a buffet, but Arjun suggested we collect old letters and photographs from every relative and turn the terrace into a sort of walk-through museum of her life. It cost almost nothing and she cried the whole evening, in a good way. At work he does the same thing. Instead of hiring expensive decorations for a school function, he got the children to paint the backdrops themselves, so the parents came partly to see their kids' artwork.
I think he's creative for a few reasons. First, he's endlessly curious. He'll ask a waiter how the kitchen is organised or ask a taxi driver which routes he avoids, and he files all of it away. Second, he isn't afraid of looking silly. Most of us throw out an idea in our heads before we say it, but Arjun says it out loud and then improves it with whoever is listening. And third, he works with limits rather than against them. Whenever there's a small budget or a tight deadline, he treats it like a puzzle. I've tried to borrow that attitude, especially at university, and it's made group projects far less stressful.