Have you ever had the experience of getting tantalisingly close to a big opportunity in your creative career a but not quite making it? Maybe it was a pitch, or a competition, a publishing opportunity, a senior role, or a funding application. Maybe you got really positive feedback. They said you were great, your work [â¦]
The post Are You in the Ballpark? (finally, The 21st Century Creative on YouTube) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When the Covid 19 pandemic struck in 2020, human life on earth was massively disrupted. Not only the human tragedy of millions of lives lost, but also the social and economic damage caused by the virus and our attempts to control it. As a writer and a coach for creatives, I have been particularly concerned [â¦]
The post Creative Disruption: How 12 Creatives on 5 Continents Rose to the Challenge of the Pandemic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 10 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Itas been my most ambitious season yet, with creatives from 5 continents and probably the closest Iall ever [â¦]
The post How I Created, Funded and Launched My New Podcast (while the World Was in Meltdown) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 9 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. This week we are off to Tokyo, to meet Ichi Hatano, a wonderful artist whose work has deep [â¦]
The post From Tattoos to NFTs with Ichi Hatano appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 8 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Have you ever had the idea for a creative project that youave never quite got round to starting? [â¦]
The post Using Lockdown to Launch a Dream Project with Nicky Mondellini appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you work on your own a in your office or studio, or your bedroom or at your kitchen table a it can feel like no one is watching. So it doesnat matter whether you show up. If you skipped a day on your novel, who would know? If you didnat go to the studio [â¦]
The post All Arts Are Performing Arts appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 7 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today weare focusing on a creative sector that is close to my heart, which was massively disrupted but [â¦]
The post Taking Deep Work Online with Laura Davis appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A few months ago I was listening to the DavidBowie: AlbumtoAlbum podcast, a terrific show about Bowie hosted by Arsalan Mohammed. In Season 3 episode 11 Arsalan spoke to Donny McCaslin, the leader of the jazz band that Bowie discovered in a New York club, and asked to work with him on what turned out [â¦]
The post Sometimes You Have to Grind the Work Out appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 6 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are off to Australia in the company of Charlotte Abroms, a music manager based in Melbourne [â¦]
The post Helping Musicians Through Lockdown with Charlotte Abroms appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Last week I suggested that if youare serious about achieving your creative ambitions, you need to think in terms of projects, not tasks. Because if you get up every morning and ask yourself aWhat should I work on today?a you risk making decisions based on what feels urgent right now, rather than what will make [â¦]
The post Work on Multifaceted Projects appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 5 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are going to look at one of the biggest challenge for many people during lockdown, whether [â¦]
The post Staying Creative as a Parent (Even in a Pandemic) with Kay Lock Kolp appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When we think of productivity we typically think about tasks and to-do lists, working habits and routines. We focus on how to make the most of our time on a daily or at most a weekly basis. All of which is great, but if this is all we focus on, thereas a danger of getting [â¦]
The post Focus on Projects, Not Tasks appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 4 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we meet Amrita Kumar, the co-founder and CEO of Candid Marketing, an innovative marketing agency in India. [â¦]
The post Launching a New Business in the Pandemic with Amrita Kumar appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Marketing is a word that strikes fear into the heart of a lot of creatives. Itas an area where a lot of us feel we donat have a natural talent a weare far more comfortable making work than telling the world about it, let alone trying to get people to buy it. One reason for [â¦]
The post Make Your Marketing Personal with a Media Dashboard appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 3 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are looking at the world of film and TV production, which was massively disrupted by the [â¦]
The post Rebooting Global Filming with Hometeam appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A lot of creative professions involve submitting work to gatekeepers of various kinds: agents, editors, publishers, gallerists, funders, producers, studios and competition judges and so on. Yes, the 21st century gives us plenty of options for creating things without gatekeepers a you can sell direct, build your own platform, launch your own event, self-publish or [â¦]
The post Why Rejection Doesnat (Necessarily) Mean Your Work Isnat Good Enough appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 2 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. This week we are off to South Africa, to hear from Earl Abrahams, an artist and filmmaker who [â¦]
The post Lockdown Series: Windows on a Changed World with Earl Abrahams appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
aEat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.a This quote is often attributed to Mark Twain. Apparently thereas no hard evidence linking it to him, but that hasnat stopped it from concentrating the minds of many people when they ask themselves [â¦]
The post Eat that Frog (But Eat the Cake as Well) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today we kick off Season 6 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. The theme for this season is CREATIVE DISRUPTION. Every episode will feature an interview with a creator whose work was disrupted by the Covid-19 [â¦]
The post The Rocky Road for Theatre through the Pandemic with Steven Kunis appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I hope this finds you as well as can be. Here in the UK weare bracing for what we are assured will be a large wave of Omicron. I know things may be very different for you, depending on where you are in the world. But whatever the circumstances, I hope you are finding your [â¦]
The post Video: Forget the Career Ladder a Start Creating Assets appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today is the launch of my new podcast, and itas something Iave been planning and dreaming of sharing with you for years. Itas called A Mouthful of Air. And in several ways, itas the opposite of my 21st Century Creative podcast. I designed the two shows to work together from the start, although itâs taken [â¦]
The post My new podcast (and why itas the opposite of The 21st Century Creative) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Last night I was about to go to bed when I suddenly remembered an idea Iad had for an article a few months ago. Though I say so myself, it was a great idea, and I was keen to revisit it, so I opened up the Scrivener project where I had written it downa| and [â¦]
The post Ideas Are Leprechauns appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Michael Bungay Stanier, a returning guest whose interview way back in Season 1 proved very popular. And his book The Coaching Habit turned out to be even more popular, as it went on to sell three quarters of a million copies. Michael is back with some excellent [â¦]
The post Avoiding the Advice Trap with Michael Bungay Stanier appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A lot of productivity advice tells us that we need to stop procrastinating, beat Resistance, and get things done. The Americans like to talk about ashippinga, meaning finished and sent out for delivery. This emphasis on getting things done and out to market is part of their extraordinary entrepreneurial culture. Famously, Guy Kawasaki even said [â¦]
The post Every Creative Project Is a Revolving Door appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Krystal Lauk, an illustrator who took an unconventional path by creating illustrations for tech companies, and founded a studio that counts Google, Uber, Facebook and The New York Times among its clients. Itas a fascinating story of discovery and enterprise at what Krystal calls athe intersection of [â¦]
The post The 21st Century Illustrator with Krystal Lauk appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iave recently started taking one-to-one Japanese conversation lessons. It hasnat been easy. In fact, itas been a bit of a humbling experience. Between work and family responsibilities, I only have 30 minutes a day to study Japanese, and Iave spent this time every day for the past two years memorising kanji characters, vocabulary and grammar [â¦]
The post You Have to be Bad to Get Good appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Cynthia Morris, a coach for creatives who shares insights on the book-writing process, based on her latest book The Busy Womanas Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. So if you are contemplating writing a book â whether itas your first one or your twenty-first â there is [â¦]
The post Writing a World-Changing Book with Cynthia Morris appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you think about overhearing something, you probably think of listening to someone elseas conversation, whether deliberately or accidentally, and picking up a titbit of information that you would never otherwise have been privy to. It might be funny, or shocking or useful, or â as in the case of so many loud phone calls [â¦]
The post The Art of Overhearing Yourself appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Emily Kimelman, a thriller author who has travelled the world in a boat and criss-crossed the USA in an Airstream trailer while writing and publishing her books, and selling hundreds of thousands of copies in the process. Emilyas adventurous spirit shines through in her writing as well [â¦]
The post The Adventure of Writing with Emily Kimelman appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today I want to persuade you that systems can set you free. You might not associate systems with freedom, but bear with me while I explain. This morning Iam writing this article for you. The only thing Iam thinking about is you, and what I can say that will be most helpful. But how is [â¦]
The post Systems Can Set You Free appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Naomi Dunford, a contrarian marketing guru who has been ahelping weirdos sell things on the interneta for many years. So if youare the kind of creator who loves making your work but hates the very idea of marketing, then I recommend you listen to what [â¦]
The post Naomi Dunford on Marketing for Creatives appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Like many people you may have a love-hate relationship with your phone. On the one hand it gives you a world of information, entertainment and diverting pastimes at your fingertips. But it can also be addictive and feel like a waste of time â when you find yourself cycling through your news and social media [â¦]
The post Pick up a Poem Instead of Your Phone appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Steve Lawson, a musician described by Bass Guitar magazine as aBritainas most innovative bassist, no contesta. Instead of playing in a band as part of the rhythm section, the way bass players are supposed to, Steve is a solo artist, who creates what he describes [â¦]
The post Making Music Sustainable with Steve Lawson appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative Podcast is Joanna Penn, an Award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and dark fantasy, which she writes as J.F. Penn. She is also known for dispensing information and inspiration for authors and creatives via her popular podcast The Creative Penn, and her [â¦]
The post Joanna Penn on Productivity and Audio for Creatives appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This is something Iave found myself saying over and over to coaching clients in the past few weeks. For some of them, itas because theyare being challenged to reinvent themselves in the face of the pandemic. They have been forbidden to do their normal work, such as making a live action film, or performing on [â¦]
The post The Normal Rules Are Suspended appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative Podcast is Nick Hand, founder of The Department of Small Works and The Letterpress Collective, where he does amazing work with antique letterpress printing technology. He talks about the relationship between old and new technology, traditional crafts and the modern world, in an interview that draws on [â¦]
The post Traditional Crafts in the 21st Century with Nick Hand appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is the eminent Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, who takes us on a voyage through the weird and wonderful world of artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity, drawing on insights from his latest book The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think (Amazon US [â¦]
The post Marcus du Sautoy on AI and the Future of Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Our world has been turned upside down. It may be broken forever, given that we may never get back to the life we had before. And right now, the entire world is dependent on creativity. Across the globe, scientists are racing to create new tests, treatments and vaccines to detect, cure and prevent the virus. [â¦]
The post Our Creativity Has Never Been So Crucial appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today we kick off Season 5 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. Our first guest is John T. Unger, an artist who makes art on a big scale, and who takes full advantage of the opportunities [â¦]
The post John T. Unger: 21st Century Artist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
After months of work, and having to rewrite large chunks of the show in response to the pandemic, Iam pleased to say that Season 5 of The 21st Century Creative podcast will launch next Monday. Iave got a great line-up of guests and Iave done my best to offer some helpful perspectives on Covid disruption [â¦]
The post Season 5 and a New Way to Get My Help with Your Creative Career appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Back in 2016 I outlined a fundamental strategy for your career as a 21st century creative professional: forget the career ladder, start creating assets. The argument I made, and that I make week-in-week out in my work as a creative coach, was that thereas no career ladder for people like you and me â no [â¦]
The post Make the Most of Your Creative Assets appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Monique DeBose, an award-winning singer-songwriter and playwright, who has toured throughout America, Europe, India and Asia. Her third album, The Sovereign One, debuted at No.2 on the iTunes Jazz Charts. Inspired by her experience of of what it means to be half African-American, half Irish-American, Monique [â¦]
The post Voicing Your Truth with Monique DeBose appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever had the experience of solving a big problem, or removing a major source of stress from your life? Before you solved the problem it dominated your life for weeks or even months on end. It sucked up all your time and energy and mental bandwidth. It felt like life and death. When [â¦]
The post The Conveyor Belt of Worry appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Ilise Benun, known as the Marketing Mentor. Ilise has spent over 30 years helping athe creatively self employeda to succeed in business, and has written seven books and produced over 300 episodes of her Marketing Mentor podcast. Ilise is an in-demand conference speaker and is the [â¦]
The post Bat-Signal Marketing for Creatives with Ilise Benun appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When I started out as a self-employed psychotherapist and coach, in the mid-nineties, I was completely clueless about marketing. I thought it was the antithesis of my work â something commercial and tacky and dirty, and I wanted nothing to do with it. So I suffered the fate of most young creatives â frustration and [â¦]
The post Stop Marketing â Start Sharing Your Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Deborah Henry-Pollard, a creative coach based in London who describes her work as âUsing my skills to support creative people who make us see the world in another wayâ. She is also the author of a great book called Whatas Your Excuse for Not Succeeding as [â¦]
The post Whatâs Your Excuse for Not Succeeding as a Creative? with Deborah Henry-Pollard appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today I want to talk about two types of entrepreneur. When you think of an entrepreneur, maybe you think of someone like Richard Branson or Mark Cuban or Elon Musk. Or going back further in time, someone like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, or Henry Ford. The men â and they always seem to be [â¦]
The post Be an Enterprising Creator appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Robert Vlach, a business consultant who specializes in supporting independent professionals and business owners, and the author of a new book, The Freelance Way. Early in his career, he encountered the highs and lows of the freelance life, and as youall hear in the interview, [â¦]
The post The Freelance Way with Robert Vlach appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youare a self-employed creative, maybe you recognise this experience. You meet a business expert and get into conversation about your work. At a certain point they give you a sympathetic look, maybe put a hand on your shoulder, and tell you youare doing it all wrong. What you should really be doing, they explain, [â¦]
The post Your Creative Business Is Your Utopia appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Erik Bork â a screenwriter, producer, script consultant and coach who has won two Emmy and two Golden Globe awards for his work on the HBO series Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. For each series he wrote multiple episodes and was [â¦]
The post The Essential Elements of a Successful Story with Erik Bork appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Well, do you? Iam asking because Iam guessing you probably donat. And that therefore you could probably benefit from establishing a Credit Practice in your life. Now you may have heard of a Gratitude Practice â this is where you set aside a little time every day to remember all the good things you have [â¦]
The post Do You Give Yourself Enough Credit? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Maria Bovin de LabbA(c), a Swedish drummer, artist and teacher, living on a peninsula in the Fjord of Oslo, Norway. She is best known for Mindful Drumming â an approach that is less about fast and furious rhythms and more about mindfulness, playfulness, lightness and [â¦]
The post Mindful Drumming with Maria Bovin de LabbA(c) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I once attended a meditation retreat led by a Buddhist nun. One evening she told us the story of the day she ran away from the monastery. Shead been working and meditating and keeping the discipline for years, but was discouraged and frustrated by her lack of progress. She felt as though she wasnat getting [â¦]
The post Have You Given Up Yet? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Peleg Top, an artist, a writer, a speaker and an inspired guide who coaches creative professionals to succeed and become extraordinary leaders in the process. As youall hear in this interview, he started out as a graphic designer, breaking into the very competitive niche of [â¦]
The post Peleg Top on Fear, Love, Money and Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When I was young, I questioned everything: Why does it get dark at night? Where does the sun go? Why do I have to go to bed? Why canat I be a dinosaur? Why do I have to go to school? When I grew up, I kept asking questions: Why are people so miserable? Whatas [â¦]
The post Question Everything, But Donat Forget to Listen to the Answers appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Nadia Shireen, an award-winning and bestselling childrenas author and illustrator. Her books include Good Little Wolf, The Bumblebear, The Cow Who Fell to Earth, and her latest, Billy and the Dragon, is released this summer. Nadiaas books have given a lot of pleasure to my own [â¦]
The post Good Little Wolf and Other Stories with Nadia Shireen appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
For many people, globalization is one of the scourges of modern life. Itas why the shops in the high street all look the same, wherever you go. Itas why McDonaldas is everywhere. Itas why the shop in the high street are closing down. It brought us the global financial crisis. It helps multinational corporations avoid [â¦]
The post The Creative Upside of Globalization appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative is Alastair Humphreys, a British adventurer and author whose latest book, My Midsummer Morning, recounts his attempt to busk his way across Spain with no money or credit cards, and only an upper beginneras ability to play the violin. When he left college Alastair saw his friends [â¦]
The post What Creators Can Learn from Adventurers with Alastair Humphreys appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The poet Philip Larkin said that all his best poems were written in rooms on the top floor of a building. He once had to live in a basement flat, and got writeras block. He didnat elaborate but there must have been something about being up and above the world below, able to survey it [â¦]
The post Where Does Your Creativity Thrive? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today we kick off Season 4 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. Our first guest is Brian Clark, a writer and entrepreneur best known as the founder of the hugely influential website Copyblogger.com, which has been [â¦]
The post Brian Clarkâs Career Advice for the Unemployable appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Just about every creative Iave ever coached has had a very sharp and active Inner Critic. And you know what? Thatas a good thing. If you find yourself resisting this idea, maybe because you know what itas like to suffer with an over-active Inner Critic, then pause for a moment and consider all the mediocre [â¦]
The post Be Thankful for Your Inner Critic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is CJ Lyons, a New York Times and USA Today thriller author who has sold more than 2.5 million books. She has won numerous awards, including the International Thriller Writersa prestigious Thriller Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense. Once [â¦]
The post Storytelling: a Matter of Life and Death with CJ Lyons appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever got yourself tied up in knots while working on an important piece of writing? You spend ages staring at the screen, writing, deleting and rewriting, over and over again. The harder you try, the more you work, the more stuck and confused you feel. In my experience, this tends to happen when [â¦]
The post An Easy Way out of Writerâs Block appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is Emily Cohen, a consultant who provides strategic advice to principals of creative firms, and author of the book Brutally Honest. I first met Emily back in 2012 when we were both speaking at the HOW Design LIVE conference in Boston. I loved Emilyas no-nonsense attitude [â¦]
The post Brutally Honest Advice for Your Creative Business with Emily Cohen appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youare committed to achieving your creative ambitions, then youare probably prepared to make sacrifices â to work hard, to invest time, to spend money or go without it, and to face down fear, boredom, rejection and criticism. But are you willing to be laughed at? Fear of embarrassment isnat something we hear much about [â¦]
The post But Are You Willing to Be Laughed At? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youave ever looked at a blank screen or canvas or an empty rehearsal room or auditorium and felt paralysed with fear and self-doubt, then this weekâs interview with David Kadavy is for you. Itas also for you if you find yourself looking at the achievements of your creative heroes and top performers in your [â¦]
The post How to Find the Heart to Start with David Kadavy appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If I asked you whether you want to dream big and play full out and achieve amazing things in your career, Iam guessing youad give me an enthusiastic aYesa. And if I asked you if youare prepared to pay the price, in terms of hard work, patience, setbacks and so on, youad probably answer aYesa [â¦]
The post Success Means Losing Control appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is Vicki Saunders, an entrepreneur, mentor, author and a leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a means of positive transformation in the world. Vicki has co-founded and run ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. She is [â¦]
The post SheEO: Women Transforming Entrepreneurship with Vicki Saunders appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever started work on a big creative project and found yourself paralysed by listening to the voice of your Inner Critic, giving you all the reasons you should give up? Who do you think you are? Donat you know this has all been done before? Youave never done anything special before. What makes [â¦]
The post Get the Inner Critic off Your Back with These Two Little Words appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is Rich Litvin, a coach who specialises in taking high achievers to the greatest levels of success. Richâs coaching clients include Olympic athletes, Presidential candidates, Hollywood film directors, Special Forces operatives and serial entrepreneurs. He is also the founder of 4PCaa community of leaders, entrepreneurs and [â¦]
The post The Price of Being a High Performer with Rich Litvin appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Reading is one of the easiest, most powerful and most enjoyable stimulants to creativity. Which is why so creators are voracious readers. I know I am. Since I was old enough to go out on my own, I rarely left the house without a book tucked under my arm. Until a few years ago, when [â¦]
The post A Simple System to Help You Finish (and Abandon) More Books appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is Christina Patterson â writer, broadcaster and consultant, author of The Art of Not Falling Apart. I first came across Christinaâs work at the turn of the millennium, when she was Director of the Poetry Society, one of the most venerable institutions in the poetry life [â¦]
The post The Art of Not Falling Apart with Christina Patterson appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youare a creative service provider of any kind, then to sign the right kind of clients â for the right kind of projects at the right kind of fees â then you basically need to do two things. Just about every client Iave coached who was struggling to make sales when they knew who [â¦]
The post Two Essential Factors in Signing the Right Clients for Your Creative Business appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on the 21st Century Creative podcast is David Hieatt, entrepreneur, author, speaker and founder of The Do Lectures. In 1995 David and his wife Claire Hieatt founded Howies â a company making clothes for people engaged in outdoor pursuits such as mountain biking, skateboarding and hiking. Howies was a disruptive company, making [â¦]
The post Donât Just Sell Something: Do Something! with David Hieatt appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, under the name JF Penn. Meanwhile as Joanna Penn, she is an expert on writing, publishing and marketing books, giving advice to authors via her non-fiction books, her e-learning courses and her popular podcast The [â¦]
The post The Healthy Creative with Joanna Penn appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever found yourself looking at one of the rising stars in your field and thinking: Whatas so special about them? My workas at least as good as theirs! Why are they getting all the attention? Itas not a nice feeling is it? No wonder Envy is one of the seven deadly sins â [â¦]
The post The Creative Power of Envy appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Tyler Hobbs, a artist who creates stunning images by writing a computer program to generate each new artwork. A few months ago I was talking to a friend who suggested I check out the artwork of Tyler Hobbs, as an example of generative art. It [â¦]
The post Tyler Hobbs: an Artist Who Paints with Code appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One of your first tasks as a creative is to find your primary medium a your means of expression. This is composed of the raw materials and artistic forms you use in your work. If youare a novelist, journalist, poet, or screenwriter, your medium is the written word. If youare a comedian or a conference [â¦]
The post Find Your Medium, Choose Your Media appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today we kick off Season 3 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. A new feature of the show this season is full transcripts of every interview. Lots of you have requested these, so Iâm pleased to [â¦]
The post Steven Pressfield on The Artistâs Journey appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today I publish my new book, 21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives. You can pick it up from the usual bookstores. So whatâs the book about? Itâs a compilation of the most powerful insights that have emerged from my coaching conversations with creative professionals over the past two decades, and also from my own practice [â¦]
The post My New Book: 21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Patricia van den Akker, the Director of The Design Trust, an organisation based in London with a mission to help designers and makers âcreate a business they are proud ofâ. Patricia is also the author of Dream Plan Do, an annual planner journal to help [â¦]
The post Creating a Business You Are Proud of with Patricia van den Akker appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Sara Milne Rowe, one of the leading performance coaches in the UK and the founder of the company Coaching Impact, and the author of The SHED Method: Making Better Choices When It Matters. She works with senior leaders and teams in the creative and media [â¦]
The post Making Better Choices When it Matters with Sara Milne Rowe appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Josh Szeps, a TV and radio host, political commentator and comedian, and creator of the podcast #WeThePeople LIVE. Josh hails from Australia and has spent the last few years living and working in the United States. He was one of the founding hosts of HuffPost [â¦]
The post Josh Szeps on 21st Century Media: TV, Radio, Podcasting and Beyond appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Gabriela Pereira, a writer and teacher who is on a mission âto empower writers to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growthâ. Having earned her own MFA â which for those of us outside the US, is a Master of Fine Arts [â¦]
The post DIY Professional Development for Creatives with Gabriela Pereira appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Daniel Boettcher, the founder of The Intrepid Wendell, a bespoke jewellery salon in Washington, DC. If you visit Danielâs website youâll see he greets his visitors with the words âWe love to share your joyâ â this is the guiding principle of Danielâs business and [â¦]
The post The Business of Sharing Joy with Daniel Boettcher appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Jarie Bolander, a serial entrepreneur, living in San Francisco who has started and run several businesses in the tech, medical and PR sectors. His latest book is The Entrepreneur Ethos: How to Build a More Ethical, Inclusive, and Resilient Entrepreneur Community. Jarie is inventor or [â¦]
The post The Entrepreneur Ethos with Jarie Bolander appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Mimi Khalvati, one of the foremost poets currently writing in the UK. Mimi was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on the Isle of Wight in England. She is the author of eight collections of poetry published by Carcanet and the editor of several [â¦]
The post Poetry as Discovery with Mimi Khalvati appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekas guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Todd Henry, a speaker, advisor to creative companies, and the author of a string of best-selling books for creatives, including The Accidental Creative, Die Empty and Louder than Words. I joked with Todd that he is also the grandaddy of creative podcasters â he has [â¦]
The post Todd Henry: Leading Creatives Is Like Herding Tigers appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Javier Weyler, musician, composer and music designer. Born in Argentina and raised in Venezuela, he achieved national fame with the band Claroscuro before moving to the UK in 2000. Javier will need no introduction for fans of Stereophonics â he was the bandâs drummer for [â¦]
The post Javier Weyler: A Journey into Sound appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to the start of Season 2 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. Itâs taken several months, many hours of work, and in the case of one interview, several thousand air miles, to put the new [â¦]
The post Tina Roth Eisenbergâs Labours of Love appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As a creative coach I spend my days talking to inspiring creative professionals about their dreams, ambitions, trials, tribulations, breakthroughs and successes. Itas a dream job a and an unusual one. Which is why, when I meet new people and tell them what I do for a living, I hear the same two questions over [â¦]
The post Creative Coaching: 21 Insights from 21 Yearsa Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Aileen Bennett, Roving Creative Director and Idea Thinker Upper. In todayâs interview, we tackle a question that many creative people struggle with â what do you do when you look at the jobs on offer, and none of them seem the right fit? Not even [â¦]
The post Creating a Job that Doesnât Exist with Aileen Bennett appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Kristin Linklater, the world-renowned teacher of voice work for actors and speakers, and the author of Freeing the Natural Voice and Freeing Shakespeareâs Voice. I recorded this interview at Kristinâs Linklater Voice Centre, in her native Orkney, at the end of a week-long course on [â¦]
The post Freeing the Natural Voice with Kristin Linklater appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Nick Dunin, co-founder of Beyond Rest, a company that operates float centres in three Australian cities. Nick is on a mission to help people get in touch with their best selves via floating. Heâs also had a very unusual journey as an entrepreneur and he [â¦]
The post The Floatation Tank: a Short Cut to Your Superpower? with Nick Dunin appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Jocelyn K. Glei, Founding Editor of 99U, author of Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done, and host of the Hurry Slowly podcast. Jocelyn was instrumental in turning 99U into the iconic brand for creatives it is today â [â¦]
The post Kill Email Anxiety and Do More Meaningful Work with Jocelyn K. Glei appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Michael Bungay Stanier, Founder and Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps people and organizations all over the world do less Good Work and more Great Work. Box of Crayons is best known for its coaching programs that give busy leaders the [â¦]
The post Say Less, Ask More and Communicate Better with Michael Bungay Stanier appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Joanna Penn, a best-selling, award-nominated thriller writer, as well as a publishing expert and host of The Creative Penn Podcast. Joanna is here to talk about mindset for creatives â specifically, the attitudes and ambitions that distinguish creatives who struggle from those who succeed â [â¦]
The post The Successful Creative Mindset with Joanna Penn appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Laurie Millotte, designer and founder of Outshinery.com. On a round-the-world tip, Laurie spent time in Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Hawaii, Mexico and other countries. And not only did she manage to keep running her existing design business from her laptop, she designed and created an entirely [â¦]
The post Designing a Global Small Business with Laurie Millotte appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Fabrice Bourrelly, artist, architect and Virtual Reality designer.  As Fabrice talks about his development as a creator, the conversation ranges from the cave paintings of southern France, to raves in 90s Paris, collaboration with Thomas Heatherwick, Google and Epic Games, and how virtual reality [â¦]
The post How Virtual Reality Will Shape Our Future with Fabrice Bourrelly appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This weekâs guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Steven Pressfield, author of the creativity classic The War of Art and a string of other bestselling fiction and nonfiction books. In todayâs show Steve talks about his latest novel, The Knowledge, which he describes as âthe origin story of The War of Artâ, based [â¦]
The post Steven Pressfield on Truth and Fiction appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today is the launch of my podcast The 21st Century Creative. Itâs designed to help you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the brave new world of the 21st century. Weâre living at a time of unprecedented opportunity for enterprising, outward-looking creators. And youâve probably noticed we donât have [â¦]
The post Introducing the 21st Century Creative Podcast, with Scott Belsky on Creative Community appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When you follow a creative path, you wonât find any of the usual milestones of success. Unlike your friends who enter traditional jobs, with clear routes to promotion, finely calibrated pay grades and impressive job titles, there is no âcareer ladderâ for people like you and me; no incremental markers to indicate your progress. So [â¦]
The post Forget the Career Ladder: Start Creating Assets appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
My new book, Productivity for Creative People, has just been published. You can pick up a copy of the ebook edition from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and Smashwords. How to get creative work done in an âalways onâ world The book starts from the realisation that 21st century life presents a [â¦]
The post My New Book: Productivity for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The book I recommend most often to my coaching clients is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield â based on his own struggles en route to becoming a best-selling novelist, itâs indispensable reading for anyone who wants to create or achieve something amazing with their life. Steve just told me he has a new [â¦]
The post Steven Pressfieldâs New Book for Creators appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
After 18 months, four drafts and countless cups of coffee, my new book Motivation for Creative People is finally complete. You can pick up the ebook edition from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and Smashwords. Thereâs also a paperback edition, beautifully designed and illustrated by the wonderful Irene Hoffman. So whatâs the [â¦]
The post My new book: Motivation for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Kabuki star Ebizo Ichikawa XI in action, from Ebizoâs YouTube channel Last Christmas I visited the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo to experience kabukiaone of Japanâs traditional forms of drama, dating back to 1603. As the curtain slid aside, it revealed a world of breathtaking beauty: a stage like a painted scroll, where actors in bright [â¦]
The post Kabuki: Lessons from 400 Years of Creative Tradition appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
How much should I charge? I hear this question a lot from creative coaching clients wrestling with the perennial question of how much a unique piece of art, or a stylish design, or an engrossing story, or a transformational creative service is worth in hard cash. There are many answers to this question, and several [â¦]
The post The Art of Emotional Pricing appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The Nine Muses Once upon a time it was taken for granted that the source of creativity was not the artist but the spirits, gods, or Muses, via inspiration. The word âinspirationâ comes from the same Latin root as ârespiration,â suggesting that the artist âbreathed inâ influences from outside. The opening of Homerâs Odyssey is [â¦]
The post Is Inspiration a Thing of the Past? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Why do you create? For love? For money? or both? Balancing creative inspiration and professional ambition The surprisingly creative potential of business models Selling books â getting the basics right Beyond selling books â creative ways to grow your income These are some of the topics covered in this 45-minute video I recorded with my [â¦]
The post Video: Making a Living From Your Creative Work (plus events in London, New York and Chicago) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
What are the biggest challenges facing creatives who start out in business for themselves? Should you quit your day job or start building your creative enterprise in your spare time? How are your creative and business challenges likely to change over time? How do the massive changes in the publishing industry in recent years affect [â¦]
The post Business for Authors and Creatives: a Conversation with Joanna Penn appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by nikkytok via BigStock As Gregory Sampson awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found his bed transformed into a gigantic slab of stone. He couldnât see the change â the room was pitch-black, so opening his eyes or closing them made no difference at all. But he could feel it. The bed was [â¦]
The post How Your Creativity Can Save You in a Crisis appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In recent years the term âdigital nomadâ has become a buzzword for a new way of living and working â travelling the globe with a laptop and living in a succession of exotic countries, all the while running a business from the road. Plenty of hype and myths have grown up around the subject. One [â¦]
The post Travel the World as a Suitcase Entrepreneur: a Conversation with Natalie Sisson appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you want to succeed as a creative professional, sooner or later youâre going to have to stand up in front of an audience and persuade them of the value of your work. If youâre a writer youâll be invited to give readings and talks. If youâre an artist youâll be asked to talk about [â¦]
The post Video: Public Speaking for Introverted Creatives appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by digitalista via BigStock When I teach my workshop on âFundraising for Artists,â we play this game: I give the class an imaginary check for $10,000 and I ask an artist to come to the front of the room and describe her project. Participants have to decide if and when theyâre willing to give [â¦]
The post Unlock Your Creativity (and Win Pitches) by Starting at the Finish Line appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Are you the type of creative person who only generates ideas and solutions when youâve had your full eight hours of shut-eye? Or perhaps you find your mind firing off with so many bright ideas that you sometimes find it hard to get to sleep? Hereâs how to consciously use sleeplessness to your advantage a [â¦]
The post How Interrupting Your Sleep Can Silence Your Doubts and Boost Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I love crime dramas, especially ones where the protagonist appears to have a psychological edge over everyone else, such as The Mentalist, Sherlock and Luther. The way they look at the crime scene from a different perspective and as a result get new insights into the case that ultimately leads them to the villain. The [â¦]
The post Why You Need to Ask More Creative Questions appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you subscribe to Lateral Action via email⦠You can relax, thereâs nothing for you to do. d Youâll keep getting the latest blog posts as usual. Sorry to bother you, and have a great weekend. If you subscribe to the RSS feed⦠Iâve moved the Lateral Action RSS feed from Feedburner to Feedblitz, for [â¦]
The post IMPORTANT: If you want to keep receiving Lateral Action⦠appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
How can you find your creative focus in a world that seems purpose-designed to distract you? Can you trick your brain into creativity? How can you establish a daily routine that works with the grain of your creative inclinations, instead of against it? Is it possible to use social media mindfully? What can you do [â¦]
The post Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus and Sharpen Your Creative Mind appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by SeDmi via BigStock After 25 years in the music business, Iâve probably seen it all when it comes to musicians being ripped off â by managers, labels, promoters, venues, websites and assorted other characters. Iâve also been ripped off myself a few times as well before I wised up to things. So to [â¦]
The post The Three Biggest Ways Musicians Get Ripped Off (and How to Avoid Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Albund via BigStock Youâre smarter than a simple snake, right? You rarely start your sentences with, âI wishâ or âIf only I could find some inspiration.â Right? I thought I was clever and had any inspiration issues under control⦠until I read Hank Finds Inspiration by Craig Frazier. Itâs a childrenâs book about [â¦]
The post You Donât Need to Look for Inspiration appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Since I released my book Resilience: Facing Down Rejection and Criticism on the Road to Success for Kindle and other e-readers last year, lots of people have asked me for a print edition. Iâm pleased to say Resilience is now available as a paperback for those of you, like me, who like the look and [â¦]
The post Now in Paperback â Resilience: Facing Down Rejection and Criticism on the Road to Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When I decided to publish my first book, I read a whole stack of books about self-publishing. The one that made the biggest impression was Letâs Get Digital: How to Self-Publish and Why You Should, by novelist David Gaughran. Davidâs book stood out because he not only delivered plenty of useful advice, he also did [â¦]
The post How to Succeed as a Self-Published Writer â a Conversation with David Gaughran appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youâre an independent artist or small creative business, a website is essential for showcasing your work and finding customers. But building and maintaining it is challenging for several reasons: You donât have a big budget. Even if you did, youâre averse to spending a lot of money on a website until youâre sure it [â¦]
The post How WordPress Helps You Take Creative Control of Your Website appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Since I published 4 compelling reasons for creative people to start using Google Plus, lots of you have responded: âOK Iâm sold! Iâve signed up for an account. But what do I DO with it?â So this article will walk you through the process of getting started on Google+ and using it to build a [â¦]
The post Google Plus 101 for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you want the internet to bring you an audience for your creative work, opportunities for your creative career, and/or customers for your creative business, I recommend you get a Google+ account and start using it right away. I know youâre busy, and it probably feels like another social network is the last thing you [â¦]
The post 4 Compelling Reasons for Creative People to Start Using Google Plus appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Painting by Natasha Wescoat licensed to Murals Your Way When I began as an artist, I was really enjoying the experience of selling my work directly to people. It was so much more exciting than hanging it on a wall in a gallery. I had more control over my work, when it was available and [â¦]
The post How to Start Licensing Your Art (and Why You Should) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Let me guess: Youâre busy. You receive too many emails. Youâve got people coming at you every day, asking for things, urgently. Youâve got a head full of great ideas, but thereâs never enough time to work on them properly. Every time you go near the internet, you find even more demands and diversions. Even [â¦]
The post How to Tell if Youâre Really Overloaded (and What to Do About It) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In this video Joanna Penn interviews me about dealing with rejection and criticism when youâre pursuing your creative dreams, drawing on insights from my book Resilience. (If youâre reading via email you may need to click through to the website to watch the video.) Jo is a novelist and publishing expert, so parts of the [â¦]
The post Video: Dealing with Rejection and Criticism appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Oleg latsun via BigStock Did you set a âBig Hairy Audacious Goalâ this morning? No, me neither. What about your âGreat Work Projectâ? No? OK, what about deciding âHow will you measure your lifeâ? No? This article is for all of you who did not wake this morning consumed with desire to reach [â¦]
The post How To Do What You Really Want (Instead Of What You Feel Like) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
After a terrorist attack destroyed New Yorkas World Trade Center and left lower Manhattan a shambles on September 11, 2001, utility company Con Edison faced a herculean task: rebuilding the utility infrastructure of this densely-packed urban area. As part of this effort, Lisa Frigand of the utilityas economic development department was serving on a committee [â¦]
The post How to Unlock Your Creativity with Visual Thinking appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Dennis Jarvis Three years ago⦠I was trapped in a job I no longer loved, struggling to get by on a wage that could no longer support my family. With hindsight, I think I was on the verge of becoming clinically depressed. Two years ago⦠everything had changed. I was running my own [â¦]
The post Four Ways to Reinvent Your Life and Business (with an iPod) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Ah, there you are! Do come in. Make yourself at home â Meph will take your coat. Please have a seat. Yes, I do apologise, it is rather warm. Weâre having a devil of a job with the thermostat. Someoneâs supposed to be coming to fix it, but you know how it is with these [â¦]
The post The Seven Deadly Sins of Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Kevron2001 via BigStock When a pristine new year is laid out before you, itâs a great opportunity to think big and set yourself exciting goals. I hope and trust you are doing just that. And letâs not kid ourselves itâs going to be easy. Look back at last year, and like me, Iâm [â¦]
The post How to Build Resilience for the Year Ahead appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Does professionalism stimulate or stifle creativity? When research is essential for your creative work, how do you avoid it becoming an excuse for procrastination? What does it mean to âturn proâ as a creator, and what difference does it make? How bad do things have to get before we finally turn pro? These are some [â¦]
The post What Does It Take to Be a Creative Pro? A Conversation with Steven Pressfield appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youâre interested in the potential of blogging to open up opportunities for your creative career or business, I recommend you spend some time with a new free guide from Rajesh Setty called Blogtastic: Growing and making a difference through blogging. Itâs not your typical introduction to blogging, and certainly not a âget rich quick [â¦]
The post A Free Guide to Creating a Blog with Impact appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Minerva Studio via BigStock Have you ever received encouragement about your creative work only to be left feeling more discouraged than ever? âYour day will comeâ â well-meaning friends say enthusiastically. ORâ¦âI bet youâll make it big someday,â they say awkwardly because youâve just told them about your 19th rejection of your book [â¦]
The post How to Flourish NOW (While Youâre Still Pursuing Your Creative Dream) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Andreas Fischer via BigStock Cliff Young is the most famous runner you have never heard of. Cliff is a legend among endurance athletes. He made his mark in 1983 when â a sheep farmer by trade â he showed up in overalls and work boots to compete in the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne [â¦]
The post Motivation Lessons from the Man Who Ran for 5 Days (with No Sleep) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you want to achieve something original with your life, sooner or later you will have to face up to rejection and criticism. Whether youâre an artist, creative, freelancer, athlete, entrepreneur or employee, youâll put yourself forward for opportunities, only to be rejected â maybe many times. And when you do manage to get yourself [â¦]
The post Why Rejection and Criticism Hurt So Much (and What to Do About Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Four years ago I wrote a guide to the Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People that turned out to be one of the most popular things Iâve ever published here on Lateral Action. But four years is a long time in social media. Empires rise and fall, old networks fade away and new ones [â¦]
The post The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâm pretty sure that up in the clouds there lies a âDream Bankâ that has way too many deposits in it, from years of peopleâs dreams being left untouched. Itâs time we started drawing down on those reserves and turning them into profit and happiness for others. Starting your creative project or business idea does [â¦]
The post 7 Ways to Start Your Creative Project for Just $100 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Hugh MacLeod We are condemned to be free. (Jean-Paul Sartre) The great thing about working on your own is that thereâs no-one to tell you what to do or when to do it â when to start, when to stop, when to have lunch and whether to work the weekend. You have so [â¦]
The post Why Freelancers Need Hard Edges in Their Day appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Being stuck in the same routine day in day out can narrow your creative vision. You see the same things, hear the same sounds and life feels a little mundane. When you sit down to brainstorm ideas, your paper fills up with doodles of nothing in particular, and your attention is soon drawn to life [â¦]
The post How to Broaden Your Creative Horizons with Travel appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Clarity of thought, creative breakthroughs and inner peace whilst having a vacation from your overactive mind? Sound good? You need to sharpen your pencils. An all-too-familiar creative roadblock If youâve ever had a tight deadline for a project or been trying to finish that latest article that seems to never end, youâll appreciate the desperation [â¦]
The post Break Through Creative Blocks with this Unconventional Drawing Technique appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Modern society has conditioned us to believe that having a job is the safe route; that the artistâs or entrepreneurâs life is only for those fearless few who donât mind the risks. Balderdash. Artists know that creation-as-business is more rewarding than playing cog in someone elseâs machine. And Iâd like to show you four ways [â¦]
The post 4 Ways Self-Employment Is Less Risky than Getting a Job appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In the mid-nineties I made a decision to dedicate my career to helping creative professionals. At the time I was working as a hypnotherapist in a fancy West End therapy clinic. As well as the usual issues that bring people to hypnotherapy â stopping smoking, losing weight, fear of spiders/heights/snakes/success, anxiety, depression, and various types [â¦]
The post Why Creators Need to Be Professionals appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Khristich Yury via BigStock Venturing out on your own to start a creative business can be a scary experience. There are so many things that could go wrong. What if you fail? What if you canât make any money? What if nobody likes what you do? The good news is that youâre not [â¦]
The post How to Overcome Three Big Fears of Creative Entrepreneurs appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This article is about a moment in time that changed the course of Western civilisation forever. An era that began a new way of thinking. When imagination flourished and artists were thought to be near divine beings. A time when humankind experienced a glorious rebirth. This new movement promised freedom from the plagues, disease and [â¦]
The post 8 Lessons for Modern Creators from Leonardo da Vinci appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Illustration by Oscar Ramos Orozco We all know vegetables and exercise are good for our health â but whoâd have guessed boredom was good for creativity? My latest piece for The 99% is about Why Boredom Is Good for Your Creativity, and explains a harsh truth about the creative process â and what to do [â¦]
The post 20 Ways to Become More Creative, Productive and Successful appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The list of business books I can wholeheartedly recommend to artists and creatives is sadly very short. Most of them donât take account of the fact that creative people are more interested in finding a way to earn a living that supports their passions and lifestyle than in becoming the next Richard Branson or Donald [â¦]
The post The $100 Startup for Artists and Creatives: a Conversation with Chris Guillebeau appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When I first saw Pinterest, it almost made me wish I were a visual artist. âWhat a fantastic idea!â I thought. It brought to mind all my artist coaching clients who had said to me: Twitterâs all very well for you, youâre a writer. But no one can see my pictures on Twitter. They were [â¦]
The post Pinterest: an Opportunity for Creators â or a Threat? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If youâre a writer, this is a great time to be alive. Donât be fooled by the wailing and gnashing of teeth emanating from the publishing industry. Just because traditional publishers are in crisis doesnât mean that writing â or even publishing â is in crisis. Right now, the balance of power between authors and [â¦]
The post The Future of Self-Publishing: a Conversation with Orna Ross appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by danadauta How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank People often ask me why I decided to share my eBook From Apps To Zen: 26+ Ideas for Building a Business with Balance for free. My answer is always the same: Through sharing [â¦]
The post Karma in Action: Why Doing Good Is Great for Business appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One of the biggest problems creative people face isnât a lack of time or money. Itâs a lack of confidence. If you love writing, drawing, composing, designing, or any other creative activity, you might have started out doing it simply for the pleasure of creating. Once you start looking beyond that â to building an [â¦]
The post Seven Powerful Ways to Gain More Confidence in Your Creative Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Many of us have love/hate relationships with our smartphones. On the one hand, itâs amazing to have so much media and so many gadgets and connections at our fingertips â news, sports, weather, blog feeds, photos, videos, music, calculators, voice recognition, encyclopedias, dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn⦠and of course, email. On the [â¦]
The post How to Get Your Life Back from Your Smartphone appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Radhika Bhagwat Are you spending the majority of your time keeping up with business-related tasks rather than creating? Are you lacking the passion you once felt for your business? Is your creative time continually being pushed to the back burner? If you answered âyesâ to the above questions, Iâm guessing youâre feeling a [â¦]
The post Is Your Business Drowning Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
âI discovered at an early age that all Iave ever wanted to do is designâ Jonathan Ive in his New Year Honours press release (Image by David Blackwell) It makes me want to puke. On reading this you will have had one of two reactions â youâll either have nodded along because you, too, have [â¦]
The post How To Tackle The Goal Setting Problem Nobody Talks About appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Drawing by Hugh MacLeod The tortured artist is one of the great cliches of creativity. And like all cliches, it contains a grain of truth. Look at the work of any truly great artist, and you will find suffering is one of the big themes â whether itâs the everyday misery of poverty (Dickens), the [â¦]
The post How to Suffer for Your Art (without Being a Jerk) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When the iPad was launched, amid all the huzzahs and hoopla, there were a few murmurs of discontent from the creative community. âSure, it looks slick, but you canât make anything with it.â âIf this isnât âlean backâ media, I donât know what is.â âLean backâ, of course, was a reference to Jakob Nielsenâs well-known [â¦]
The post The Real Value of Tablet Computers to Creators appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Drawings by Will Kemp Ever wanted to learn to draw? Have you daydreamed of just picking up a pencil and sketching? But inside there is a lingering doubt. A distant memory of a school teacher who told you once you were bad at art. An inner critic that holds you backâ¦. Even before you begin. [â¦]
The post 7 Ways Learning to Draw Can Improve Your Productivity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Ask any writer or artist who has spent hours (or days) staring at a blank sheet of paper and they will tell you how paralysing creative freedom can be. And the freelance life may sound idyllic to those of you who have to report for duty in an office each day, but the freedom to [â¦]
The post Why It Pays to Panic Early (and How to Do it Effectively) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Thank you to everyone who entered the What Inspires You? competition by leaving comments on the original post about your inspirations. Fittingly, the comment thread turned out to be an inspiration in its own right, with over 100 entries that reminded me what a special group of people read this blog. We had such a [â¦]
The post Competition Winners â and a Special Bonus Prize for You appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by lulemon athletica Letâs face it. We all get out of creative shape from time to time. Just as an athlete quickly loses fitness without training, so your creative stamina will fade away if you donât work at maintaining it â every week, if not every day. So when you get out of the [â¦]
The post 6 Steps to Building Your Creative Endurance appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
EDIT: The competition is now closed for entries. Mike will choose the winners and weâll announce them here on the blog shortly. OK the holiday season is upon us, so itâs time for some fun. d Designer and Lateral Action writer Mike Kammerling has kindly created a limited edition of five inspirational prints for Lateral [â¦]
The post What Inspires You? Win a Limited Edition Print to Spark Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When you set out to earn a living from your creative talent, you will inevitably encounter obstacles. Over the past week, Iâve been hearing about plenty of these, from students in the process of signing up for the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap. So I thought it would be helpful to share three of the most common [â¦]
The post Three Roadblocks to Success as a Creative Entrepreneur (and How to Get Past Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
EDIT: Registration for the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap has now closed for 2011 and Iâve started working with the group to take their creative businesses to the next level. If youâd like to be first to know when the course is offered in 2012 â and to receive plenty of free education to help you succeed [â¦]
The post The Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap Is Now Open appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by raneko A few years ago I felt like a liability to my business. I was working as a consultant, running coaching and training programs for large corporations. I worked really hard to do a professional job and project a professional image. I had a smart suit, smart shirt and tie, and carried a [â¦]
The post Why Branding Your Creative Business Should Be a Revelation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The book industry is in turmoil and many publishers are tearing their hair out. But the changes have created some amazing new opportunities for writers â and CJ Lyons is living proof. CJ is a Pediatric ER Doctor turned bestselling author of âthrillers with heartâ. In this audio interview I talk to her about how [â¦]
The post How to Publish Direct to Kindle and Hit No.2 on the New York Times Bestseller List appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Once upon a time, I saw business as The Enemy. As an aspiring young writer and poet, my worst nightmare was becoming a corporate zombie, sleep-walking to work in a faceless office block. I wonder what my younger self would have made of this passage from Richard Bransonâs book Business Stripped Bare? Business is creative. [â¦]
The post Can Business Be as Creative as the Arts? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you could choose any place and time in history in which to live and realise your creative ambitions, which would you pick? A few years ago, if youâd asked me that question, as a poet, Iâd have been spoilt for choice. Ancient Ireland would be hard to beat. The Celts really knew how to [â¦]
The post Why Thereâs Never Been a Better Time to Be Creative appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by Andrew Magill When Charles Schwab became President of Bethlehem Steel in 1903, he made an unusual offer to his consultant, Ivy Lee: Show my staff and me a way to get more done in less time and Iâll pay you any fee within reason. Without batting an eyelid, Lee offered to give Schwab [â¦]
The post The $100 Million Productivity Tip appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you earn your living as a creative professional, youâll be familiar with what Todd Henry of Accidental Creative describes as âthe pressure to be brilliant at a momentâs noticeâ. While we can all do this from time to time, the key to success in a creative career is the ability to do it again [â¦]
The post The Accidental Creative: an Interview with Todd Henry appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creativity is exciting, but itâs also scary. Whenever you set out to do something new, you never know how itâs going to turn out â you canât predict it, plan it, or control it. Creativity is inherently uncertain. We all know this, but most of the time we donât talk about uncertainty. We try to [â¦]
The post From Uncertainty to Creativity: an Interview with Jonathan Fields appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by Szilveszter Farkas Once upon a time, I was frustrated on a daily basis by my computer. It kept crashing, refusing to connect to the internet, and interrupting me with asinine pop-up messages. It lost me hours of productivity every week. I rang the computer supplier. They blamed the parts supplier. I rang the [â¦]
The post Just Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Live, work, travel. The motto of modern nomads â professionals who, carrying a laptop and a mobile, are able to do their work from almost any place in the world. Breathtaking nature sceneriesa| Tropical beachesa| Hikes into the unknowna| Exotic local cuisinea| Strange cultures, people and languagesa| Huge vibrant citiesa| Places the others only dream [â¦]
The post Is the Digital Nomad Lifestyle for You? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Out of all the blog series Iâve written over the past six years, Iâve never had so many requests for an ebook version as for the Creative Blocks series. And your wish is my command. d Iâve collected the entire series into an ebook: 20 Creative Blocks (and How to Break Through Them). Itâs yours [â¦]
The post Free Ebook: 20 Creative Blocks (and How to Break Through Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
We creatives love to think of ourselves as revolutionaries and rule-breakers, thinking outside the box, breaking free of convention and plucking inspiration out of thin air. Formulas, rules and templates are for scientists, bean counters and corporate drones. What makes us special is our originality â our ability to come up with novel solutions and [â¦]
The post Is There a Template for Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Buy a book, save someoneas life. How often do you get to do that? Seth Godin Well todayâs the day we all get to do it. End Malaria: Bold Innovation, Limitless Generosity, and the Opportunity to Save a Life is the latest book from Sethâs Domino Project. $20 from every sale will go to Malaria [â¦]
The post (Make Today) End Malaria Day appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâm serious. It might sound a strange claim to make after having written an entire series on overcoming creative blocks, but there really is no such thing. Think about it. Have you ever seen a creative block? How big was it? What colour was it? How much did it weigh when you tried to pick [â¦]
The post Why Thereâs No Such Thing as a Creative Block appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You need to be tough to succeed in a creative career. Unless youâre the exception to the rule, you will be criticised, rejected, ridiculed, cheated and disappointed â many times. So I wasnât surprised to hear this story from âSallyâ (not her real name) in response to my invitation to tell me about your creative [â¦]
The post How to Get Back in the Creative Zone after Hitting a Brick Wall appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Maybe you have a dream â something youâve always wanted to do. And maybe, today, you are doing something to make that dream happen. Or maybe youâre putting it off, doing other things today but promising yourself youâll pursue the dream âsomedayâ. Either way, I have an amazing story for you. If youâre already working [â¦]
The post Dying to Do Letterman: Why Your Dream Is Urgent appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by EvelynGiggles This room looks like a tornado went through! A How on earth do you ever find anything in this mess? Sound familiar? Most creative people have had a version of this conversation at some point in their lives, be it with a parent, a friend or partner, or a well-meaning mentor or teacher. [â¦]
The post Organization for Creative People â Why Your Brain May Be Keeping You From âGetting Things Doneâ appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
What? How can you get sued for not being yourself? Writing for Rolling Stone, music journalist Don McLeese explains: Neil Young is the only artist in the history of modern recording to be sued for refusing to be himself. The suit, filed by Geffen Records, Youngâs label for much of the Eighties, charged that he [â¦]
The post How Neil Young Became the First Artist to Get Sued for Not Being Himself appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you ever feel stuck on a problem or overwhelmed by the challenges you face, here are five powerful tools that can help you get unstuck fast. Iâve tried and tested them with hundreds of coaching clients over the past two decades, so I can confidently recommend using them when youâre facing a problem or [â¦]
The post 5 Creative Coaching Techniques To Get Yourself Unstuck appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This photo shows me at the threshold of the room where the Japanese haiku master Matsuo Basho wrote his first book of poetry. Thereâs practically nothing in it, beyond the tatami mats covering the floor, a low writing table and a lantern. It would have been similarly empty in Bashoâs day. Basho was the son [â¦]
The post Rich Poet, Poor Poet appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Once upon a time, all art was mainstream art. Because materials were expensive and skilled artisans were relatively rare, and there was no mass media to boost profits via economies of scale, only the clergy and nobility could afford to commission artworks â and their tastes were pretty conservative. Walk around the medieval section of [â¦]
The post Why Money Matters to Avant-Garde Artists appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
OK itâs time for some solutions to the artistic and financial conundrums weâve been discussing in the Creativity and Money series. d Having talked about the reasons creative people donât talk about money, the creative benefits of money, and 5 big money mistakes weâre prone to making, itâs time to give you some solid practical [â¦]
The post Free Audio Seminar: 5 Essential Money Skills for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creative people are terrible with money Weâre dreamers, pie-in-the-sky merchants. Weâre no good with numbers. Weâre an accountantâs nightmare, turning up with a shoebox full of receipts â and half the receipts missing. We donât have a head for business. So we end up working for peanuts. What money we do get, we let slip [â¦]
The post Free Ebook: 5 Big Mistakes Creative People Make with Money appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You canât buy creativity, any more than you can buy love. But if you ignore money matters, as we saw earlier this week, it can seriously hurt your creativity. The good news is that although money will never make you more creative, it can support your creativity indirectly. Here are four ways a little moolah [â¦]
The post 4 Ways Money Can Support Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creative people have a love/hate relationship with money. We love it, because â well, who wouldnât want it? But we also hate it, avoid dealing with it, and avoid even talking about it. Here are some of the reasons why. 1. We Think Itâs Not Important And of course weâre right. There are more important [â¦]
The post 7 Reasons Creative People Donât Talk about Money appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâd be very suspicious of any artist or creative who claimed they didnât want an audience. Yes, we may start with the inner creative impulse, but we also want to connect, to share, to hear an echo coming back from the world. To reach an audience and know our work made a difference to them. [â¦]
The post How to Find an Audience for Your Creative Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Success is hard. And we usually think of it as the finishing line, the end of the story. But once they achieve success, many people are surprised to find it brings a whole new set of challenges. Thatâs the experience described by âArthurâ (not his real name), the author of a string of popular books, [â¦]
The post Are You Avoiding Your Next Big Challenge? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Once upon a time there was a clear distinction between our personal and professional identities. Our professional lives started punctually at 9am on Monday morning, when we walked into the office in our smart clothes. Our personal lives were confined to evenings and weekends, when we wore an entirely different set of clothes, mixed with [â¦]
The post How Much of Your Personal Life Should You Reveal Online? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Here on the Lateral Action blog, I do my best to provide you with useful advice to boost your creativity and productivity. I also provide a free 26-week course where I teach you the fundamental skills you need to succeed in a creative career. To judge from the feedback I get every week, these are [â¦]
The post Start Working to Your True Creative Potential appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Everyone knows ninjas were assassins in feudal Japan who wore special black outfits to hide themselves on night missions. But apparently the word âninjaâ was rarely used in the past â the more usual term was âshinobiâ. And their outfits were actually dark blue and anything but special. They were typical farmersâ clothes, which the [â¦]
The post How to Sharpen Your Ninja Memory Skills appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One Sunday afternoon in 1920s England, two schoolboys were walking across the fields near their school. One of them asked the other whether heâd ever considered writing poetry. I never had, and said so, but I knew That very moment what I wished to do. That boy was called Wystan Hugh Auden, and he went [â¦]
The post How Did You Discover Your Creative Vocation? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you ever struggle with seeing a creative challenge through from concept to completion, youâll want to listen to this audio interview Iâve just recorded with Steven Pressfield, bestselling novelist, Hollywood screenwriter and author of the creativity classic The War of Art. Steve has just released a follow-up to The War of Art called Do [â¦]
The post Do the Work â an Interview with Steven Pressfield appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creative people tend to have wide interests â itâs part of what makes us creative. But sometimes this blessing can turn into a curse, when we feel pulled in so many different directions that we donât know which one to pick. This is the challenge facing Lateral Action reader Jonathan Price, who left this comment [â¦]
The post Are You Torn Between Different Creative Ambitions? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Every so often, someone unsubscribes from my blog or my free Creative Pathfinder course and leaves me some angry feedback. The gist of their complaint is that they signed up for some help with their creative career, and they donât want to hear about marketing, sales or anything else to do with business. I know [â¦]
The post Are You Looking for a Turtle with a Moustache? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by Pablo Contreras. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Rita Mae Brown We cannot continue to do the same thing every day and hope to remain competitive. In business as well as in life, change is not a choice, itâs a must. The options are very [â¦]
The post How Creativity Gives Entrepreneurs an Edge appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Illustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco. Itâs holiday season here in the UK (apparently there was a wedding somewhere) so Iâm taking a little blog interlude. But if youâd like a little creativity and productivity reading â and if youâd like to know why I keep a samurai sword handy in my office â hop over to [â¦]
The post Eccentric Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Don Draper, the legendary ad man, is facing meltdown. His agencyâs clients are deserting. The partners are squabbling. Redundancies will have to be made. Adland has got wind that Sterling Cooper Draper Price is in trouble. Don has just returned from a clandestine meeting with Heinz that he hoped would give them a lifeline â [â¦]
The post Creativity: the Least Important, Most Important Thing There Is appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by Julian Fong. If it werenât for procrastination, weâd all be superheroes. When you think of the creativity, talent and energy in every human being, and what we achieve on the occasions when weâre working at full stretch, itâs almost scary to consider what we could do if we didnât keep shying away from [â¦]
The post Three Big Reasons Why We Procrastinate
(And What to Do about Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you like Lateral Action, I hope youâll (ahem) Like the new Lateral Action Facebook page. d By clicking the âLikeâ button at the top of the page, youâll receive updates from Lateral Action via your Facebook account â including cool creative articles, videos and other resources, that Iâm sharing most working days. Iâm also [â¦]
The post Get More from Lateral Action on Facebook appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever wondered what to do with your life? You have talent and skills. A little knowledge and experience. Maybe a job, maybe a few freelance gigs. But what you donât have is a Big Idea that fills you with passion and makes you want to leap out of bed in the morning. A [â¦]
The post Why Curiosity Is Your Best Guide to a Remarkable Future appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by Jeff Pang. Each morning before dawn, novelist Nicholson Baker would slip out of bed without waking his wife, creep downstairs without stirring his kids, make a pot of coffee, light a fire in his wood-burning stove, flip on his laptop â the only other light besides the flames â and write. In that [â¦]
The post How to Create in the Twilight Zone appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Last week I saw an unusual busker at the railway station. Taro Hakase is a household name in his native Japan. As a violinist, he is equally at home in the worlds of classical and pop music. Heâs best known internationally for playing on Celine Dionâs song âTo Love You Moreâ, and he has played [â¦]
The post What Difference Can Art Make in a Crisis? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I often say that there are two types of creative people: those who create things themselves; and those who help others create â as facilitators, directors, producers, managers, coaches or teachers. Inevitably, the hands-on creators get most of the limelight, but facilitators are the unsung heroes of the creative industries. The director is the invisible [â¦]
The post How Teaching Can Stoke Your Creative Work â
a Conversation with Jen Louden appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creative careers come in all shapes and sizes. They include classic artistic paths, in the fine arts, literature, music, drama and other performing arts. There are also traditional crafts and designer-maker professions, whose practitioners create and sell artefacts in wood, metal, glass, ceramics and other materials. The modern creative industries employ talented people in fields [â¦]
The post 12 Inspiring Career Guides for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Regular Lateral Action readers will know Iâm a big believer in the power of focus. When itâs time to produce, itâs time to eliminate distractions â switch off the phone, e-mail, internet etc â and concentrate on the task in hand. Because focused attention is essential for achieving creative flow, the state in which you [â¦]
The post Do Distractions Make You More Creative? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
1. A Story Is an Archetype Experienced storytellers will tell you there are no new stories, just endless variations on old tales. That was certainly Shakespeareâs attitude, who would probably have found the idea of inventing a story faintly absurd, and who habitually plundered the works of historians, mythographers, ancient authors and his fellow dramatists [â¦]
The post 13 Ways of Looking at a Story appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Tim Siedell â a.k.a. @badbanana â is the only person whose Twitter page I catch up on, by scrolling back to read the Tweets Iâve missed. I do this because Tim is funny. Seriously, consistently, and often hilariously funny. As a Brit, I love the deadpan irony of Timâs humour. And to judge from his [â¦]
The post Inside the Creative Mind of Funnyman Tim Siedell appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
There is a myth that you need inspiration to strike before you can be creative. The truth is that you can use techniques to kickstart the muse and power through the process to complete a first novel â or similarly ambitious creative project â in one year. Last year I wrote my first novel, Pentecost. [â¦]
The post How to Write Your First Novel in a Year appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image from Wikimedia Commons When Nathaniel Lee, the 17th century English dramatist, was confined to Bedlam â the original mental asylum, in London â he is reported to have uttered these words: They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. I think a lot of creative people can [â¦]
The post How Do You Know If Your Idea Is Futile? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
EDIT: Registration for the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap has now closed, and the latest group of students have started working their way through the course. If youâd like to be first to know next time the course is offered, youâre welcome to join the advance notice list. And next week weâre back to business as usual [â¦]
The post The Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap Is Now Live appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Hereâs a creative thought experiment for you: Go to this page on the official Orbital website, scroll down and hit âplayâ on the track âHalcyon + on + onâ. Listen to the music before you read the rest of this article. Once youâve listened to it, stop and consider each of the questions in turn [â¦]
The post The Heartbreaking Power of Context appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Whenever people say to me âItâs all very well for people making digital products to have an online business, but I make real products/artwork,â I tell them about John T. Unger. John makes heavy-duty sculptures out of recycled tanks, with industrial welding equipment (follow him on Twitter to hear about it when he singes himself [â¦]
The post The 21st Century Artist â an Interview with John T. Unger appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Illustration by Joan Vincent Canto, licensed from istockphoto A creative person needs three things to be happy: Freedom â to do what you want, when you want and how you want it. Not just in holidays and spare time â but also doing meaningful work, in your own way. Money â to maintain your independence [â¦]
The post Free Ebook: Freedom, Money, Time â and the Key to Creative Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Jean MiA(c)lot, 15th Century writer Iâve always wanted to be a writer. Not just a hobbyist or dabbler, but a professional, earning my living from my writing. Over the holidays, the thought occurred to me that Iâve now achieved my ambition, almost without realising it. No, I havenât signed a book deal. Iâve been offered [â¦]
The post How I Became a Professional Writer appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo of Piranesi engraving by Evil Preacher They say Rome wasnat built in a day. And it was a full-time job. Think of lugging all that marble, laying pipes and foundations, raising columns and arches, tiling all those roofs, and doing all the fancy bits of decoration on the top. Not to mention organising supplies [â¦]
The post How to Build an Empire in Your Spare Time appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Hugh MacLeod This is a golden age of opportunity for artists and creatives. Never before have you been able to get your work in front of so many people, at such a low cost, with so few gatekeepers barring the way. With a laptop, some free and cheap software, and a healthy dose [â¦]
The post The 10 Biggest Mistakes Artists and Creatives Make
at Internet Marketing (and How to Fix Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If last year was difficult, make this year different. If last year was fear, make this year fight. If last year was glum, make this year glad. If last year disappointed, make this year deliver. If last year was meh, make this year more. If last year was weary, make this year worthwhile. If last [â¦]
The post Make This Year Different appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Tambako the Jaguar Itâs time to take a break for the holidays, so hereâs a selection of the best of Lateral Action in 2010, the second full year of the blog. A big thank you to all of you for reading, commenting, Tweeting and otherwise helping to make it a creative and productive [â¦]
The post The Best of Lateral Action 2010 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image courtesy of The 99 Percent OK the holiday season is upon us and Lateral Action will â like you, I hope â soon be taking a break for inspiration (and mince pies). Later this week Iâll post a collection of the Best of Lateral Action 2010. But first I want to draw your attention [â¦]
The post My Most Important Productivity Tool appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Sitting at a computer desk may look like a soft option compared to working in a factory or on a building site. But a growing body of research suggests it can be downright dangerous. Information workers may not have to deal with obvious hazards such as falling bricks, heavy machinery or molten metal, but sedentary [â¦]
The post Stand By Your Computer (Your Health May Depend on It) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Mary Anne Enriquez Thereâs something hypnotic about organization systems. Reading a productivity blog, I can feel myself swelling up with virtue. âFrom now on, there will be no missed appointments, no lost emails, no mislaid pieces of paper. My office will be clean and orderly. I will always have my keys when I [â¦]
The post Get Organized â But Not Too Organized appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by O Palsson We have all had the experience of taking our mind off a problem only to have the solution come to us like manna from heaven. Whether it is a creative answer to a difficult brief, an elegant way to write a line of text or even just the name of that [â¦]
The post How to Grow Your Imagination in Secret appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
General knowledge is overrated. Yes, it can help you feel clever playing quiz games, in arguments with friends, or shouting at the TV during a game show. But when was the last time there was any practical need for you to know the the author of Little Dorrit or the distance of Pluto from the [â¦]
The post Why a Bad Memoryâs Not Such a Bad Thing appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you normally read Lateral Action on the main site, you may have noticed a few changes recently. And if you read it via e-mail or RSS, you might like to pop over to the site today, while I give you guided tour of the upgraded and revamped Lateral Action â and a sneak preview [â¦]
The post Welcome to Lateral Action 2.0 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
How do you make a MacBook Pro crash? Install Windows Vista. Sadly, Iâm not joking. Iâm a Mac convert, and like many converts, I started out full of evangelical zeal for my new faith. Having experienced both PCs and Macs, I couldnât understand why anyone would willingly inflict Windows on themselves. I used to lose [â¦]
The post How Windows Vista Makes Me More Creative appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The first bridge made entirely of iron spans the River Severn in Shropshire, England. It was erected in 1779, when new blast-furnace technology made it cost-effective to produce large quantities of cast iron for the first time. The men who built it had only ever seen bridges made of wood, brick or stone. So when [â¦]
The post Are We Making Wooden Bridges Out of Iron? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Saxon Ever wondered what drives art thieves to risk it all for the sake of a masterpiece? I was thinking about this the other day and I really couldnat come up with a good answer. Sure, thereas a black market out there where some of the worldas richest will pay top dollar for [â¦]
The post The Art Thiefâs Guide to Creating Work That Sells appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Hugh MacLeod Drink and drugs. A writeras key to inspiration? Or a demon to your creative success? One of the hottest debates surrounding inspiration is that of the effect of drink and drugs. Some firmly believe they are essential for great creations. Even German philosopher Nietzsche stated that: For art to exist, for [â¦]
The post Donât Let âInspirationâ Kill Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
âIf you only read one book about getting creative work done,â I tell my coaching clients, âmake it The War of Artâ. Regular Lateral Action readers will know Iâm a huge fan of Steven Pressfieldâs approach to overcoming Resistance and getting on with your biggest creative challenges, as described in the text and audio interviews [â¦]
The post Buy The War of Art for Just $1.99 â Two Days Only! appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by losmininos In 2005 I began puzzling over the success of some elite professionals I was fortunate enough to meet. They did not match any of my categories and yet they were more successful than anybody else in their field. I solved the riddle two years later after reading Harriet Rubinas book, Soloing. Rubin [â¦]
The post The Four Stages of Freelance Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. These are the words that swam into my mind when I learned about the theme of this yearâs Blog Action Day: Water. They come from Samuel Taylor Coleridgeâs great poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, at the point where the Mariner and his shipmates have lost [â¦]
The post Everybodyâs Drink Problem appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Mind maps are a powerful tool to get yourself unstuck, focused and organized to do your best creative work. Tony Buzan is the person best known for coining the term mind map and helping to educate the world at large about the concept. Mind maps are a form of visual mapping, where you use a [â¦]
The post Four Ways Mind Maps Make You More Creative appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As you read these words, your brain is being changed. Every day, as you surf the internet, clicking on hyperlinks, opening new tabs and windows, flicking between e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and whatever it was you were reading just now, your patterns of thought are changing. And neuroscientists have amassed solid evidence that when we change [â¦]
The post Yes, the Internet Is Changing Your Brain appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Jeff Medaugh Iâm sure you are more successful than I am. Iâm struggling to learn everything I can to make my online business a success. Iâm reading and learning everything I can about writing headlines, compelling content, social proof, and unique selling propositions. My dream is to make enough money selling my products [â¦]
The post Four Excuses to Quit (and What to Do About Them) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Not only is
The post 10 Business Lessons from the Man Who Fell to Earth appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
âA muse?â you ask. âYou mean some kind of invisible spirit that dumps creative inspiration into my mind?â âExactly,â I answer. âA genius. A daimon. An independent force in your psyche that directs your creativity, and to which you deliberately hand over ultimate responsibility for your work.â âThatâs nuts!â you exclaim. âAu contraire,â I reply. [â¦]
The post 5 Reasons Why You Need a Muse appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo courtesy Chris Guillebeau Today sees the publication of a book that is essential reading for anyone who wants to create a lifestyle and business around their own passions and interests: The Art of Nonconformity by Chris Guillebeau. I know itâs essential reading, because Chris was kind enough to send me an advance copy and [â¦]
The post The Art of Non-Conformity: an Interview with Chris Guillebeau appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Jeff Medaugh 1 There are moments when we step into our highest selves. We are lost in our activity and performing at our peak. Weâre smarter. We contribute more. We connect to the heart and root of our identity. We call this âthe zoneâ or âstate of flowâ. Dr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his [â¦]
The post Are You in Your Creative Element? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image courtesy of The 99 Percent Are you ambitious? Or do you think ambition is a dirty word? Is it possible to have big ambitions without turning into an egomaniac? Are you hiding your light under a bushel? If so â what difference would it make to your career if you gave yourself permission to [â¦]
The post Are You Ambitious Enough? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Stephen Boisvert Brainstorming is the best technique for generating great ideas. Brainstorming is the worst technique for generating great ideas. Both sentences can be accurate depending on the methods used to conduct a brainstorming session. However, thereas one technique (perhaps mindset is the better word) that can improve your results. Itas something that [â¦]
The post Brainstorming: Breaking Through the Wall of Mediocrity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by wsilver We entrepreneurs are a pragmatic bunch. Meaning, we love to solve problems. Entrepreneurs almost always have a deep, unconscious need to find elegant, easy and fast solutions. Not just for their own issues, but for other peopleas too. As an entrepreneur, you feel the itch. When something isnat right, youare the first [â¦]
The post The Entrepreneuras Secret to Lasting Happiness appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Whatâs the most important big task on your schedule today? And the most urgent? Are they the same thing? If so, then youâll have no problem deciding what to do first. But if not, then youâre faced with a dilemma: Should you do the more-important-but-less-urgent task first, at the risk of missing your deadline? Or [â¦]
The post The Most Urgent Task on Your Schedule Today appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâm pleased to announce the launch of a major new Lateral Action course: The Creative Pathfinder â Your Guide to Success as a Creative Professional. And this one is completely free. d Itâs designed to equip you with the creative and professional skills you need to succeed in your chosen career path â whether youâre [â¦]
The post The Creative Pathfinder â Your FREE Guide to Success as a Creative Professional appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Genista Two years ago this month, Brian Clark, Tony D. Clark and I were putting the finishing touches on the videos and articles we had prepared for the launch of a new website, Lateral Action. We wanted to create a different kind of site to help people realise their creative and business ambitions. [â¦]
The post The Future of Lateral Action appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâve been meaning to write about procrastination for ages, but I never quite got round to it. d This is one of the most frustrating and puzzling obstacles we encounter whenever we set out to create something remarkable. After all, creative people love creating things. Writers love to write, painters love to paint, musicians love [â¦]
The post 7 Ways to Smash Procrastination appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Earlier this week I recorded a podcast with fellow creative coach Cynthia Morris, about what it takes to become a Linchpin, riffing on the ideas in Seth Godinâs latest book. Weâve done our best to draw out the practical implications of the book, both in the call and in a Worksheet full of questions to [â¦]
The post Becoming a Linchpin: Free Podcast and Worksheet appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As soon as I came across Michael Bungay Stanierâs work, I knew I wanted to feature him on Lateral Action. The subtitle of his book Do More Great Work is a perfect fit with our approach to work: Stop the busywork and start the work that matters. Michael is the founder and Principal of Box [â¦]
The post Do More Great Work: an Interview with Michael Bungay Stanier appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Seth Godinâs Linchpin is one of the two books I recommend most often to clients in search of career advice (the other one is Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod). So I thought it was a great idea when fellow creative coach Cynthia Morris suggested we do a free podcast about Linchpin and its implications for [â¦]
The post What Do You Want to Know about Becoming a Linchpin? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by digicla This article is part two in Cynthiaas series on making feedback a positive and empowering part of the creative process, following on from How to Ask for Feedback (without it Blowing up in Your Face). aYouare not always funny. Sometimes you go on and on and on and I just fast forward.a [â¦]
The post How to Deal with Stinging Criticism appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Drawing by Hugh MacLeod Last month I wrote a piece at Wishful Thinking called Why Artists and Creatives Have an Unfair Advantage at Internet Marketing, which generated a fair amount of buzz. So when it was my turn to be interviewed by John T. Unger for his Art Heroes Radio podcast, we took that as [â¦]
The post Internet Marketing for Artists appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by treehouse1977 Once upon a time there was a boy named Milton H. Erickson, who lived on a farm in Wisconsin. Walking home from school one day, he and his friends were overtaken by a runaway horse with a bridle on, covered in sweat, that bolted into a farmerâs yard. The farmer didnât recognise [â¦]
The post The Benefits of Losing Control appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Thereâs a moment in the movie Lost In Translation where Bob (Bill Murray) is explaining to Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) how his relationship with his wife changed after they had children. âThe [â¦]
The post Does Having Kids Spell the End of Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. The internet is a wonderful thing, especially for creative people looking for entertainment and new ideas. Never before have so many different sources of inspiration been so freely available. But as [â¦]
The post How to Stop Information Overload
From Crushing Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image courtesy of The 99 Percent This week I published a couple of guest articles that tackle the perennial challenge for creators: How can you find the time, focus and resourcefulness to create something extraordinary, in the midst of daily pressures and a world that seems happy to settle for mediocrity? The Key to Creating [â¦]
The post Avoid Mediocrity, Create Masterpieces appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Passion takes inspiration and turns it into something youare proud of. Passion motivates you in the morning and fires you up when you are immersed in your work. Passion is an unlikely breeding ground for a creative block. However, as an artist, writer or musician, there is a fine line at the far end of [â¦]
The post Why Passion Beats Perfection appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Weâve all been there. Staring down the barrel of some crazy, ambitious goal, some dream, wondering how the heck weâre ever going to pull it off. A trend I notice in my own life is a lot of amazing artists and creatives doing awesome work dreaming of someday making a living from it. We want [â¦]
The post 5 Things You Donât Need To Sell Your Art (And 5 Things You Do) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
EDIT: These workshops were very well received when I ran them in 2010 â if youâd like to book my time management training, motivation training or presentation skills training workshops for your organisation, or join the waiting list for the next public events, please follow the links for full details. Iâm running two of my [â¦]
The post Live Workshops on Creativity, Productivity and Motivation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you are a creative professional, you may be more of a magician than you realize. Stage magic, tricks, illusions, sleight of handa| they are all the products of intense planning and practice, not otherworldly forces. For the budding creative professional, the person who practices lateral action, the magician is an excellent role model and [â¦]
The post Why Creative Work Is Like Making Magic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Why is it when some people hate you, youare doing something right? Whatas the most effective form of online marketing? How do you decide what to make and sell? Why is doing less the key to achieving more? Whatas more important, talent or action? These are just a few of the topics from my discussion [â¦]
The post Why aBusiness as Usuala Doesnat Work Online appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Why is it so hard to pursue our dreams, and get started on the creative challenges that mean so much to us? How can we overcome our inner Resistance to doing the things that matter? What rewards can we expect from persevering in the face of difficulties? What are the creative opportunities â and pitfalls [â¦]
The post The Art of Doing Remarkable Things: a Conversation with Steven Pressfield appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. If youâre not careful, one of the greatest blessings of the creative mindset can turn into a huge curse. You see opportunities everywhere. Things you read, people you meet, places you [â¦]
The post How to Create More by Doing Less appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Youave probably had it happen to you: eager, excited, ready to share your article or painting or blog design, you show a friend and ask, aWhat do you think?a The friend, being the honest and straightforward person he is, believes you really want to know what he thinks, so he launches into his opinions. Pointing [â¦]
The post How to Ask for Feedback (Without it Blowing Up in Your Face) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iâm pleased to say that Age of Conversation 3 â Time to Get Busy is now available on Amazon. Itâs a compilation of practical advice on using social media to make things happen in the real world. Itâs a collaborative effort between 171 authors, including yours truly. Each of us has written a chapter under [â¦]
The post Get Busy and Get Your Copy of Age of Conversation 3 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
We are delighted to welcome best-selling novelist and Hollywood screenwriter Steven Pressfield to Lateral Action. Steve is known for the combination of meticulous research and gripping narrative in his historical novels, several of which focus on ancient military campaigns such as the Battle of Thermopylae (Gates of Fire) and the exploits of Alexander the Great [â¦]
The post The War of Art: An Interview with Steven Pressfield appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by eleanor.black Admit it. You hate math. Algebra gives you chills. Statistics makes you queasy. Calculus makes your blood run cold. In college I took Calculus for Non-Science Majors. It just about killed me. I was in the math lab every day begging the graduate students for help. Advanced math befuddled me. I sat [â¦]
The post Marketing by Numbers: Why Creatives Need to Do the Math appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image courtesy of The 99 Percent My latest guest article for The 99 Percent is called Build a Business, Not Just a Client List. Itâs a summing up of my thinking about creative entrepreneurship, and why independent creatives should start thinking and acting more like entrepreneurs than freelancers. Itâs been received enthusiastically, both on the [â¦]
The post Build a Business, Not Just a Client List appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Inspiration is the Holy Grail for creative people. All of a sudden, something magical happens â words, images sounds or rhythms appear in your mind as if from nowhere, entrancing you [â¦]
The post What to Do When You Run Out Of Inspiration appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Hugh MacLeod What moments of your life do you remember most vividly? The ones where you felt most alive? What difference have those moments made to your life? Is it possible to recapture that feeling? These are some of the questions that went into a recent guest article I wrote for Hugh MacLeodâs [â¦]
The post When Have You Felt Most Alive? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Bronze sculpture of Daedalus Seth Godin says anyone can be an artist. Without even becoming an artist: Art isnât only a painting. Art is anything thatâs creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator. What makes someone an artist? I donât think it has anything to do [â¦]
The post Can Anyone Be an Artist? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Many creative people hate to feel themselves constrained by the rules and conventions of society. Moderation and common sense are all very well for the bourgeoisie, but the Bohemian quarter has [â¦]
The post Do Sex, Drugs, and Rock ana Roll Make You More Creative? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you want to turn your creative ideas into finished artworks, products or services â instead of allowing them to evaporate into thin air â youâll want to get hold of Scott Belskyâs new book Making Ideas Happen. In it, Scott shares the results of his enquiry into the working habits of exceptionally productive creative [â¦]
The post Making Ideas Happen: an Interview with Scott Belsky appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creative entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to create remarkable things and meaningful relationships. They come in various types: Artists and creatives who make a living from their artwork Entrepreneurs who take a creative approach to their business Independent-minded individuals who want to create a unique lifestyle for themselves and their families. Creative entrepreneurs donât [â¦]
The post 10 Essential Blogs for Creative Entrepreneurs appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Supposing you had a secret. And supposing that secret carried a big social stigma, that could cost you your job if it were ever known. And supposing you were a writer, [â¦]
The post Is Fear of Breaking a Taboo Blocking Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Yes folks, itâs that time of year again â Age of Conversation returns in its third incarnation, with the theme âItâs time to get busyâ. If youâve not come across it before, Age of Conversation is a social media phenomenon â a real live printed-on-paper book written by hundreds of co-authors and edited and promoted [â¦]
The post Age of Conversation 3 â Itâs Time to Get Busy! appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by John Kratz If you want to know how creativity (and the business of creativity) really works, you need to look at the examples of people who are engaged with it day in, day out. Thatâs why we feature so many case examples and interviews with great creators at Lateral Action. And now one [â¦]
The post Art Heroes Radio: Conversations about Living and Working in the Arts appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Last week, we looked at the problem of getting started, when you âdonât know what you want to to sayâ. But you can also get blocked further down the path. When [â¦]
The post How to Find Inspiration When Youâve Run Out Of Things to Say appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Every creative medium has the equivalent of the writerâs blank page â an empty space waiting to be filled. And every creator knows the numbing feeling of staring at that space [â¦]
The post How to Start Creating When You Donât Know What to Say appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The other day on Twitter, I accidentally nailed down what Iâve been trying to say on this blog for the past 18 months: We so easily associate creativity with creative thinking that they are often treated as synonymous. Whereas, in fact, you can do a hell of a lot of creative thinking (brainstorming, lateral thinking, [â¦]
The post Creative Doing Beats Creative Thinking appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. NOTE FROM MARK: I was about to start writing about the Inner Critic last week, when Marelisa FA!brega sent in this excellent piece, which is a perfect fit for this series. [â¦]
The post Four Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Artists and other creative people are not renowned for their powers of personal organisation. âA cluttered desk is a sign of genius,â we like to say, when challenged about our working [â¦]
The post Is Disorganisation Stifling Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you could do with a little more clarity and focus in your creative work, have a look at What Daily Meditation Can Do for Your Creativity â my latest guest article for The 99%. One of the most popular pieces Iâve written at lateral action is How Getting Nothing Done Can Make You More [â¦]
The post Meditation and Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I was walking down the street near my home in Berlin a few days ago when the image at right caught my eye in a shop window, and I couldnât resist snapping a picture through the glass. âKreativitatâ, as you may have guessed, means âcreativityâ in German, and the idea that it could be bought [â¦]
The post Are These Two Creativity Myths Holding You Back? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As human beings, we love stories. We love to hear them and we love to tell them. We are always telling stories â sometimes to others and sometimes to ourselves. All else being equal, the best story wins. Another good reason to learn to tell better stories is because people donât make rational decisions. They [â¦]
The post 5 Stories that Make Complex Issues Compelling appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
With the coming of the information age a fad called multi-tasking was also born. Somehow it was perceived efficient to be able to do many things at the same time; read your emails, talk with your spouse, eat bubblegum while walking⦠The reason I call multi-tasking a fad is that research shows that multi-tasking is [â¦]
The post Supercharge Your Productivity with Ultradian Rhythms appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by eschipul When Mark tossed out the challenge of sending in our creative blocks, I hit the keyboard faster than a speed demon in a red wagon. I was determined. I was going to tell someone. Once and for all. I have performance anxiety. I know, I know, thatâs a dreaded thing to have. [â¦]
The post How to Create Your Own Blogger Stage Fright â and Then Kick Its Ass appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by the sea the sea Weave all heard someone say things like, aEveryone is an artista and aWeare all born naturally creative.a But most of us smile and nod (and think to ourselves, aYeah, right!a) when we hear something like that, much in the way that we do when someone says something like, aEveryone [â¦]
The post Switch Off Your Social Self â Switch On Your Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Bryant Hill If youâre a creative entrepreneur looking to make connections and promote your business on the web, Chris Brogan is one of the people you need to pay attention to Chris is an eleven year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, [â¦]
The post An Interview with Chris Brogan, Trust Agent appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. Sometimes it can feel like a constant battle to earn enough money to justify spending time on creative work. This problem can be particularly acute if you work in a creative [â¦]
The post Are You Trapped in the âCreativity v Cashâ Dilemma? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. One of the biggest challenges facing many creative people is simply finding the time to pursue their creative interests, in the midst of the demands of everyday life. Strictly speaking, lack [â¦]
The post How to Find Time for Creative Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have a creative block youâd like some help with, tell us about it â details in the first article in the series. The fear of making a mistake and getting something âwrongâ can be paralysing for a creator. Paradoxically, this block can get worse the more successful you are. The more great work [â¦]
The post Is Fear of âGetting It Wrongâ Blocking Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you believe youâre âJust not the creative typeâ, thereâs no point even trying to think or act creatively. Youâd just be setting yourself up for failure. This is one of the biggest and most debilitating creative blocks of all. Fortunately, itâs also one of the easiest to get around, provided youâre prepared to make [â¦]
The post Do You Worry That Youâre âJust Not Creativeâ? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
EDIT: The creative blocks series is now closed to new submissions. At the foot of this post youâll find links to the articles published so far â and if you sign up for free updates youâll get all the new ones delivered to you the instant I publish them. Right, letâs see what we can [â¦]
The post Tell Us Your Creative Blocks â and Weâll Help You Smash Through Them! appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Elizabeth Audrey New Year is a time for looking back and reviewing the events of the past 12 months â and that goes for blogs too. 2009 was the first full year of Lateral Action, and weâd like to say a big thank you to all our readers, guest writers and interviewees for [â¦]
The post The Best of Lateral Action 2009 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Not all Christmas guests are welcome; not every Christmas game is harmless fun. King Arthurâs Court had seen many marvels, but all agreed they had seen none as strange as the visitor who appeared one Christmas. It was a crisp New Yearâs Day, carpeted with snow. In the Great Hall, tables were laid with gold [â¦]
The post What Do You Say When Adventure Comes Knocking? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Supposing you came across a website selling works that looked very similar to yours. To you, it looked like a straightforward case of copyright infringement. So you asked the owner to stop. But instead of stopping, they took you to court, to challenge the copyright in your work. And supposing that the way the legal [â¦]
The post What Would You Do If Someone Challenged Your Copyright? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Brian Hillegas Imagine you have no head. Iâm serious. Imagine you have no head. Right this instant. You can feel your arms, legs, hands, feet, stomach, chest and back. But your bodily sensations stop at the neck. Thereâs nothing there. At this moment, you can feel, touch, see and hear â but you [â¦]
The post Why Thinking Is Overrated appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by watercolors08 Far above the streets of Paris, scattered across the rooftops, parapets and pinnacles of Notre Dame Cathedral, is a collection of monuments to perfectionism. These are the gargoyles, sacred figures, finials and other sculpted details that constitute the icing on the cake of this magnificent building. If you take the rooftop tour [â¦]
The post How Good Is Too Good? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You might like to check out the guest article Iâve just written for online magazine The 99% â RSS Creativity: Routines, Systems, Spontaneity. If you like Lateral Action, you should enjoy The 99%. Their take on âproductive creativityâ is nicely aligned with the Lateral Action approach to âcreativity + productivityâ. The 99% is the think [â¦]
The post RSS Creativity â Guest Article for The 99% appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. (Albert Einstein) Are you attempting to unleash creativity through familiar, comfortable pathways? If so youâre only human â but remember that creativity thrives on novelty. The eight multiple intelligences described by Howard Gardner offer plenty [â¦]
The post The 8 Types of Creative Intelligence appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Image by Dina Regine There has never been a bigger, badder or better rock band than Led Zeppelin. And there never will be. Now weâve got that straight, letâs take a look at how they did it â and what you can learn from their example. 1. Think Big, Act Big Itâs easy to think [â¦]
The post The Led Zeppelin Guide to Creative World Domination appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
UPDATE: Weâre sold out. Thanks! Hey gang. Just a quick note to let you know the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap is now live and accepting enrollments. You can immediately check out all the details of this 18-topic intensive course. Itâs what we wish we had 10 years ago starting out, and itâll provide you with the [â¦]
The post The Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap is Now Live appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I never wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I just wanted to write poetry.
Twenty years ago I would have told you aBusiness Is Evila.
I associated entrepreneurship with people like Gordon 'greed is good' Gekko. I was so ignorant I didn't know the difference between an entrepreneur and a Wall Street trader. To me, they were the same thing.
So I went to college to read English Literature. I thought it would help me as a poet.
It was a creative disaster. I ended up blocked and bored of literature. Time to change direction.
I never wanted to be a psychotherapist.
I just wanted to learn hypnosis.
I wanted to know what the mind was capable of. So I went to college to train as a therapist. I hoped it would change my life. It did.
I discovered I loved working with people, helping them learn, make changes, solve problems.
I went to London to seek my fortune. I set up practice in a fancy Notting Hill clinic. I worked with all kinds of people - bankers, hippies, drug addicts, estate agents, lawyers, venture capitalists, rock stars (real ones, not the social media kind).
And artists. I loved working with the artists, the writers, the actors, the film-makers. The ones who loved to create things. The ones who really inspired me. The ones who told me I inspired them.
One problem with therapy? The better I got, the less money I earned. My clients made changes, left their old selves behind - fast. I had to stop giving away free consultations when I realised they were working too well.
The main problem with therapy? My clients weren't in a hurry to talk about their success. Sadly, itas still hard for people to admit to going to therapy, at least in the UK. Seth Godin tells us aideas that spread, wina - and I could see the therapy idea would never spread very fast.
Not unless I became one of those apushya therapists who wrote the tacky books, whose names were always in the magazines, and whose faces were always on TV.
And I definitely didn't want to be one of those therapists.
The real problem with therapy? I wasnat in a hurry to talk about my success.
I never wanted to be a business consultant.
I just wanted to earn a living.
So when I was ask to help run a corporate training session, I thought, aHow bad can it be?a.
It turned out to be pretty good. I found my skills were in demand. I saw them make a difference to people's work, to their teams, to their company.
So I put on a suit and bought a briefcase. I learned to use PowerPoint. I talked less about feelings and more about actions. I helped people get things done.
I got paid more than I had ever thought possible for a day's work.
I never, ever, wanted to be a salesman.
I just wanted more clients.
But clients donat grow on trees. And for some reason, my partners thought Iad be good at sales.
I thought they were mad. I was the introverted poet, remember? How could I possibly be the pushy salesman?
Then I asked myself a different question: aWhat would it be like if you succeeded?a Things looked very different after that. I stopped worrying about abeing a salesmana and started learning sales.
I bought books, CDs, DVDs. I listened to extravert salesmen, guys who were totally different to me a Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Steven Covey.
I picked up the phone, over and over. I rang and rang and rang all day. I went to meetings. I wrote proposals. I was messed around. I persisted.
I closed a sale. Then another. Then another. Then a big deal rolled in, with my name on it.
I tasted success.
The problem with corporate consulting? My heart wasn't in it. I wasn't the guy in the suit with the briefcase. I'd wandered into someone else's life.
So I wandered out again.
I decided to go for it, to live my dream and set up as a creative consultant, working exclusively with the cool, trendy, innovative companies.
So I went to college (can you see the theme here?) to study the creative economy. I learned about creativity, organisations, marketing, intellectual property. And entrepreneurship.
I thought it would make me a better consultant. It did more than that - it changed my life. Again.
I resisted the change, of course. I did an entire module on creative entrepreneurship without paying much attention. It didn't hold my interest like the other courses. I couldn't see how it related to me.
I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. That was for people like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, the empire builders.
And I definitely didnat want to build an empire.
So I went back to the people I loved working with most - the creatives, the artists, the writers, the directors, the producers.
Instead of corporate cubicles and warehouses, I found myself in agencies and studios. Lots of glass and funky furniture. A PlayStation in the corner, or an electric guitar.
So far, so good.
I never wanted to be a blogger.
I just wanted to promote my business.
I read Seth Godinas e-book on blogging, and knew I had to do this. No more cold calling, just sharing what I knew, putting ideas out there, watching the ripples spread, waiting for them to bounce back to mea|
a|and amazingly, they did bounce back. After months of plugging away at the blog, wondering whether I was wasting my time, new clients started to roll in.
Instead of ringing prospects up, hustling for a meeting, they rang me. They invited me in. They rolled out the red carpet. I didnat have to sell. They asked what I would advise. It was like being a published author.
I found myself in airports, boardrooms, inner santums. On international conference calls. Talking to publishers about book deals.
Success again.
The problem with success?
There was only one of me.
I had to be on stage, in front of clients, in front of audiences, delivering a top performance, every time. I also had to be backstage, dealing with the equipment, the travel, the invoicing, the admin. Fixing the printer, making the coffee, chasing clients for documents, for payments.
Meanwhile the e-mail was piling up.
The day rate was great - but it wasn't the real day rate. Things always took longer than I budgeted for - even when I budgeted for things taking longer than I budgeted for. Time off felt like money down the drain.
I wrote my blog, it brought me work. Great.
I was busy with clients, the blog went quiet, new business went quiet. Not so great.
I needed a break, but I needed to keep writing the blog to bring in new business. Not to mention the printer, the e-mail, etc.
It started to feel like a treadmill.
On the one hand, I had everything I'd always wanted - I was getting paid to do what I loved, my clients loved the work. I was writing for an enthusiastic audience, I was seeing my influence grow.
On the other hand, I was shattered. I knew I couldn't carry on like this.
I read books on entrepreneurship, arguing with them all the way through. There was a little voice in my head, saying it was all very well for other people to build an internet business and get off the treadmill of hourly rates and endless hours. But I couldnat do that. My business was different. I was different.
Then I realised the voice in my head was talking crap.
I finally realised I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to build a business, set myself free, travel the world. I wanted to reach more people, help them on a bigger scale. But I couldn't see a way to make it happen.
Funnily enough, soon after I realised what I wanted, I discovered a way to make it happen.
If you want to know what it was - and more importantly, if you want to know how you can make it happen for yourself, make sure youare subscribed to Lateral Action and tune in next weeka|
PS a You do realise itas Global Entrepreneurship Week next week, donat you?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Story of a Reluctant Entrepreneur appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But suddenly, Marla showed up at the last minute.
Did Jack do the deal?
If so, why is Marla giving Jack entrepreneurial advice?
And what do these 5 elements have to do with starting a successful business?
Youall have to check out the latest Lateral Action animated video to find out.
If you've missed the previous episodes, check 'em out first:
The post Marla Mentors Jack on the 5 Critical Components of Creative Entrepreneurship appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you think the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is something only marketers need to worry about, have a look at this snippet from a letter to T.S. Eliot, by his boss. Geoffrey Faber is explaining why Eliot was the ideal candidate to take charge of poetry publishing at Faber and Gwyer, the firm that eventually became famous under the name Faber and Faber.
In you we have found a man who combines literary gifts with business instincts, who has a wide circle of literary friends, and who is quite as much at home on the lower levels as on the lonely peaks.
(Geoffrey Faber, from a letter in the current British Library exhibition T.S. Eliot the Publisher)
This appointment was a pivotal moment in Eliot's career: it allowed him to escape his day job at Lloyds Bank, and helped him cement his literary reputation by becoming the most authoritative and influential poetry publisher in Britain, publishing writers such as W.H. Auden, Steven Spender, Louis MacNeice and Ted Hughes.
It was also a decisive moment for Geoffrey Faber, since securing Eliot helped him realise his ambition to grow the firm into a major player in the publishing industry.
So it's interesting to note that Eliot's Unique Selling Proposition- a critical factor in his own success as well as Faber's - was his ability to understand and operate in two worlds at once, as both poet and businessman. As we saw in The T.S. Eliot Guide to Success, this made him something of an outsider among his business associates and literary friends. He didn't fit the stereotype of either the poet or the banker.
But as Frans Johansson explains in The Medici Effect, creativity is often the result of combining different perspectives:
when you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.
In the marketing sphere, this leads to what Sonia Simone calls a Crossroads USP.
Eliot succeeded because he dared to be different and pursue his real interests, no matter how contradictory they appeared to other people. Most of the time, this meant he was a square peg in a round hole. But when a big opportunity came knocking, it was the very thing that made him a perfect fit.
To learn more about Eliot's career and see some fascinating letters and other documents, visit the free exhibition at the British Library, In a Bloomsbury Square: T.S. Eliot the Publisher.
Has anyone ever told you the USP that made them hire you or want to work with you?
How would you describe your USP?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post T.S. Eliotâs Unique Selling Proposition appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Of all the painfully funny cartoons on Hugh MacLeod's Gapingvoid blog, for me this is the funniest and most painful.
It's painful because I know exactly how Eric feels. A few years ago, I was in his shoes. And I feel for him - because I know if he doesn't change, his story is going to have a messy ending.
The humour, of course, turns on the idea of what is 'asking for too much'. In Eric's universe, it's perfectly reasonable to expect a minimum level of comfort and freedom to pursue his own interests.
In the world's eyes, this is enough to brand him 'a deranged lunatic'. The world doesn't work like that. Comfort and pleasure are reserved for those who toe the line and get a haircut, a shave and a steady job. Anything else is asking for trouble.
Eric's situation reminds me of the famous words of George Bernard Shaw:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Eric's problem is that he isn't doing either. He's not conforming to the ways of the world. But he isn't adapting the world to himself either. He's sitting around expecting the world to adapt to him - not going out and making it happen.
Eric may think he's just sitting there quietly minding his own business. But the longer he sits there, the sooner he will feel the impact of Brutal Economic Reality colliding with his expectations. No prizes for guessing who's going to come off worst.
So, should Eric grow up and stop being a deranged lunatic? Not if you ask me. He should embrace his lunacy and go for it. But first, he needs to stop kidding himself.
Eric fancies himself as a bohemian, a lateral thinker and a rebel. In reality, he's a stereotype - the poor neglected artist with a misplaced sense of entitlement and a grudge against society. His heroes include Charles Baudelaire and Gustave Flaubert - but nobody has told him that they could afford to be rebellious artists railing against society because daddy was footing the bill.
So unless Eric can find himself a trust fund fast, he faces a stark choice: get in line at the job centre or face the consequences. Unless, that is, he's serious about living his alternative lifestyle - in which case he needs to work out a way to make it happen. Which means less lateral thinking and more lateral action.
Of course, Eric isn't stupid. Deep down, he knows all this. But he's ignoring it for two reasons:
You've probably heard of your Inner Child. You may even have tried to 'get in touch' with him or her. And if you're of the artistic persuasion, you can probably recognise your Inner Critic - you know, that nagging critical voice telling you your work is crap and will never measure up to your ridiculous ambitions, however hard you try.
But I'll bet you've never heard of your Inner Whining Artist, so I'm here to warn you about it. You see, if you're not careful, this little insidious part of your unconscious mind can sabotage all your dreams and keep you stuck like Eric - forever.
Your Inner Whining Artist (IWA) is the part of you that tells you you're a genius waiting to be discovered. If only the big bad world would sit up and recognise your talent, the IWA tells you, all your problems would be over. Audiences and critics would bow at your feet, agents would queue up to represent you, and all the people who'd ever rejected your work would be gorging themselves on humble pie. You just need to get your break, to be discovered. It can only be a matter of time ...
Who could resist a voice like that? A voice so sympathetic, so concerned for your well-being? Certainly not Eric. He's been listening to the IWA for so long, he doesn't even realise what he's doing. He's taken on the voice and persona of the IWA so completely that he's forgotten what it's like to think and act for himself. From the outside, of course, it's painfully obvious he's on a hiding to nothing - but every time his friends try to tell him that, the IWA just adds them to the list of insensitive people who don't appreciate his genius.
The IWA is the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing. It knows all your weak spots and all the right emotional buttons to push. It plays on your vanity and even manages to twist your ambition to justify sitting around doing nothing but complaining.
Once upon a time, the IWA and I were good mates. The big difference between me and Eric is that I realised what was happening and gave the IWA the boot. It hasn't vanished completely - on bad days, it knocks on the door to see if I want to have a chat for old times' sake, but it's not so hard to shoo it away. Here's how you can do the same.
Next time you catch yourself listening to your IWA, notice what it's like. What tone of voice does it use? How does it make you feel? Can you picture its face? Is it male or female? Does it look like you or someone else? When is it most likely to pop up and start telling you how unfairly you're being treated?
Imagine the IWA is like a radio playing in the background. Switch it off. Or change channels. Or whistle or sing to yourself to drown it out. Or strike up a conversation with someone else. Or listen to whatever sounds you can hear around you, right now. Or get on with some work. Whatever you do, stop listening to the IWA. It's like that annoying teasing kid at school - it only wants attention, ignore it and it will go away. For now.
The IWA thrives on telling you about an ideal world that is much fairer/more interesting/more beautiful than this one. It keeps the fantasy going to distract you from the reality of your situation. It knows that as soon as you see it - really see it - for yourself, you'll start waking up to your real life. You'll feel the fear - but also the excitement of making your dream a reality. You'll stop complaining that life 'isn't fair' and start doing something about it.
You'll start facing down the fear and taking action, doing the difficult things you've been shirking. You'll start making a difference to your own life and to other people. You'll make new friends and leave the IWA behind...
Of course, you don't have to do any of this. You can carry on listening to the IWA and forget you ever read this article. Maybe life will be easier that way.
Your choice.
Do you recognise the Inner Whining Artist?
Have you given your IWA the boot? If so, how did you do it?
What would you do if the IWA vanished from your life?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Lose Touch with Your Inner Whining Artist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This video of a conversation between Brian Eno and SimCity game designer Will Wright (via Fresh Creation) reveals a surprising truth about creativity.
The most beautiful, complex and apparently spontaneous creations are often produced by following a few very simple, very rigid rules.
In their talk, Eno and Wright show some computer animations in which each coloured cell on the screen is programmed to analyse the behaviour of the cells next to it, and alter its own behaviour in response.
For example: "If three of your neighbours are alive, you're you'll survive into the next generation. Or if only one of them is alive, you're going to die."
When the program runs at high speed these rules change the colours of the cells in each 'generation', creating complex patterns of colours flickering across the screen.
Suppose you had to make this as a film, what we're seeing here. It would be very complicated, that's a lot of information if you had to specify it as a visual phenomenon like that.
But what actually has happened is that there's this tiny little set of rules and this landscape for them to work in. And the set of rules is typically like a 2K document or something like that, and you get all that richness.
So this is the power of generative systems, that you make seeds rather than forests.
(Brian Eno)
The full version of the talk (available on Fora.tv) references Richard Dawkins' observation that a typical willow tree seed only contains 800K of data, which would fit on an old-fashioned floppy disk.
To extend this metaphor, it sounds as though Eno and Wright are suggesting that creators are more like gardeners than architects, planting and watering the seeds to help them grow, but with no control over the emerging forms.
And these [computer animations] are very much the type of thing where you have no idea what it's going to look like, when you build the rules. You turn it on and it's always just a total surprise.
(Will Wright)
Simple rules like this underly the phenomenal complexity of Wright's classic game SimCity:
SimCity is underlaid by a series of very simple cellular automata like this, and they have a set of very simple rules for crime and traffic and pollution. And on top of that we overlay all these nice graphics of cars and factories and all that.
But really underneath it's a very simple rule-based system like this, that allows us to simulate things, and it took a while to actually discover the rules but once we put together a few simple rules we got to the stage where we were seeing emergent phenomena.
We were seeing things like urban gentrification just with the simple interactions of the crime / land value rules and stuff like that. It seemed like it was a much more complex simulation than in fact it really was.
(Will Wright)
Something to bear in mind next time you try out the new organic shop in your area.
A brilliant example of a generative system in Eno's work is 77 Million Paintings, in which he fed 300 of his own paintings into a remixing program:
(If you like this clip, get the software DVD and watch it on a high-resolution screen. It will take your breath away. NB it plays on a computer, not a DVD player.)
A point that comes up repeatedly in the Eno/Wright talk is that complex results emerge from simple rules. No rules mean there is no system, so nothing is generated. But if you add too many rules and risk breaking the system. The trick is to find just enough rules to get the system under way without destroying it prematurely.
Listening to the talk, I was reminded of playing improvisation games at The Spontaneity Shop: when actors try to improvise a scene in which 'anything goes', the results are flat and lifeless.
But introduce a simple rule such as 'one of you is higher status and the other', and it starts to come alive. Tweak the rules slightly - 'one of you is the servant but acts higher status than the master' - and you have a recipe for spontaneous comedy.
Twitter is another good example of a generative system. When I first tried Twitter, I didn't see the point. There was so little I could do. Type a 140 character message? Get messages from other people? Is that all?
But when I was persuaded to persist with Twitter, I discovered the incredible richness of the conversations and connections it facilitates. Now you can find me there most days. It's one of the very few web applications I would genuinely miss if it disappeared overnight.
I'm not the first one to be puzzled by Twitter's lack of 'obvious' features that can be found in similar - but less successful - networks such as FriendFeed or Plurk. But Eno and Wright would probably argue that Twitter is so successful because its rules are so simple.
But how can you know in advance which rules will bring you the best creative results? Which ideas should you pursue and implement, and which should you leave on the drawing-board?
You can't.
Which means you have to try things, play around with them, test quickly and test often. Allow failure to tag along as a daily playmate.
Isn't that the beauty of real creativity, that you wake up every morning not knowing what you're going to discover?
What do you make of the idea that complex phenomena are created and determined by simple rules?
What other examples of generative systems can you think of - in the arts, sciences, business and society?
What difference would it make to your work if you thought of yourself as making seeds rather than forests?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why Spontaneity Comes from Following the Rules appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Dan Pink has been one of the presiding spirits of Lateral Action from day one.
Specifically, his book A Whole New Mind provided inspiration for the very first article we published - Innovate or Die: Why Creativity Is Economic Priority Number One - and more recently I wrote about his TED Talk, in Why Rewards Don't Work.But more generally, Dan's writings have been a big influence on our thinking as we've developed the site. He is one of the most articulate advocates of the new ways of thinking, communicating, working and doing business that are essential for success in the creative economy.
His first book, Free Agent Nation, described the shift from corporate team allegiances to 'the future of working for yourself', as micropreneurs, consultants and innovative small businesses. (It also featured a profile of a certain Brian Clark, in his pre-Copyblogger and Lateral Action days.)
In A Whole New Mind he argued that the new reality of work requires a change of mindset - away from the logical, 'left-brain' abilities of 20th century knowledge workers, towards more holistic and creative 'right brain' talents of 21st century creative workers.
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko presented radical career advice in a radically different format - a comic book in the Japanese manga style. It charts the story of Johnny as he learns to rip up conventional career advice in favour of something much more rewarding, in every sense.
Dan's new book, Drive, is subtitled 'the surprising truth about what motivates us'. It introduces some scientific research that turns received business practice on its head - and offers all of us a more inspiring and meaningful vision of work. Drive is available to pre-order now at Amazon.
Dan was kind enough to answer some questions for Lateral Action readers. Here's what he had to say.
The recession only deepens and accelerates the three A's. Companies are intent to cut costs so they'll push more routine work to Asia and other low-cost providers overseas. Likewise, when they're looking to cut costs, they'll find ways to automate certain process and replace expensive human labor with less expensive software. Meantime, levels of material abundance are already so high, even with the recession, that it's going to take even bigger, bolder leaps of imagination to create offerings that will get cash-poor and credit-strapped customers to open their wallets.
It was a combination of factors, really.
First, I spent a few months in Japan in 2007 studying the manga industry. One of the things you quickly discover is that comics in Japan and comics in American have very different places in people's lives. In Japan, comics are ubquitous. You can find manga for just about every topic -- from time management to politics to history to investing. Meanwhile, manga was becoming extremely popular here in America. But we still thought of it as a kids' medium. Nobody was creating it for people over 17. So I thought: Why not use this incredibly powerful expressive form to reinvent the business book?
Second, I began to think about the role of books in a world where people have so many other avenues to information. For career information in particular, it seemed that all the tactical information was available for free online. Putting that sort of info into a printed book didn't make much sense. But I did think there was value to readers in creating books that offered the sort of insights that couldn't be Googled -- strategic, big picture advice. That's what I tried to do with the six big lessons in the book. And manga was the perfect medium for that.
Third, and this one I sorta discovered after the fact, graphic novels export well. They are easy to translate into other languages and they are very accessible across cultures. You'll notice that there is no nationality mentioned in the book. That's because I didn't want to write an American book. I wanted to write a book that was broadly applicable to white-collar workers all over the world.
It was challenging. But I was very fortunate to work with someone as talented as Rob Ten Pas, who taught me a huge amount. I didn't have a sense really of how to tell a story using pictures and words in concert. So I started out overwriting quite a bit. But I found myself really paring back the text and thanks to Rob, understanding how much narrative freight the images could carry. As for the longer term effect on my creative process, it gave me even greater respect for the power of story in the persuasion and learning.
First, I'm glad you noticed those little blips in the earlier works! You're one of the few who has!
I guess the main reason I decided to devote a book to this topic is that I started looking at the research and discovered how fascinating and voluminous it was. What's more, lots and lots of what I read really called into question many guiding assumptions about how we run our businesses and our lives. In fact, I devote an entire chapter to the "seven deadly flaws" of carrots and sticks. Every time I tell people about these sorts of experiments, they're surprised and intrigued. That's a good reaction if you're a writer.There's a myth in business that the only way to get people to perform at a high level is with carrots and sticks. But that's just wrong - not wrong morally, but wrong scientifically. Forty years of science tells us that those sorts of motivators - If you do this, then you'll get that - do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. And for creative conceptual work, those if-then motivators usually make things worse.
The better approach - more enduring and more effective - is motivation built around three ingredients: Autonomy (the desire to direct our own lives), Mastery (the urge to get better at things that matter, and Purpose (the desire to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.)
They're actually quite intrigued by the research - and you can often see the lightbulb going off as they begin to relate it to their own experiences. Also, I've already heard from lots of people and companies in the shadows, who are almost whispering, "Yeah, you're right. We're already doing this. But we don't want our competitors to find out."
That's an eternal struggle. I face it, too. But what I've discovered is that you have to let intrinsic motivation take the lead. If extrinsic motivators begin dictating what you do and how you do it too much, you're heading down a very dangerous path. My general advice - and one I've tried to adhere to myself - is to follow your intrinsic motivation, but to always be shrewd and savvy about the realities of business and to recognize that you'll never have a "pure" existence. Also, being frugal is always wise.
Dan Pink is the best-selling author of Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and the forthcoming Drive, available to pre-order at Amazon. For more inspiration from Dan, visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
The post Drive: An Interview with Daniel Pink appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Miffy has always been there.
If you met her as a child, you won't have forgotten her.
Each time you see her iconic face - two simple dots and a cross for her mouth - in books, on posters, in the toy shop, it's like running into an old friend. You can almost see her wave.
So it was a bit of a shock - and a delight - to come across this interview with author and illustrator Dick Bruna (via Fresh Creation), and to register that Miffy had a creator.
I almost didn't want to watch it, for fear of spoiling the magic. But Bruna is just as charming as his creations, and full of wisdom for creators. Here's what he had to say.
When I'm drawing Miffy, just the face, the two eyes and the little cross, it can take forever to make her look a tiny bit unhappy or a tiny bit cheerful. I spend ages working on these minute details.
Miffy's Mum and Dad, for instance, being a little older, have an extra line on their crosses, a wrinkle.
(Dick Bruna Interview.)
The less you do, the more it matters. And the more you do, the less you need to do.
Aikido master Gozo Shioda said he was better in his seventies than in his eighties - he was wasting less effort, doing only what was absolutely necessary to throw his youthful opponents as they huffed and puffed.
Bruna is a master of minimalism. The less he puts on a page, the bigger it looms. Miffy is tiny and enormous at the same time. She is unmistakeable.
Takeaway: Each time you start a piece of work, resolve to do less than last time. Only do the bits you absolutely have to. The bits that would leave a hole if they were missing.
When I'm sitting at my drawing table it sometimes feels as if a child is standing there, looking straight at me. It's one of the reasons my figures are always facing you. Children have this great directness.
(Dick Bruna Interview.)
I've heard this before, from the many writers I've coached over the years. I've seen writers get stuck when they have the wrong people in mind as they write - the critics, their peers or the academics.
But when the right person walks into your mind, it's as if a switch has been flipped. When you focus on them, and what you want to say to them, the words become obvious.
Takeaway: Who are you creating for? Before starting work, call them to mind. Look at them. Listen to them. Notice how they feel, what they want from you. Then you'll know what to do.
You're always trying to improve, achieve greater simplicity. It's been a process, getting to this plane surface. As it was for Mondriaan and many others. This has become my style. I very rarely use perspective.
Matisse of course taught me simplicity and the use of colours. In his final years he made these cut-outs in plain colours on a white surface. I really liked those. In my work I've also tried to reduce things as much as I could, leaving only the bare essentials.
(Dick Bruna Interview.)
We've all seen the works of Mondrian and Matisse. But how many of us have looked at them like Bruna?
We revere Bruna's work because he revered his own masters. He followed in their footsteps until their path became his own.
Takeaway: Out of countless artists in history, there are one or two with something important to teach you. When you find them, devour their work. Look at everything they did. Study it. Copy it. Memorize it. Stay with it, until you learn your lesson.
You knew this was coming, didn't you? I know I go on about it, but creativity really is work. But not just any work. Work that you love. Work with meaning and purpose.
Bruna is in his eighties and still working seven days a week. I doubt he needs the money. He's doing it because he loves it. Because he wants to keep bringing joy and wonder to countless children and adults across the world.
That's something to aspire to. I hope I'm still hard at it in my eighties, doing something I enjoy that people are pleased to see.
Takeaway: What are you spending your time on today? Are you following a path you can see yourself treading for the rest of your life? If not, maybe it's time to switch.
More Miffy marvels at Miffy.com.
What stood out from the interview for you?
Have you ever created more by doing less? How?
Who are your creative masters? What have you learned from them?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Miffy â the Making of a Timeless Childrenâs Classic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Once upon a time there was a Buddhist master called Ajahn Chah, who lived deep in the forests of Thailand. He and his monks lived a frugal life of discipline and meditation. Although seemingly cut off from the world, his fame as a teacher spread so widely that he attracted pupils from the 'Western Paradises' of the United States, who donned the saffron robe and studied side-by-side with the local monks.
One day the monastery was visited by a group of US Marines. During the course of their stay, there was a certain amount of friction between the American monks (who included some former Marines) and the American soldiers.
A group of them were sitting together in the sun. One Marine, irritated by the insects swarming over him, started swatting any that landed on his body. One of the American monks took exception to this, and told him "We don't kill any living creatures in the monastery, we regard all life as sacred". The Marine was scornful. "You don't seriously believe that, do you?" Just as they were locking horns, Ajahn Chah looked up and smiled at the Marine:
Do you think you can kill all the insects?
This stopped the Marine in his tracks. "I guess not," he said. Ajahn Chah smiled and carried on drinking his tea.
As the Abbot of the monastery, Ajahn Chah might have been expected to take the monk's side, to lay down the law to his visitors and instruct them in the teachings of the Buddha about compassion and nonviolence. But he didn't do that.
The monk got stuck because he believed that he was right and the Marine needed to come round to seeing things his way. He tried to tell the Marine what he 'should' do, and got frustrated when the Marine didn't get it.
But Ajahn Chah wasn't interested in being right, only in being effective. So he sidestepped the debate and spoke to the Marine's self-interest. Instead of asking the soldier to consider the insects' predicament, he prompted him to reflect on his own actions, and whether he could realistically get what he wanted.
Now, the story doesn't end with the Marine abandoning his gun for a saffron robe and begging bowl. He wasn't fired with enthusiasm to learn about the Buddha's teachings. But the insects were spared. And the chances are that guy thought twice before swatting insects in future.
This is the story that came to mind when I thought about what to write for this year's Blog Action Day, on the theme of Climate Change.
Now, given that this is a blog about applied creativity, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude I should write something about the urgent need for creativity and innovation on a massive scale, to tackle the environmental problems we face. But what could I write that wouldn't sound glib, compared to the enormity of the challenge?When I thought of that story, it reminded me of some fundamental conclusions I've come to about creativity:
In my experience, people who are completely stuck for ideas at A and B suddenly become incredibly creative and productive when they reach C.
Sometimes, you don't even need a lot of creativity. When the Marine reached C, he simply stopped what he was doing. Right now, there are plenty of us who could make a big difference to the environment by simply reaching C and stopping what we are doing.
We tend to focus on problem solving (A) as being 'the creative bit'. But a lot of the time, the real creativity is about getting people to C.
This is the kind of creativity Ajahn Chah used with the Marine. The kind of creativity Al Gore uses with his Inconvenient Truth presentation and feature film. The kind of creativity sites like Do the Green Thing and Treehugger use every day to inspire people to change their behaviour. The kind of creativity bloggers all over the world are using today, to get the message out that these are issues that affect us all, and that all of us can affect.
Because solving the problems at A really is the easy bit, even when we're talking climate change and global warming. I'm not saying it's easy, far from it. But it looks to me as though we're stuck trying to get everyone - or even a majority - to C.
Supposing we got everyone to agree that this is a problem that affects us all, and that we're committed to solving.
Supposing the Europeans and Americans and Indians and Chinese and the rest of us stopped pointing the finger at the others and how much they were getting away with, and instead agreed to bring our own emissions down - and stuck to the agreement.
Supposing the vested interests were to stop campaigning to maintain the status quo, and started using all their time and effort and energy and money and political influence to come up with creative new options for the future.
Supposing our politicians were able to step outside the short-term re-election game for long enough to implement programmes of change that would safeguard our environment in the long term.
Supposing each of us were able to rise above our daily worries long enough to see the impact of our daily actions, and started making new decisions about where we work and what we do and where we shop and what we buy and where we live and how we treat our surroundings.
If that sounds like pie in the sky, then it gives you an idea of how much creativity is required to get us to C. That's the bad news.
The good news is that if we can get enough people to C, then it will demonstrate how much creativity we really have. And with all that creativity and all those people on board, who knows how much we could achieve at A?
So how can we get to C?
I hope you won't be too disappointed if I don't pull a rabbit out of the hat at this point. All I can do is point out what definitely won't work - and highlight a few things that have a chance of working.
We'll never get most people to C by acting like the monk. He had good intentions, but he got stuck because he felt he was right, the Marine was wrong, and it was up to him to tell the Marine what he 'should' be doing.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of well-intentioned environmentalists out there acting just like the monk, i.e. telling people they 'should' become more environmentally aware and they 'should' change their behaviour as a result.
I don't know about you, but the minute someone tells me what I 'should' be doing, I get an urge to do the opposite. I suspect the Marine felt the same way. As well as all those people who 'should' be doing something different to save the environment.
Albert Ellis, the founder of rational-emotive behaviour psychotherapy, had a word for language like 'should', 'ought', 'must' and 'have to'. He called it musturbation, and told his clients it was a bad habit. :-)
Objectively and logically, of course, the scientists and environmentalists are probably right. But if you take a random sample of human beings - say, your family, friends, colleagues and customers - you may be forced to conclude that human beings are not objective, logical creatures. So objective, logical arguments are unlikely to be effective on their own, no matter how 'right' they are.
One of the most moving sections of An Inconvenient Truth is when Al Gore tells the story of his father's tobacco farm, and how his father stopped farming the crop after the death of his daughter, Al's sister, from lung cancer. Whatever your views about smoking, a story like that gets straight to the heart of the matter. It's hard to forget - and hard to resist.
Takeaway: Stories reveal the human dimension of a situation. They are engaging, persuasive and sticky. Marshall your facts and your arguments - then ask yourself 'Who does this remind me of? How can I tell their story to best effect, for my audience?'.
Reframing is the art of taking a set of facts and changing their meaning while leaving the facts intact. It's what Ajahn Chah used to stop the Marine killing insects.
For example, there are lots of energy adverts doing the rounds with the same theme: cutting down your energy use = cutting down your energy bills. They usually involve the story (see what I mean?) of a family in which the eco-conscious teenager is for once in agreement with the penny-pinching father: Dad proudly proclaims his commitment to saving the planet while winking to camera about the real 'reductions' he has in mind. Same outcome, different meaning.
I came across another clever reframe in a documentary about climate change, where environmentalists were making their case to governments by calculating the monetary value of the 'services' provided by natural pheonomena. E.g. If we chop down this forest, how much would it cost us to build and maintain a facility capable of transforming the same volume of carbon dioxide into oxygen? Or if we allow this coral reef to be destroyed, how much would it cost us to recreate the biodiversity of species it sustains, many of which provide us with food? Eco-purists would probably condemn this as an example of the commodification of nature - but supposing the argument proves effective?
Takeaway: Look at the facts objectively. Forget what they mean for you, with your value system. What could they mean for the other person? How can you frame your desired outcome so that it appeals to their values?
The art of reframing consists in finding 'hidden benefits' that persuade someone to pursue a previously unattractive goal. Sometimes that's easier said than done. It may be easier to introduce a new benefit, in the shape of a reward. Free parking and showers in the office for cyclists. No congestion charge for electric cars. Grants for installing solar panels on your roof.
We've seen before that there are limits to the power of rewards. We aren't going to bribe our way out of this situation. But sometimes they can play their part, especially when we're asking individuals go forego their short-term convenience (driving to work in your 4x4) for the long-term convenience of us all.
Takeaway: You can't buy buy-in, but sometimes adding a perk, treat or other reward can make the whole process easier. What's in your power to offer?
Punishments are the flipside of rewards. Perks for cyclists go hand-in-hand with penalties for motorists.
The big danger with relying on punishments is that you end up with compliance, not the creativity demanded by climate change. But sometimes you need a minimum standard of compliance to get anything done.
Takeaway: Ask 'What will happen if they don't stick to our agreement? What consequences can I enforce - or invoke - to ensure compliance? And what's the downside of using the deterrent?'.
It's easier to resist drinking with your AA peers than with your old drinking buddies. That's the point of AA. It recognises the social pressures that influence our behaviour and makes it easier to do the hard thing by banding together for mutual support.
It may sound silly (i.e. not objective and logical) but one of the biggest barriers to a greener lifestyle is being the odd one out. The weirdo in cycle clips eating a vegan packed lunch in the corner of the canteen. But snazzy cycle racks at the front of the building and a 'fashionable' vegan menu could make all the difference.
A site like Do the Green Thing makes it easier to change ingrained habits, by sharing stories and examples from like-minded people. When they invite you to 'JOIN UP with people from 202 countries' they recognise that social proof is a powerful influencer. Following them on Twitter, you may reflect that '8.376 people can't be wrong'.
Takeaway: What trends and fashions are most influential among your target audience? How can you align your cause with them? How can you make it easy - and safe - for people to proclaim their allegience?
This may be the most powerful option of all. Feedback is what happens when you join the dots between your actions and their consequences... and find them leading straight back to you.
The Marine realises he's wasting his effort. The tobacco farmer realises the damage he's doing. The polluter realises the cost to his reputation and future prosperity. At this point, we don't need to be told what to do. We know it and do it.
A device like the Wattson shows us exactly how much energy we're using - and how much money we're spending - in our homes, right now. More than that, it can turn energy-saving into a game, as you flip switches and turn down dials to bring your 'score' down. Much more fun than being lectured at. Who knew saving the planet could be so addictive?
We need Wattsons for transport, for shopping, for business, for government. When we have them, we'll be able to see the difference we're making, moment by moment, day by day. Maybe that's all we'll need in many cases.
Takeaway: Show, don't tell. Instead of lecturing me about what I should be doing, find an easy way to help me to join the dots bewteen my actions and their consequences. And trust me to draw my own conclusions. I may surprise you.
This article is our contribution to Blog Action Day 2009, on the theme of Climate Change. Visit the Blog Action Day site to see what you can do to make a difference today. After all, 8,638 blogs can't be wrong. :-)
This is a long post, but I've barely scratched the surface of the issues. What did I miss?
Do you agree that our biggest problem is agreeing that we have a problem?
What can you add to the lists of what works and what doesn't?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Trouble with Telling People to Go Green appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When Australia's version of the
She does a lot more than that. Globally famous as the first artist of any note to step completely outside the traditional commercial and institutional gallery system to manage her own career using the self-publishing and social networking tools of Web 2.0, Hazel Dooney has emerged not only as one of the most intriguing artists under 35 working in multiple media but also one of the most outspoken and controversial.
Just as her post-Pop figurative art is an ironic, critical response to the insidious influence entertainment and advertising media have had on identity and sexuality a as well as, in her recent works, the way identity and sexuality are defining new kinds of politics and religion a Hazel Dooney's intense, somewhat daunting, ascetic, Amazonian public persona is dedicated to blazing (and defending every inch of) a trail along which future generations of artists will trade with much greater control of their art, reputation, and income without having to rely on what she calls "phalanxes of self-important, self-interested intermediaries".
WARNING: Depending on where you work, some of the images in this article may not be safe for work.
Intriguingly, Dooney encourages artists to give up trying to control the copyright of their images and to allow their work and ideas to flow freely, with few restrictions, across the web. This Warholian ethos is rooted in her conviction that the real "locus of value" in art has shifted a from the artwork to the artist a and that this value is increased exponentially with awareness. It's up to the individual artist to work out how best to exploit this shift. Dooney doesn't pretend it's easy: as the subtitle of her widely read blog puts it, Art Is War.
Dooney came onto the Lateral Action radar via her interview with Hugh MacLeod on Gaping Void. We caught up with her at her beachside studio, one of two in which she works, an hour north of Sydney. During a brief break in a gruelling, 18-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule, she answered our questions.
1. What inspires you?There are persistent, recurrent ideas about the way contemporary women's identities and sexuality have been shaped by a relentless, media-driven torrent of contradictory messages and images. There are also impressions of how politics, religion, and social trends tap into this torrent. I try to make sense of them through my art.
I'm loath to talk about inspiration. It's associated with excuses people give themselves for not making art a "I'm just not inspired!". In me, inspiration is replaced by self-discipline, deep thought, and hard work, every bloody day. And I'm never short of ideas. I have more than I'll ever be able to explore fully. The busier I am, the faster they flow.
If there's one area in which, maybe, I am seduced by the idea of inspiration, it's in new materials, new media. When I'm drawn to a particular ink or or a type of clay or a different sort of camera, I take time out to see what I can do with it a not always successfully [laughs].
The why of it is obvious. I no longer wanted to deal with a or through a intermediaries who were intent on keeping those who really cared about my art at a distance from me. I no longer trusted those intermediaries to properly communicate who I was and what I was trying to accomplish in my art. And I lost faith in their abilities to market my work a especially in a world in which the web is the main medium of communication, information distribution, and transaction.
Most art dealers I know still have only the most rudimentary understanding of online media.
As for how it has worked out for me, my reputation has amplified to an extent that my work exceeds even ambitious estimates for it at auction in London, despite the fact that I have yet to exhibit anywhere in the UK or Europe. My income has risen to mid-six figures and most of my large paintings are sold even before they're finished. The value of my early work has risen over 1000 per cent in a decade. I'm able to work on what I want, the way I want, when I want.
But I haven't achieved this alone. I so haven't. I've had wise advisers, not the least of whom is my accountant. And I have a small, well-disciplined team of assistants.
3. So much for your relationship with the commercial side of the art world. What about the critics? How has the unconventional path you've taken affected the critical reception of your work?My critical reception has always been mixed. In the past, it was largely because the underlying intent of my art, which was cute, candy-colored and accessible, was left up to the critics to work out by themselves. I didn't feel the need to explain, let alone justify, my ideas. However, I realise now that was a naA-ve attitude, born out of youthful insecurity. It didn't help that my representative galleries were just as stupid.
Over the past few years, I have made an effort to articulate what my work is really about, to expose my convictions and explain the reasons for them. This has prompted discussion among critics and other artists, and although this discussion doesn't always resolve in my favour, my work (and my reputation) are now taken a lot more seriously.
The recent rise of a slightly older generation of Japanese artists also influenced by advertising, fashion, pornography, manga and anime a especially those who orbit Takashi Murakami's so-called Shock Pop movement a has also argued for increased respect.
Another problem between critics and me is my very public attacks on institutional and commercial galleries. These galleries are a source of substantial secondary income for many critics, especially for the few of any note in Australia, and are a principal source of advertising revenue not only for the dwindling number of glossy art magazines but also the arts pages of urban newspapers. It's not in their interests to see my views gain wider currency. So the best way to diminish them is to diminish me.
It hasn't worked. Quite the opposite. Old art media a which, like the gallery system, once acted as an arbitrating intermediary between content and consumer a are doomed.
4. Your art is provocative, playful and subversive. It's tempting to see your contrarian approach to business as all of a piece with your art. Would you agree? Or do you see the art and business as in completely separate categories?They're separate. And the word 'playful' is probably inappropriate to both.
My large enamel paintings are colorful, shiney and provocative, sure, but they're intrinsically subversive. Similarly, I'm attempting to subvert the way the business of art operates a which is in the interests of everyone but the artist.
There's nothing ironic about my engagement with the art business. It's driven by an urgent desire to disintermediate the process of promoting and selling art, to encourage artists to communicate and transact more directly with those who are interested in their work. I also want to dismantle layers of obstruction that over the past century and a half, have been concocted by galleries to interfere in the relationship between collector and artist a not just physical but also intellectual and social obstruction.
I think it's simplistic to see online media in terms of a 'virtual shopfront', a phrase you hear all too often from galleries that have online presences (and still don't know how to use them). I rarely offer works for sale via the web a although, very recently, I offered two print series priced under $1,000 via Twitter and my blog as part of a process of 'democratising' my art for younger, less moneyed collectors. Prices for my large enamel and watercolour paintings are far out of reach for many now.
I use online media mainly to provoke conversations about what I am doing in my art and why, to explore some of the meanings and issues within (and without) the body of work. I also create a small window from my blog a and other online presences a to my creative process and those parts of it that occasionally intersect with my personal life. This increases both awareness and understanding of what I'm doing. There is a stone-in-the-pond effect that ripples out to those who are not particularly engaged in dialogues on the web and who browse only occasionally: often their interest is piqued enough to compel them to find out more about my work and me. Sometimes, they buy.
My web site, my blog and even my Twitter and Linked-In pages are intended more as resources from which potential collectors, critics, curators, and the merely curious to gain a better understanding of what I'm about. They can reference my entire output and its evolution. Naturally, there are different 'nodes' that resonate for different people. If they resonate strongly enough, an opportunity will often emerge for me.
That said, I have always had a broad base of collectors in Australia, New Zealand, S.E. Asia, China, Japan, the USA and Northern Europe. Many have more than one of my large enamel pieces and a few have ten or twenty.
6. When I enthuse about blogging and social media to fine artists, they often say it's all very well but if they are seen to be too active in promoting their own work, it could actually damage their standing in the art world. Apparently the done thing is to have agents and galleries do the dirty work of marketing for you, and doing it yourself could lower your status. What would you say to them?They've drunk the Kool-Aid of the traditional system. The arts are no longer under the control of elitist cliques that have the power to arbitrate one's success or failure. Which is not to say such cliques don't still survive a in some places, like New York or London, they continue to thrive a but the web has given the many who aren't 'lucky' (or well-connected) enough to be anointed by them the chance to emerge and gain some significant 'surface' and regard.
Yes, it involves a deal more hard work and maybe some re-adjustment of ingrained attitudes, especially among old artists. In return, you regain control of your career and you get to keep most of what it earns for you (instead of ceding 30 to 60 per cent in commissions a and that's before the gallery bills you further expenses). You also have direct contact with your collectors, people who are so committed to your art that they're willing to pay for it, instead of being cordoned off from them by an intermediary. If artists think this is beneath them, that it somehow devalues their art, they're fucked.
The art world is in the process of radical change. The old systems are doomed, sinking. Those artists who still cling to them risk being dragged under.
7. Forgetting the art world gatekeepers for a moment, do you think there's any danger that if an artist is too visible and accessible on social media, that we could lose some of their magical aura surrounding The Artist? Or is that a good thing?Too much information? Maybe. But then that's the 'art' in using them, the difference between those who are successful at it and those who aren't. It's a matter of proportion, of balance.
I do subscribe to the idea that there is not much to be gained by cloistering oneself. Distributing as much useful information as possible about one's work can only enhance the experience of those who are taken by it. I make my study images a sketches, collages and Polaroid photographs a available to view on web site and blog and I write frankly about the imaginative or technical struggles I confront as I try to create a work. I also write about some of the stuff I do to relieve the stress of it [laughs]. My occasional confessions about my, um, eclectic sex life is probably way too much information.
As for the 'magical aura surrounding The Artist', this is a stale residue of 19th century Romanticism and the sooner we dispose of it the better. I do believe creative people have an elevated role in conemporary society a even the most primitive need their shamans a but I think there are some very urgent, pragmatic but revolutionary opportunities we should seize and the Romantic construct is entirely inappropriate to them.
My days are marked by what most would probably think of as dull routine. I get up early. I work late, often on several pieces at the same time. Two days a week are devoted to sales, marketing and general admin'. I update my blog every afternoon and tweet for an hour or so every morning and evening. I have one day off a week, during which I read, watch TV, go out for lunch or take long walks on the beach. I do this week in, week out, regardless of mood, health or God help me, inspiration.
My holidays are the periods in which I travel interstate or abroad to an exhibition of my work. I usually spend a couple of weeks wherever I'm showing, starting from a week or so before opening night. Of course, it's work a I do a lot of PR (which always includes informal get-togethers with bloggers and editors of online 'zines) as well as meet-and-greets with collectors, students, and others a but change is as good as a rest. I'd get bored fast just lying by a pool sipping drinks with umbrellas and fruit.
The truth is, I'm dug in for what I see as a long, arduous campaign that has not one but a whole series of creative and personal objectives. To take a holiday in the middle of it would feel like retreat rather than r'n'r. Besides, the last thing an artist needs to be is too comfortable or to take anything for granted.
9. What advice would you offer to someone setting out on a creative career, who is hesitating between (a) going the traditional route of approaching agents, editors, galleries etc, and (b) striking out on their own, using the web to reach an audience and build their reputation?Why bother with a) at all? You'd just be investing precious energy and time into a disintegrating paradigm. b) is by far the better choice. However, it isn't just a question of whether to use the web to the exclusion of all other media or opportunities; it's about using the web as a platform on which to build greater flexibility and control over your career along with a more direct, disintermediated relationship with everyone with a potential interest in it.
It doesn't mean avoiding galleries a there are some that recognise the changing environment and are adapting to it a but acquiring enough awareness through your own efforts to negotiate a more equitable relationship with them. It doesn't mean excluding yourself from major art fairs or other venues but rather defining for yourself how they fit into your overall career arc, which, in turn (and most importantly) should be defined by the core of what you're trying to achieve with your work. It does mean working as hard on communication and virtual relationships as you do on the conceptual development of your work.
It isn't easy. But the rewards are significant. So are the freedoms.
Increasingly, I refer to the dictum, Art Is War. It's a war of disparate ideologies and conflicting interests and ambitions. To succeed, you have to have clear objectives and be ready to devote time to planning and executing not only the work but the campaigns to support and win ground for the work (and, of course, the ideas within the work). Expect plenty of hostile opposition and don't rely on your allies. Above all, take no prisoners.
Hazel Dooney is one of Australia's best-known contemporary artists. For more memorable images and outspoken opinions about the art world, visit her website, read her blog and follow her on Twitter.
The post ART IS WAR: An Interview with Hazel Dooney, Renegade Artist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When you set out to do something remarkable, sooner or later you realise you can't do it all on your own.
You've got a great idea for a new business - but you only have a fraction of the skills, knowledge and contacts required for success. You need top talent, but you can't pay top dollar. So you'll have to make smart use of partnering and outsourcing to make it work.
Or maybe you want to make a difference in your company, but entrenched interests mean you can't win the fight on your own, so you need to find some allies, fast. You've got precious little authority, so you'll need to develop your influencing skills if you're to get the right people on your team.
Or maybe your village is about to be raided by the same bandits who took all your crops last year - and you're just poor farmers, not a warrior among you. You have no money to pay the proud samurai mercenaries who are your only possible salvation. You'll have to somehow get them to risk life and limb for you (their social inferiors) for nothing more than three square meals a day.
This last scenario was faced by the villagers in Akira Kurosawa's movie masterpiece, The Seven Samurai, an adventure tale as profound as it is thrilling, and one of the greatest films ever made. (If you've not seen it but the plot sounds familiar, you may recognise it from the 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven, based on Kurosawa's film.)
I won't spoil the story if you haven't seen it yet, but here are some clues as to how the farmers recruited their team of samurai warriors - and what you can learn from them about persuading people to join your tribe.
The villagers have several discouraging experiences when trying to hire samurai as mercenaries. On learning that he is only to be paid in food, one proud warrior exclaims "Preposterous! I can do better than that".
Of course he can. The villagers are faced with a massive problem: they are looking for hired swords, but have no money to pay for them. They need to find mercenaries who are not mercenary-minded.
Their first clue that they may have found such a mercenary comes when they see a crowd of people watching open-mouthed as a samurai shaves off his topknot - the distinctive hairstyle denoting his rank as a member of the warrior class. It's hard for us to grasp what an outrageous thing this was to do in Edo period Japan, where social status was rigid and jealously guarded. It would be like seeing a movie star or Fortune 100 CEO exchanging clothes with a homeless person.
The samurai's name is Kanbei. He is cutting off his hair so that he can disguise himself as a priest, in order to rescue a small child who is being held hostage by a violent criminal. By disregarding his external appearance, he demonstrates that he is driven by nobler motives than money or status.
Takeaway: Look for people who are less interested in extrinsic rewards than intrinsic motivations such as justice, truth, learning, the love of a challenge, or in Kanbei's words "the fun of it". After all, you're not hiring mercenaries - are you?
If the villagers had relied on typical samurai, they would have had the proverbial snowball's chance in hell. Many samurai would rather have died than suffer the dishonour of losing their topknot - but Kanbei wasn't most samurai. By his actions, he showed that he marched to a different drum.
Each of the samurai recruited by the villagers is marked out as distinctive in some way. Kyuzo is a peerless swordsmen. Heihachi shows disarming honesty when he confesses that when confronted by enemies, he usually runs away. And Kikuchiyo is an archetypal misfit, out of place among both the farmers and samurai alike, his Tourette's-like twitching and barking suggesting a man uncomfortable in his own skin.
Takeaway: Unremarkable people won't help you do remarkable things. Look for the misfits, the outsiders - the ones who provoke laughter, outrage, surprise or awe. Otherwise, how can you hope to do the same?
At first, Kanbei says 'no' to the farmers. He also says 'no' to the young samurai Katsushiro when he asks to become Kanbei's pupil. Later, the lone samurai Kyuzo says 'no' when Kanbei asks him to join the team. And the whole group says 'no' to Kikichuyo when he applies to join.
Fortunately for the farmers - and the plot - none of these people take no for an answer. They persist, finding creative ways to show their sincerity and find a 'hook' that will persuade the other party that their interests lie together. This is in a venerable tradition of applicants being refused at the first time of asking, whether would-be disciples of sages or martial arts masters, or volunteers for Project Mayhem in Fight Club, who have to wait on the doorstep for days before they are allowed inside the leaders' house.
Takeaway: Whether applying or recruiting, don't pester people with rude or boring pleas for help. But don't be discouraged if you don't get your target first time. Ask yourself "What would it take to impress this person, to show them I'm serious - and that there's something in it for them to team up with me?".
The villagers know they're not much of a draw in themselves - but as soon as they see Kanbei, they realise that if they can get him on board, he will be a magnet for the cause. So it proves - like Katsushiro, the other samurai are inspired by Kanbei and eager to fight alongside him. As Gorobei says, "It sounds interesting. I know what the farmers have to suffer. But I'm not accepting because of them. I'm accepting because of you".
Takeaway: Without a leader, how will you find followers? Seth Godin tells us leaders don't lead because they have charisma - they have charisma because they lead. So what's stopping you?
Kanbei adopts an unusual approach to recruitment interviews: he stations Katsushiro behind the doorway with a wooden stick in his hands. As the candidates cross the threshold, Katsushiro attacks them with the stick. Kanbei's reasoning is that any samurai worth his salt will be wise to the trick and defend himself. The most impressive performance is from Gorobei, who gets within ten feet of the doorway, stops short and shakes his head: "Jokers", he says, and won't go near the trap.
Apparently Thomas Edison was also fond of setting traps for candidates to join his team of inventors. He would take the unsuspecting applicant out to lunch - if he or she put salt or pepper on the soup before tasting it, they didn't get the job. Edison argued that no-one with so many preconceptions would make a good inventor.
Takeaway: Maybe you can set candidates a trap or a formal test. Or invite them to work together on a live project, to see how they perform in under real pressure.
Cookie cutter teams are great for cookie cutter assignments. But if you want to do something creative and distinctive - say, fight off a group of ruthless bandits - you're better off with a motley crew.
There's a lot of research on teamwork demonstrating that diversity = creativity. Diversity can mean a mixture of of races, ages, sexes, able-bodied and disabled; it can also mean diverse skills, experience, knowledge and personalities, which are present in abundance in the group of samurai:
Kanbei finds his cause when he sees the farmers' desperation and their willingness to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve their goal. The bandits helpfully play the role of common enemy.
As the film progresses, tensions emerge within the village, within the group of samurai, and between the villagers and samurai. But they all end up shoulder to shoulder, weapons braced as the bandits come hurtling down the road on their horses.
Takeaway: Nothing unites people like adversity. Find a common enemy. It could be a group of people (like your competitors). Or it could just as easily be another kind of threat, such as swine flu, the recession or global warming.
Have you ever had to recruit top talent without paying top dollar? How did you do it?
What team-building principles would you add to the list?
If the bandits were attacking your village, who would you want next to you on the barricades?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Seven Samurai Guide to Team Building appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Computers are very smart, but they have no imagination, right?
They can only slavishly follow instructions and rules - which means they can't think for themselves and generate original thoughts.
This is why a computer can beat a Grand Master at chess, but it will never compose music to rival Mozart.
It's why Lou's job is under threat from automation, but Jack has a bright future, safe in the knowledge that a computer will never replicate his ability to think creatively.
It's why Asimov was a creator, but Asimo is a mere curiosity.
Or is it?
Consider the findings of an experiment reported in the New York Times, in which humans were pitted against computers to see who could come up with the best ideas for advertisements.
The humans were non-advertising professionals, given a brief and asked to come up with creative ideas for adverts. The computers were programmed with an algorithm for devising advertising ideas and given the same briefs.
Here's a sample of the results:
- COMPUTER IDEA: An Apple computer offers flowers (for advertising Apple Computers' friendliness).
- HUMAN IDEA: An Apple computer placed next to a PC with the claim: "This is the friendliest computer."
- COMPUTER IDEA: Two Jeeps communicating in sign language (for advertising a silent car engine).
- HUMAN IDEA: A car driving alone in the country.
- COMPUTER IDEA: A domed mosque with tennis ball texture (for World Cup Tennis tournament in Jerusalem).
- HUMAN IDEA: A picture of ancient walls of Jerusalem with a tennis poster on them.
('Route to Creativity: Following Bliss or Dots?' by Natalie Angier)
I think most of us would call that 3 - 0 to the computers.
The research panel agreed - they judged the computer ads to be consistently more original and creative than those devised by the human group.
What is going on here?
Does this mean the beginning of the end for human creative superiority? Not necessarily.
The researchers were Dr. Jacob Goldenberg, Dr. David Mazursky and Dr. Sorin Solomon of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. They weren't actually trying to find out whether computers or humans are more creative - but to mimic the thought patterns of effective human creators. Note that the human group were untrained, with no previous experience of creating adverts. The computers, on the other hand, were programmed using formulas derived from successful adverts.
So the computers had an unfair advantage. It's as if two groups of people were pitted against each other in a game of chess: the first group composed of people who had only ever seen chess matches played on television; the second group given a thorough grounding in the rules of chess.
No prizes for guessing who would win that one.
In fact, when the reseachers repeated the experiment and taught the formulas to the human group, they were able to beat the computers.
So what was in the magic formulas?
The researchers were trying to disprove the popular idea that "the most original ideas are born of utter freedom, a shifting of paradigms, a circling of the square, a streaming of consciousness, a squelching of the internal editor". To do this, they programmed their computers using a series of 'thought templates' to limit options and generate ideas according to specific rules.
One of the commonest templates they found is the so-called replacement template.
For example, they considered a Nike ad, in which a group of firemen are standing around in a rescue pose, looking up as though someone was about to jump from a burning building into their net.
In lieu of a net is a giant Nike sneaker, with copy boasting of how the new Nike walking shoes are "very safe places to land."
In this advertisement, the sneaker replaces an object whose most salient characteristic is "cushioning." Indeed, the life net cushions a person from death itself.
('Route to Creativity: Following Bliss or Dots?' by Natalie Angier)
Rules, constraints and formulas. It's hardly the stuff of Romantic imagination, or even the popular idea of thinking outside the box. But as we've seen before on Lateral Action, using constraints and thinking inside the box can be surprisingly liberating.
If you're tempted to dismiss advertising as a fairly menial form of creativity, far removed from the lofty realms of the fine arts, you may be interested to hear of the work of composer and music professor David Cope. His EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence) software can create original music in the style of over a hundred different composers, which has even been mistaken for and original Bach. Have a listen to an interview with WNYC (at the foot of this page, or download here) - featuring some breathtaking excerpts of the computer-music - and judge for yourself. You can find more of Cope's EMI's compositions here. Personally I find some of them disturbingly good.
I'm no musical expert, but as a poet and poetry editor I pride myself on my literary judgment. So I was intrigued to come across The Policeman's Beard is Half-Constructed, a collection of poetry and prose written by a computer program called Racter. Some of it's not bad:
Slowly I dream of flying. I observe turnpikes and streets
studded with bushes. Coldly my soaring widens my awareness.
To guide myself I determinedly start to kill my pleasure during
the time that hours and milliseconds pass away. Aid me in this
and soaring is formidable, do not and winging is unhinged.
I like to think I wouldn't be fooled by this kind of thing if it landed in my editor's in-tray. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of worse poetry produced by humans.
These examples are impressive - but are the computers really being creative?
Maybe the answer lies in the question. As far as I know, no computer would stop to think whether it was really being creative. The question wouldn't enter its central processing unit. It's very human to ask such a question - to desire authenticity and then evaluate the work to see whether it meets the criterion.
"To suspend criticism and think any idea is possible or good may ultimately be destructive to creativity," said Dr. Goldenberg. As we saw last week, critical thinking is central to the creative process. And according to Goldenberg's fellow researcher Dr Mazursky, "Humans can criticize themselves, and computers can't".
The advertising algorithms show it's possible to program a computer to generate whacky ideas - but it took a human panel to judge their effectiveness.
A machine can write poetry or music - but only humans can decide whether the finished work is any good.
It sounds counterintuitive, but perhaps the human creative advantage comes not from our ability to generate unusual ideas, but to use our critical faculty to evaluate them.
I'm not saying computers will never achieve critical discernment on a level with human beings - but training them to do it will be a lot harder than teaching them a few lateral thinking techniques.
Do you think computers will ever truly think creatively?
Do you agree that critical thinking is what gives us a creative edge over our digital cousins?
How would you feel if you were moved by a story or a piece of music - only to discover it had been written by a robot?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Can Computers Think Creatively? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Some believe that creators need a firm guiding hand to help them create their best work. Others will swear that a nurturing friend will help a creator make the most of their talent.
So which is right? Should the creator go unchallenged or should they be forced, even bullied, in directions that improve their work? Letas look at a pop band who experienced both extremes and see what we can learn from them.
XTC was an influential British pop rock band based in Swindon that started recording in the late 1970s. They were known for imaginative, clever, snarky and often beautiful songs. At one time they toured with The Police and Talking Heads and even had their songs covered by future stars like R.E.M. However, in 1982, just as they were starting to hit achieve commercial success, they stopped touring. Unless youare The Beatles, this is a death sentence for any musical act which has relied heavily on live performances to build a following.
XTCas core members were Dave Gregory, Colin Moulding and the irrepressible Andy Partridge. Partridge was widely regarded as the driving force behind XTC in terms of personality, creative output, and his drive to shape the band according to his own vision. He also forced the band to stop touring due to a combination of exhaustion, unhappiness and stage fright - just when XTC started to consistently sell hundreds of thousands of albums.
Commercial success is not always a good measure of the quality of oneas work. However, it is a common yardstick to measure progress over time and it is much less subjective than album reviews. Commercially, then, XTC began to look like a failure. The next two albums, Mummer and The Big Express, each sold less than 50,000 copies. With poor new record sales and no other revenues, XTC was also heavily in debt.
Desperate measures were called for. Virgin Records, despite a rocky relationship with the band, agreed to support the band with a decent budget for a new album. They even managed to get a star producer, Todd Rundgren of Utopia, to sign on for the project. This would prove to be a significant milestone in the bandas historya| and their greatest challenge to date.
Partridge was used to setting XTCas direction and creative output, powered by an unwavering faith in his artistic vision. XTC had a habit of hiring good producers but then largely ignoring or overriding their advice. But they had never worked with Todd Rundgren before. He was as strong, determined and controlling as the band members. He insisted on producing the album in his home studio, deciding on the tracks and their running order, the album theme, making some of the musical arrangements, and so on while paying little attention to the bandas wishes.
The recording process was difficult and full of conflict. Rundgren made no attempt to bond with the band. The band members fought amongst themselves. There were disputes with Rundgren even up to the remix stage, when XTC rejected three remixes of the album, but were forced to accept the third when Rundgren left the project. In the end Skylarking was as much a Todd Rundgren production as it was an XTC album, much to Partridgeas chagrin.
So was it worth the pain, the hard work, and the lack of control?
On the surface, it would seem so.
Propelled by strong critical reviews and the college radio success of the song 'Dear God', Skylarking became the bandas biggest record to date. The album sold a quarter of a million units in the US within six months: more sales than their previous three albums combined. In later years, Partridge would later acknowledge that Rundgren helped them make their best album to date.
But the next album, Oranges and Lemons, was a completely different story. Paul Fox was hired to produce it. Partridge would refer to Fox as one of the most caring and nurturing producers head ever worked with. Fox was also one of the least experienced producers that XTC worked with: the album was his first big project. Moreover, the relative success of Skylarking helped the band to regain some clout with their record company. This album would stay closer to XTCas artistic vision, predictably dominated by Partridgeas ideas.
And how did this project work out? Oranges and Lemons was bigger, louder, more intricate, and more colourful than its predecessor. In the first six months after its release, Oranges and Lemons sold twice the number of albums as Skylarking, yielding XTCas new biggest album ever. Its commercial success was matched with respectable critical acclaim.
How can we explain the difference between the two albums? In a situation with a producer who did little to nurture them, XTC put out their most successful album ever. But, when placed back into a situation with greater creative control and a more positive producing experience, their follow up album was arguably twice as successful as its predecessor. How can we explain this?
Does this example suggest to you that the creator works better with a taskmaster or a hand-holder?
Would your feelings change if you were the editor, producer, or coach in this situation instead of being the creator?
Are there other more creative approaches to take your innovative ideas to fruition?
Note: the author is indebted to Chris Twomeyas excellent biography of XTC, Chalkhills and Children, for providing the source material for this article. For an ongoing fount of information about XTC, visit Chalkhills.org.
About the Author: Mark Dykeman is an IT professional, blogger, and writer based in New Brunswick, CANADA. Mark writes at Broadcasting Brain and other fine blogs. You can also find him on Twitter at @markdykeman.
The post Drill Sergeant or Buddy: Who Brings Out the Best in a Creator? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
cm 27 Mark McGuiness Interview from Creative Momentum on Vimeo.
If you've ever wondered about the faces behind Lateral Action, one of them is revealed in this this video interview I recorded with Philip Patston, an entrepreneur, consultant and comedian from New Zealand.
Philip is an experienced interviewer - his previous interviewees include creativity guru Sir Ken Robinson - and he asked me some great questions. Here's Philip's summary of our 30-minute conversation:
we caught up with Mark via Skype and canvassed a vast array of subjects from secret societies, fads, Michelangelo and brands, to Van Gogh, freezers and poetry! And beware a Mark advises against being too unique.
For more creative inspiration from Philip check out his other video interviews on Creative Momentum and follow him on Twitter.
Thanks Philip!
The post Video Interview: Mark McGuinness Talks Creativity with Philip Patston appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Everyone knows critical thinking kills creativity.
Suspending judgment in order to come up with new and unusual ideas is one of the sacred cows of the creativity movement.
Everyone knows that instant judgment is the enemy of creativity.
(Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity)Judgment and creativity are two functions that cannot occur simultaneously. Thatas the reason for the rules about no criticism and no evaluation.
(Nancy R. Tague, Brainstorming)It's important to remember that brainstorming is a creative, not a critical or analytical process. These rules are designed to encourage creativity. Postpone criticism and analysis, because they tend to stifle creativity.
(Tom Arnold, Improve Your Brainstorming Sessions)During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas: You are trying to open up possibilities and break down wrong assumptions about the limits of the problem. Judgments and analysis at this stage will stunt idea generation.
(Mind Tools, Brainstorming)creativity-relevant skills are the possession of the skill and ability to to think creatively (e.g. generate alternatives, think outside the box, and suspend judgment)
(Jing Zhou, Christina Shalley, Handbook of Organizational Creativity)While you are engaged in a creative process make sure that you suspend judgment. Reserve evaluation for later, when the creative flow gives way to design and organization.
(Jean Trumbo, Creativity)
This fear of critical thinking extends to the Inner Critic, usually demonised as the little part of your mind that interferes with your creativity and tries to tear your ambitions to shreds:
One of the greatest deterrents to creativity is the inner [critic]... When doing your creative work, keep the critic in its place. There's a time to create and a time to evaluate. When you're in the midst of the creative process, you don't want this judging presence looking over your shoulder, stopping the flow of creativity. Later, you want to be able to discern what works, what doesn't, what improvements are needed. That's when the judging voice becomes useful.
(Sharon Good, The Inner Critic)For many artists, challenges are very personal. And one of the biggest challenges is the Critic in the room, the Inner Critic. This gnarly Inner Critic is the voice of your self-doubt and fear. It is the emotional ties that bind you, hold you back, keep you stuck, limit you in what you think is possible for you as an artist.
(Valery Scatterwhite, The Artist Soul Can Be Kidnapped by the Inner Critic)Nothing Kills Creativity Faster than Criticism: Enter the Inner Critic!
(Emily Hanlon, The Inner Critic, the Enemy of Creativity!)
When you read so many writers all saying the same thing, it starts to look like common sense. But then, I'm usually suspicious of common sense.
For one thing, it's odd that so many of these authors equate creativity with creative thinking - as if the hard work of actually creating stuff didn't count as creativity.
It's even stranger that they limit creative thinking to idea generation. As if evaluating something and working out how to make it better were not really a creative activity.
Not all of them have such a limited view of creativity. Several of them suggest that it's only at the early, idea-generation stage of the creative process that we need to suspended judgment. Later on, there's a separate stage for reviewing and evaluating, when it's time to wheel out the Inner Critic and do some hard critical thinking.
I don't think it's as simple as that.
Stop for a moment and imagine how much crap you would produce if you didn't have an Inner Critic to tell you when something wasn't up to scratch.
Scary huh?
Believe it or not, your Inner Critic wants nothing more than for you to do the best you can do, and experience the thrill of creating something awesome.
This is because the function of critical thinking is to make something better. Used wisely, your critical faculty is one of the most powerful creative tools at your disposal.
Many of above examples centre around brainstorming, lateral thinking and thinking outside the box - and as regular Lateral Action readers will know, we have reservations about all of these approaches.
For example, one research project examined the brainstormers' claim that the technique succeeds by banning criticism and judgment from brainstorming sessions. The researchers compared classic brainstorming sessions with sessions where brainstormers were told what criteria would be used to evaluate their ideas. When they used these criteria to guide their thinking, the second group produced fewer ideas than the first - but a larger number of high-quality ideas.
One reason why experts are typically better than novices at solving complex problems is that they begin the problem-solving process with sharp critical analysis:
Studies comparing problem-solving performances of experts and novices have indicated that experts are able, because of their knowledge, to focus on the important aspects of a novel problem. The expert is able to relate a novel problem to something already known and used this knowledge as the basis for performance.
(Robert Weisberg, Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius)
So much for brainstorming and problem-solving. But surely more artistic forms of creativity rely on pure inspiration, and are more susceptible to being 'blocked' by criticism?
Poetry is supposed to be one of the arts that relies most on inspiration. But I once spent a whole year's worth of evening classes at The Poetry School with the wonderful Mimi Khalvati, doing a course called 'The Critical Faculty', which was all about using critical thinking to improve our writing at every stage of the process. It was one of the most creatively empowering courses I've ever done.
As I draft these words, I'm constantly reading, reviewing, tweaking and editing as I go along. Tomorrow, there will certainly be an editing stage, where I give the whole article a thorough review and proofread - but it's not simply a case of 'draft today, edit tomorrow'. It's more like a spectrum, with writing at one end and critiquing at the other. Or an ongoing dialogue between two voices. The first writing session involves more writing than critiquing, and the final session has more critiquing than writing, but I'm using both skills together, right from the start. And having coached hundreds of professional writers and creators over the years, I get the distinct impression I'm not alone in this.
Critical thinking is often confused with 'criticism' in the sense of finding fault or censuring someone, which is clearly not conducive to creativity. I'll call this 'negative criticism'. Having spent a long time working with people and organisations to improve their creativity, I've come to the conclusion that there are two specific cases where critical thinking spills over into negative criticism, and interferes with creativity:
I once ran a seminar for a large organisation, which included an activity where I asked the group of managers to think of 'the second right answer' to a problem (drawing inspiration from Roger von Oech). Instantly, the temperature of the room dropped. People froze in their chairs and looked very uncomfortable. When I asked them what was wrong, they said "This feels very risky for us, we're always told we have to find the right answer and we're in for a lot of criticism if we get it wrong".
Sadly, there are many organisations like this, in which it's easier to score points by criticising other people than thinking of something original. This may explain why brainstorming is more popular among corporate types than professional creatives, as it provides a 'walled garden' where the early shoots of creativity can develop without being trampled underfoot. But remember that this is a very specific kind of culture, and beware of using it to make generalisations about critical thinking and creativity.
I've worked with many coaching clients suffering from creative blocks or stage nerves, in which their Inner Critic becomes overactive, and starts delivering negative judgments on anything and everything they do. It can get so bad that they are paralysed, unable to write a word, make a mark on canvas or step out onto the stage because the inner critic is telling them it's a waste of time, they have no talent and they should stop kidding themselves.
Again, this is a distressing situation, experienced by many creative people at some stage of their career. But again, it's a specific problem, with a specific solution. Just because the Inner Critic can get out of hand at times, it doesn't mean the Inner Critic is the enemy of creativity.
Apart from these exceptional cases, the norm in creativity is that critical thinking is essential for success - often right from the beginning.
So next time someone tells you you need to suspend judgment to be more creative, feel free to quote the words of Oscar Wilde:
Imagination is imitative - the real innovation lies in criticism.
Do you agree that critical thinking is essential for creativity?
What role does critical thinking play in your creative process?
How do you stop critical thinking deteriorating into criticism?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why Critical Thinking Is Not a Creativity Killer appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you noticed there's an epidemic sweeping the globe?
I'm not talking about swine flu. I'm talking about the wrong kind of ideavirus. The kind of negative thinking that's highly contagious - and highly dangerous.Fortunately, Lateral Action columnist Rajesh Setty has both the diagnosis and prescription in his latest book: Upbeat - cultivating the right attitude to thrive in tough times.
Raj points out that the current recession can be an unmitigated nightmare, a challenge, or even a blessing in disguise - depending on our attitude to the challenges you face.
Every day, a positive attitude can be either boosted or damaged by apparently inconsequential conversations. The words we exchange are as invisible as the tiny germs that spread disease through casual contact.
As with any epidemic, containing it requires each of us to be vigilant:
Any single conversation has the potential to make a BIG difference in your life. We sat in back of your mind, think about the conversations you have had TODAY. You will be shocked at what you learn.
For the last few days, most of my phone calls start with some variation of the following:
1. How is the market treating you?
2. What do you think about where the market is going?
3. The economy is VERY bad, don't know what else will occur ...
Too many conversations like this, and we risk starting a 'sympathy exchange movement':
The "sympathy exchange" movement is in full swing. You may have already joined that movement or be tempted to join it sooner than later. The criteria for joining this movement involves nothing more than actively giving and receiving sympathy during these tough times. There are no fees to be paid - just your precious time to actively participate and recruit others into the movement!
These passages are typical of Raj's style - hard-hitting wisdom delivered with a smile. Like all the best teachers, he shows us where we are going wrong without being judgmental, and shows us a practical, achievable alternative.
Raj prescribes four key elements of an upbeat attitude:
The main text of the book is followed by the 'Upbeat DIY Handbook', with specific practical suggestions for putting each of these principles into action.
If you doubt whether attitude really makes a difference, check out this video (found via Career Renegade) featuring people in the advertising industry who have responded to redundancy by treating it as an opportunity.
Raj's book is short, sharp and likely to have a long-lasting impact. It's one of those books you read quickly but keep returning to. It's been several weeks since I first read it, but the ideas keep popping into my mind when I'm facing a tricky situation or having a 'bad day'.
The cover is what I call Mr. Happy yellow. It makes me think of sunshine and vitamin C. Exactly the kind of thing to boost your mental immune system.
Get your copy now and put a ray of sunshine in your pocket as you approach the challenges you face today. Or better yet, order several copies and start spreading the antidote to the ideavirus, by handing them out to your colleagues, customers and friends.
And there's plenty more inspiration from Raj on his blog Life Beyond Code and on Twitter @upbeatnow.
The post Why You Need (to Be) Upbeat Now appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A few weeks ago I was due to run a workshop on Time Management for Creative People, based on my e-book of the same name. Normally, I arrive for presentations at least an hour early, to set everything up, deal with inevitable technical hitches and get in the right frame of mind for the session.
Not this time.For once, the audience arrived at the venue before I did. In fact, they were all sat there waiting and chatting, with less than a minute to go before the start time - and I was nowhere to be seen.
With just 30 seconds to go, I burst through the door, apologising to my host as I strode to the centre of stage. After frantically fumbling my slides from a USB stick onto the big screen, I laid my notes on the table, took a deep breath and turned to face the audience.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Mark McGuinness. I'm sorry for cutting it so fine this evening.
I know what you're thinking - "Time management trainer late for his own workshop?!". It doesn't look good, does it? However, I do have a good excuse ...
I've just come from the hospital where I'm pleased to say my wife has just been delivered of two beautiful children.
Cue the biggest standing ovation I've ever received.
Like many of you, I now know that parenthood is a wonderful thing. And like many wonderful things, it's full of challenges. This isn't a parenting blog, and I'm a rank beginner at the art, so I won't venture any advice on that subject. What I will do is share some of the lessons I've learned from road-testing my productivity system in a high-demand, low-sleep environment. Extreme conditions are great for revealing truly essential behaviours, so most of these lessons should hold true for 'ordinary' life as well.
And for those of you who haven't yet experienced the joys of parenthood: just imagine a very large, charming, fluffy, Godzilla-sized creature picks up your house (finely-tuned productivity system and all) shakes it, turns it upside-down, and plonks it back into place. Several times a day. Then several more times a night. For weeks on end. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is carrying on as usual, and expects you to do the same...
Some creators thrive on chaos, others prefer order and routine. I'm definitely in the latter category - I've written before about the importance of routine and ritual to my writing process. My ideal working day kicks off with coffee and Google Reader, before proceeding to several hours of uninterrupted writing. Sadly, that sentence now reads 'kicked off...'.
I'm writing this at two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, the first chance I've had all week to settle down to writing Monday's piece for Lateral Action. The only remnant of my previous routine is the fact that I got up not long ago - after spending half the night ministering to my twin bundles of joy, I needed a couple of hours' kip over lunch before my brain was fit for writing.
Funnily enough, it wouldn't be so bad if it were like this every day. But every day is different. Tonight the babies could sleep reasonably well, and I could find myself happily ensconced at my desk at breakfast time tomorrow. But there are no guarantees that would continue into Tuesday. And so on.
But here I am, writing away - if you're reading this, then it must have got written somehow. And I know you'll let me know in the comments if it's not up to the usual standard. ;-)
Takeaway: A routine is great, but not essential. Don't get too attached to yours. A master works with whatever tools are available.
If the doctors hadn't shoved me out the door of the delivery suite with the words "Your babies are fine - go and do your work!" I would have cancelled the workshop. When they're yelling and I'm 'on duty' at home, I drop everything and pick them up.
When I've made a commitment to a client to get something done, and my e-mail inbox is filling up, then I let the inbox overflow. When I look at my day's work, I took out two or three big items that must get done today. Everything else can wait its turn.
I've been consciously prioritising like this for several years now. It's fair to say this habit has saved my bacon over the past few weeks. Even with little time and less sleep, I've been able to pick out my top priorities, which has made it easier (if not easy) to get them done.
Takeaway: Keep up - no, get ahead - with the big things. Catch up with the small things.
Inevitably, my children's arrival coincided with a particularly intense period of client work. As a result, I have a backlog of 167 e-mails, several guest articles, and a long list of to-do items. You may have noticed that recently I've been slower than usual to reply to comments on Lateral Action. Clearly, this isn't an ideal situation for a productivity teacher!
The good news is, I know exactly what to do about it. Having a well-established productivity system means that:
Takeaway: A good routine is desirable; a good system is essential. A routine is broken the moment you interrupt it. But an effective system is like good suspension - robust and flexible enough to carry you over rough terrain.
One of the best bits of advice I've received was from a friend who became a parent a few months before us: "It gets easier once you accept being tired all the time". She's right. Mental clarity and focus are essential for my work, as a coach and trainer as well as writer. I could spend my time lamenting the loss of my usual mental energy, but I'm getting a surprising amount done by working with the time and energy I do have.
Takeaway: Even the worst case scenario will have its plus points. Accept your limitations and see what you can do with them. Creativity thrives on constraints, right?
I've written before about the productivity benefits of an afternoon nap, including a technique for napping in a matter of minutes. Have I been glad of that technique these past few weeks!
Nothing beats a good night's sleep, but I'm discovering that 'little and often' is the next best thing. I'm being woken up several times a night, but at least I know how to get to sleep again.
And by catnapping during the day - particularly before high-focus tasks - I can regain enough mental clarity for intensive bursts of concentrated work. My work days feel more like a series of sprints than an extended run, but I'm still managing to cover the ground.
Takeaway: Learn to nap (here's how) and practice regularly. When time is short, work to a timer. Think quality not quantity.
The gym next to our home has been a lifesaver. I can pop down for a 30-45 minute session and feel totally revitalised, even if I've been feeling like a zombie all day. We've looked at the mental benefits of exercise before, so it's no surprise but a great relief to know I can recharge my brain with a session on the bikes or treadmill.
Takeaway: When you're feeling too tired and busy to exercise, that's a sure sign it's time to exercise!
Any productivity writer who becomes father to twins can expect plenty of jokes about 'batch processing'. :-) In the long run, I fervently hope that having twins produces efficiencies of scale, but right now dealing with two babies at once as first-time parents feels incredibly hard work. And we're grateful for all the help we can get.
My wife heads the list of indispensable people, particularly on days of workshops and client sessions (and the nights before), when she does more than her fair share of childcare, to keep me fresh for my meetings. Family and friends have been incredibly generous with their help. And especially at the beginning, when we all spent the best part of two weeks in hospital, I was glad of good business partners, when I was able to leave the good ship Lateral Action in the capable hands of Brian and Tony.
Takeaway: Businesses are like babies - you can't create them on your own! Make sure you have good people around you, and don't be too proud to ask for help when you need it.
As some of my e-mail correspondents will tell you, I haven't been all things to all people these past few weeks. In some cases I've tested people's patience, and I haven't felt great about writing so many e-mails beginning "Sorry for the delay getting back to you ...".
But as a recovering perfectionist, I'm trying not to beat myself up too much on that score. We've said many times here on Lateral Action that if you want to create anything remarkable, you have to prioritise the big, challenging, inconvenient, exciting projects over the clamouring demands of the moment. And babies certainly fall into the former category.
Takeaway: You can't please all of the people all of the time. Choose wisely.
I try not to take myself too seriously, but I am serious about my work. We have a lot of fun working on Lateral Action, but we're also on a mission to change the world, in our own small way - by empowering creative people to create remarkable things. All of which is important.
But there's a different kind of important - a more everyday, down-to-earth, moment-to-moment kind of important. One with no ambition to change the world, just accept and enjoy it the way it is - and share it with those who are close to you. After just two months, I'm still a novice at this parenting game, but I've not found any better reminders of this kind of important than the two little bundles of fun who have just fallen asleep, with impeccable timing, just as I'm finishing my day's writing.
Takeaway: Sometimes the small things are the big things.
Parents - How do you keep your work on track while taking good care of your kids? All suggestions gratefully received! :-)
How has parenthood affected your creativity - positively and/or negatively?
Non-parents - have you ever had a major disruption to your working routine? How did you cope?
Image: Wikimedia Commons
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post 9 Productivity Lessons from the First 2 Months of Parenthood appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever walked into an art gallery and thought "I could do better than that!"?
Or are you a contemporary art enthusiast, tired of hearing people criticise things they don't understand?
Whichever side of the fence you're on, you're bound to have an opinion on the story of Paul O'Hare, a painter and decorator from Liverpool, UK, who was given just four weeks to transform himself into a fine artist and attempt to fool the critics at a London art gallery.
Paul's story was featured in one of my all-time favourite documentary series, Faking It. In each programme, a member of the public was given a month's intensive training at an improbably difficult profession - and then put through a competitive test alongside experienced pros, to see if they could 'fake it' by convincing the judges they were the real deal.
Participants were deliberately assigned roles that were radically different to their usual selves: a butch navy officer became a drag queen; a punk singer conducted a symphony orchestra; a factory worker became a fashion designer; a burger van proprietor became a cordon bleu chef.
And a painter and decorator was invited to transfer his painting talents from kitchens and bathrooms to the walls of a swanky London gallery.
Here's what happened. (Warning: spoiler at the end, so watch the video first if you don't want to know how things turned out! Sorry dudes-across-the-water, I think this one is only viewable in the UK.)
The documentary team were at pains to present Paul as just an ordinary bloke, a down-to-earth working-class Liverpudlian painter and decorator.
But what made Paul stand out from the crowd was the fact he was prepared to have a go, and attempt something almost impossibly difficult. He looked at the absurdly short timeframe, the ridiculously steep learning curve and the near-certainty of failure and said 'OK, I'm up for it. Where do I start?'.
Takeaway: Forget how difficult it is and what could go wrong. Ask yourself: "Do I want to do this? Can I live with myself if I never even try?".
One of the things that makes Faking It so compelling is the relationship between the apprentices and the mentors given the job of taking them from novice to 'master' in one month. The short timeframe and lack of common background makes it stressful for everyone concerned, but as well as the inevitable fights, there are moments of genuine respect and affection, and many of the unlikely couples developed a strong bond and promise to stay in touch after the filming.
Paul had advice and support from experienced artists as well as a gallery director. They not only helped him with his artwork, but filled him in on the unspoken rules of the London art scene and coached him on how to present himself as an artist.
Takeaway: Hard work + mentoring = success. Who has already done what you want to do? Find them - and find a way to persuade them to teach you what they know.
On his first day Paul pottered around in the studio and was quite pleased with his initial efforts. But his artist-mentor lost no time in telling him he hadn't done enough. "I want to see more work" she said.
Once he realised art wasn't the cushy number he had assumed, he rolled his sleeves up and churned out several works a day, experimenting with different media to find what worked for him. Paul didn't have the fabled 10,000 hours to master his craft, but he made the most of his four short weeks.
Takeaway: Rome wasn't built in a day. How many bricks have you laid today?
A few days before the big exhibition, Paul was visited in his studio by one of the fiercest art critics from the UK broadsheets. He didn't mince his words. To judge from the look on Paul's face, the guy might as well have shredded his paintings with a machete.
Another scene showed Paul watching and listening via video camera, as a group of London cognoscenti dissected his work over drinks in a fancy restaurant.
Paul felt the criticisms all the more keenly because the works in question dealt with a traumatic episode from his teenage years, when he was paralysed for many months. He said afterwards that working on those images was the first time he had consciously processed what had happened to him all those years ago.
He looked devastated in his video diary entries after these critiques. But the next day he got up, went to the studio and got on with the job.
Takeaway: "It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."
At one point one of Paul's mentors suggested that he present himself as a 'printmaker' instead of an 'artist', to lower people's expectations and the chance of criticism. Paul bristled at the idea: "That may work for you, but it won't work for me". He was totally committed to the challenge and prepared to take on anyone who didn't take him seriously.
Takeaway: No-one is going to do you any favours. As Hugh says, "Power is never given. Power is taken".
Paul's mentors took him to the hairdresser, then shopping. They encouraged him to try on flamboyant clothes he would never normally wear. Topped off with a pair of glasses, he looked like he fitted right in at a bohemian gallery that evening.
Superficial? Yes. Essential? Yes.
Takeaway: People will judge you by appearances. You can conform to their expectations, or confound them - your choice.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but one of the odd things about being a contemporary artist is that you are expected to explain your work, in written commentaries and spoken presentations. Paul received a lot of coaching on how to talk about art in general and his own work in particular. At one point, he was told "Don't say the work is about you, say it's about 'the Self'". To his credit, Paul showed considerable chutzpah, dropping words like 'serendipity' into the chitchat over canapA(c)s, while evidently not taking all this 'artspeak' too seriously.
Takeaway: Maybe it shouldn't matter whether you know the right terms or can drop the right names into your conversation - but in some circles it does. Knowing the 'insider language' is essential for entry. It's your choice whether you think it's worth making the effort to fit in.
The final test was an exhibition at a London gallery, where Paul's work was displayed alongside three artists who had been exhibiting and selling work for several years. The work was judged by three respected critics, who also interviewed each of the artists, to see how convincingly they could discuss their work.
Paul was clearly feeling the pressure as he was grilled by the judges, and his performance wasn't perfect. But in the event, one of the genuine artists did an even worse job of explaining his own work - it just goes to show you can't always tell from appearances. And neither could the judges - out of three of them, only one spotted Paul as the fake.
Takeaway: There comes a point where you have to step out confidently and present yourself to the world as the person you want to be - even though you're feeling terrified inside. And there are no guarantees that the world will buy your bluff.
At the end of the programme, Paul seemed genuinely inspired by his rollercoaster ride through the art world. He said it had changed his outlook on life and he was keen to continue painting.
Maybe he wasn't really faking it.
Do you find Paul's story inspiring or does it shatter some of your illusions about art?
Do you think anyone could succeed at a creative profession if they tried hard enough?
Have you ever felt like you were 'faking it' at work - but found that nobody noticed and it turned out fine?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How to Fake It As an Artist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Business is rewarding itself to death, according to Dan Pink.
He's not just talking about 'fat cat' pay and bonuses. He's talking about something much more pervasive - and more destructive.
In this recent TED Talk, Pink questions one of the fundamental assumptions underlying the way most businesses are managed. Here it is in a nutshell:
Performance can be improved by offering rewards for good performance and penalties for bad performance.
Or to put it another way, the carrot and the stick are a manager's best friends.
It sounds like common sense, doesn't it? But it's not true. Except in certain limited circumstances:
'If... then' rewards work really well for those sorts of tasks where there's a simple set of rules and a clear destination to go to.
(Dan Pink TED Talk)
But for more complex, challenging tasks requiring creative solutions, it's a very different story:
the rules are mystifying, the solution, if it exists, is surprising and not obvious - [for this kind of problem] those 'If... then' rewards, the things around which we have build so many of our businesses, DON'T WORK!
This is not a feeling... this is not a philosophy... this is a FACT!
(Dan Pink TED Talk)
In research, offering rewards for success in creative tasks has been proven to damage performance, over and over again. As Pink says in his talk, this is one of the most robust findings in social science. And to judge from the way most businesses are run, one of the most widely ignored.
Pink's talk was brought to my attention by Sofia and Marelisa (who has written a great post about it herself) in the comments on last week's article about Johnny Depp. That was the latest of several articles and an e-book in which I've explored the effect of extrinsic motivations (rewards) and intrinsic motivations (satisfaction in the work itself) on creativity.
By looking at such diverse talents as a Hollywood star (Depp), a choreographer (Twyla Tharp), a Victorian novelist (Anthony Trollope) and a 21st century marketer (Seth Godin), we have seen how creative excellence comes from pushing rewards to the back of the mind and focusing on intrinsic motivations - such as challenge, learning, flow and purpose.
My e-book on motivation and creativity draws on the research of Theresa Amabile, an expert in organisational creativity who has shown through her research that offering rewards or punishments can be a creativity killer. Her findings are summed up in what she calls the 'intrinsic motivation principle':
People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily the the interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself a not by external pressures.
(Theresa Amabile, aHow to Kill Creativitya, Harvard Business Review, September a October 1998)
In his TED talk Pink focuses on research evidence from economists and social scientists, but he reaches exactly the same conclusion about the problems of extrinsic motivation:
In eight of the nine tasks we we examined across the three experiments, higher incentives led to worse performance.
(D. Ariely, U. Gneezy, G. Lowenstein, & N. Mazar, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)We find that financial incentives... can result in a negative impact on overall performance.
(Dr. Bernd Irlenbusch, London School of Economics)(Both quotations taken from Dan Pink's TED Talk)
... and finds the same solution:
It's an approach built much more around intrinsic motivation, around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they're interesting, because they're part of something important.
(Dan Pink, TED Talk)
The Rise of the Creative Economy means that someone like Lou, whose career plan is based on rewards, hierarchy and 'cranking widgets'-style productivity, is in deep trouble. The more straightforward the task, the more likely it is to be automated or outsourced overseas.
Offering rewards works pretty well to raise the performance of people like Lou - but in advanced economies, they are becoming an endangered species.
Jack, on the other hand, is primarily motivated by the thrill of discovery and invention. When he decided to quit and set up his own business, his boss couldn't persuade him to stay, even with the offer of a bigger paycheck and desk.
In the creative economy, companies and countries depend on people like Jack and Marla to dream up solutions to complex creative problems. And the hard evidence of the scientists and economists is that rewards don't work for this kind of work.
Unfortunately, as Pink says - most companies are apparently ignorant of this fact, and continue to try to 'motivate people' with the carrot and stick.
When you consider the economic challenges we're all facing right now, it's not an overstatement to say that business is in danger of rewarding itself to death.
Dan Pink describes three types of intrinsic motivation that help companies and individuals to improve creative performance:
Autonomy - The urge to direct our own lives.
Mastery - The desire to get better and better at something that matters.
Purpose - The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
(Dan Pink TED Talk)
The bad news is that if your company is based on controlling people and has no greater purpose than making money, you're going to have a tough time competing with organisations that unlock creative talent by inspiring people with a sense of purpose and empowering them to become masters of their chosen field.
The good news is that you don't have to be a big company to use Pink's three keys - you can start to do it right now, in your own life. Let's take autonomy as an example:
How much creative freedom does your current work afford you? If the answer is "a lot", then make the most of it. If "not much" then you can either push for more autonomy at work - or set up a side project in your spare time, that gives you the opportunity to use your talents to the full. You never know where it might lead you.
Set aside time to try things out for fun and curiosity. Play around with your paints or guitar. Start a blog. Make a video. Go to a meetup without your business cards - just to hang out and enjoy the conversation.
It may feel like you're goofing off and wasting your time. But the science suggests otherwise.
What do you make of the research findings that offering rewards can harm performance?
How important are autonomy, mastery and purpose to you in your work?
Can you think of examples of successful companies driven by intrinsic motivations?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Dan Pink on Why Rewards Donât Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Rajesh Settyâs columns for Lateral Action have been a big hit with our readers â so youâre in for a real treat with his new free e-book Defiant: Practical Tips to Thrive in Tough Times. Raj is someone who really walks the talk â not only is he an acclaimed author, blogger and Tweeter, heâs [â¦]
The post Free E-book by Rajesh Setty â Defiant: Practical Tips to Thrive in Tough Times appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Did you realise you probably know Johnny Depp's films better than he does?
That's if we can take this interview at face value, where he claims not to have seen his latest movie Public Enemies.
Incredulous, the interviewer asks him why not. Here's Johnny's answer:
I've always kind of tried to avoid them as much as possible... I just prefer the experience. I like the experience, I like the process, I like doing the work. But then, you know if I've got to see myself - I don't like to see the thing become the product, I suppose. Once they say "You're wrapped" on the film, it really is none of your business. The director is going to take that performance or whatever options you gave him and the editor, and they're going to do with it what they want.
From the outside, this might sound hard to believe. After all, for anyone who has dreamt of being a film star, surely watching the end product of your labours, seeing yourself up there on the big screen, is central to the fantasy?
Not for Johnny.
According to him, the exciting part is doing the work, immersing himself in the character and putting everything into his performance. After that, the film is "none of his business" - it belongs to the director.
Johnny is interested in the process, not the product.
Those of us who are actively involved in creative work will know in our hearts what he's talking about. The minute you take your eye off the ball, forget the work in front of you and start daydreaming about money, fame and other rewards, you're risking mediocrity.
And as we saw in my e-book about motivation and creativity, there's a lot of research evidence to back up Johnny's position. Harvard Business School Professor Theresa Amabile has demonstrated through her research that intrinsic motivation is strongly linked to creative excellence:
People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily the the interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself - not by external pressures.
(Theresa Amabile, 'How to Kill Creativity', Harvard Business Review, September - October 1998)
Extrinsic motivations such as money, fame and critical acclaim constitute rewards for creative work. While it's nice to enjoy these things after the fact, Amabile's research shows that focusing on them too much is a creativity killer.
Johnny's solution to the problem of creative motivation is brutally simple - he focuses exclusively on intrinsic motivation, and does his best to ignore the external rewards. I'm sure he remembers to collect his pay cheque, but by avoiding watching the movie, he minimises his investment in his screen persona and the finished artefact.
Now, many people might say this is a bit extreme, and it wouldn't do Johnny any harm to watch his films at the cinema, and have the DVDs on heavy rotation at home. But then many people haven't achieved a fraction of what Johnny has, creatively. So it sounds like his approach works just fine for him.
You could also argue that Johnny is in the fortunate position of having someone else to worry about marketing and shipping the 'product'. I'm sure there are plenty of people reading this who would love to be able to focus on their creative process all day long, and hand over the messy business of business to someone else.
But listening to Johnny's interview, and watching mesmerising performances such as Joe Pistone in Donnie Brascoe and the debauched Earl of Rochester in The Libertine, it's hard to escape the thought that his uncompromising attitude has been critical to his success.
While millions dream of being a famous actor, Johnny Depp concentrates on acting.
Is it a coincidence that he's the one who made it?
What do you make of Johnny Depp's claim that he avoids watching his own films?
When working on a creative project, do you find the potential rewards motivating or a distraction?
Do you think it's a good idea for an artist to focus on the creative work, to the exclusion of everything else?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Secret of Johnny Deppâs Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you liked our interviews with artist-entrepreneurs John T. Unger, Natasha Wescoat and Hugh MacLeod, you should check out Hugh's recent interview with Australian artist Hazel Dooney:
10 Questions for Hazel Dooney
Four years ago, Hazel decided to quit the highly-regarded galleries in Sydney and Melbourne who were representing her and go it alone, organising her own exhibitions and marketing her work direct to collectors online. She estimates that the value of her work has "increased to five, maybe ten, times what it was five years ago".
She's pretty outspoken about her route to success:
Traditional galleries and art institutions a and the art publications that depend on both for their advertising a have had fuck-all to do with it. Neither did a traditional, 'high minded' artist approach. I regarded myself early on as a post-punk performer, a 'garage band' version of a modern artist who ends up owning her own label and promoting her own tours. I don't deal through intermediaries and I try to maintain a direct connection with everyone who has an interest in my work
Check out the full interview to learn more about Hazel's uncompromising approach to art and marketing. It's a fascinating conversation between two very talented artists and savvy marketers.
Hazel's website and blog provide generous samples of her artwork. And naturally she's also to be found on Twitter.
The post Hugh MacLeod Interviews Hazel Dooney appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You have to be absolutely determined, otherwise you might just as well write poetry.
(Sir Terence Conran, quoted in The Creative Economy by John Howkins)
Terence Conran offers excellent advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, but he obviously has a thing or two to learn about poetry.
He seems to think writing poetry is easy compared to building a business, and that most poetry is written by shy, retiring wallflowers with little or no ambition.
It sounds as though he hasn't met many successful poets. And he's certainly reckoning without the likes of T.S. Eliot.
First and foremost, Eliot was a poet of genius (and regular readers of Lateral Action will know I don't use that word lightly) who worked extremely hard at his writing. It would be nice to think that writing great poetry would be enough to establish his name as one of the foremost writers in the English language, and win him the Nobel Prize in Literature. And maybe it would have been enough.
But Eliot left nothing to chance. As well as writing the poetry itself, he was extremely determined and persistent in establishing himself as an influential man of letters and successful businessman.
I'll leave it to you to judge whether his standing as a poet would have been just as high if he hadn't bothered to do any of the following.
Eliot worked incredibly hard, some might say insanely hard. Early in his career, he was putting in a full day's work as a banker at Lloyds in the City of London, before returning home to write essays, lectures and book reviews - eventually taking on the editorship of a new literary magazine, the Criterion, in his spare time.
To begin with, he needed the extra money from his literary journalism, but even later in life, when he was financially comfortable, he still set himself an incredibly demanding schedule, over and above his 'day job'. He continued to write articles and essays, give lectures, attend meetings of various societies and serve on voluntary committees.
Meanwhile, he managed to produce several volumes of some of the greatest poetry in English.
Takeaway: Do what it takes, for as long as it takes. Fed up with your job? Spend your evenings creating something great - something that could eventually offer you a viable alternative.
Some artists thrive on chaos, others on order and routine. Eliot definitely fell into the latter category. One of the things he likes about working in the bank was that it gave him the security of a daily routine, falling into step with the other bowler-hatted bankers.
Again, even when he was successful enough to order his day as he pleased, he carried on with the daily routine. During the 1940s, for example, he was leaving his flat at 6.30 each morning to attend early Mass (by this time he was a devout Christian) before returning home to eat a large English breakfast, then spend the morning writing. At midday he would rise from his desk and take the bus into his office at Faber and Faber, completing The Times crossword on the way. The rest of the day was taken up with routine publishing business - meetings with colleagues and authors, reading manuscripts and dictating letters to his secretary.
Takeaway: Opinion is divided on whether routines stimulate or stifle creativity. But if you want to get a lot done, a regular routine is hard to beat.
I won't pretend Eliot had a healthy work/life balance. He didn't. It's hard not to see his various illnesses as his body protesting against his punishing work schedule. Every so often, he worked himself to a state of nervous exhaustion, and was forced to take time off work.
These breaks took the form of retreats in the English countryside or visits to health spas in continental Europe. And they were often the occasion of bursts of creative activity. The Waste Land, considered by many his greatest poem, was largely written while on sick leave from the bank, with sections written at a sanatorium in Switzerland and on holiday in Margate.
Looking at the big picture, the alternation of hard work and relaxation can be seen as an important part of Eliot's creative process. There was some method in the madness, although I can't help thinking he could have made it a lot easier on himself.
Takeaway: Take regular breaks, for the sake of your Muse as well as your health.
Eliot's character and life choices were riddled with conflict and contradiction. As an American who left his home country to set up home in England, he found himself a stranger in both countries, who habitually described himself as a "resident alien". He once said his poetry "wouldn't be what it is if I'd been born in England, and it wouldn't be what it is if I'd stayed in America".
Some of Eliot's bohemian friends were so horrified at the thought of the great poet having to earn a living as a banker, that they tried to set up a trust fund so that he would be free to pursue his writing full-time. Eliot wasn't keen. Apart from feeling embarrassed at being treated as a charity case, he quite enjoyed putting on his suit and working at the bank. He clearly relished upsetting people's expectations of how a poet should dress and behave. Even among the bohemian outsiders, he was an outsider.
On the other hand, his other life of the imagination meant he never really fitted in at the bank. One of his colleagues said that he "often seemed to be living in dreamland... he would often in the middle of dictating a letter break off suddenly, grasp a sheet of paper and start writing quickly when an idea came to him" (quoted in T.S. Eliot by Peter Ackroyd).
These days, people would talk about the contradictory elements of Eliot's character contributing to his USP or (shudder) personal brand. But Eliot was lucky enough to live in an age when he was simply known as 'an original'.
Takeaway: Be yourself. All of your selves.
When Eliot moved to London, he worked his way into some of the foremost literary circles of the day, making acquaintance with influential writers and other cultural figures, including Bertrand Russell, Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. Ezra Pound was responsible for publishing and championing his early work, and throughout his career his powerful friends helped him ensure a positive reception for his writings.
One of his reasons for editing the Criterion in his spare time was the opportunity it afforded him to commission work from influential writers and make their acquaintance. It was through his network of contacts that Eliot was introduced to Geoffrey Faber, who offered him a highly attractive way out of banking.
Takeaway: Build your network before you need it. The day will come when it will make the difference between success and failure for you.
Eventually, Eliot did leave the bank - to become a Director of the publishing firm Faber and Gwyer, later known as Faber and Faber. His combined experience as a businessman, editor and respected poet made him the ideal candidate for the position.
Publishing allowed him to continue with his daily routine as a London businessman, and combine his interest in business with his love of literature. Under his editorship, Faber and Faber grew into the pre-eminent publishers of poetry in Britain. He exerted a significant influence over the course of 20th century poetry by publishing a stream of major names, including Ezra Pound, W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Steven Spender, Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin.
Takeaway: There's nothing wrong with being a full-time artist or pursuing your art in your spare time. But don't shy away from combining your artistic and business interests, just because it's unconventional.
At one of his public lectures, a member of the audience asked him whether he was concerned that the references to Greek and Roman literature in his poetry would be lost on many contemporary readers, who would not have had the benefits of a classical education. Without hesitation, he replied:
They'll damn well have to learn.
Takeaway: Don't pander to other people's expectations. As Hugh puts it, you need to know "where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not".
As editor of the Criterion and at Faber and Faber, Eliot was in a powerful position to shape the tastes of his audience, by choosing which authors to publish, and writing and commissioning reviews and critical articles. He also delivered numerous lectures and published volumes of his literary essays. All of which helped to create the cultural climate in which his own writings were - favourably - received.
Takeaway: Ask yourself "What do my audience need to know in order to appreciate my work/buy from me?". Then work out a way to teach them. It may look like extra work, but it's one of the best investments you can make.
Compared to many great writers, Eliot didn't write much. His Collected Poems would be embarrassingly slim - if it didn't contain such a high proportion of masterpieces. Eliot said he wanted the publication of every poem to be "an event".
The result was that his audience eagerly awaited every new publication, however short. In 1940, he published a single poem, 'East Coker', as a pamphlet - it sold 12,000 copies in less than a year, a very high figure for the UK poetry market.
Takeaway: Don't churn stuff out for the sake of it. Give your audience your best, or wait until you can.
Even within such a small body of work, Eliot displayed a remarkable range of form and subject, from the avant-garde imagery and rhythms of 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock' and the fractured modernist consciousness of The Waste Land, through to the spiritual meditations of Four Quartets. Each time he published a new volume of poetry, there were readers who complained that they preferred his previous work and wished he could have done more of the same.
After completing Four Quartets in 1942, Eliot gave up writing poetry for the page altogether, and devoted his creative energies to writing plays. His last play, The Cocktail Party, was a popular hit, with a run of over 400 Broadway performances.
Takeaway: Achieved a success? Congratulations. What are you going to do next?
For more about Eliot's extraordinary life and career, read Peter Ackroyd's excellent biography, T.S. Eliot.
Portrait of T.S. Eliot - Wikimedia Commons
Do you agree with Terence Conran that the fine arts are a soft option compared to business?
Does Eliot sound like the kind of example you'd like to follow?
Was he a 'one-off' - or can you think of others who successfully combined art and business?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post T.S. Eliotâs Path to Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
creativity + productivity = success
My wife and I are real-life Hollywood Producers. Sounds fancy, but folks in our line of work have a pretty simple job description:
Producers make stuff.
They:
Look familiar? There's the Lateral Action equation, adding up all over Tinseltown.
The biggest problem with aspiring writers/directors/producers/actors/you-name-its in Hollywood is that many seek success using only half the formula. So many "wannabes" come through our doors believing with all their hearts that the real blueprint to The Big Time is:
creativity = success
This faulty thinking probably infects Hollywood more than any other business. The fairy tale that "One Big Idea" can lead to riches leaves out half the equation...the execution of that idea! As Mark so aptly points out, creative thinking is not enough.
On our blog, we encourage aspiring Movie Moguls and Television Producers to follow the principals of HOP - Hands-On Producing. What's that mean? Simply, if you want your ideas to be successful, learn how to execute them.
creativity + productivity = success
Two of these three characteristics, creativity and entrepreneurship, are clearly represented in the above formula. However, the third, collaboration, is an element most Hollywood newbies throw right out the window!
You all know the stereotype of the uncompromising artist whose vision bends for no one. In our business, I prefer to avoid those types.
A Hollywood production is a collaborative medium. Hundreds of people working together to achieve something great. While there needs to be an over-riding creative vision driving every project, refusal to collaborate only limits the creative potential of a production, stifling the talents of 99% of the team.
As the lead creative individual in any endeavor, one must look for the benefits that come from collaboration.
Further, as the Mark points out in his article, much collaboration can and should be with people around the globe, not just those in your immediate circle of comfort.
Undiscovered talent may lie in the farthest corners of the earth...but today, that talent is finally accessible. One simply has to be creative about collaborating. As a matter of fact, Mark's article is a big part of the reason I joined Twitter (more on that later.)
When we broke into TV, it was thanks to the DV (digital video) revolution...low cost cameras that shot broadcast quality footage. Combined with Final Cut Pro or other affordable editing systems, a new workflow emerged allowing one or two people to produce a TV show that could actually make it to air.
That was revolutionary. A lot of "old school" producers were either too scared or too clueless to pay attention. They didn't take advantage of new technology to stretch their budgets. The quality of their productions didn't improve, and many went the way of the dinosaur.
We were lucky enough to join the revolution, take advantage of new workflows, and launch our careers.
Things have changed again.
Today, a creative kid with a $5000 camera can make a movie for the big screen, not just the small one. People carry seasons of television around on their iPhones. The internet, TV networks, and theatrical movie distribution channels are quickly morphing into one super-blob of content delivery.
About three months ago, this lead to a scary revelation. It's been five years since we "arrived." Guess what? Time to take a long, hard look at how we work, how the industry is changing, or we, too, could end up extinct!
So I signed up for my first Twitter account, started reading sites like Lateral Action, and went looking for the "new generation" of filmmakers and shiny toys. This wide-eyed look around makes it painfully clear that the way we watch TV, Movies, and Web content is changing at warp speed.
While the methods producers now employ for media creation and delivery may work for a while longer, they won't work forever. What producers have to do now is...
creativity + collaboration + productivity = Hollywood success.
Look familiar? Want Hollywood success? Read Lateral Action.
About the Author: Biagio teamed up with his wife, Joke, to produce television, film, and web content in Los Angeles, CA. They blog about producing in Hollywood at Joke And Biagio, and tweet about the biz at @jokeandbiagio.
The post How to Succeed in Hollywood appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
There's an old saying that "the pen's lighter than the spade".
Back when going to school was a novelty for families used to toiling on the land, adults said it to children, to encourage them to study hard and make a better (and easier) life for themselves.
These days, you don't even need to lift a pen. OK, a computer's heavier than a pen, but you don't need to lift it to work with it. You just need to glide your hands over the keys.
You hardly need to lift a finger.
So if you're just sitting there all day, it makes no difference whether you're in shape or not. Right?
Oh sure, if you consider the health implications, then of course you should be doing some kind of exercise, for your own benefit. But day to day, as an information worker in the creative economy, it won't make any difference to the quality of your actual work. Right?
Wrong.
In his book Brain Rules, molecular biologist John Medina reports on a research investigation into the effects of exercise on cognitive performance, using a sample of 10,000 British civil servants between the age of 35 and 55. The researchers categorised the civil servants' physical activity as low, medium or high, depending on their exercise habits.
Those with low levels of physical activity were more likely to have poor cognitive performance. Fluid intelligence, the type that requires improvisatory problem-solving skills, was particularly hurt by sedentary lifestyle.
(John Medina, Brain Rules)
So let's suppose that you're engaged in a creative profession, where 'improvisatory problem-solving skills' are critical to your economic success - but you're too busy working (or too plain lazy) to take any exercise beyond a trip to the coffee machine. According to the research, with every day that goes by, you're becoming less and less creative - and less and less competitive.
Are you still sitting comfortably?
Medina points out that the human brain did not evolve in an environment remotely like the modern workplace. Our ancestors had to negotiate rainforests, deserts, mountains, plains and icy wastelands - all the while catching enough to eat without being eaten ourselves.
our evolutionary ancestors were used to walking up to 12 miles per day. This means that our brains are supported for most of our evolutionary history by Olympic-caliber bodies. We were not used to sitting in a classroom for 8 hours at a stretch. We were not used to sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours at a stretch. If we sat around the Serengeti for eight hours - heck, for 8 minutes - we were usually somebody's lunch.
(John Medina, Brain Rules)
Since the brain evolved inside such active bodies, Medina argues, it makes sense to assume that it works best under conditions of high physical activity. This assumption is confirmed by biologists:
exercise gets blood to your brain, bringing it glucose for energy and oxygen to soak up the toxic electrons that are left over. It also stimulates the protein that keeps neurons connecting.
(John Medina, Brain Rules)
It's starting to look like exercise, for knowledge workers, is a no-brainer.
If you're a marathon runner or gym bunny, give yourself a pat on the back and carry on.
But what if you're more Jenny Craig than Daniel Craig? Do you have to commit yourself to a bone-crushing physical regimen, or does the research offer any crumb of comfort?
Actually, the findings could be a lot worse for the exercise-averse. According to Medina, "even couch potatoes who fidget show increased benefit over those who do not fidget"! You've probably guessed that it will take more than fidgeting to get yourself into a state of top mental performance. But it's less than a marathon:
In the laboratory, the gold standard appears to be aerobic exercise, 30 minutes of play, two or three times a week. Add a strengthening regimen and you get even more cognitive benefit.
(John Medina, Brain Rules)
There, that's not too bad is it?
And if you're prepared to entertain one of Medina's off-the-wall ideas, you may not even need to leave the office. He's actually installed a treadmill in his own office, and a special stand so that he can type on his laptop while he walks.
"Treadmills in classrooms and cubicles" might sound like the ravings of a mad scientist - but the scientific evidence backs him up.
As another old saying goes, it's crazy but it just might work.
Have you noticed any effect on the quality of your thinking from exercise - or the lack of it?
Exercisers - how do you prioritise workouts when there are so many other demands on your time?
What other creative ideas can you think of, for integrating exercise into the workplace?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Are You Fit Enough to Sit in Front of a Computer All Day? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The social media phenomenon has lowered the barrier to creating buzz. There are so many tools (most of them are free) out there to today that can help you with that. If you are lucky, you can create a lot of buzz with very little effort.
The real question is - "Are you creating the right kind of buzz?"
First, we will look at what will people NOT want to talk about!
Boring stuff.
People don't want to talk about boring stuff. Boring stuff is simply stuff that will elicit a "So what?" response. When your product or service elicits this response, it is forgotten very easily. People think it's a waste of time talking about it. If they talk about boring stuff, they will come across as boring. So the best best is to avoid talking about it altogether. As you can see, you don't need a lot of creativity to create boring stuff.
You are at the bottom of the value chain when you create boring stuff. You can talk two paths from here. Both of them will provide a lot of opportunity to create buzz - but only one of the approaches will give you a long term payoff - that's the one that requires you to be creative.
Let us look at the path where you don't require a lot of creativity:
You can get some short-term results and probably a "buzz spike" for any and all of the above but if you want the "real buzz" you have to take the path that requires a lot of creativity.
It is a path where you bring out responses from the audiences like:
If you are going to be making investments anyway, you might as well invest in getting the right kind of buzz.
What are your favourite examples of the right and wrong kind of buzz?
What was the best buzz you ever created? How did you do it?
About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.
The post Are You Creating the Right Kind of Buzz? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You love your friend, I know that. But it doesn't disguise the fact he's getting on your nerves.
Once again, you're sat listening to the same old complaints about the same old problems. You've been round and round in circles with this, many times.
Surely the answer is staring him in the face? Isn't it obvious?
You've even told him what he needs to do, several times. But he still doesn't get it. What's going on here?
OK, let's back up a little. I know you're feeling frustrated and you're only trying to help your friend. But it seems like he's not getting the message. Let me tell you about some psychological research that sheds new light on this age-old situation.
In a recent article for Scientific American, Oren Shapira and Nira Liberman summarise research by Lile Jia and colleagues at Indiana University at Bloomington, into the effect of psychological distance on creativity.
When we think about events happening far away, in the past or future, and/or to other people, they are said to be 'psychologically distant' from us. Psychological distance is reduced when you think about something happening right here, right now, to you.
According to the researchers, 'even minimal cues of psychological distance can make us more creative'. They found that research subjects found it easier to solve problems when they were told that the questions had been devised by an institute 2,000 miles away as opposed to 2 miles away. Psychological distance can also be created by describing problems as happening to historical figures or fictional characters, instead of people living in modern society.
Logically, it shouldn't make any difference to a challenge whether it was faced by Napoleon Bonaparte or Joe from next door. But psychological distance unlocks a different kind of thinking:
psychological distance affects the way we mentally represent things, so that distant things are represented in a relatively abstract way while psychologically near things seem more concrete.
(Shapira and Liberman, An Easy Way to Increase Creativity)
So, for example, if you read a novel about Francesca, a lady living in 18th-century Rome, who was stuck in a relationship with Paolo, a partner with a long-term history of alcohol abuse and destructive behaviour, it might seem obvious to you that Francesca couldn't carry on nagging and placating Paolo and hoping things might change.
From this distance, the dynamics of the relationship are pretty clear: unless Francesca does something dramatic to interrupt the vicious cycle, it's going to destroy them both. And although Francesca feels she has no choice, I'm sure you can think of several options for things she could do to help Paolo and save their relationship.
Not easy, but not impossible - right?
Now imagine looking into the eyes of the person you love most in the world, and feeling their pain and helplessness as they plead for "one more chance to put things right". Chances are this situation doesn't seem so clear-cut. And I'm guessing you would find it a lot harder to come up with creative options.
Objectively, the situation is identical. The only difference is in your perception. The further away the problem seems, the easier it is to see the patterns and relationships between the different elements, and to rearrange them in different combinations.
But that's not all ...
The research on psychological distance is fascinating and useful, but to me it only tells half the story. It may be an easy way to increase creativity if your definition of creativity is limited to creative thinking. But as we said right at the beginning of Lateral Action, creative thinking is not enough - you have to follow through on your insights and make things happen. And that's where things can get ugly.
One reason it's so easy for us to offer Francesca good advice is that we are not responsible for the consequences. It won't be us in that room, having the painful heart-to-heart with Paolo. It won't be us having to administer 'tough love' without support or understanding. And it won't be us having to pick up the pieces if things go wrong.
And you know what? I bet that if Francesca could look into the future and see the problems we're faced with right now, she could offer us some really stellar advice. But would we be willing to take it?
If you've ever had your eyes opened by some insightful words from a friend, when the scales fell from your eyes and the solution to your problem became clear - then felt the fear in your stomach when you realised what you'd have to do - then you'll know what I'm talking about.
Knowledge brings responsibility to act. And when it's us in the hotseat, the fear of consequences can be a pretty big creativity killer.
Shapira and Liberman offer some excellent suggestions about the practical implications of the research:
there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality.
Other options include:
But none of this addresses the fear of taking action, when difficulties loom large and the benefits seem small by comparison.
Let's read that sentence again:
But none of this addresses the fear of taking action, when difficulties loom large and the benefits seem small by comparison.
Can you see where I'm going with this?
Supposing we make some creative use of psychological distance here, to reverse the balance of difficulties and benefits?
Take a moment to imagine travelling into the future, to a time when the benefits seem real, solid and powerful - and the difficulties you went through to are already fading into history. Sure, making changes was tough at the time, but looking back on it now, you can see it was a price well worth paying.
How do you feel about taking action now? Difficult, but not impossible?
OK, to sum things up. When you're stuck on a seemingly insurmountable problem:
Stage 1 - Generating Options
Use psychological distance (e.g. talking to others, travel, projecting into the past or future) to take yourself out of the here and now, and unlock your abstract creative thinking skills. If necessary, tell yourself you're just 'exploring options' which you aren't necessarily going to act on. ;-)
Stage 2 - Taking Action
Use psychological distance to project yourself into the future, to a time when you are reaping the benefits of taking action and the difficulties seem small by comparison. Keep this future scenario family in mind, particularly when things get tough.
That's how things look to me - but maybe you can point out some creative options I've missed. :-)
Have you ever struggled to persuade someone of the value of an 'obvious' solution to their problem? If you succeeded, how did you do it?
Have you ever used psychological distance to solve one of your own problems? How?
Any other tips for getting over the fear of taking action?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why Solving Other Peopleâs Problems Is Easy appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you have any ambitions to use the web to grow your reputation or business, you need to download and devour Brian Clark's new free report: Authority Rules: The 10 Rock Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing.
Brian is one of the core team members here at Lateral Action, but he's too modest to plug the report here himself ;-) so I'll give you the lowdown.You're probably aware of the huge potential of the internet for creative entrepreneurs to build a thriving business. But online marketing can appear forbiddingly complex to the newcomer, and even those with some knowledge and experience are only too aware of how little they know in comparison to the sheer volume of information out there, on blogs, newsletters, white papers, DVDs and premium-priced seminars and e-learning.
As with all complex subjects, it takes a master to boil things down to essentials without over-simplifying them.
Those of you who have been reading Brian's blog Copyblogger for the last three and half years will testify to Brian's deep knowledge of this subject, and his portfolio of successful online businesses is proof that he knows how to walk the talk.
So his free report on The 10 Rock Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing will be very welcome to anyone seeking to cut through the clutter and understand the essential things you need to be doing to make your business thrive on the web. We're not talking abstract principles here, but clear, actionable rules.
The report is short enough to be a quick read - but it also contains plenty of links to articles from Copyblogger and elsewhere, that explain the topics in more detail.
Did I mention the report is completely free? You don't even have to surrender your e-mail address.
Download it now - and help out your friends and fans by passing on the link to http://authorityrules.com
The post Authority Rules: The 10 Rock Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Let us look at each one of them below.
There are so many good lessons out there in the world. I hope you take your learning seriously and become "inspired actors" to take your game to the next level.
About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.
The post The 6 Degrees of Online Influence appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A Career Renegade is someone who makes a conscious choice to build your career around the activities, settings and people who make you come alive...and figure out how to do all this while earning enough to live very comfortably in the world and giving back to the greater community.
But, let me make this easier. I make my daughter breakfast, braid her hair, drop her at school, workout with my wife and pick up my daughter after school a good chunk of the week. I work where and when I want, take on only the clients whose vision, products, services and culture jazz me, launch the ventures that inspire me and partner with people to change the world. I work hard, damn hard. I make missteps and mistakes and occasionally crash and burn.
But, in the grander scheme, I love what I do, build it around the people who mean most and make sure that, in the end, the payback is worth the investment... because that's what makes me come alive.
First, I'm not about self-help. And I'm not in any way, shape or form a guru, master, wizard or other form of magical obstacle-clearing visionary. I'm about hard work, relentless creativity and nuts and bolts entrepreneurship with a strong bent for marketing.
Now, back to your question. Is it "ambitious" to pursue passion and prosperity together? Hell, yes! But, that's not the right question.
The right question is... is it worth it?
And, to answer that, you need to do a teeny bit of math (yeah, even creatives can add!). Because, we're talking about what you are likely going to do with 50-70% of your waking hours for a solid 50 years of your life. That's 10 hours a day, 5 days a week for 50 years. Translation--112,500 hours of your life. So, seriously, how can you justify NOT striving for both when you now know what's at stake?
Maybe you'll succeed, maybe you'll fail. But, the greatest tragedy lies in the unwillingness to muster the will to try. Helen Keller said it best, "life is a daring adventure, or nothing." Is that ambitious? Yes. But, it's worth it.
Also, I'm not about getting rich. To me, that's a meaningless metric. Money is important, I need to earn 6-figures to live well with my family in NYC. But, in a vacuum, money has no value. It's only what it allows you to do that has meaning. So, you could spend every waking moment frantically engaged in the mad dash for cash without reference to passion, fulfillment or enjoyment, but to what end? Yeah, you'll die with a kick-ass estate, but who cares? Your life just sucked.
So, yes, it's important that you couple the quest to come alive at work with the quest to earn enough. But, the right metric isn't enough to be "rich," it's enough to live well in the world. That number will change radically with each person. And, likely, will change fairly dramatically for each individual over the course of your life.
I'm the Career Renegade, so I'm not supposed to say this, but, sure, there are very likely certain passions that will never earn you enough to live well in the world. The number, though, is way smaller than you think because so many people give up the quest far too easily. They just accept conventional wisdom and shelve their passion or turn it into a hobby when an easy mainstream path to prosperity isn't laid at their feet. Bad move.
Kick the tires. All too often, conventional wisdom is just the collective limitations of those who've tried and failed before or, worse, never bothered trying. When someone says, "you can't do that," what they are really saying is, "I can't figure out how to do that, so who the hell are you to try?" Do NOT accept someone else's limitations as your own without first doing everything possible to succeed on your own terms.
And, that includes looking at the activity that people say "won't earn enough" in unconventional ways. Mine the broader culture that surrounds your passion. Find and exploit gaps in information, education, community, service, products and mode of access. In my book, Career Renegade, I lay out each of these paths in detail.Then, take your list of potential mainstream and renegade paths to prosperity and tap the wealth of free, simple to use online tools to determine if there's a big and hungry enough market of people who want to buy what you want to sell. Use Google's search, trends, insights and external keyword tools.
Check out Clusty.com for better categorized searches. Use Alexa.com, Quantcast.com and Compete.com to research top search engine listings and front-page advertisers. Check Popurls.com, Digg.com, del.icio.us and others to discover the intersection between your passion and what people are talking about. These are just a few methods that help ensure you're going down a path that offers the potential for both passion and prosperity.
It has changed the game in a substantial way... if you know it exists.
You can now research, launch and grow a business in a stunningly short period of time, with very little money and very little risk. And, you can leverage the social web to build a reputation as a thought leader, grow a tightly-woven community, deliver value to that community, ask what need they have that's not being offered, then deliver a solution with precision to people who know, like and trust you and are waiting for you to help.
If you get that, if you tap that, the web becomes your playground and opens up a far lower risk, incrementally faster path to entrepreneurship and success. Does that mean you'll succeed every time? Not a chance. But, the cost to try allows you to try far more often and increase your likelihood of success with each attempt.
Even if you're drawn to brick and mortar entrepreneurship, these same elements can greatly facilitate and reduce the cost of research, marketing and delivery if you're willing to take the time to learn how to use the tools and operate within the "unspoken" rules that guide much conversation across the social web. In fact, I recently posted about a neighborhood pizza place, Naked Pizza, in New Orleans, that now gets anywhere from 20% to 69% of its day-to-day revenue from twitter.
I've yet to meet the person who succeeded on any substantial level that didn't work hard. Can you set up projects that generate "passive" income? Sure. But, truth is, they almost always require huge investments of time and sometimes money to get them going, they eventually burn out and a good percentage of them fail or squeak by. So, it's important to understand the difference between a product or project, which is what most single info-products are, and a business.
To me, the greater challenge is to make what you work at so rewarding that you have to remind yourself to pull back from it to allow time to enjoy the other people and activities that make you come alive. Work, done right, is good.
LOL, typical is not a word that's in my dictionary. I start out very early, usually around 5:30am with personal enrichment time. That usually includes a bit of meditation and then reading or listening to podcasts. I am possessed with the process of creation, persuasion and marketing, so I spend a lot of time studying them.
Then, my daughter usually wakes up next, wanders out to the patio where I often sit to watch the sunrise, snuggles into my lap and we just hang out and watch the morning come in, before getting the day gets started. I spend a while playing with her and my wife, then, from that moment on, every day brings something different.
I often blog in the morning. Or, if I'm working on a book, I write pages. I try to batch my social media time, so I'll jump on for about 20 minutes early, then again early afternoon, then later in the day in bursts.
And, I often schedule time to work on my own entrepreneurial ventures, joint ventures, work with Renegade Catalyst 1-2-1 consulting and mastermind clients or write copy for clients in the afternoons.
Some days, I pick up my daughter from school or camp, I often break to have lunch with my wife or take a walk in the woods later in the afternoon. Those walks are very often when my best ideas come. For anyone creative, I can't imagine being able to function with building enough space into each day for that magical, subconscious process to unfold.
One other thing I've discovered this year, though, is that with the sale of my last business, the launch of a new book, brand and consulting arm and more ventures coming soon, developing more systems is a necessary part of my ability to stay productive. So, I've been focusing a lot on that lately, too.
If you're living hand to mouth or you need to support a family, riding out the storm may be what you need to do. But, often times, as was the case with many of people I interviewed for my last book, you can find the time to begin to explore, research and build your next great adventure, your renegade career on the side.
Swap TV and Facebook time for renegade quest time an hour a day and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. People often tell me they "need" that time to wind down. Not true. If you want to wind down, work out, meditate or play with your family. Passive screen time is useless time. You'll find that the moment you begin to fill that time with the pursuit of something passion-driven, you'll discover wellsprings of energy you never knew existed.
Last thought on this, because so many others are gun shy of entrepreneurship right now, the field of competitors has been vastly narrowed, leaving those who are willing to give it a go with far fewer battles to fight. Warren Buffet recently said in the 2009 Berkshire annual letter (with regard to one of their holdings, GEICO), that he and the CEO feel like "two mosquitoes in a nudist colony" when they look at the opportunities all around them. They're there, your job is to find or create them.
And, one last thing. If you're hanging onto your job because you think it's that "safe" option... read this now.
Jonathan Fields is... a giddy dad, husband, New Yorker, multi-time health & fitness industry entrepreneur, recovering S.E.C./mega-firm hedge-fund lawyer, slightly-warped, unusually-stretchy, spiritually-inclined, obsessed with creation, direct-response copywriter, small-biz and online marketing-maven, speaker, entrepreneur-coach, yoga-teacher, columnist, author, once-a-decade hook-rug savant, pro-blogger and career renegade... gone wild. Read more about his book Career Renegade, work with Jonathan, or follow Jonathan on Twitter
The post An Interview with Jonathan Fields, Career Renegade appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Self-employed since 2005, David has amassed an impressive global client-list, including the likes of Yellow Pages (Canada), Giacom (England), and Berthier Associates (Japan).
He authors two of the most popular graphic design blogs on the internet, Logo Design Love and David Airey, attracting approximately one million monthly page views from around 250,000 monthly visitors.
When you consider that every company needs to be identified, and that a logo is an ideal solution, then there are millions of different opportunities in the brand identity niche. One day I'll be learning about French wine production, the next I'll be researching orthopaedics, the day after, interior design. The variety is limited only by the scope of my client base, and given that most of my clients are overseas, that's quite a scope.
In the design world I look up to the work of respected agencies like Pentagram, Moonbrand, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. I could spend too long reading through Tony Spaeth's "Identity Works" archives, and I enjoy watching interviews with designers like Stefan Sagmeister and David Carson.
Away from the design world I have a huge respect for my parents. As if I wasn't fortunate enough being born into a "Western" economy, I was then blessed with a mum and dad who never left me wanting.
You shouldn't take up design as a profession unless you're passionate, and when you have a desire to create, you'll always find the time. Lately, I've stopped taking on new clients so I can focus on writing my first book. There are a couple of ongoing design projects to finalise, but they're almost done, and then I can devote all my time to the book and keeping my blogs updated.
I don't, which I would've thought impossible three years ago. Clients find me either through word-of-mouth, or through one of my blogs, which just goes to highlight the shift in working practices over the past decade. Working from the comfort of my home without a daily commute and battling the traffic is superb. It'd take a very good offer to have me do otherwise.
I don't know about the "biggest" surprise, but it was unexpected to have a few friends tell me I needed more experience before moving into self-employment. I'm the first to admit I don't have any long-term agency experience, and I was in a full-time design position for just two years before starting my own business. Four years on and I've learned more than I would've imagined about design, about business, about online marketing and SEO, and, importantly, about myself.
Another surprise is how many people subscribe to my blogs. It's humbling, really. So a heart-felt thanks to those folk.
Building a blog is definitely a commitment, but it's more of a long-term thing than an intense daily project. You don't have you publish an article every day. You don't even have to publish one every week. But you do need to make your content unique, and not simply copy what you see elsewhere.
Think of it as your marketing spend, only you're not actually spending money, but simply taking time to discuss what you love.
David Airey is a graphic designer and founder of the logo design sites Logo Design Love and Iconic Logo Designers. Follow David on Twitter @davidairey.
The post An Interview with David Airey, Graphic Designer appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Maybe a glass of wine could be just the thing to get you started on that poem to your sweetheart.
But how about a few beers before writing an important e-mail? Or a business proposal?
Could you do with a shot of whisky before taking a phone call from a client? How about some Dutch courage before a big presentation?
It sounds absurd when I put it like that. But did you know that there is strong research evidence that the popular working practice of multitasking can reduce your performance level to that of a drunk?
Here's molecular biologist John Medina on the subject of multitasking while driving:
Until researchers started measuring the effects of cell phone distractions under controlled conditions, nobody had any idea how profoundly they can impair a driver. It's like driving drunk ... Cell-phone talkers are a half-second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies, slower to return to normal speed after an emergency, and more wild in their "following distance" behind the vehicle in front of them... More than 50% of the visual cues spotted by attentive drivers are missed by cell-phone talkers. Not surprisingly, they get in more wrecks than anyone except very drunk drivers.
(John Medina, Brain Rules)
That may sound like an extreme example, but by attempting two tasks simultaneously (driving and talking on the phone) these drivers were essentially doing the same thing as an office worker who is simultaneously writing a document, checking and responding to e-mail, fielding phone calls, surfing the web and/or engaging in conversations via social networking sites.
Yet multitasking is often spoken of with approval, a skill to be cultivated. Multitaskers are admired for their efficiency and seen as people who get things done.
Don't get me wrong - multitasking would be great, if it existed. But it doesn't.
In Brain Rules, Medina points out that the brain cannot multitask:
Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time. At first that might sound confusing; at one level the brain does multitask. You can walk and talk at the same time. Your brain controls your heartbeat while you read a book. A pianist can play a piece with left hand and right hand simultaneously. Surely this is multitasking. But I am talking about the brain's ability to pay attention... To put it bluntly, research shows that we can't multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.
If you've ever put on a CD to listen to while working, and then noticed with surprise that the music has finished and you can't remember hearing any of it, you'll know what Medina is talking about. Because we can only concentrate on one thing at a time, when we try to do multiple tasks that require attention, we end up switching between tasks, not doing them simultaneously.
Business coach Dave Crenshaw, author of the book The Myth of Multitasking, makes the same point:
When I speak of multitasking as most people understand it, I am not referring to doing something completely mindless and mundane in the background such as exercising while listening to this CD, eating dinner and watching a show, or having the copy machine operate in the background while you answer emails. For clarityas sake, I call this abackground taskinga.
When most people refer to multitasking they mean simultaneously performing two or more things that require mental effort and attention. Examples would include saying weare spending time with family while were researching stocks online, attempting to listen to a CD and answering email at the same time, or pretending to listen to an employee while we are crunching the numbers.
(Dave Crenshaw, Switchtasking)
So there's no such thing as multitasking. Just task switching - or at best, background tasking, in which one activity consumes our attention while we're mindlessly performing another.
We've already seen that multitasking on the road is the equivalent of drinking and driving. Other research cited by Medina shows that people who are interrupted - and therefore have to switch their attention back and forth - take 50% longer to accomplish a task, and make up to 50% more errors.
When I trained in hypnosis, we were taught that one of the easiest ways to create amnesia is to interrupt someone. Have you ever had the experience of chatting to a friend in a cafe or restaurant, when the waiter interrupts to take your order - and when he's gone, neither of you can remember what you were talking about?
This effect is so powerful that it even happens when you're fully aware of what's going on. I remember it happening when I had coffee with Johnnie Moore a few months ago - we were amused to discover that even though both knew what had happened, it took us 20 minutes to remember what we had been discussing when the waiter arrived.
As well as amnesia, task switching creates delays. According to Medina, each time you switch tasks, your brain has to run through a four-step process to disengage the neurons involved in one task and activate the neurons needed for the other. The more you switch, the more time you lose.
More research, reported by the New York Times, has attempted to quantify the effect of interruptions and multitasking on office productivity:
In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites.
...The productivity lost by overtaxed multitaskers cannot be measured precisely, but it is probably a lot. Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business-research firm, estimates the cost of interruptions to the American economy at nearly $650 billion a year.
So next time you're tempted to 'multitask' and 'switch effortlessly' between phone, e-mail, word processor and web browser, you might like to stop and think about the likely effect on your productivity - and ultimately, your profitability.
If overtaxed multitasking is so unproductive, what does a high-performance state look like? We've already caught a glimpse of it on Lateral Action, in psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of creative flow.
Flow is a state of consciousness experienced during periods of peak performance. It's characteristics include pleasure, clarity, serenity and timelessness - and focus. In Dr. Csikszentmihalyi's words, during flow we are "completely involved in what we are doing - focused, concentrated".
Whereas our limited attention bandwidth is a hindrance when it comes to multitasking, it is a positive advantage when it comes to flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi, when we devote all our attention to the task in hand, we tune out distractions from our environment, and can even lose our sense of self. Here's Csikszentmihalyi's description of a composer in the act of writing music:
When you are really involved in this completely engaging process of creating something new - as this man does - he doesnat have enough attention left over to monitor how his body feels or his problems at home. He canat feel even that heas hungry or tired, his body disappears, his identity disappears from his consciousness because he doesnat have enough attention, like none of us do, to really do well something that requires a lot of concentration and at the same time to feel that he exists.
(From Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's TED talk about creative flow)
It's not rocket science. It's not even news. Medina, Crenshaw and Csikszentmihalyi are hardly the first to tell us to do one thing at a time:
"When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit." ~ The Buddha
"Always do one thing at a time, that of the present moment." ~ George Gurdjieff
You may not be as hard-core as the Buddha or Gurdjieff. Russell Davies points out that there's a lot to be said for distractions and interruptions - they stimulate our creativity and are part of what makes us human.
First thing in the morning and towards the end of the afternoon, I like nothing better than to idly flick through my blog feeds while chatting and following links on Twitter. But when it's time to get down to work, it's time to switch all that stuff off.
So feel free to let your attention wander across multiple software applications, browser tabs, e-mail, Twitter, instant messaging, phone calls, and the music playing in the background.
Just don't confuse it with being productive.
Do you believe in multitasking?
What effect do you notice when you try to do several tasks simultaneously, vs doing one thing at a time?
What were we talking about just now? :-)
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why Multitasking Doesnât Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The charming aHeart and Soula melody plays a starring role in this delightful clip from the 1988 Tom Hanks movie, Big.
But thereas more going on in this magical scene than meets the eye.
The kind of magic that can lead to big success for creatives and entrepreneurs, without having to sell your soul or count on wishes to get what you want.
Big is the story of 12-year old Josh Baskin who makes a wish "to be big" to a magic fortune-telling machine at a local carnival. His wish to become something he isnat comes on the heels of being humiliated by an older girl heas trying to impress.
The next morning he wakes up in the body of a 36-year old man.
Josh quickly realizes he canat let his mother see him like this. So with the help of his best friend, Billy, Josh rents a cheap room in New York and gets a low level data-entry job at a toy company to support himself.
While cruising the FAO Schwarz toy store one day, Josh has a chance encounter with the toy company's owner, MacMillan, whoas checking out the products.
They end up playing aHeart and Soula together on a giant electronic keyboard. Afterwards, MacMillan quickly promotes Josh to a kidas dream jobatesting toys and getting paid for it.
Josh is thrilled with his abiga promotion and throws himself into his work. Thanks to a substantial pay raise, heas soon able to leave the seedy hotel room and move into a huge loft he equips with the latest, coolest toys and gadgets.
But deadlines, a conniving coworker and a budding romance are bearing down on Josh.
His dream job quickly deteriorates into a disheartening, soul-stealing exercise in trying to change himself to live up to othersa expectations of who, what and how they think he should be.
Joshas joy for his work all but disappears.
Before long, heas consumed by his desire to return to the carefree life of a child. Each time they meet, he presses Billy to ramp up the search for the magic fortune-telling machine hoping they can undo Joshas wish ato be big.a
The perks of his position are no match for Joshas desire to be himself. Being big doesnat suit him and heas desperate to be a kid again.
Although Josh ended up being miserable in his new position, the way he landed it was magical.
In the FAO Schwarz scene, two key factors led to MacMillanas enchantment with (read: abuying intoa) Josh and offering him the promotion:
The child in Josh - his asoula - has a passion for toys. Going to a toy store and enjoying himself was in perfect alignment with who he really is.
He was around others who share his passion and found it easy to express his thoughts and opinions to MacMillan in an open and natural way.
Josh effortlessly closes the asalea just by being himself.
Even better, heas completely oblivious to the fact that a sale is even underway. No pre-determined strategies or tactics. No hidden agenda.
Pure magic.
Business experts agree that asking prospects what they want (or performing other types of research to determine that) then selling it to them is at the ahearta of business success.
In other words, if youare not tuned into your prospectsa unique desires and needs, your promotional and other marketing content - as well as your products and services - could be missing the mark.
Yet now more than ever, creative and entrepreneurial types are tuning into the asoula of their businesses - their unique desires and needs. Theyare focused on being in perfect harmony with their values, unique talents, passions and a meaningful context for their work.
Most see the value of the ahearta perspective, but some struggle with it, or reject it fearing theyall become a creative sellout.
How do you determine which perspective best fits you and your business?
If integrating passions or purpose in your work isnat a priority, then the aask them what they want / sell it to thema approach (the ahearta perspective), is absolutely vital to the success of your business.
But if the asoula of your business is your top priority, trying to succeed purely from the ahearta perspective could be detrimental to not only your wealth, but your health and happiness as well.
Unless you make a point to create, market and sell products in ways that are in line with your values, desires, talents, passions, purpose and natural personality, youare going to hit some painful brick walls along the way.
Those brick walls come in many shapes and sizes, including poor sales; loss of passion for your work; feelings of emptiness; products and services that miss the mark with your prospects; and professional burnout, to name a few.
Many creative types want, but arenat quite ready for a singular asoula perspective when it comes to doing business.
You resonate with Joshas ability to effortlessly make the asalea simply by being himself. But youare bogged down by years of programming thatas instilled a deep fear of being and trusting your natural self, or caused you to lose touch with your natural self.
If you have a deep desire to succeed from the asoula perspective, but arenat quite ready, playing a ahearta and asoula duet is your best bet.
Answering these questions will help you get started:
So what happens to Josh?
aBiga Joshas misery causes him to fully appreciate the joy and freedom of just being himself. Ironically, appreciating and valuing the gift of being himself expands Joshas capacity to feel more empathy for others.
If youave never seen Big, take time to watch it. Itall brighten your day and help you (re)discover the wisdom of being true to yourself.
If you have seen it, watch it again if youare not as successful as youad like to bea| and for the pure fun of it.
Unlike this inspiring movie-related post, I wonat spoil the ending for those who havenat seen it. ;-)
Do you feel like a fish out of water when it comes to marketing and selling your products or services?
Do you sometimes struggle with expressing yourself authentically, or have concerns about doing it?
If you could only pick one, do you think focusing on the ahearta or on the asoula of your business will lead to greater overall success? Why?
About the Author: Mary Anne Fisher helps entrepreneurs achieve wealth, health and happiness from a asoula perspective. Get more from Mary Anne by following her on Twitter.
The post The Heart and Soul of âBigâ Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Once upon a time, a creativity researcher asked a group of schoolchildren to write her some stories. She encouraged them to write about whatever they liked and let their imaginations run free.
Reading through the stories, she was disappointed. Instead of wild imaginations she found tame thoughts and lame tales.
The tales tended to be very tedious and unimaginative, as if the children were stuck with this very restricted way of thinking. Even when they were encouraged to think creatively, they didn't really know how.
The researcher was Teresa Belton of East Anglia University in the UK. Determined to find the root of the problem, she monitored the children's daily activities for several months. Jonah Lehrer summarises her findings in an article for Boston.com called Daydream Achiever:
Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of "empty time," or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. "It was a very automatic reaction," she says. "Television was what they did when they didn't know what else to do."
The problem with this habit, Belton says, is that it kept the kids from daydreaming. Because the children were rarely bored - at least, when a television was nearby - they never learned how to use their own imagination as a form of entertainment. "The capacity to daydream enables a person to fill empty time with an enjoyable activity that can be carried on anywhere," Belton says. "But that's a skill that requires real practice. Too many kids never get the practice."
Lehrer also cites research by Jonathan Schooler, showing that those who spend more time daydreaming score higher on experimental measures of creativity.
Other researchers have used brain scanners and EEG sensors to monitor neural activity in people engaged in solving problems. They found that the brain was working much harder in those subjects who solved the problems by daydreaming resulting in a flash of insight, than in those who used logical reasoning:
These sudden insights, they found, are the culmination of an intense and complex series of brain states that require more neural resources than methodical reasoning. People who solve problems through insight generate different patterns of brain waves than those who solve problems analytically. "Your brain is really working quite hard before this moment of insight," says psychologist Mark Wheeler at the University of Pittsburgh. "There is a lot going on behind the scenes.
In fact, our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering and we've actually lost track of our thoughts, a new brain-scanning study suggests. "Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically," Dr. Kounios says. "There really are different brain mechanisms involved."
By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.
Robert Lee Hotz, 'A Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight'
Some of you might be feeling a little smug at this point. If you're anything like me - a new media enthusiast who spends more time in front of a computer screen than a television - the research seems to confirm all our prejudices against the 'couch potato' behaviour fostered by TV.
After all, we're the creative ones engaged in 'lean forward' not 'lean back' media. We like our culture read/write, not read-only - right?
Well stop and think for a moment about the iPhone. Whether or not you've actually given in and bought an iPhone yet, don't tell me you haven't considered it. Or daydreamed about the wonderful creative possibilities of carrying this digital box of tricks with you wherever you go.
In a sense, it doesn't really matter whether you buy an iPhone or not. What the iPhone represents is the arrival of portable cloud computing, a world where everyone is 'always on', always connected, wherever they go.
A world with no downtime.
Think about the last time you found yourself 'killing time' - at an airport, between meetings or on a solitary train journey.
With an iPhone, you're never bored - just whip it out and you're instantly entertained. In fact, you're spoiled for choice: Browse the web? Play with an app? Start Tweeting? Check your e-mail (again)?
Next time you find yourself automatically reaching for your phone to banish boredom, stop and ask yourself: Is this really so different from those schoolkids who can't do nothing for a moment without switching on the TV?
Without an iPhone, you're in serious danger of being bored. What can you do? Examine your surroundings? Stare into space? Let your mind wander...?
Do you see what I'm getting at? How many creative discoveries have you made while daydreaming in odd moments? How often has boredom been the mother of your invention?
Could the death of boredom mean the death of your creativity?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Is Your Phone Killing Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
After achieving fame, his advice to other writers seeking literary success was so simple and pithy that it rattles in the space on his headstone where it is engraved:
Donat Try
Bukowski was adamant that the writing should burst out without coercion or commercial ambition.
You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more.
In a world of 101 things to do the idea of waiting for your creativity to come and lend a hand might seem absurd or luxurious at best, but as creative people can we learn from the journey he travelled following his philosophy of aDonat Try"?
Photo by Hryck
Despite being published in Story magazine at just 24, Bukowski turned down an agent, believing he wasnat ready to be a writer and hadnat alived enougha. This lack of life experience and self doubt in promoting himself meant he made a conscious decision to stop trying.
I simply gave up. It wasnat because I thought I was a bad writer. I just thought there was no way of crashing through. I put writing down with a sense of disgust. Drinking and shacking with women became my art forma|
It was then that he began amassing a wealth of encounters and episodes that would be featured repeatedly in various forms throughout his vast body of work; he began his ten years of drunkenness.
The decade from 1945 was a collage of dead end jobs, bars and rooming houses; his existence one of drunkenness, poverty and trouble. He spent his time drinking-in experiences, figuratively and literally, in bars where fights broke out in front of unflinching, still-pouring bartenders. Whilst working only to make enough money for booze and rent, he enforced no creative schedule and no set number of words to be written each day. Instead he ploughed himself into drinking and women and was often on the brink of starvation; his diet at times just a slice of bread a day.
Despite casting aside his intentions to atrya, there were moments when the writing would seek him out. With his typewriter often pawned and without electricity in his room, he would sometimes write by moonlight, shivering from the cold and using pencil stubs to fill newspaper margins with his words. Even at his lowest ebb, torn between suicide and his grim existence, he claimed that the desire to write about his pain rather than escape it kept him alive:
Itas no good quitting, there is always the smallest bit of light in the darkest of hells.
His lifestyle eventually caught up with him: after 10 years of personal destruction, a near-fatal bleeding ulcer gave him an intense desire to write once more. The drinking didnat stop, but his years of not trying had stored a vast amount of inspiration and he had reached bursting point. On leaving the hospital he began producing work prolifically in a literary outpouring that would bring with it the by-product of worldwide fame and success.
Such an intense experience obviously isnat a blueprint for everyoneas creative success but I believe there is something to be gained creatively in having periods of not atryinga. I began reading Bukowski shortly before taking my own break.
After studying scriptwriting for three years I knew my creativity was dying on me, and it was my own fault. I was trying too hard to impress and my work reflected this in stilted and contrived pieces that currently gather dust in a drawer. At the end of the course I wasnat happy with anything Iad written and I decided I was done. Writing wasnat for me, it made me miserable and so on a whim I decided to seek my fortune working in Toronto, Canada.
It was a year of indulgence and excitement, and of relationships that would bring me laughter and heartbreak. It certainly wasnat on Bukowski's scale, but it managed to rejuvenate a spark and by the time I came home I was welcomed by a bashful muse who almost looked pleased to see me. The year gave me new resources to draw upon and as I discovered more about my own personality I found myself impassioned to write about subjects Iad never previously considered. There was water in the creative well once more.
It would be a bit extreme to dart off for a year every time I felt frustrated with writing but I have found that the occasional short sharp reminders of the world outside versus a blank page can do wonders for my productivity. Of course, every time I decide to hit the town and aDonat Trya there is the nagging feeling that I should be doing asomethinga. Then again, when I find myself in a pub, drinking whiskey and singing Janis Joplin with girls visiting from Texas and a former WW2 Spitfire fighter pilot I canat help but feel that might just be the asomethinga that kick starts my creativity.
The ethos behind Lateral Action is creativity coupled with productivity as the route for success, which also means creatively looking at our productivity. Perhaps sitting and squeezing out every drop of inspiration by sheer force isnat the best way to get results and we can improve our work and well-being with a little aDonat Trya.
"Donat Try" is not about embarking on a hedonistic lifestyle like Bukowskias for the sake of it. Itas about taking time to let your creativity speak to you. It may arrive through activities and environments that make you elated, or angry, or through putting yourself in situations that are new, perhaps even uncomfortable. Or it may arrive from just sitting still and taking a break.
Not forever, but when it feels like youare whipping that donkey of a muse and it still refuses to budge no matter how many carrots you dangle, try just walking away. Try it for 10 minutes, half an hour or half a day and do something else. Shelve your ideas, hide your work in a drawer, file or under the sofa and set a reminder in your calendar for a set time to come back and revisit it after a break. When you return to your work how do you feel? Are you itching to get back to it? Do you have new ideas? If you still feel youare forcing your creative spirit you might want to take a break for even longer or work on something else altogether.
Swap working on your art for actively seeking the activities that get you fired up. Meet a friend whose company inspires you, spend the day napping in the park, party till the early hours or try something completely new. Look for things that incite a reaction and remind you youare alive. Let yourself be a vessel to fill with new encounters and see if you can use these experiences in your creative process.
Not trying might not be walking away from your work, but creating without a specific purpose. What happens if you sit and write or design or make the first thing that comes into your head regardless of what it is? Do you surprise yourself with what you come up with? Is there a winning idea inside you that has been missed?
Like any productive process itas all about balance and finding a way to suit the way that you work. Compare days when you havenat tried with your work and days where youave forced yourself. Is there a difference in quality? Is there a difference in how you feel towards your work? Are you more refreshed with regular little breaks or do you feel better slaving away at the end goal before letting off steam?
Try something new.
aDonat Trya.
Have you ever stopped trying - with unexpected positive results?
What did you do? What did you learn from the experience?
About the Author: Amy Harrison is a freelance copywriter based in Brighton. You can find further creative contemplation with a dash of country-music philosophy at HarrisonAmy.com or find her on Twitter at @littleunred.
The post aDonat Trya â Charles Bukowskias Advice to Creators appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
You know that dream you've had, at the back of your mind, forever?
The one you've been promising yourself you'll get round to - one-day.
It's not going to happen.
Why not? Because dreams don't happen. Accidents happen. World events happen. Things just happen to happen to you. But not dreams. Dreams need someone to make them happen.
And nobody cares about your dream. Nobody needs it. No-one will lose any sleep if it never comes to pass.
Except you.
So unless you are doing something - today - to make it happen, it's not coming true.
Now for the good news. Precisely because no-one needs it or expects it, it's the last thing on their mind. So if you do it, it will come as a big surprise. You'll take them unawares. Astonish them.
Just like Mervyn Peake.
For many of you, the author of the Gormenghast novels will need no introduction. But a surprising number of literature lovers have never heard of him. And even some fans of Titus Groan and Gormenghast are unaware of the breathtaking range of his talents - novelist, poet, playwright, painter, sculptor and illustrator. He once even wrestled an octopus.
To give you a flavour of his work, here are the opening words of his novel Titus Groan, describing the monumental castle of Gormenghast, where the story is set:
Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls. They sprawled over the sloping earth, each one half way over its neighbour until, held back by the castle ramparts, the innermost of these hovels laid hold on the great walls, clamping themselves there like limpets to a rock.
(Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan)
If you haven't read it, you should give it a go. Some of you will hate it. The rest of you will thank me for the rest of your lives - no half measures with Peake. Either way, I guarantee you will never have read anything quite like it.
You've probably guessed by now that Peake is one of my heroes. His example has a lot to teach anyone trying to create something original and unexpected - often in spite of the fact that people around them 'don't get it', and dismiss their dreams as wishful thinking or castles in the air.
Peake took pen and paper and built the massive castle of Gormenghast out of thin air. Here's how he did it - and how you can follow in his footsteps.
Mervyn Peake started writing
Even within the context of English literature, Peake is an anomaly. When I wanted to study him for my bachelor's degree, I had to do it all myself - because there were no tutors at the University who specialised in his work.
But because no-one expected anything like it, Titus Groan came as a welcome breath of fresh air, enthusiastically championed by a few reviewers. Of course, some of the critics hated it. But as Brian will tell you, you're doing something wrong if you don't make a few enemies.
By producing something totally original and unnecessary, Peake created a whole category of literature all to himself, in which he has no competitors.
Takeaway: Trust your gut. Ignore Everybody. Do the obvious, even if it's obvious to no-one but you.
Peake didn't set out to be a novelist. He thought of himself primarily as an artist. He said he switched to writing when he realised he couldn't find a canvas big enough to paint the huge castle of Gormenghast.
As he worked, Peake switched back and forth between writing and sketching, so that the manuscripts of his novels are littered with drawings of the characters. He even rewrote Titus Groan as a radio play and opera libretto. He was so fluent in different media that he could switch between them, to express different aspects of his vision.
Takeaway: Beware of getting too locked into your own discipline. If necessary, learn new skills or collaborate with people from different fields. If you're a writer, consider transferring your talents to video; if you're a filmmaker, ask yourself what you can learn from music; if you're a designer, talk to a programmer and see what ideas emerge.
Peake had an unusual solution to writer's block. Whenever he was stuck for a piece of dialogue to move a scene forward, he would draw a little sketch of a character's head and ask himself "What kind of thing would that head say?".
By 'listening' to his characters in this way he allowed them to come to life and take the lead in shaping their own destiny. This probably accounts for the sense of surprise and wonder we experience when we read his writing - the writing was a journey of discovery for the author as much as for his readers.
Takeaway: It's great to start with a plan, but don't get too attached to it. Whether you're creating a work of art, a company or a software application, there comes a point where you may need to let go of your original ideas, and allow it to lead you in a new and unexpected direction.
Like any writer of fantasy, Peake had a lot of work to do to make his imaginary world seem believable. When writing Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien solved this problem by documenting Middle Earth in mind-bogglingly obsessive detail - its history, geography, mythology and even languages. Peake didn't bother with any of that. He had a more audacious solution.
He created a series of visual illusions in his writing, using perspective, contrast and other tricks of the artist's trade. His scenes are so vividly painted for the mind's eye that they are utterly convincing, however logically absurd. For example, here's part of the description of the Ladies Cora and Clarice taking afternoon tea, at a table perched improbably on the trunk of a tree growing out of the castle wall:
Upon the lit wall [the tree's] perfect shadow lay as though engraved with superhuman skill. Brittle and dry, and so old that its first tendril might surely have begun to thrust itself for before the wall itself had been completed, yet this tree had the grace of a young girl, and it was the intricate lace-like shadow upon the wall that Steerpike had seen first. He had been baffled until all at once the old tree itself, whose brightness melted into the bright wall behind it, materialized.
(Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan)
Takeaway: Establishing credibility is key to success in the arts and in business. Of course, you need to have the goods to back up the image you project. But any marketer knows there are ways of presenting the truth to best advantage. How can you cultivate an image - or create a whole experience - that will entrance your audience?
The Gothic world of Gormenghast is clearly influenced by Peake's English heritage - Arundel Castle in Sussex and Peake's Victorian Gothic family home are two candidates for the original Gormenghast. But Peake spent the first eleven years of his life in pre-revolutionary China, and there's a strong Chinese influence on his writing and artwork.
Takeaway: No-one else has lived your life. What do you know that other people don't? What unusual skills or experiences do you have? What can you make of them?
Peake was halfway through writing Titus Groan when he left the manuscript on a train. Undeterred, he rolled up his sleeves and started all over again from the beginning.
Takeaway: No excuses. If at first you don't succeed ...
One of my tests of a great writer is whether they don't take themselves too seriously. Comedy can be just as profound as tragedy, and is more engaging. Peake's writings and pictures are often dark and forbidding, but he can also be very funny. Like when the gloriously-named nursemaid Nannie Slagg tells the Lady Fuchsia "You will look as pretty as a flowering lamb, my big, untidy thing".
Or when the stick-thin Mr. Flay pursues his arch enemy, the grotesquely fat chef Abiatha Swelter:
If ever man stalked man, Flay stalked Swelter. It is to be doubted whether, when compared with the angular motions of Mr. Flay, any man on earth could claim to stalk at all. He would have to do it with another word.
(Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan)
Takeaway: Don't take yourself too seriously. Allow yourself to be human and share a joke with your audience or customers. You'll all feel better for it, and it will strengthen the bond between you. Not to mention enriching the work itself.
The Machiavellian Steerpike - a kitchen boy whose rise to power is as meteoric as it is unscrupulous - is one of the great villains in literature, up there with Richard the Third or Hannibal Lecter. And some of Peake's illustrations, such as the Nightmare Life-in-Death from Coleridge's
Here's Steerpike, savouring the moment after having insinuated himself into a job that is the first rung on the ladder to power:
Moving quickly to the window he opened it. Across the courtyard the mountainous outline of Gormenghast Castle rose darkly into the night. The cool air fanned his big protruding forehead. His face remained like a mask, but deep down in his stomach he grinned.
(Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan)
Steerpike is a vicious psychopath, but Titus Groan and Gormenghast would be a pale shadow of themselves without the demented energy and ingenuity he brings to the story. Like many actors, Peake evidently took a mischievous glee in playing the villain.
Image copyright The Mervyn Peake Estate. Please do not reproduce without permission.
Takeaway: Everyone has a dark side. Claiming not to be evil will get you into trouble eventually. Much better to embrace your shadow, take it out and dance with it. You never know what it could teach you.
Without giving away too many surprises, one of the messages of the Titus books is that nothing lasts forever, no matter how much time and effort you have invested in building it up. Here are the words of Juno, a middle-aged heroine coming to terms with a lifetime of disappointments:
The past is over. My home is a memory. I will never see it again. For look, I have these sunbeams and these colours. A new life lies ahead.
(Mervyn Peake, Titus Alone)
Takeaway: One day, it will be time for your dream to die. It will have run its course and served its purpose. You may even have to shoot it, to put it out of its misery. This is as it should be. You have to let go of the old dream to make room for a new one ...
Have you ever dreamt up something out of thin air - and made it happen? How?
What do you do when you come up with an idea you love, but people around you don't seem to get it?
If you are new to Mervyn Peake's work, the website www.MervynPeake.org offers an excellent introduction. And Mervyn's son Sebastian Peake writes the Mervyn Peake Blog, which will keep you updated with Peake news and publications.
PLEASE NOTE: All images in this article are copyright the Mervyn Peake Estate and reproduced by kind permission of Sebastian Peake. Please do not reproduce them without permission.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Mervyn Peake: How to Build a Castle in the Air appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Creativity guru Roger von Oech recently listed his choice of 10 Blogs to Stimulate Your Creativity at Blogs.com. Itâs a great list, featuring several of my favourites plus some new discoveries: Althouse Bad Banana Belmont Club Idea Sandbox Innovation Tools Lateral Action Logic + Emotion Philosophistry Wishful Thinking Visit the original post to read Rogerâs [â¦]
The post Roger von Oechâs Top 10 Creativity Blogs appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
It doesn't matter how good you are.
If your face is unknown and your name doesn't ring a bell, success will be a struggle for you.
Your work will be rejected by editors and gallery owners. Your best blog posts will go unread. You'll have to work hard to generate leads for your business - and even harder to close the sale.
But if you're a big name, everything is easier.
Instead of tossing your manuscript into the slush pile, editors vie for your signature. You're invited to all the trendy gallery openings and schmoozed by the top people.
You've hardly hit 'publish' on your latest blog post before the comments and Tweets alight on it and the StumbleUpon traffic starts to pour in.
There are advance orders and waiting lists for every product you release. You can name your fee for consulting and cherry-pick the best jobs.
Is it fair? Maybe not. But it's true - and here's the proof.
At the height of his fame, the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope became so intrigued by what he felt to be 'an injustice in literary affairs' that he decided to perform an unusual experiment:
It seemed to me that a name once earned carried with it too much favour ... I felt that aspirants coming up below me might do work as good as mine, and probably much better work, and yet fail to have it appreciated. In order to test this, I determined to be such an aspirant myself, and to begin a course of novels anonymously, in order that I might see whether I could obtain a second identity.
(Anthony Trollope, An Autobiography, 1883)
In his book Art Worlds, Howard Becker describes how Trollope published two stories anonymously, to see how they were received compared to stories published under his name. As he expected, the stories received praise from the few people who read them, but they achieved 'no real success'.
When Trollope wanted to publish a third story, his publisher lost patience and refused - it simply wasn't worth the effort to publish and promote an unknown, compared to the rewards of publishing 'a new Trollope'.
Trollope reflected that it would be possible to succeed under another name, but it would take an enormous amount of work:
Another 10 years of unpaid unflagging labour might have built up a second reputation. But this at any rate did seem clear to me, that with all the increased advantages which practice in any art must have given me, I could not at once induce English readers to read what I gave them, unless I gave it with my name.
Educated readers might pride themselves on their literary judgement, but their tastes were just as heavily influenced by brand names as shoppers buying pies:
It is a matter of course that in all things the public should trust to established reputation. It is natural that a novel reader wanting novels should send to a library for those by George Eliot or Wilkie Collins, as that a lady when she wants a pie should go to Fortnum and Mason.
Trollope concluded that 'very much consideration is due to the bitter feelings of disappointed authors' - since their lack of reputation meant that their work was unfairly overlooked.
But was it really so unfair?
For a famous author, Trollope showed an admirable sympathy for less well-known writers, but he also modestly overlooked the years of 'unpaid unflagging labour' that it took him to build his own reputation. We know from his autobiography that for most of his career he got up at 5:30 am to write his novels before starting his day job.
Trollope wasn't given his reputation - he earned it. Just like Fortnum and Mason:
Fortnam and Mason can only make themselves Fortnum and Mason by dint of time and good pies combined.
In other words, there are no shortcuts to success. One pie doesn't build a great brand, just as one good post doesn't build a killer blog. And two excellent stories don't make a great author. It takes time, effort and perseverance.
It also takes something else. Something many people are reluctant to do.
It takes changing your mindset, letting go of the idea that doing good (or even amazing) work is enough. 'Build it and they will come' may work in the movies, but in real life you can end up doing a lot of lonely building.
If you really want your work to be seen, heard and loved - and to bring you recognition and rewards - then you need to see 'getting it out there' as part of the job. It's pretty simple when it comes down to it:
Making + Marketing = Success
Success doesn't have to be all about money. If you're doing something worthwhile, it will also involve the satisfaction of making a contribution to the wider world, being recognised for your achievements and creating new opportunities for yourself and others.
And marketing isn't just about selling. It's about building your reputation or personal brand, and expanding your sphere of influence.
The good news is that these days there are plenty of tools and opportunities for you to build a stellar reputation from scratch, without having to go cap-in-hand to an agent or spend a fortune on advertising. Things like blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Behance, DeviantArt and other networks.
But none of that stuff means doodly squat until you answer yes to this question:
Am I prepared to my creative energy into promoting my work as well as making it?
How do you feel about devoting time and energy to promoting your work?
Have you ever made a conscious decision to work harder at marketing yourself or your business? What did you do? What happened as a result?
What kind of reputation would you like to earn?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why It Matters Who You Are appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But why do we keep engaging in activities that are not productive?
One answer: Simply because it is easy to engage in activities that are not productive.
This is true especially when it comes to activities that are geared towards building engagement with the other person.
Sometimes, it is easy to think you are engaged when you are not even on the other person's radar.
Here is the basic rule:
When you are engaging with your network (online or offline) who you are AND the nature and level of conversations you have will influence your level of your engagement with the other person.
The diagram above shows ONE framework that explains this relationship.
As you can see, the need for creativity goes up significantly when you need higher levels of engagement
Here are the levels:
Think about all your conversations in the last thirty days. Where do you slot them? Are they in the right slot to elicit the right level of engagement?
If not, start unlocking your creativity to engage in higher-level conversations that will automatically lead to higher levels of engagement.
A quick note on Twitter: I included a reference to Twitter because you have an opportunity to initiate conversations with people that are loosely connected to you (meaning you are following them and they are not following you). It is easy to have a LOT of conversations on Twitter that are at best leading to moderate levels of engagement. You could, if you wish THINK and take these conversations to the next level by being thoughtful and creative. It's your choice.
About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.
The post The 6 Levels of Engagement in Online Conversations appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A few months ago a psychologist and conductor collaborated on an unusual psychological experiment - using a full symphony orchestra.
In an article for Miller McCune Online Magazine, Tom Jacobs reports how members of the Arizona State University Orchestra were asked to play the Brahms' First Symphony twice. The first time, they were given the following instructions:
Think about the finest performance of this piece that you can remember. Play it that way.
The second time, these were the instructions given to the orchestra:
Play this piece in the finest manner you can, offering subtle new nuances to your performance.
Before reading on, stop and think about the likely effect on performance of the two sets of instructions. Do you think there would be any significant difference between the two performances? Would you expect either performance to be better or worse than the other?
In the event, the performances were judged by an audience with considerable knowledge of classical music. When asked by the experimenters, the audience consistently rated the second performance as better than the first.
Why?
According to Dr. Ellen Langer, the psychologist in charge of the experiment, the critical difference was mindfulness:
Mindfulness is an effortless, simple process that consists of drawing novel distinctions, that is, noticing new things. The more we notice, the more we become aware of how things change depending on the context and perspective from which they are viewed. Mindfulness requires, however, that we give up the fixed ways in which we've learned to look at the world.
(Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist : Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity)
Langer has performed extensive research on the effects of mindfulness, including its impact on creativity and live performance. In the case of the orchestra, she argues that the first set of instructions led the orchestra to reproduce a 'fixed' past performance from memory, taking their attention away from the present moment.
The second performance however, the orchestra was invited to express 'new nuances' in their playing - which, according to Langer, meant they were mindfully aware in the present. This awareness and presence was what made the difference, eliciting the following comments from the audience:
"There was more energy." "The dynamic range was wider." "The louds and softs were more pronounced."
(Reported in 'The Marriage of Mozart and Mindfulness' by Tom Jacobs)
These findings will be no surprise to those of us who habitually perform in front of an audience - whether in a theatre, concert hall or conference room. Our best performances are invariably the ones where we feel most 'awake' and focused on the task in hand and the other people in the room.
As performers, we face a delicate balancing act. On the one hand we need to be properly prepared and rehearsed, but if we just stand up and regurgitate the material by rote then it becomes boring, for us as well as the audience. This can be particularly difficult when we are repeating the same performance over and over again, like the orchestra in Langer's experiment.
I once read an interview with the American poet Billy Collins, talking about a long tour where he was reading many of the same poems night after night. Occasionally he would catch himself 'drifting off' in the middle of reading - his remedy for this was to open the book at random and read a poem he hadn't rehearsed. This kept him on his toes and brought the reading to life again, as he was essentially rediscovering the poem alongside his audience.
On the other hand, if we are under-prepared or new to performing, our nerves can get the better of us, and we can get too caught up in trying to get it 'right' that we are not truly present. Which is why presentation guru Garr Reynolds highlights mindfulness as one of the keys to successful presenting:
Worries are the worst things of all because they are always about the past or about the future, two things that do not even exist in the present. In our daily lives and in our work lives, including presenting, we've got to clear our minds and be only one place: right here.
(Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen)
Mindfulness in performance represents the 'sweet spot' between too much novelty and arousal (anxiety) and too much familiarity and relaxation (boredom).
Mindfulness is a wonderful thing, but it's not easy to cultivate - especially for those of us who habitually immerse ourselves in the digital distractions of the internet. Even secluded in a monastery, it can be extremely difficult to maintain mindfulness for any length of time.
The conductor's instructions in the experiment illustrate one gateway to mindfulness - noticing novelty. Here's another.
I invite you to follow the steps below in order to become more fully present right now.
How do you feel?
Most people report that following these steps has the effect of calming and centring them, so that it's easier to pay attention to the present moment. (Sometimes it can take a bit of practice, so hang in there if you found it difficult.)
The nice thing about this technique is that you can use it just about anywhere - during a meeting, driving on the highway, chatting to friends, walking along the street. The more you practice it, the easier it will get. Which means you'll find it much easier to be mindful when it really matters - e.g. when you have a big presentation to give or a big performance to deliver.
(For the 'Where are my feet?' question, I have to thank my friend and colleague Kathleen Haden, a wonderful therapist who keeps everyone around her on their toes.)
Do you ever struggle to be mindful and present when giving a public performance?
Any tips for cultivating mindfulness?
What difference does it make when you make a conscious effort to be more mindful?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Pay Attention appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When I was young, I wanted to be a rock star.
Not a pseudo-celebrity social media rock star...
A real rock star.
I didnat become a rock star because I didnat try.
I told myself I couldnat do it, or maybe I was simply afraid to fail.
Knowing what I know now, I know I could have done it.
Knowing what I know now, I know I can do anything I truly want to do.
Not that itall be easya| just that itas doable.
Listen.
Skip directly to what you truly want to do.
Donat substitute.
Donat settle.
Do.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Donat Settle appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Imagine I could show you a simple technique that would take just 20 minutes out of your day and was scientifically proven to boost your productivity by 34%. Would you try it?
Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
Now supposing I told you you that this technique involved lying down to take a nap every day after lunch. How does that sound?
A nice idea? Too good to be true? Ready to try it today?
I know what you're thinking. "That's all very well - but what would the boss say?"
Come to think of it, what would your colleagues and clients have to say if they saw you fast asleep at your desk, or reclining in a hammock strung across the cubicle? What would that do for your reputation at work?
If you work from home, then logically none of these objections should stand. After all, who would notice if you lay down on the sofa for 20 minutes after lunch? Maybe the cat - but I don't know many cats who disapprove of naps.
Oh yes. I know who. Your Inner Boss. You know, that little part of your mind that tells you Just because you work from home, it's no excuse for being a slacker. You should be working just as hard as anyone in an office. You want to lie down and rest during working hours? Have you really got enough done to justify that...?
This kind of puritan work ethic seems to be deeply ingrained in our culture - at least in northern Europe, where I live. We associate naps and siestas with hot countries where they take very long lunches and do very little work as a consequence. It feels much more productive to steel ourselves for a long hard day of toil, pushing through the boundaries of sleepiness and laziness.
It may feel that way, but the scientific evidence contradicts it.
In his book Brain Rules molecular biologist John Medina takes a good look at our working and learning habits in the light of the latest research, and finds them seriously wanting. Here he is on the subject of naps, from a recent interview with the New York Post.
There's a time in the afternoon when your brain wants to do a reset. And during that time it wants to take a 15- to 20-minute nap. We call it the nap zone. If you don't allow yourself to take a nap during that time, you'll fight being sleepy the rest of the afternoon, and productivity can suffer.
So gritting your teeth and working in spite of drowsiness isn't even foolish productivity. It's the illusion of productivity. I know the feeling well - on the days when I'm 'too busy' to take a break, I can feel my brain slowing down in the afternoon. The simplest mental operations start to feel like wading through treacle. Complex demanding work, like writing articles, can become almost impossible.
So I felt a twinge of recognition when I read Medina's explanation that the brain "wants to do a reset". That's exactly the feeling I get after a nap - as if my brain were a laptop that becomes slow and glitchy after a few hours, but starts running smoothly again once it's rebooted. If I make time for a 20 minute nap after lunch, I get a renewed sense of energy and focus in the afternoon. I invariably get a lot more done, to a higher standard.
It turns out this is one of the few things I have in common with NASA fighter pilots:
It was measured by NASA. They were able to show that by giving their fighter pilots a 20-minute nap in the nap zone, you'd find an increase of about 34 percent in their mean reaction time performances.
Mark Rosekind, the guy who did the study, goes, "Look, what other management technique can I do that, in 20 minutes, gives a 34 percent boost in productivity?"
John Medina, New York Post interview
As Brian pointed out a few weeks ago, sleep and daydreaming boost creativity as well as productivity. I've lost count of the number of times I've been wrestling with a difficult problem or stuck on a piece of work - and found the answer easily after a quick nap.
Notice when you want to nap. For most people this is during the first hour or two after lunch, but you may be different. Start to pay attention to your circadian rhythms - the rising and dipping of your energy levels throughout the day.
Once you've identified your 'nap zone', start to schedule meetings and intensive bursts of work around it. And when it comes to nap time, here's the drill:
Last but not least - pay attention to the results. Do you feel more or less alert and productive after a nap? For a few days, alternate 'nap days' with 'no nap days' and measure how much you actually get done. Once you've got some hard data, you can make an informed choice.
Have I sold you on the idea of productive napping? Can you convince your (inner) boss that it won't turn you into a lazy good-for-nothing overnight?
I'm sure you're not a wimp like Lou, who's so attached to his self-image as a 'guy who gets things done' that he would never be seen asleep at work.
In his mind, he's a superhero, but if he took a good look at what's really in the mirror, he'd see how feeble his daily efforts really are.
He's so scared of looking 'lazy' that he'll never be truly productive.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Working All Day Is for Wimps appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Not content with giving Lateral Action a terrific interview about his work, Hugh was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book a few weeks ago - it arrived on Friday afternoon and I didn't go to bed that night until I'd finished it (as well as an unspecified number of beers).
If you are serious about creativity and making a living from your passion, you need to get this book. It's also the perfect present for the creative entrepreneur in your life.
It would be worth your while just for the advice it contains - a combination of inspiration and pragmatism, based on Hugh's years of trial, error and persistence in honing his craft and following his dream.
Here are a few chapter headings, to give you a flavour of the world according to Hugh:
10. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
12. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
13. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
14. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
15. Dying young is overrated.
16. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
The book would also be worth your while for the sharp and funny cartoons, like this one:
As you get the philosophy AND the cartoons, it's a no-brainer.If you don't believe me, download the sample chapters for free and see for yourself.
As someone pointed out, the book does contain a bit of swearing. So I guess it's not for the fainthearted.
But then neither is creativity.
In my professional opinion as a psychotherapist, you'd have to be a crazy deranged fool not to buy it.
The post Ignore Everybody (But Not Hugh MacLeod) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by JeffBelmonte
Some people say the recession means the end of business as usual. I disagree.
Of course, if your idea of business as usual was like Lou's - a steady job, predictable market and rewards for hard work, keeping your head down and your nose clean - then it probably feels like the world has been turned upside down by recent events.
But as we said right at the start of Lateral Action, the rise of the creative economy is a long-term trend, and we've been living in a world where creativity is economic priority number one for some time.
And you know what? Creativity is unpredictable and risky. Sometimes it's downright scary. Effects don't always follow neatly from causes; hard work won't necessarily be rewarded. On the contrary, it could just turn out to be foolish productivity. Rewards come from being curious, agile, aware of the market and willing to experiment to see what works.
So for me, the recession hasn't brought anything radically new, just accelerated the rate of change and instability. It's stripped away a lot of the fluff and complacency, and clarified what's needed to survive and thrive in a world governed by the capricious laws of creativity.
Motivation is vital for success in the creative economy. Not just because you need to be stubborn to succeed in any business venture. And not just because the economic storms we're flying through are frightening enough to test anyone's nerves. But also because, as I said in my e-book How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself), motivation has a huge influence on creative performance.
Human beings are driven by four basic types of motivation - some of which are particularly important when it comes to creative work:
Put the four together, and you get a matrix containing four basic drivers. For a project or enterprise to be sustainable and successful, you need to tick all four boxes. Neglect any one of them, and it could be like the dodgy leg on a table that brings the whole thing crashing to the ground.
Four Motivators That Will Get You through the Recession
There are many different motivators in each of the four squares. In the diagram below, I've listed four that become critically important during a recession.
Photo by JeffBelmonte
You've probably realised by now that you don't need a recession to pay attention to these four factors. They are crucial to succeeding in any circumstances.
But faced with an economic crisis, it's tempting to play it safe or go for shortcuts. To stop investing time, effort and energy in building for the long-term, adding real value and strengthening relationships with your partners, collaborators and customers.
Obviously you need to keep rewards on your radar and do everything you can to maximise them. But if you just focus on short-term rewards, it can feel like you're making slow progress day-to-day. The big rewards are off in the future, and it sometimes feels like you'll never get there.
This is where the other three squares can help you. Unlike rewards, these motivators are all available right now:
You can look at the difficulties you face and see them as a challenge - right now.
You can look around you and reach out to support and encourage your friends - right now.
You can confront your enemy - whether in the external forces ranked against you, or inside you, in the voice of your inner saboteur counselling a timid retreat - right now.
You can be a hero, working to fix things and build them up again - right now.
You can pick up the gauntlet - right now.
Has the recession changed the way you approach your work? If so, how?
How do you motivate yourself when things get tough?
Which of the motivators I describe works best for you? What others would you add?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How to Stay Motivated During a Recession appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Maybe. But simply churning out meaningless content does not guarantee that others will read what you write. Make this mistake and people will read what you write and write you off.
Whatas the alternative?
Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way. Remember that it costs time (and indirectly a money) for your audience to read what you write. And, they expect a good return for that investment.
You will know whether you are succeeding in influencing your audience in a positive way because the audience will tell you. No, maybe not directly but by the way they respond to your content.
So, here are the nine ways your audience will respond to your online content:
Finally, here are a few things to consider before you post your next online content:
Unless you are writing something for your private consumption, your audience should be the center of the focus and not you. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them. Think about:
Some questions to think about:
You know the audience and you know the purpose of the article. Now the next step is to unleash your creativity and create something that will generate the kind of response that you are looking for.
Some questions to think about:
You already know the nine ways that people respond to your online content. When people act the way they do, they are providing you valuable feedback. Keeping your emotions aside, learn from the feedback and incorporate this learning into your next aticle.
Background: An earlier version of this article was titled Skip, Scan, Stop, Save and/or Spread. Thanks to several people especially Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Kathy Hendershot-Hurd who helped me enhance the initial concept through their comments.
About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.
The post 9 Ways People Respond to Your Content Online appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
WARNING: Shawshank Redemption Movie Spoiler.
One of the most dramatic and effective flashback endings in cinema comes at the end of The Shawshank Redemption - so look away now if you've not seen the film and don't want to know about it!
Andy Dufresne, convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. Faced with this situation, most of us would go for one of two alternatives: fight to clear our names through the legal system, or resign ourselves to serving our time. Andy did neither.
Instead, he devised an elaborate escape plan. He used his financial skills to set a trap for the prison warders, luring them in with their greed and tangling them up in a web of dodgy deals, hooked onto a fake identity - which was then ready and waiting for him to assume when he got out. Meanwhile, he was chipping away, night after night, at the wall of his prison cell with a rock hammer, covering the hole with posters of movie divas.
It took Andy nearly 20 years to tunnel through the wall - a superhuman effort by any standards. But the final leg of his journey was probably worse than anything he had to endure previously, crawling half a mile through a narrow sewage pipe full of human excrement. In the words of Andy's friend Red:
Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine - or maybe I just don't want to.
Now make no mistake, Andy was a brilliant creative thinker. I could probably have spent a lifetime in Shawshank without coming up with a plan as clever as his. But as we've said before, creative thinking is not enough - you need to follow through with action. Red daydreamed about tunnelling through the wall, even trying to work out how long it would take - but he did nothing. By his own admission he didn't want to even imagine the obstacles, let alone face them for real.
Andy's plan also relied on his experience as a successful banker - without his financial knowledge, he would have had no honey to bait his trap for the wardens. And he needed a keen knowledge of human psychology and influence in order to home in on the guards' weaknesses and lure them into the trap.
But Andy could have had all of these things and still failed. What set him apart from the other prisoners - those who daydreamed but did nothing, and those who started out but gave up - was his stubbornness.
It was his stubbornness that made him stand up to his tormentors among the prisoners. It was his stubbornness that helped him put up with abuse and humiliation from Warden Norton and the other prison staff, as he slaved away at the financial scheme.
And it was his stubbornness at chipping away at that prison wall with a hammer, night after lonely night, when everyone else had gone to bed, that brought him success.
On any given night, he could hardly have blamed himself if he had been 'too tired' to put in the night shift with the hammer. There must have been many, many nights when his progress seemed so slow, his achievements so miniscule, the task so difficult and risky, that he was tempted to give up. Any reasonable human being would have given up long before they made it through the wall. The only thing that kept him going was an irrational, unstoppable determination.
Had he decided to give up, Andy could have had all the excuses he wanted. But he didn't want excuses. He wanted freedom - and he was prepared to pay the price.
From the outside, Andy's stubbornness may have looked like foolhardiness. But Andy was no fool. Like Seth Godin, he understood the principle of The Dip. In his book of the same name, Seth points out that whenever you start a major undertaking you will inevitably run into difficulties ('the dip'). At that point you need to look ahead and ask yourself: Will persevering lead to a better life or more of the same difficulty? If more of the same, you should quit as fast as possible.
But if you can look ahead and see a time when your present efforts are rewarded, so that life becomes easier on the other side, then it would be foolish to quit. At this point, you need to be as stubborn and dogged as Andy, chipping away with his hammer.
Fortunately most of us will never find ourselves in Andy's predicament. We won't have to make the choices he did, and work against such overwhelming odds. But if you've ever felt constrained by your work or life situation, and dreamt of a better life, you'll know something of what drove Andy to escape.
When you consider the sentences contracts, shackles and (golden) handcuffs that lock millions into corporate servitude, not to mention the drab uniforms and cell-like cubicles, it's no wonder one of the most popular blogs for aspiring entrepreneurs is called Escape from Cubicle Nation.
Contrary to appearances, most entrepreneurs are not driven by money. Sure, they do their best to amass as much of it as they can - but the money is not as important as what it brings them: freedom.
If you're one of those independent-minded souls who hates being told what to do and having to settle for mediocrity imposed by others, then being trapped in an unfulfilling job (or relationship, or any other limiting situation) can start to feel, without too much exaggeration, like a prison. And if you want to escape, then you'll need to do as Andy did.
Like Andy, you'll need to hatch a brilliant plan, looking at the same obstacles and constraints as everyone around you - yet seeing the opportunity no-one else has spotted.
Like Andy, you'll need to draw on all your past experience and skills - and maybe develop some new ones, including talents you'd never have suspected in yourself.
Like Andy, you'll need to look into the souls of people around you, note their desires and foibles, and influence them to play their part in your plan. (Though hopefully you'll have a wider choice of associates, and can look for win-win outcomes - as Andy did when he helped his friend Red.)
Like Andy, you may well reach a point where any reasonable human being would give up - when your plans are thwarted time and again, things take longer than you expected (even after you've allowed for them taking longer than your expected), and obstacles keep appearing out of the blue. You may even have people around you advising you, with the best of intentions, to 'quit while you're behind'.
At that point, like Andy, you'll have to rely on your stubbornness to succeed, pushing through the final barriers no matter how much pain or unpleasantness you have to endure.
And when you finally break through, just like Andy, you'll know the sweet taste of freedom.
At this point, you may notice a difference in the attitudes of people around you. Instead of expressing concern about your naivety or pigheadedness, they start to express admiration for your determination and clarity of vision.
Others may forget or fail to notice the stubbornness and sacrifice, and tell you how 'lucky' you are to be doing what you're doing, with all the opportunities that are now open to you.
You may be tempted to retort and tell them what it cost you. But it could be more fun to follow Andy's example one more time - smile, assume your newfound identity, collect your reward and stroll out into the sunshine.
Have you ever succeeded against apparently impossible odds? How did you do it?
How do you decide whether it's worth persevering with something - or time to quit?
What's the best advice you've ever received/given about the power of persistence?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Are You Stubborn Enough to Succeed? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Such was the demand for tickets that I had to buy mine two days in advance. When I finally got inside, I wondered from room to room in a kind of trance, bowled over by masterpiece after vibrant masterpiece, each one familiar but bigger, brighter and richer than any prints I've seen before or since. I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and stayed for hours until we were shepherded out by security.
That building held staggering artistic riches - but the financial scale of the exhibition was no less mind-boggling. When you consider the auction value of a single van Gogh painting, the cost of borrowing, transporting, ensuring and protecting virtually the artist's entire oeuvre must have been astronomical. Factor in the money spent on marketing the exhibition and generated from the sale of tickets, catalogues, prints, and endless other items of merchandise, and the amount of cash involved starts to look obscene.
The irony, of course, was that all of this wheeling and dealing was in the name of an artist who famously died penniless, disillusioned and despairing. Van Gogh was the ultimate artistic martyr, ignored by a cruel world and an art market that failed to reward his talent.
The irony gets deeper and crueller when you consider that the legend of van Gogh the tortured artist has contributed to the rise of his posthumous fame - and the price of his paintings. His tragic tale has been immortalised in novels, poems, films and songs. His name is now a byword for misunderstood genius.
Would we accord van Gogh's paintings the same reverence if he had lived to be old, fat, rich and conservative? Hardly. His paintings are undisputed masterpieces, but like the Mona Lisa, the mythology has helped the marketing.
It's almost as if poverty and suffering made him a better artist.
Let's face it, we find it easier to love our artists when they are young, poor and idealistic. There's apparently something infinitely nobler about starving in a garrett and making sacrifices for your art than dictating your latest screenplay to one of your minions as you sip cocktails on the edge of your swimming pool.
One of the most damning criticisms that can be levelled at an artist is that he or she has 'sold out', forsaking artistic integrity for filthy lucre. The consensus seems to be that creativity and commerce are worlds apart, and that money necessarily corrupts artistic talent.
But does this popular view represent the truth of the matter? Not according to Tyler Cowen it doesn't.
In a book provocatively titled In Praise of Commercial Culture, Cowen argues that, far from corrupting the arts, capitalism actually fosters creativity:
The capitalist market economy is a vital but underappreciated institutional framework for supporting a plurality of coexisting artistic visions, providing a steady stream of new and satisfying creations, helping consumers and artists refine their tastes, and paying homage to the eclipsed past by capturing, reproducing, and disseminating it.
(Tyler Cowen, In Praise of Commercial Culture)
One of the ways he supports this claim is to present numerous examples of acknowledged artistic geniuses who pursued wealth with enthusiasm and success.
Many artists reject the bohemian lifestyle and pursue profits. The artists of the Italian Renaissance were businessmen first and foremost. They produced for profit, wrote commercial contracts, and did not hesitate to walk away from a job if the remuneration is not sufficient. Renaissance sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, in his autobiography, remarked, "You poor idiots, I'm a poor goldsmith, and I work for anyone who pays me."
Bach, Mozart, Hayden, and Beethoven were all obsessed with earning money through their art, as a reading of their letters reveals. Mozart even wrote: "Believe me, my sole purpose is to make as much money as possible; after good health it is the best thing to have". When accepting an Academy award in 1972, Charlie Chaplin remarked: "I went into the business for money and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth."
(Tyler Cowen, In Praise of Commercial Culture)
Another of Cowen's arguments is that a healthy market economy and popular commercial entertainment help to sustain avant-garde and minority artists. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, art materials were too expensive and artists too dependent on conservative minded patrons and customers to be able to outrage public taste with their work. But by the 19th century the cost of art materials had fallen, so that artists were under less pressure to recoup the costs by selling the work - and were therefore free to indulge their own tastes. At the same time, the art market had grown so much that artists could earn a living by appealing to minority tastes. Similarly, many publishers have made most of their money from popular bestsellers, allowing them to publish more literary works at a reduced profit or even a loss. In cases like this, popular culture is essentially subsidising more refined tastes.
So bohemian outsiders like Baudelaire and Bukowski may rail against the bourgeois tastes and morality of mainstream culture, but according to Cowen their niche art is actually supported by the market forces they despise.
Even poor old van Gogh benefited from the market economy - and not just after his death:
Falling prices for materials have made the arts affordable to millions of enthusiasts and would-be professionals. In previous eras, even paper was costly, limiting the development of both writing and drawing skills to relatively well-off families. Vincent van Gogh, an ascetic loner who ignored public taste, could not have managed his very poor lifestyle at an earlier time in history. His nonconformism was possible because technological progress had lowered the costs of paint and canvas and enabled him to persist as an artist.
(Tyler Cowen, In Praise of Commercial Culture)
Does an artist go down in your estimation if you discover he or she was ambitious for money?
Does capitalism corrupt creativity or support it?
How do you manage the tension between creativity and commerce in your own career?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Does Commercial Success = Creative Sell-Out? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I had a sense of dA(c)jA vu when I read the recent New York Times article 'Genius: The Modern View' by David Brooks - it echoed so many of the themes we've been discussing here on Lateral Action that I could almost have written it myself:
The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. Itas not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, itas deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft.
The idea of genius as the result of a lot of hard work is something we've discussed at length on this blog, in articles about Michelangelo and Darwin and others. So I won't labour the point here, except to highlight the fact that according to David Brooks, this view of genius is receiving more and more support from recent research.
Today I'd like to look at another aspect of the development of 'genius', covered in David Brooks article, which we've not yet discussed on Lateral Action - namely the role of a mentor in fostering young talent and helping it mature:
If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, youad take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability. It wouldnat have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday - anything to create a sense of affinity.
This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would, Coyle emphasizes, give her a glimpse of an enchanted circle she might someday join.
...
Then our young writer would find a mentor who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges.
Brooks cites Mozart and Tiger Woods as examples of a young talent possessing not only a phenomenal dedication to practice but 'a father intent on improving his skills'. In cases such as these, the father figure is able to provide a vision of the future self which the child could not have to begin with - and parental discipline is likely to be a factor contributing to the long hours of practice. Of course, the mentor doesn't have to be a parent - it could be a teacher, another family member, or an older practitioner of the same art. Later in his career, Mozart benefited from having Johann Christian Bach as his mentor.
Mentor was a character in Homer's Iliad - an old and experienced warrior whom Odysseus left in charge of his young son Telemachus when he set out for the Trojan War. Later in the story, the goddess Athena disguised herself as Mentor when giving advice to Telemachus, reinforcing the image of Mentor as a trusted and wise counselor.
A mentor can fulfill several important functions for someone learning their craft and looking for their path in life:
You may be unaware of your potential - creatively, professionally and as a human being. A good mentor can spot talent, match it with an opportunity in the external world and encourage you to make the vision a reality.
A mentor is often someone who has trodden the same path you are setting out on - e.g. a mature novelist for an aspiring writer, J. C. Bach for the young Mozart. Such a mentor provides a living example of what is possible for the student's future self - a model for imitation (or even emulation).
The mentor can offer advice, encouragement and warnings based on years of experience in the field. Think Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid.
Hard work is important - but without high quality feedback you're deepening your flaws and compounding errors as well as building on your strengths. A good mentor will be relentless in reinforcing the positive and stripping away the attitudes and actions that hold you back.
There's a sad quality to some mentors - this comes from knowing that they can warn, instruct and prepare you to some extent, but that you will only really learn by doing - and making your own mistakes, just as they did. Like Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi, cautioning Luke about his impatience to confront Darth Vader. Yet the mentor is also optimistic - he or she can see your potential and trust in your ability to learn from mistakes. And they are often on hand to pick up the pieces when things go wrong.
I'll never forget the day my therapist, Catherine Kirk, turned to me and said 'You know, you could do this'. To me at the age of 24, it sounded an outrageous idea. Surely you needed to be old and wise before you could contemplate becoming a psychotherapist? Not according to Catherine - and it turned out she was right.
When I began my training as a therapist, I was lucky enough to have John Eaton as my teacher and clinical supervisor. He provided me with a constant stream of provocative advice, inspiring stories and weird and wonderful book recommendations. His feedback was critical to my development - he was incredibly encouraging, as well as merciless in challenging any sign of complacency or conventional thinking. These days, John and I are friends rather than teacher and student, but I continue to value his opinion on personal and professional matters. (So if you like my writing, you should check out John's blog.)
It's a similar story with poetry. At secondary school, my eyes were opened to the magic of poetry by two wonderful English teachers, Sue Dove and Geoff Reilly - who told me I had a talent for writing and encouraged me to pursue it. These days, I'm very grateful for the wisdom and feedback of Mimi Khalvati, a highly accomplished poet who has an almost supernatural ability to read a draft poem and intuit the 'real poem' that is lurking inside it. Even when she rips one of my drafts to shreds, she'll pick out the lines or stanzas with potential, so that I leave the class fired up to start rewriting the poem. And I'm just one of many students at the Poetry School who hold her in such high regard.
Did I say we hadn't covered Mentoring on Lateral Action? My mistake. Seems as if Marla is about to step into the role of mentor to Jack, and he's very lucky to have her - otherwise he'd be in a lot of trouble.
Who have been your mentors? What did you learn from them?
Have you mentored someone else? What did you learn from the process?
The post Hard Work + Mentoring = Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Natasha Wescoat's vibrant, whimsical contemporary artworks grace over 1,000 private and corporate collections worldwide, and have garnered her a devoted following by collectors of all ages. With a growing demand for her signature style, even television and Hollywood films have requested her work. In Fall 2006, her art was seen on ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition. In 2007, Natasha was named "Emerging Artist and Trendsetter" by Art Business News, the largest trade publication in the U.S. In February 2009, she was invited by Black Card Circle to exhibit her art in places such as the Ritz-Carlton. As a painter and illustrator, I create art that can be considered fine art, or decorative. It's my main source of income and the meat of what my business is about. As a designer, I'm a graphic designer by trade. Having gone to school for that, I've always done the design work for my sites, blogs and other projects. I actually quit school to pursue my art career and never went back! As a creative entrepreneur, it's about taking risks, never looking back, never regretting your next move, and having a willingness to fail. You are always trying new things (early adopter) and hustling your work. It's about being ambitious, confident, and a little crazy I think. My inspirations are Kandinsky, Klimt, and mostly Takashi Murakami. I create what I'd want in my house. I love subjects that are full of energy. A little strange and fun. Nothing too formal, serious, or intricate. It's about movement and happiness. That's what my art is all about. Licensing can be difficult but rewarding. It equals multiple streams of income that have a great ROI with little investment. You create the work ONE time, then re-use the image over and over on other products. If you have something that everyone wants, and is marketable, and you have either (A) the skills to promote or (B) a great agent, it can be profitable for you. I just started working with a great agency and have found many exciting new opportunities. You should be seeing my art in Barnes & Noble bookstores soon for one example. Absolutely. I'm a people person and have a nomadic itch. I have to be out and about, experiencing new places and meeting new people. I thrive on change and adapt well to it, so it works great for me to be a part of so many projects and places. I get bored if there's nothing new to do or if I have to sit home for long. I think they are definitely connected. A lot of it has to do with my obsessive compulsion to create and to be doing new things. If I haven't tried something new, I feel complacent. I find new ways to promote things and create new options for my work to be promoted. It's definitely a creative practice. You have to be on your toes, think outside the box, and strive to learn everything you can. It requires risk and ambition for sure. For me, it's all in the mix. I scatter my brand across multiple networks, like hotels in Monopoly, to get multiple streams of income coming in. Gaining exposure and multiple streams of income through a variety of places on the web is probably what helps my success. Now, since I've been doing this about five years I have a pretty good following so that, if I join a new site and sell my work, I can be successful without trying too much. But, for someone new, you got to get your work out there and get that exposure. You never know where you will find your collectors or buyers. I think it's not too different from selling online. You really have to hustle, put your name out there, and work hard to promote the shows. I don't do a lot of shows outside of the net anymore because it's just not as profitable for me personally. I find it more satisfying to work online without the middle man involved. Not that I'm opposed to it. I do do a lot offline now, but it's always connected to something web-related. Things are changing however! A typical workday consists of me getting up to my computer, brew some tea and check emails. Write a new list from a list I wrote the night before (I'm obsessed with organizing my thoughts) and see what my most important tasks are. I post a blog, print out orders to ship, get paintings ready to ship, take those to the post office and UPS, check my mail. That evening I work on commissions and new paintings. At the end of the day, I do my internet tasks such as checking email again, blogging, working on any videoblogs I have pending and updating my MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I don't think I ever really stop working.1. You call yourself a painter, illustrator, designer and creative entrepreneur. What do those terms mean to you?
2. You describe your work as 'whimsical pop-art and candied landscapes'. Who or what are your inspirations?
3. Lots of artists sell original artworks, but you also license your art for use on greetings cards, shirts, stationery and other products. What made you decide to license your work? How does it work?
5. What's the relationship between your marketing creativity and artistic creativity?
6. Your online activities include your website and blog, Twitter and an Etsy art store. Which are the most important web tools for your business -- or is it all in the mix?
7. As well as these innovative marketing approaches, you also exhibit your work in galleries. How do you see the relationship between modern creative entrepreneurship and the traditional art world?
8. Can you describe your typical working day?
9. Any advice for aspiring artists and creative entrepreneurs?
Build a great cache of work, ask people for advice and help and don't worry about what they will say. Know your audience and where your work will fit and who would watch. Get your work out there on every appropriate venue you can find and network with others in your field. Get connected and realize it will take you a few years before you will be in a comfortable established place with your business. RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH. Read your books and read the net.
Natasha Wescoat is a painter, Illustrator, designer and creative entrepreneur. Her artworks are available for purchase or licensing. She blogs at Natasha's Art Candy. Follow Natasha on Twitter.
The post An Interview with Natasha Wescoat, Artist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson is one of the most popular videos about creativity on the internet. In it, Robinson argues passionately that as children we are all naturally creative, yet by the time we reach adulthood, our creativity has been 'educated out of us' by the barriers of school, society and corporate business.
The talk has evidently touched a chord - as well as being enthusiastically received at TED, the video has been been viewed, downloaded re-posted and discussed countless times. As a creativity writer and consultant, hardly a month goes by without someone asking me whether I've seen 'the Ken Robinson video'.
It's not hard to see why Robinson's video is so popular - he's an engaging and very funny presenter, who somehow manages to be both down-to-earth and inspiring at the same time.
And his message is immensely appealing. It presents a vision of humanity as inherently creative, with new ideas and possibilities bubbling up inside us, waiting to be used - if only we would stop blocking ourselves.
But is it true?
Not according to Gordon Torr, a former Creative Director and author of the recent book Managing Creative People:
The truth is that creative people are different from other people - special, for better or worse, in a way that we're only beginning to understand. And everything we know about them suggests that they're creative because they're different, not that they're different because they're creative. It's a vital distinction.
Believing that everyone has the capacity to be just as creative as the next person is as ludicrous as believing that everyone has the capacity to be just as intelligent as the next person, yet it has become almost universally accepted as a truism. It's also relatively new, taking root in only the last 30 or 40 years, coinciding much too precisely to be accidental with the popularisation of creativity as an essential ingredient of social and business success.
(Gordon Torr, Managing Creative People, 2008)
What makes creative people different? Torr highlights three factors in particular:
Torr admits that he is swimming against the tide in this view of creativity - but argues that that is what creative people have always done:
for almost the entire duration of human life on earth, the popular conception of creative people was that they were born that way, with unique gifts that obliged them to seek out and fulfil the singular vocations of their destiny...
They were shamans, priests, prophets, storytellers, poets, witches, troubadours, jesters, Giottos, da Vincis, romantics, lunatics, misfits, outsiders, strangers, village idiots, inventors, novelists, artists and, eventually, advertising people. They were vilified as often as they were revered, and reviled as much as they were respected.
(Gordon Torr, Managing Creative People, 2008)
This view may not be universally popular, but it does fit pretty closely with the image of the stereotypical creative person: someone who is different, rebellious, individualistic and resistant to society's attempts to shoehorn them into conformity.
Are we all creative, or is there something inherently different and special about creative people?
If you believe creatives are different - what are the differences?
If you believe we all have the same creative potential - what are the implications for society? Education? Business? The arts? And for those who like to see themselves as special 'creative people'?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Is Everyone Creative? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I see lots of things that no one else does. Some of them are even really there.
I get a lot of my ideas by looking at things and wondering "what isn't it," or "what didn't I see?" For instance, the other day I was out at a friend's studio and noticed a bunch of birds hanging out on a telephone wire, the way they tend to doa| And I thought "hmmma| if you could train those birds to sit where you pointed, you could make them be an abacus."
I really like the idea of an abacus of trained birds. Okay, sure, it isn't very practical, but given that people have been able to train birds to do things like carry messages, I'm sure it would be possible if you really wanted an avian abacus. And who knows, maybe you could even utilize their innate flocking and navigational skills to get them to do much more complex math than people usually attempt on an abacus. Maybe it's a whole new way to approach bio-computing. Or not.
Then I was looking at the big sign in in my friend's yard, which says "antiques" in huge letters and "pottery" in much smaller letters. Because she's a potter and runs her parents old antiques store, which also happens to have some of her work in it. And it occurred to me, because of the birds, that if she were to line up a series of her pots in uneven heights along the top of the sign it would be more interesting. And maybe people would stop in more. Well, I would anyway. And of course it would be easy enough to use pots that had been ruined in the firing, since there always seem to be a few that go wrong. So it wouldn't require any sacrifice, really, other than climbing up there. That's a more practical idea that came from the birds. If it were me, I'd probably cover the entire sign post in pots like a bottle tree.
And of course, when I was a kid, I used to think birds on a wire looked kind of like musical notes and wouldn't it be cool if you could train them to arrange themselves to write out the notes they sing when they're chirping. Maybe not so practical again.
But then, it might be cool to do an ironwork fence that spelled out the notes of a common bird song by arranging little metal birds on the rails of the fence. Back to somewhat practical. Imagine a fence that scores the ten most common birdsongs of your region, all with notes in the shape of the bird whose song it is. Nice.
Niels Bohr once said, "There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true."
So I've gotten in the habit of reversing, inverting, subverting, or combining random statements to see if there's a great truth hiding there that maybe no one has noticed yet- I intentionally try to misread any clichA(c)s I run across. How can I hear it wrong but better? How can I creatively misinterpret things? How can I see the things that aren't there? And then, once you're clearly out of step with what's in front of you, it helps to focus and see where that mistake can lead you. It's a fun game, even when you don't bring anything great home from it (it also makes it much easier to tolerate people who speak in clichA(c)s).
My friend Daniel Edlen provided a great example of finding new meaning by inverting a clichA(c) when he Twittered "Leadership means preaching what you practice." I like that a lot better than the original phrasea| it's more interesting than saying "lead by example," and so it's more likely to be heard. More likely to stick.
One more example of paying attention to good mistakes: I accidentally typed "playwood" once when I meant to write plywood. But playwood is so much better. It describes the material and it's uses far more accurately, to my mind. Because with a little plywood you can make just about anything, quickly, cheaply etc. I've been calling it playwood ever since.
Have you ever made a mistake - of thinking, perception or action - that turned out to be really creative?
Do you deliberately cultivate mistakes, misreadings or mis-hearings in your work? How?
What are some examples of things you heard wrong that actually worked better that way?
Do you ever find that mistakes you make on a creative project end up taking the work in new directions or enhancing the finished work?
John T. Unger is an artist, designer, entrepreneur and impossibility remediation specialist. He pioneered catablogging at johntunger.com and is also lead author and developer at TypePadHacks.org. Follow John on Twitter.
The post The Art of Mistaking Makes appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As a child, I remember being shocked to learn that Walt Disney was a person.
To me, Disney was a mysterious entity, symbolised by the magical castle that appeared at the start of every film. A cross between fairyland and a faceless corporation. A bit like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
So it was hard to get my head around the idea that all those films were the brainchild of one man. Not to mention the theme parks. How could a single person be responsible for all of that?
Later on, I discovered that the truth was even stranger. There wasn't just one Walt Disney. There were three.
Here's the testimony of one of Disney's animators:
there were actually three different Walts: the dreamer, the realist, and the spoiler. You never knew which one was coming into your meeting.
(Ollie Johnstone and Frank Thomas, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation)
Robert Dilts uses this statement as the basis of a brilliant analysis of Walt Disney's creative process, in his book Strategies of Genius: Volume 1. He substitutes the word 'critic' for 'spoiler', giving three distinct roles that Disney played, each of which involved a particular type of thinking and action:
More important than the individual roles was Disney's ability to strike the right balance between them:
Creativity as a total process involves the coordination of these three subprocesses: dreamer, realist and critic. A dreamer without a realist cannot turn ideas into tangible expressions. A critic and a dreamer without a realist just become stuck in a perpetual conflict. The dreamer and a realist might create things, but they might not achieve a high degree of quality without a critic. The critic helps to evaluate and refined the products of creativity.
(Robert B. Dilts, Strategies of Genius: Volume 1)
Disney the Dreamer could visualise extraordinary scenarios, for new business projects as well as animated films:
What I see way off is too nebulous to describe. But it looks big and glittering.
That's what I like about this business, the certainty that there is always something bigger and more exciting just around the bend; and the uncertainty of everything else.
(Walt Disney, 'Growing Pains' - 1941 article, reprinted in SMPTE Journal, July 1991)
In Dreamer mode, Disney had the ability to immerse himself in his imagination, to the exclusion of everything else:
When Walt was deep in thought he would lower one brow, squint his eyes, let his jaw drop, and stare fixedly at some point in space, often holding the attitude for several moments ... No words could break the spell ...
(Ollie Johnstone and Frank Thomas, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation)
Anyone with hypnotic training will recognise in Disney's body language several classic indicators of a trance state - a state of mind in which conscious thought has been suspended and in which the involuntary thoughts of the imagination come to life. It would be interesting to know what creative rituals or triggers he used to access the Dreamer state when he needed it.
Without the Dreamer's vision, Disney's films would lack the touch of magic that sets them apart.
Disney wasn't just a creative thinker. As a committed Realist, he made things happen - and even his dreams were rooted in reality:
I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.
(Ollie Johnstone and Frank Thomas, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation)
Disney the Realist had a phenomenal ability to motivate and co-ordinate teams of diverse workers to bring his dreams to life. He brought the necessary perspiration to the Dreamer's imagination:
[Our success] was built by hard work and enthusiasm, integrity of purpose, a devotion to our medium, confidence in its future, and, above all, by a steady day-by-day growth in which we all simply studied our trade and learned.
(Walt Disney, 'Growing Pains')
Without the Realist's practical thinking and energetic activity, Disney's achievements would have remained no more than a twinkle in the Dreamer's eye.
Disney the Critic subjected every piece of work to rigorous scrutiny:
every foot of rough animation was projected on the screen for analysis, and every foot was drawn and redrawn until we could say, "This is the best we can do." We had become perfectionists, and as nothing is ever perfect in this business, we were continually dissatisfied.
(Walt Disney, 'Growing Pains')
The Critic provided a valuable feedback loop in the creative process: as they cycled back through the Dreamer, Realist and Critic at different stages of their projects, Disney and his team were continually learning and extending their abilities:
in fact, our studio had become more like a school than a business. We were growing as craftsmen, through study, self-criticism, and experiment. In this way the inherent possibilities in our medium were dug into and brought to light. Each year we could handle a wider range of story material, attempt things we would not have dreams of tackling the year before. I claim that this is not genius or even remarkable. It is the way men build a sound business of any kind - sweat, intelligence, and love of the job.
(Walt Disney, 'Growing Pains')
Without the Critic's perfectionistic dissatisfaction, Disney would have been satisfied with producing very good work - which, as any self-respecing creative entrepreneur will tell you, is not nearly good enough.
You've probably realised by now that Disney's approach to creativity isn't limited to animated feature films - it's a strategy for success in any creative endeavour.
Every creative project needs to incorporate the three aspects of creative imagination, practical action and critical refinement.
As an individual, you need to have some capability in all three roles. Most of us are naturally stronger in one or two roles, and decidedly weaker in a third. The first step is having the self-awareness to recognise this. And the next is to commit to developing the skills necessary for that role.
For example, I'm naturally very comfortable as a Dreamer and Critic - as a writer, creative thinker, storyteller and editor. But I've had to work much harder to develop the perspective and skills of the Realist, in areas such as management, marketing and technology.
For each project you work on, make sure you cover all three bases. These questions may help you:
At critical stages of the project, step back from your work and ask yourself:
Beware of getting the roles mixed up! I've worked with a lot of creatives who blocked themselves by introducing the Critic too early - before the Dreamer had a chance to finish the first draft or prototype. The Critic was pulling the work to shreds before it had even been put together! Things go much more smoothly when you allow the Dreamer to put together a rough draft, and then ask he Critic to have his say.
Another classic problem is the Dreamer who is great at creative thinking but lacks the Realist's focus on action. And so on - the key is to achieve a dynamic balance between the different roles.
You can only get so far by trying to play all three roles yourself. You can achieve much more by partnering with people whose natural strengths complement your own. If you're a hard-headed Realist, look to team up with Dreamers and Critics.
For example, I could have invested a huge amount of time studying graphic design, animation, coding, copywriting and web marketing - and maybe become average at some or even most of them. But by working with Tony and Brian, I benefit from their expertise in all of these areas. One of the great things about being part of the Lateral Action team is that for just about anything we want to do, one of us is a specialist.
And clearly, Disney didn't make all of those films single-handed. He didn't just play the three roles in his head - he used them to counterbalance and direct the tendencies of his team. If he felt the team were too bogged down in detail, he would become the playful Dreamer; if they were in danger of getting lost in pie-in-the-sky fantasies, he switched roles to the Realist.
I do not know whether he draws a line himself. I hear that at his studios he employs hundreds of artist to do the work. But I assume that is the direction, the constant aiming after improvement in the new expression, the tackling of its problems in an ascending scale seemingly with aspirations over and above mere commercial success. It is the direction of a real artist. It makes Disney, not as a draughtsman but as an artist who uses his brains, the most significant figure in graphic art since Leonardo.
(Cartoonist David Low, quoted in The Game of Business by John McDonald)
Disney's films contain some wonderful artwork. But his creative approach to the whole business of filmmaking raised 'direction' to the level of art. Which was arguably the most creative thing he did. Like Marla, he was an artist in business.
For more about Disney's approach to creativity, get hold of Robert Dilts' excellent book Strategies of Genius: Volume 1. It not only covers the Disney strategy in depth, but offers a similar analysis of the creativity of Aristotle, Mozart and Sherlock Holmes. Robert Dilts's article 'Walt Disney - Strategies of Genius' will give you a brief introduction to his ideas.
Do you recognise the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Critic in yourself?
Which role(s) do you feel most comfortable with?
Which role(s) do you find most challenging?
How are the three roles represented in your current team? Which roles could you do with developing within the team?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Secret of Walt Disneyâs Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
For many of you, Hugh MacLeod will need no introduction. Others will be intrigued to discover a creative entrepreneur who has built an unlikely and utterly idiosyncratic business based on "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards".
Hugh's gapingvoid blog has enabled him to achieve success as a cartoonist and artist without going down the traditional gallery or newspaper routes. It has also been the launchpad for a series of creative marketing ventures, including Savile Row tailoring at English Cut, South African wines from Stormhoek, the feature film Hallam Foe, and work for Microsoft and Dell.
Hugh's recent ventures include limited edition prints of his work, a forthcoming book, Ignore Everybody and his Crazy Deranged Fools newsletter.
I prefer the term, "Cartoonist". "Marketer" and "Blogger" are peripheral. I never liked calling myself an "Artist". I think History decides if you're an artist or not, not yourself.
Image by Hugh MacLeod"Artists cannot market" is complete crap. Warhol was GREAT at marketing. As was Picasso and countless other "Blue Chips". Of course, they'd often take the "anti-marketing" stance as a form of marketing themselves. And their patrons lapped it up.
The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a "Myth". Telling anecdotal stories about Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, Van Gogh is both (A) fun and (B) has a mythical dimension... if they didn't, they wouldn't have had movies made about them. The art feeds the myth. The myth feeds the art.
The worst thing an artist can do is see marketing as "The Other", i.e. something outside of themselves. It's not.
Image by Hugh MacLeodAll this Web 2.0 stuff has certainly been helpful for me and other like-minded folk, it seems to be a way of reaching out tho the world that suits a lot of people, including Yours Truly. I'd much rather talk directly to my collectors and "fans", than have it filtered through third-party galleries, media, journalists etc. The Internet is cheap, easy and global. Traditional galleries are expensive, difficult and provincial places to do business. Which is why even Blue Chip galleries are always closing shop.
But there's only so much that "New Media" can do. At the end of the day, good art is still an expensive, labor-intensive, pain-in-the-ass thing to make. Technology may remove a specific barriers to entry - the way photography did to portraiture over oil paint, for example - but the good stuff, the stuff people are willing to pay BIG MONEY for, still remains really, really hard.
Rich patrons are nice, but... (A) there aren't too many of them and (B), "Get in line, Dude". It's not like you're the only one who thought of that business model. New York and London is FULL of young aspiring hopefuls, just waiting for Charles Saatchi or some celebrity to come along, "discover" them, and make their Hollywood Ending a reality.
And as statistically unlikely the Hollywood Ending may be, even if your plan works, it can still come back and bite you in the ass. A friend of a friend, an artist, sold a sizable chunk of her work to Charles Saatchi a couple of years ago. She thought she was set for life. Then Mr Saatchi went ahead and sold it all back a year later. Her prices plummeted. In one fell swoop, Saatchi's action had pretty much marked her forehead with an "X" for life. Nice try, Ma'am, but... Piss off. She was very bitter about it.
Image by Hugh MacLeodThere has always been this traditional schism in the art world: 1. The Artist (Stereotypical, Heroic, Absinthe-Soaked, Crazy Guy). 2. The Patron (Beastly, Bourgeois Rich Guy). Again, another myth. I've always seen my collectors as my peers. People with the same kind of background, education, standard of living, aspirations and intellectual interests as me. They just happen to make their livings differently than me. I've never aspired to make art for The Medici's, or "Make Art For The People, Man". I always wanted to make cartoons that my friends liked. Which I did.
My business model is quite straightforward. Here's a link to it working in action. I post a cartoon on my blog, and I tell people, Hey Guys, I'm making this into a print. It'll retail for $400 once it's printed, but if you pre-order it before it goes to print, you can have it for $250. I give them a PayPal button to press, and then I ship them the print once it's ready. I also recently launched a more traditional online gallery, gapingvoidgallery.com for people who've missed their chance at the pre-orders.
It's pretty simple, basic stuff, and it seems to work so far. I have enough people out there who know me, like my work and trust me, so they kindly went along with the plan.
Yes, I see other artists starting to make it work. My friend, John T Unger, who you interviewed recently, is currently taking it to the sky. And another friend, @emilyoftexas is just starting to get her feet wet, and so far is loving her new adventure. But it's still early, slow days for us all. As has always been the case, "Talent, Stamina and Discipline" still remain key.
If you know any website where you can download, for free, a genuine Picasso oil painting, or ditto with a Franz Klee or Joan Miro, please let me know. "Content" may be trending towards free, but the Picasso or Miro Estates are hardly hurting long-term because of it.
Any profession is in constant, ever-changing negotiation with "Free vs Paid". When does your lawyer friend offer you free legal advice, and when does he start charging? Ditto with your heart-surgeon pal you play on Tuesdays tennis with. Musicians give their music away for free on MySpace, but charge for the CDs, live gigs and the t-shirts. Petroleum Industry consultants might give 5% of their stuff away for free, just to drum up some new business, but then charge top dollar 95% the rest of the time. In Internet circles, the 95-5% converse is often true. Everyone has their sweet spot. Cartoonists are no different.
Image by Hugh MacLeodIf you wanted to give your favorite cousin a nice birthday present, what would you rather do? Give him a copy of your favorite author's latest book, or just e-mail him a link to the author's blog? What would your cousin think if you tried the latter? Exactly.
And why do people pay $30 for a "I HEART NEW YORK" t-shirt, when they can walk down Fifth Avenue for free? Different objects, both molecular and digital, offer different totemic, emotional and social value for their user, which alters the inherent experience. Does the music on a Rolling Stones album that you found in the bargain bin of a record store, differ from the same album that Keith Richards personally autographed and gave to you? Technically, no. But the social context GREATLY adds to the overall experience and value.
I grew up around books, I've always loved them, especially ones with cartoons in them. I always wanted to join in the dance at least once in my life. So I did.
I don't have much of a routine. Sometimes I'm up at 5am, sometimes I sleep till noon. I guess I'm luckier than most.
Though just because I get to sleep late, doesn't mean I am lazy. I pretty much work at least 12 hours a day, often 16. My schedule is governed by two forces: the need to draw cartoons and the need to make a living. Sometimes one dominates, sometime the other. Managing that tension is fairly manageable now, after years of practice. I only wish I were better at managing the times when I'm not working. I don't have a huge number of extra-curricular interests, mainly because I simply don't have the time.
Image by Hugh MacLeodStart early. Start young. And work your butt off. Nobody just wakes up "famous" one day. I built my "social network" one blog post at a time. Eight years later and I STILL feel like I'm only JUST beginning to make headway. Aretha Franklin's quip, "Overnight Success takes fifteen years" is far truer than a lot of people realize.
Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist who makes his living publishing fine art prints via the internet. He is also known for his ideas about how "Web 2.0" affects advertising and marketing, which he publishes with his cartoons on the gapingvoid blog. Hugh's book Ignore Everyboywill be published in June 2009. Follow Hugh on Twitter.
The post An Interview with Hugh MacLeod, Cartoonist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Cambridge University, 1953. At two o'clock in the morning, a student is sitting at his desk. He has been there for hours.
In front of him is the beginning of an essay. He has been writing it, ripping it up and rewriting it for several days. It's due to be handed in tomorrow, but he still can't get past the opening sentence.
He doesn't understand it. He chose his subject, English, because of his love for poetry and his ambition to become a great poet. But for some reason, it's getting harder and harder to write those essays. And tonight he's hit a brick wall.
As he sits there staring at the paper, he hears a noise to his right. Turning, he sees the door opening and a head peering round it. An enormous fox's head.
Into the room walks a creature that looks like a man with a fox's head, or a fox walking on its hind legs.
As it gets closer, the young man sees that the fox has just stepped out of a furnace, as if the door had opened direct from hell. Every inch of the fox's skin is charred and blackened by the fire. Between the cracks in the skin, blood smoulders like molten lava, starting to seep out.
The creature's eyes are shining with the intensity of its pain.
When it reaches the desk, the fox stretches out its hand - a human hand - and lays it flat on the empty page. It looks into the young man's eyes and speaks:
Stop this - you are destroying us.
When the hand is lifted, the paper is covered in an intricate print of the palm, in glistening wet blood.
The next morning the student woke and rushed to the desk to look at the blood-print - only to find it had vanished.
But the impression it left was permanent.
The young man went to his tutor and explained that he could not continue with his course. After some discussion, he switched from English to Anthropology and completed his degree. He forgot all about academic literary criticism and went back to writing poems.
The student's name was Ted Hughes, later regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation. Four years later, when his first book was published, it contained a poem called 'The Thought-Fox', a mesmerising piece about an encounter with a mysterious fox, that became one of the best-known poems of the 20th century.
When Ted Hughes heard the voice of his dream-fox, he listened and obeyed, ignoring the dutiful part of himself that felt he should persist with his English degree. But it took a while before he got the message.
Before that dream, he had been experiencing a growing resistance to writing his weekly essays, but had ignored the feeling and soldiered on. Luckily for him, his imagination didn't give up on him - it sent a messenger to make its demands crystal-clear. And he had the good sense to take it seriously.
Like Hughes, most of us have experienced times when we veer off course in our lives, away from our true calling and talent, and towards paths that look promising but turn out to be dead ends. If we have enough self-awareness, we notice how unsatisfying this feels and abandon the dead-end for more fulfilling way forward.
But we're not always so responsive to those feelings. And that's when things start to get nasty.
As we push forward, doggedly sticking with our chosen course of action, we can find ourselves experiencing any of the following:
When this happens - and if the obvious solutions fail to work - it's worth asking yourself the following questions:
Often, taking a few steps to restore some balance in your life and reconnect with your creative passion is all it takes for the symptoms of unease to disappear. Like Ted Hughes' fox, the symptoms can vanish overnight - but they leave behind a valuable life lesson.
Have you ever experienced a dream, illness or other disturbing episode that turned out to be your imagination prompting you to get back in your creative zone?
What did you do about it?
What did you learn from the experience?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Are You Killing Your Talent? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Wouldn't it be nice to get paid to just exist?
I think so.
In fact, that's my gig right now.
I exist. And I get paid for it. And it's pretty awesome. So how is this possible? Well, it all has to do with...
Except it's much cooler than the word branding (think livestock) makes it sound.
If you asked anyone what a brand is twenty years ago, they'd probably respond: "Coca Cola." But if you asked them what a brand meant, you'd surely be meant with a blank stare. No neurons firing there.
In the past few decades, things have changed. Not only do people understand what a brand is and what it does -- much due to social media -- we're starting to understand what personal branding means.
But despite a lot of people now knowing what personal branding is, most don't really know how to use it effectively. (Not to mention, the word "personal branding" is on the verge of being akin to such overused buzzwords as "friending" and "crowd-sourcing.")
And there's a problem: Only half of the map is there, but people are walking around as if they've got the whole thing.
The first part of the picture (the one people get): Branding is something that you do to set yourself apart. It's how you market and present your skills to others. It's your unique combination of talents and skills that you communicate through personal branding that makes people want to work with you or buy your stuff.
The second part (the one that's overlooked): Branding isn't just about what you've got or what talents make you different, it's about YOU... as a person. It's about what makes you cool, geeky, sexy, mysterious, funny, passionate, and whatever other qualities that make you attractive. The second part is not just about communicating the skills you have, but communicating how you, as a person, deliver those skills in a way only you can.
It's saying: You don't just want to work with me because I'm a badass webdesigner. You want to work with me because I'm a baddass webdesigner in a bomber jacket that drives a Prius.
It's becoming more and more possible to get paid for being you. There are a lot of complicated reasons we could go into, but it really comes down to one thing: motivation.
Don't worry, I'm not going to go all Tony Robbins chest-pounding on you. I'm talking about something entirely different.
See, not long ago, before things like cars and planes existed, most of our motivation to work was because of the desire to eat. Pretty simple, right? Nice motivator, if you ask me.
Now the second motivator after food is taken care of is security. But once you realize that that doesn't mean much when you could get hit by a bus at any moment, the next motivator is: Passion. In other words, giving a damn.
People want to give a damn about the people they interact with. People crave to interact with people they admire, respect, and most of all, people they connect with.
And that is what personal branding is really about. Showing people why they want to be like you. Why they should care about what you have to say, or what you can offer. Not just because you're really good at it, but also because you're intensely passionate.
Remember earlier when I was talking about how no one understands what personal branding really is? Well, I take that back. There are a few people that understand, and they harness its power brilliantly.
Just a few:
Yes, of course your talents are one half of the deal. You will always want to hire the audio video guy that knows how to setup a sound system, over the beautiful airhead that you "resonate with" that forgets how to turn on the mic.
You probably also won't care much about the accountant that has the same favorite band as you, but has trouble with 3rd grade math.
But, the business consultant that can double your income and is in tune with your vibe, will always be the first choice over the guy that can double your income that likes to discourse on how fascinating 12th century librarian toupee styles are.
Know what I mean?
You don't tell people why they want to be like you, or why they want to connect with you. You show them. It's not about trying to win a popularity contest. It's about boldly emitting the frequency that you resonate on. Sending the signal "This is what I'm about and why it matters." When people pick up on that authentic wavelength, if they connect with it, they will naturally be drawn to you.
What it all comes down to is creative self-expression + a creative collective demand. It's where your unique genius meets the world's deep need. When you find a place where your passion, purpose, and market intersect, that's when you've really figured out how to get paid to exist.
Now let me be clear here. I'm not saying it doesn't take effort. I'm not saying it's easy to find where that crossroad is. It will take some soul searching, marketing, some business savvy and honing of your skills. But once you do that, you'll feel like things finally make sense. Your work may still be a labor, but it will be a labor of you. Not a labor of someone else's goals; not some corporation or institution's agenda; just you. All you.
Sounds scary? It is.
Is it worth it? Totally.
About the author: Jonathan Mead is a life coach, mad scientist and essential renegade. He blogs over at Illuminated Mind. To learn about more cool things you can get by just existing, grab a subscription to Illuminated Mind. And while you're at it, you can follow Jonathan on Twitter.
The post How to Get Paid to Exist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Hugh MacLeod recently published an interesting take on the difference between creativity and innovation:
One of the buzzwords you hear a lot in the business world these days, is "Innovation". Yes, it's a genuinely worthy thing to aspire to. Genuine innovation creates lots of genuine value, every young intern knows this. Which is why people like to throw it around like confetti. It's one of those words that sound good in meetings, regardless of how serious one is about ACTUALLY innovating ANYTHING.
Here's some friendly advice for all you Innovation-buzzword fanboys: You don't get to be more innovative, until you make yourself more creative FIRST.
"Innovative" is an "external" word. It can be measured. It generally talks about things that have been tested properly and found to have worked in the real world.
"Creative", however, is more of an "internal" word. It's subjective, it's murkier. It's far harder to measure, it's far harder to define. It's an inward journey, not outward. Which is why a lot of people in business try to keep the word out of their official lexicon, preferring instead more neutral, more externally-focused language like "Value", "Excellence", "Quality" and yes, "Innovation".
Hugh's put his finger on an important distinction that I haven't seen articulated quite like this before. He's put me in mind of Theodore Levitt's classic definition of creativity and innovation:
Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.
In other words, itas no use sitting around dreaming up fantastic ideas unless youare prepared to do the hard work of making things happen. Levitt expands on this theme in an entertaining tirade in the Harvard Business Review:
aCreativitya is not the miraculous road to business growth and affluence that is so abundantly claimed these daysa| Those who extol the liberating virtues of corporate creativitya| tend to confuse the getting of ideas with their implementation a that is, confuse creativity in the abstract with practical innovation.
(Theodore Levitt, aCreativity Is Not Enougha (1963))
Levitt doesnat pull any punches when it comes to creative daydreamers:
Since business is a uniquely aget things donea institution, creativity without action-oriented follow-through is a uniquely barren form of individual behaviour. Actually, in a sense, it is even irresponsible. This is because: (1) The creative man who tosses out ideas and does nothing to help them get implemented is shirking any responsibility for one of the prime requisites of the business, namely, action; and (2) by avoiding follow-through, he is behaving in an organizationally intolerable a or, at best, sloppy a fashion.
So for Levitt:
Creativity = Ideas
but
Innovation = Ideas + Action
Levitt highlights another important distinction between creativity and innovation:
the ideas are often judged more by their novelty than by their potential usefulness, either to consumers or to the company.
So:
Creativity = Novelty
but
Innovation = Novelty + Value
Levittas article was written over 40 years ago, but itas still commonplace for writers to distinguish between creativity and innovation on grounds of ideas and action, novelty and value:
Often, in common parlance, the words creativity and innovation are used interchangeably. They shouldn't be, because while creativity implies coming up with ideas, ait's the bringing ideas to lifea . . . that makes innovation the distinct undertaking it is.
(Tony Davila, Marc J. Epstein and Robert Shelton, Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It (2006))Creativity: the generation of new ideas by approaching problems or existing practices in innovative or imaginative waysa| Creativity is linked to innovation, which is the process of taking a new idea and turning it into a market offering.
(Business: The Ultimate Resource, Bloomsbury, 2002)
The distinction is alive and well on the internet, in cut-and-dried definitions of creativity vs innovation and Innovation vs Creativity, and among bloggers keen to confront us with athe ugly trutha that creativity is merely 'a way of thinkinga and therefore aa subset of innovationa.
The message is clear: creativity is all very well for intellectuals and bohemians sitting around on bean bags, but it takes an innovator to get things done.
Itas hard to argue with the logic. No reasonable person would claim ideas are more valuable than action a but then creative people are notoriously unreasonable.
Or are they?
Most of the examples Iave quoted so far are from business authors. But if we look at the psychological literature on creativity and innovation, itas like going through the looking glass. (Iave added bold to the following quotations to highlight the key terms.)
Psychological definitions of creativity generally contain two separate components. In the first place, creativity requires that we make or think something new, or a new combination of existing elements. This is the element of novelty or innovationa| However, mere novelty is not enough. To be creative, the idea must also be useful, or valuable.
(Chris Bilton, Management and Creativity (2006))
Bilton is not just talking about ideas a note that he refers to amakinga as well as athinkinga. So on this side of the looking glass, the terms of the equations are reversed:
Innovation = amere noveltya
but
Creativity = Novelty + Value
and
Creativity = Ideas + Action
Heas not alone in this view of creativity:
Like most creativity researchers, we rely on a product definition: A product is viewed as creative to the extent that it is both a novel response and an appropriate, useful, correct, or valuable response to an open-ended task.7
A aproduct definitiona means that a mere idea is not enough to qualify as creativity a action is needed to transform the idea into a product.
Sound familiar? Here are a few more definitions of creativity:
the concept of creativity is value-laden. A creative idea must be useful, illuminating or challenging in some way.a
(Margaret Boden, The Creative Mind (1990))In business, originality isnat enough. To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate a useful and actionable. It must somehow influence the way business gets done a by improving a product, for instance, or by opening up a new way to approach a process.
(Teresa Amabile, aHow to Kill Creativitya (1998))The study of creativity has generated a wide-ranging variety of definitionsa| However, most contemporary researchers and theorists have adopted a definition that focuses on the product or outcome of a product development processa| in the current study we defined creative performance as products, ideas or procedures that satisfy two conditions: (1) they are novel or original and (2) they are potentially relevant for, or useful to, an organization.
(G. R. Oldham and A. Cummings, aEmployee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at worka (1996))
I donat know about you, but Iam starting to get a sense of dA(c)jA vu.
Chris Bilton confronts the discrepancy between the two worlds head on:
In the management literature on innovation, some authors reverse my distinction between acreativitya and ainnovationa, with creativity equating to amere noveltya and innovation encompassing the dualism of novelty and fitness for purpose
Semantic differences aside, it should be noted that the argument a that two elements (novelty and fitness) are necessary to qualify as innovation / creativity is fundamentally the same.
(Management and Creativity)
So when you look carefully at the definitions, there is in fact no essential difference between creativity and innovation. Not for anyone who takes either of them seriously. Everyone basically agrees on the importance of ideas + action and novelty + value. From this angle, arguments about the superiority of innovation to creativity start to look like macho one-upmanship.
And this is why I like Hugh's post so much - logically, the two concepts may be the same, but emotionally they have very different connotations:
'Innovation' has the feel of an external process, which corporate types are comfortable measuring and tabulating. But Hugh reminds us that you can't have any of this without a creative fire in your belly.
Which means not being afraid to go to that messy, subjective, risky place where the difference between success and failure, praise and ridicule is balanced on a razor's edge.
What do the words 'creativity' and 'innovation' mean to you?
Do you think they are basically the same or are there important differences?
Are you more comfortable describing yourself as 'creative' or 'innovative'?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Crucial Difference Between Creativity and Innovation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
We are delighted to start the series with John T. Unger, an artist whose inspiration is not limited to his sculptures and designs, but extends to his whole approach to business.
Really, each of those names applies to a subset of what I do.
In conversation, I prefer to just say that "I get paid to be me," but that doesn't really fit in the standard box where you describe what you do for a living. Getting paid to be me means that whether I'm making art, writing code, consulting on software design and UI or speaking about business strategy, what people really pay me for isn't the just the end product, but the process I use to get there. They choose me out of a crowd of creatives precisely because of the personal style and method I bring to the table.
I've learned to exploit the specific ways my brain malfunctions so that I'm able to harness a deeply lateral approach to problems, combining creativity with research, critical analysis, experimentation and testing. The key is bringing all of these skills together on a project to meet a specific goal that includes deliverables.
It's not enough to be just clever or creative, you have to be effective as well.
As an Artist
As an artist, my job is to communicate ideas clearly, reach people emotionally, inspire or incite change and to fill in the blanks in the worlda| finding new ways of seeing things, or creating the things that don't exist but so obviously should have once they do. I try to create objects that will endure by drawing from primal metaphor and classical elements of design that speak to what it means to be human and alive. I revisit history to translate the eternal into the contemporary. I feel like the artist's job is to bring the unexpected, to practice the art of surprise, to create the new obvious, to explore the unthinkable.
I work primarily with recycled or re-used materials. I feel that creative re-use has the potential to spark new ways of looking at the worlda| if one thing can be turned into another, what else can we change? Successful recycled art and design encourages creativity in othersa it's alchemical, magical, subversive, and transformative by nature.
I'm just as interested in finding uses for new materialsa| I spend a lot of time researching new products or calling manufacturers and asking to speak to their engineers to talk about tolerances, potential applications, and product specs.
I like to joke that I'm the world's most well-educated self-taught artist a I've learned pretty much everything I know by doing it. I work in a lot of different styles using a wide variety of materials. I find that each new medium, motif or material sharpens both my critical thinking and my physical skills so that my work improves across the board with each new project. The fifteen years I spent pursuing a poetry career, for instance, has had a direct effect on how I deal with subject matter, meaning and nuance as a visual artist. The structure and theory I learned as a musician applies directly to my use of pattern, rhythm, lyricality and syncopation in metalwork.
As a Designer
As a designer my job is much like that of the engineer: this is where clarity, usability and functionality are most important. Functionality is the core of design for me and most of my work is intended to be useful as well as beautiful. I enjoy the practical aspect of art and feel that engineering is as critical as ingenuity in the creation of solid works of art.
For me, the design process also includes craft: developing the physical skills to create work which is durable, well conceived, and well executed. A brilliant idea poorly executed won't live up to its potential.
As an Entrepreneur
The entrepreneurial component of what I do is about taking the ideas and finished products and getting them out there. For me, being an entrepreneur is what makes everything else possible: It pays the bills, finances new product runs, opens opportunities for collaboration, brings me the reputation to connect with companies who make the products I use and consult with them to improve those products to our mutual benefit.
I started my art business as a full time occupation after going an entire year without freelance design work after the dot com bust. I had about five bucks in my pocket, 20 grand in debt, and no tools but a laptop. I joke that "I did it with nothing, because nothing is free," but there's truth in thisa| I was able to market ideas and products which had little overhead to produce and turn those into a business that was capable of supporting more expensive production models. By keeping my initial overhead low, I could put nearly all the profits into building a bigger, more successful business. I don't use credit at all. All of my new ideas are developed using capital from the existing lines of work.
Impossibility Remediation
Relaxing makes me tense. I only get excited about projects that feel new to me: if I know exactly how to do something, I feel like it's already done and there's no incentive. I like to break some kind of new ground at least on a personal level, which means that there's always an element of risk.
A good project has high stakes: It will either completely implode in failure or go super-nova with success. It's all the same thing in the enda I wake up most days thinking about how I want to change, fix or improve some aspect of the world. And after a couple cups of coffee I get started on it.
When I'm told that something is impossible, I ask people to give me six reasons why it can't be done. In most instances, I'll find at least one argument which is flawed and come up with a way to achieve the goal.
One of my favorite personal mantras is:
If you can't think anything at all,
you can't think anything at all.
By which I mean that in order to think clearly and accurately, I believe you must be willing to consider a problem from any angle, no matter how disturbing, personally distasteful, contrary to public opinion, unpopular, ridiculous, or scary. I could make the statement clearer by saying:
If there is anything you are unwilling to think about,
you have lost the ability to think.
But that's just not as succinct. In order to create something that is truly new, one of the best paths is to explore the "unthinkable." I practice experiments of imagining exactly how it feels to take a position opposite to my own, or imagining things backwards, sideways, upside down and generally examining the opposite of everything I come across. A large number of my best ideas have come from this practice as well as an intellectual flexibility that serves me well both as an artist and a social being.
Another way of putting this is that I'll go way out of my way to mess up dogma, but I don't do this to people antagonistically. I just try to eradicate any preconceptions or assumptions I catch myself with because I know that they're always holding me back from a more complete view of the world and how I can interact with it.
Thereas a poetry to the designa using a torch to cut flame images into a flammable gas tank to create a firebowl is a perfect example of how I like materials and ideas to work together. The meaning of the finished object is encoded in itas raw materials. That kind of layered metaphor is what I enjoy most about working with recycled materials. This kind of overlap between pattern and meaning can start with either the goal or the object: Sometimes I look at an item and imagine what else it could be, sometimes I have an idea for something I want to create and look for items that are similar to the desired shape or function and could be used as a staring point to make the piece.
I also make sculpture, glass and marble mosaic, fences, gates, jewelry, and more. I've been making art professionally since about 1995, and have made a full-time living as an artist since 2000. On the way to a successful art career I've been a poet and writer, a tech geek, a print and web designer, illustrator, industrial designer, musician, teacher, actor, set designer and even a paid guru once.
I'm a big fan of Hugh MacLeod's concept of the Global Microbrand:
A small, tiny brand, that "sells" all over the worlda|The Global Microbrand is sustainable. With it you are not beholden to one boss, one company, one customer, one local economy or even one industry. Your brand develops relationships in enough different places to where your permanent address becomes almost irrelevant.
About 98% of my sales come to me via the internet, including wholesale and gallery contacts as well as individual customers. This works well for me because I can manage all of it from home and home can be wherever I want it to be.
Seth Godin wrote about Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers. but I find that for me it works pretty much the opposite waya my customers frequently end up becoming good friends. This makes sense to me because when someone buys my work, it's immediately obvious that we have at least some shared tastes and goals. There are something like six billion people in the worlda| I don't need all of them to be customers, friends, fans or even aware of me. All I need to do is find the ones whose interest overlaps with my own. I've worked hard to build a reputation for honesty, results, quality work, customer service and approachability.
I've also learned that although I like to work on a broad spectrum of projects, it's best to let one of those take the lead in terms of income. Last year I had at least five full-time business running which were related, but distinctly different as well: There was Artisanal Firebowls, TypePad Hacks, Emoodicon , my one of a kind artwork and consulting for web 2.0 companies like TypePad, PayPal, etc. This was exhausting (and exhilarating). At the end of the year I realized that I'd put the bulk of my energy into developing the new businesses and projects but had made more than 80% of my income from the firebowls which I had put no real time into developing further. All of these projects had helped raise my profile online, and I'll be continuing most of them on a smaller scale, but my main focus will be the firebowls.
Mostly by doing cool things and talking to people, both online and offline.
I don't spend money on advertising and have pretty much stopped doing art shows or investing in traditional promotional materials. Instead, I put that energy into twitter, my blog, interviews, responding to queries for articles in newspapers and magazines.
I am trying some new ideas this year:
After that, it could go any of a dozen ways. From noon to dinner might be spent in the studio, or working on consulting projects, or writing, or making business calls, or traveling, or buying supplies, etc. Whatever is at the top of the list gets priority during those hours. I typically schedule based on paymenta| money gets you on the schedule. The second line of priority is whatever project I'm most personally interested in at the moment.
From dinner to nine or so is personal time for my girlfriend and I. She's a morning person, so that's our best window to spend time together.
The rest of the night is usually more research, reading, projects, writing and internet. Or reading comics and drinking bourbon.
One of the biggest lessons I try to get across to other creatives is this: Business is fun. If you do it right and you give people something they want or need, they will shower you with money and affection. And who doesn't want that? This doesn't mean selling out or making work you're not proud of just to get paid, it means finding the people who really dig exactly what you want to do and getting it in front of them. Running your creative practice as a successful businessperson is what makes it possible to do all the creative projects you want to work on.
If you want to make a living in the arts, not only do you have to be good at business, you have to be really good at it. People may need art, but most of them don't need it as badly or as often as they need food, shoes, etc. You're selling a luxury. Even if you make functional art you aren't likely to be at the top of the shopping list. Your business model has to be as creative as your product. For me, this has become as exciting as the actual art itselfait requires the same kind of thinking.
I used to do a lot of commission work, which was fun because it was a kind of collaboration where clients would bring me new ideas and I could put my own spin on them. Now, I've learned to do it the other way rounda| Instead of waiting for someone else to propose a project, I'll take my new ideas to people who have the interest and resources to make them happen. Everyone wins.
Okay, sure, you still have to manage bills, inventory, taxes, and so onathat's workajust as putting paint on the canvas is work compared to the visionary thrill of conceiving the painting. If you have cash flow, it's well worth outsourcing some of these tasks to a bookkeeper, accountant, or virtual assistant. But you still have to interact with your support people enough to make sure that they have what they need and that you understand what they're doing for you. It's worth looking for someone who can work well with you and then discussing the structure and strategy so that you're both on the same page.But no one can sell your work as well as you can. The passion you feel for what you do will always be a strong sales tool. If you want your business to be as successful and enjoyable as time spent in the studio, you need to approach it with the same qualities you bring to your creative work: research, experimentation, playfulness, honesty, openness and seriousness.
Get the visionary thing going for you, so that the work becomes absorbed into your overall creative practice. Approaching business as an extension of your creative life gives it the same edge that brought you to the arts in the first place. That edge sets you apart and gives your business the novelty and excitement that you strive for in your work. When you work in the studio it often feels like playathere's a dialogue between you and the materialathere's passion, flirtation, experimentation, satisfaction. Rock on. Bring those feeling to the table as you work on your business and marketing.
John T. Unger is an artist, designer, entrepreneur and impossibility remediation specialist. He pioneered catablogging at johntunger.com and is also lead author and developer at TypePadHacks.org. Follow John on Twitter.
The post An Interview with John T. Unger â Artist and Impossibility Remediation Specialist appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Now, whenever I load the DVD and see the Tokyo night skyline, I'm transported back to a balcony 15 storeys up, on the verge of an adventure in the neon city.
Lost in Translation isn't about creativity, although its characters include actors, photographers, singers, musicians and other creative types. And we're given no indication that the events in the story have any influence on either Bob's acting or Charlotte's writing.
But creativity is about life. Whatever else they do, Bob and Charlotte will never forget those few days they spent together in Japan. They've left an indelible impression on each other.
And the creative process moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes getting nothing done is the most productive thing you can do. Sometimes you do your most important work when you're not working at all. Sometimes the most pointless, stupid, ridiculous experiences are the ones that teach you the most and lead to your biggest discoveries.
So here are some of the impressions Lost in Translation made on me, and what they may (or may not) have to do with your creativity.
For foreigners, one of Tokyo's biggest attractions is its strangeness. It's like walking through a neon looking-glass. Everything looks hyper-modern or old-fashioned. You can't read the signs or menus. Walking the streets, you're usually the only non-Japanese face in the crowd. It's bewildering and exhilarating.
No wonder Bob and Charlotte like it. When you've lost your way in life, there's nothing like alienation to make you feel at home. But you don't need to be stuck in the wrong relationship to feel the benefits. Any time you start to feel stale or in a creative rut, going somewhere new and disorientating can reawaken your wide-eyed curiosity.
Mastering Japanese is the least of Charlotte and Bob's communication problems. Even their partners seem to speak a different language. It's a relief for both of them to meet someone else who at least understands that they don't understand.
Once you realise human beings don't really understand each other, you have two choices: shut yourself off from other people; or make an extra effort to connect with them and be kind.
Someone had to explain to me what was going on in the scene with the 'stockings' lady. But I actually prefered it before I understood it.
Later in the film, I've still not worked out why those guys start firing laser machine guns in the bar, and whether those weapons are actually used on the streets of Tokyo. If you know, please don't explain it to me. I'd rather be confused. Sometimes an explanation is the last thing you need.
Bob knows he shouldn't be whoring his talent in Tokyo. Charlotte knows she shouldn't be neglecting her dreams for a husband who hardly notices her. They both know they shouldn't be hanging around with each other so much. It can only lead to trouble.
But sometimes trouble is just what you need. Trouble tells you what's missing from your life. Trouble can be a good teacher - if you take the trouble to listen.
Bob is taking a break from his proper work to make adverts (the ultimate in-between media). Charlotte is tagging along with her husband's photo shoots. They keep meeting in corridors, bars, a hotel lobby, and finally on the Tokyo street - quintessential in-between places.
What's happening in between days in your life?
Charlotte is having second thoughts about her marriage. After 25 years, Bob is in marriage counselling. Tokyo will haunt them both as a missed opportunity. But they know falling into each other's arms would create as many problems as it solved.
As Charlotte says:
Let's never come here again, because it would never be as much fun.
They only have a few days together. A few days of stolen moments and mistakes. They both know it's not perfect, but they have to make the most of it. Sometimes, that's all it takes to make something perfect.
Charlotte never gets to open the champagne with her husband. Bob groans when he sees the empty champagne bottle on the window sill and hears the singing from his bathroom.
Champagne launches and awards ceremonies are a byword for media business glamour. All glitter and fake smiles. The world where Bob spends most of his working life. The world of Charlotte's photographer husband and Kelly, his celebrity client. And the jazz singer in the bar.
Champagne is intoxicating, but Bob will tell you it leaves one hell of a hangover.
Lip readers and soundtrack enhancers have had a field day with the movie's final scene. But anyone who tries to tell you 'What Bob really said to Charlotte' is missing the point. If we knew that, it would spoil the ending.
There would be nothing left for us to add to the scene. No space for us to imagine the message each of us understands but could never put into words.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Find Your Muse by Getting Lost in Translation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Roger von Oech is one of my favourite writers about creative thinking, so when I heard he had produced an iPhone version of his Creative Whack Pack cards, I asked if he'd be willing to answer some questions about it for Lateral Action readers. Here's what he had to say...
1. Over the years, you've taught creativity in a variety of formats -- books, cards, seminars, a magnetic toy (the Ball of Whacks) and now an iPhone application. What prompted you to make something for the iPhone?Ever since the Apple App Store was announced a year ago, I knew that I would be creating a Creative Whack Pack version for iPhone platform. I didn't have time to work on it until this past December. I then spent three months working with an Austin developer, Phil Dhingra.
This was a great experience working with Phil. We spent a lot of time conceptualizing the design and then implementing the ideas. I did a lot of the PhotoShop and HTML work on the product, and as a result, my skills in those areas really improved.
Here's a key lesson: when moving from one platform to another (in this case, from a card deck to a smart phone), it's important not to just cram your existing ideas into the new space. It's critical to take time to understand the possibilities and limitations of the new medium, and then design from there.
2. How does the iPhone version of the Creative Whack Pack work? What can it do?
The basic model of the Creative whack Pack card deck is still there: 64 illustrated creativity strategies.
But because I'm not limited to the small area on the card front (as is the case in the physical card), each card in the iPhone version has room for a lot more examples, illustrations, stories, exercises, and questions.
I had two uses in mind when creating the iPhone version: 1) have each card be stimulating enough that it could provide the user with a 30-second "quick hit of creativity," and 2) be robust enough to allow the user to apply it in a 10-minute creativity workshop (that is part of the iPhone version experience).
Here are some of the main functions of the Creative Whack Pack:
3. Having the Creative Whack Pack on your iPhone means that wherever you go you'll have 'a creativity workshop in your pocket' (to use David Armano's phrase). What are the implications for daily creativity?
It means wherever you go, there's always an opportunity to give yourself a "quick hit of creativity," or to do a creative workshop (especially effective with other people). I'm getting a lot of positive mail from people who are doing just that.
4. With the iPhone, Android phones and netbooks all flying off the shelves at the moment, it looks as though personal mobile computing has arrived. How do you see mobile computing developing in future -- and what are the opportunities for stimulating and harnessing our creativity?
I think this is fantastic. I hope in future versions of the Creative Whack Pack, I can create a function that allows users to create their own creativity cards that can be added to the "deck" and shared with others around the world.
It should be fun to watch all of this develop. I'm glad to be a part of it.
Good luck to all of your readers!
Roger von Oech is the author of the bestselling creativity classics A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, and the creator of the Creative Whack Pack and the Ball of Whacks. For more creative inspiration, visit Roger's Creative Think website.
The post Roger von Oech Talks about the Creative Whack Pack for the iPhone appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Just like Max Harris.
In the 1940s, Harris was one of the leading figures of the Australian literary scene. A noted poet himself, he edited the magazine Angry Penguins, which championed avant-garde modernist poetry. Gifted and charismatic, Harris enjoyed provoking Australia's conservative poetry establishment by praising and publishing surrealist poems in his magazine.
Although he attracted a close circle of like-minded poets, Harris was frustrated by Australia's failure to produce a great modernist poet who could rival masters such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.
Then one day, he received a letter from a lady introducing herself as Miss Ethel Malley from Croydon, accompanied by a sheaf of poems by her late brother Ern Malley. Although she was 'not a literary person' she had been advised by a friend that they were 'very good' and 'should be published'. She asked Harris if he would be so kind as to let her know 'whether you think there is anything in them'.
Harris read and re-read the 17 poems with increasing excitement. Their experimental modernist style was very much to his taste. He thought there was a great deal in them - so much so that he devoted an entire issue of Angry Penguins to their publication and commemoration of Australia's lost modernist master.
But the Ern Malley edition of Angry Penguins didn't quite produce the desired response. One of Harris's former university lecturers, Brian Elliott, praised the poems in a review - but accused Harris of writing them himself, in an attempt to hoax the public.
Harris strongly denied the accusation, going so far as to hire a private detective to investigate Malley's background and prove the authenticity of the poems. But when the detective drew a blank, Harris started to become concerned.
Concern jolted into alarm when he was woken at 2 a.m. by a journalist full of questions about the poems and their origins. Shortly afterwards, a Sydney newspaper broke the news that there never had been an Ern Malley nor an Ethel Malley in Croydon.
Speculation filled the Ern Malley-shaped void. Some still suspected Harris of writing the poems himself. Harris himself, knowing he was not short of enemies, suspected several leading writers of concocting the hoax - perhaps together.
The suspense was ended by the university newspaper On Dit, which exposed poets James McAuley and Howard Stewart as the hoaxers. They claimed to have knocked up the poems in an afternoon, producing deliberately bad poetry in order to test Harris's critical judgement:
We opened books at random, choosing a word or phrase haphazardly. We made lists of these and wove them in nonsensical sentences. We misquoted and made false allusions. We deliberately perpetrated bad verse, and selected awkward rhymes from a Ripman's Rhyming Dictionary.
McAuley and Stewart were hostile to avant-garde poetry in general and Angry Penguins in particular, and made the most of their opportunity to rub it in:
Mr. Max Harris and other Angry Penguins writers represent an Australian outcrop of a literary fashion which has become prominent in England and America... The distinctive feature of the fashion, it seemed to us, was that it rendered its devotees insensible of absurdity and incapable of ordinary discrimination.
Our feeling was that by processes of critical self-delusion and mutual admiration, the perpetrators of this humourless nonsense had managed to pass it off on would-be intellectuals and Bohemians, both here and abroad, as great poetry.
However... it was possible that we had simply failed to penetrate to the inward substance of these productions. The only way of settling the matter was by way of experiment. It was, after all, fair enough. If Mr Harris proved to have sufficient discrimination to reject the poems, then the tables would have been turned.
When the full extent of the hoax got out, it was open season on Harris, whose reputation never recovered. Few people were convinced by his defiant claim that the poems had intrinsic merit, regardless of their origin. To add insult to injury, he found himself in court when some of the Ern Malley material was judged to be indecent and immoral. He lost the case and was fined five pounds.
Although Ern Malley never existed, he had a significant impact on Australian poetry - according to The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, genuine modernist poetry 'received a severe setback, and the conservative element was undoubtedly strengthened'.
In one final twist of irony, Ern Malley turned out to be by far the most memorable literary creation of either James McAuley or Howard Stewart.
For more details of this fascinating story, check out the official Ern Malley site.
I have mixed feelings about the Ern Malley affair. On the one hand, it's hard not to share the conspirators' glee in exposing the pretensions of a man who arguably should have known better.
But having edited a poetry magazine myself, I can't help feeling some sympathy for Max Harris. I'm pretty confident of my literary judgement and I'm proud of the selection of poems I made for my issue of Magma. But as I waded through the thousands of poems in my inbox, there were moments when I could feel the ghost of Ern Malley hovering over me. How could I be sure, the ghost whispered, that I wasn't rejecting a masterpiece or accepting a piece of codswallop?
No doubt there are one or two poets out there who would argue that I did miss out on a masterpiece. And I'm pleased to report that (so far) none of the poets I selected has been exposed as a hoaxer. But for me, Ern Malley serves as a reminder that we are all fallible.
Who knows which of us will next find ourselves wearing the Emperor's New Clothes?
Is it possible to establish 'objective' critical standards in any creative field - or will judgments always contain an element of subjectivity?
Could the Ern Malley affair only happen in a 'fine art' like poetry - or can you think of any examples in commercial creative fields?
How do you sharpen your critical judgement? Have you made any memorable gaffes? (Don't worry, your secret's safe with us. ;-) )
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Can You Tell a Masterpiece from a Fake? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
It's time for another of our irregular roundups of Lateral Activity elsewhere on the web.
Creative entrepreneurs who enjoyed our list of the top 10 Social Networks for Creative People should check out Dan Schawbel's list of the Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs -- the two lists only have one network in common, so they should complement each other pretty well.
Scratching your head for ideas for your next creative venture? Trendwatching.com is kicking off an 'Innovation Avalanche' with a list of '41 business ideas waiting to be copied'.
But before you go rushing off to put your ideas into action, read Jonathan Mead's article 'If Itas a Good Ideaa| Donat Do It':
if thinking about doing what you love doesnat keep you up at night, itas probably not worth chasing. If it scares you to death that you will inevitablys might fail, you know itas real love. (If youare not sure what your passion is and nothing keeps you up at night, thatas OK, too. My book, Reclaim Your Dreams, can help you figure that out.)
This is especially true if youare trying to make a living out of these endeavors. If youare heart is not completely in it, someone out there thatas fanatically in love with what theyare doing will out hustle you.
Once you're sure that you've got more than just a good idea and you're ready to make it happen, this interview with Behance founder Scott Belsky will give you some great advice on productivity tools for creatives.
It turns out the LA team are not the only ones to have doubts about lateral thinking and the nine-dot puzzle. Comedian and creativity consultant Ayd Instone actually believes lateral thinking problems are evil.
My piece about How RSI Made Me More Productive appeared in a productivity-themed HR Carnival at i4cp.com.
And Robyn McMaster was kind enough to nominate Lateral Action for a Premio Dardos award over at Brain Based Biz. She's taken a creative approach to her post, compiling a great list of blogs according to the eight multiple intelligence categories.
Finally, Emma Alvarez Gibson interviewed me about the little details that make a big difference, over at Old Soul Ink, a great blog with the strapline 'better living through minutiae'.
The post Lateral Activity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Theyave lost their gig and need to reinvent themselves as self-sufficient solos or small business owners.
Others understand that ajob securitya has always been a myth and are simply sick of the crap that comes with working for others.
Regardless, all it takes is one good idea, right?
The temptation, especially when under pressure, is to work more, rest lessa| cranking away until you get that great idea.
Grind it out.
Stay focused.
Be tough.
Sleep when youare dead.
Wrong.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs defines creativity as ajust connecting things.a The notion that creativity results from seeing connections between seemingly unrelated things is spot on, and is an easier task for those with lower associative barriers.
In other words, the connections are always there, but itas easier for some to see them than others. Why is that?
Youave likely heard that an aincubationa period is critical to creativity and problem solving. Research now shows that sleep is a major facilitator to lowering associative barriers while you allow potential solutions to marinate:
Dr. Ellenbogenas research at Harvard indicates that if an incubation period includes sleep, people are 33 percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas, and yet, as he puts it, these performance enhancements exist acompletely beneath the radar screen.a
In other words, people are more creative after sleep, but they donat know it.
So sleep is crucial to creativity. But we donat consciously realize it, and therefore discount the need for sleep when seeking a creative solution or innovative idea.
Getting enough sleep is the epitome of the clichA(c) awork smarter, not harder.a Youare not doing yourself any favors when you burn the candle down to the wick, no matter how motivated you are. A single extraordinary idea is worth much more than thousands of hours of foolish productivity.
Hey, youave had worse news, right?
Consider the story of Arthur Fry a engineer, choral singer, Presbyterian.
Mr. Fry marked songs in his choir book with little scraps of paper. As you might imagine, Arthur consistently lost his place as the tiny pieces of paper invariably fell out.
Luckily, during one Sunday sermon, Arthur Fry started to daydream. What he needed, he imagined, was a sticky piece of paper that wouldnat fall out of the choir book.
Did I mention Mr. Fry was an engineer at 3M?
The Post-it Note (an eventual billion dollar a year product line) was born.
Daydreaming has long been the glorified province of creative genius. The stories about Albert Einstein alone should convince us that daydreaming is crucial to creative thinking.
And yet, how do we treat the average daydreamer? Not as a creative genius, Iam quite sure.
So what does science say? Research shows that people who engage in more daydreaming score higher on experimental measures of creativity:
Daydreams involve a more relaxed style of thinking, with people more willing to contemplate ideas that seem silly or far-fetched," says Teresa Belton, a research associate at East Anglia University in England.
Does this mean that all daydreamers are creative? Clearly nota| so whatas the difference between slacking off and fostering creativity?
It all boils down to awareness. People who are aware of and recognize their daydreaming are more creative than those who simply slip off into blissful oblivion.
Dr. Marcus Raichle, a neurologist and radiologist at Washington University, says:
When your brain is supposedly doing nothing and daydreaming, it's really doing a tremendous amount. We call it the 'resting state,' but the brain isn't resting at all.
So pay attention the next time youare not paying attention. A well-timed daydream may be the most productive thing you do today.
Donat get me wronga| when it comes time to execute on your big idea, youare in for a lot of work. Often that means long hours and less rest.
But keep in mind that the execution and implementation of a great idea is really a series of problems and challenges that require your full creative awareness. Innovative thinking doesnat end with the big idea, itas only just begun.
Pushing yourself to exhaustion may result in a less effective businessa| or even failure when you simply burn out. So donat forget to sleep and daydream all along your entrepreneurial journey.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How to Sleep and Daydream Your Way to Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Lateral thinking is such a familiar concept that it's virtually synonymous with 'creative thinking'. The phrase 'lateral thinking' is frequently used interchangeably with 'creativity'. We take it for granted that creative people think different to the rest of us. It's what makes them creative.
The popularity of lateral thinking is testament to the creativity, productivity and promotional energy of its originator, Edward de Bono. For four decades, he has taught lateral thinking via his books, articles, lectures and consulting. De Bono has been a tireless advocate for the value of creative thinking, and he deserves some of the credit for pushing creativity to the forefront of the business agenda.
Thanks to de Bono's efforts, lateral thinking is now universally acknowledged as an essential skill for creativity and innovation.
Or is it?
Psychology professor and creativity expert Robert Weisberg is highly critical of lateral thinking and claims it is unnecessary for creativity. He groups lateral thinking with psychologist J.P. Guilford's concept of 'divergent thinking', since both approaches 'have as a central idea that overcoming old habits (that is, being flexible, moving laterally), is the crux of creative thinking'.
In his book Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius, Weisberg claims there is very little evidence for this kind of thinking in the work of great creators:
a number of detailed reports of scientific discovery, artistic creativity, and invention are available, including Darwin's notebooks on the development of his theory of evolution, Watson's report of the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule, Picassos preliminary sketches for several of his most famous paintings, and Edison's notebooks on the invention of the kinetoscope. These examples are covered in detail in later chapters [of this book], and nothing like divergent thinking is evident in any of them. Thus, although it seems reasonable to Guilford that producing many and varied ideas through "divergent" or "lateral" thinking ought to be a cornerstone of creative thinking, this idea does not seem to be correct.
What is going on here? How on earth can Weisberg claim that lateral thinking is not 'a cornerstone of creative thinking'?
Lateral thinking was developed by Edward de Bono in response to the following question:
Why do some people always seem to be having new ideas while others of equal intelligence never do?
(Edward de Bono, New Think)
He describes lateral thinking as a special kind of thinking that is distinct from ordinary logic - which he terms 'vertical thinking':
Lateral thinking is concerned with the generation of new ideas...
Lateral thinking is also concerned with breaking out of the concept presence of old ideas. This leads to changes in attitude and approach; to looking in a different way at things which have always been looked at in the same way. Liberation from old ideas and the stimulation of new ones are twin aspects of lateral thinking.
Lateral thinking is quite distinct from vertical thinking which is the traditional type of thinking. In vertical thinking one moves forward by sequential steps each of which must be justified...
Lateral thinking is not a substitute for vertical thinking. Both are required. They are complementary. Lateral thinking is generative. Vertical thinking is selective.
(Edward de Bono, Lateral Thinking)
De Bono describes lateral thinking as 'a habit of mind and an attitude of mind' which can be fostered by practising specific lateral thinking techniques, such as:
The principles and techniques of lateral thinking are described in de Bono's books New Think (1967), Lateral Thinking (1970) and Serious Creativity (1992).
In New Think, de Bono provides the following example of a fresh perspective resulting in a creative solution to a problem:
It is not easy to get outside a particular way of looking at things in order to find a new way. Very often all the basic ingredients of a new idea are already to hand and all that is required is a particular way of assembling them. The aim of the lateral thinker would be to try to find this right way of looking at the features of the problem. He would be made more aware of what was already implicit in what he knew. In this way the basic knowledge and expertise in a particular field could be fully utilized.
For many years physiologists could not understand the purpose of the long loops in the kidney tubules: it was assumed that the loops had no special function and were a relic of the way the kidney had evolved.Then one day an engineer looked at the loops and at once recognized that they could be part of a counter-current multiplier, a well-known engineering device for increasing the concentration of solutions. In this instance a fresh look from outside provided an answer to something that had been a puzzle for a long time. The usefulness of an outside view of a problem is not only that special experience from a different field can be brought to bear but also that the outsider is not bogged down by the particular way of approaching things that has developed in those closest to the problem... Unfortunately expertise in a field does not by itself imply an ability to look at things in different ways; lateral thinking may be required for that.
(Edward de Bono, New Think)
This example is typical of de Bono's writing, in emphasising the superiority of a 'fresh perspective' and lateral thinking over 'expertise' and getting 'bogged down by [a] particular way of approaching things'. For de Bono, the ability to think laterally is what distinguishes creative people from noncreative people.
Robert Weisberg argues that there is very little evidence of lateral thinking in the work of great creators such as Mozart, Beethoven, Darwin, Edison, Coleridge, Whitman and the Wright brothers. For him, the idea of extraordinary creative thinking processes is part of 'the Genius myth', in which creative achievers are placed on pedestals above the rest of us mere mortals.
He argues that the creative process takes place via a process of logical thinking, trial and error, feedback and reflection - all of which involves 'ordinary thought processes' rather than lateral thinking. Whereas de Bono stresses the need to take off the 'blinkers' of past knowledge in order to look at things afresh and come up with new solutions, Weisberg argues that expertise and knowledge based on past experience are the foundation on which creators build.
For example, here's Weisberg's response to de Bono's story of the kidney and the engineer:
On the basis of this sort of example, de Bono recommends that in order to solve a recalcitrant problem, one should adopt a fresh perspective, in this case that of the engineer. That is ... one is urged to break away from one's knowledge. However, from the perspective of the engineer, there was nothing new involved: He was able to apply his knowledge relatively directly to the new situation he was presented with, because of a straightforward relationship between what he saw and what he knew. For the engineer, this response was just another example of recognising something familiar. ... It is only from the perspective of the perplexed physiologist that there is anything requiring explanation in terms of creative thinking.
... It is only when we examine the situation from outside, as an ignorant observer, that we feel the necessity to postulate basic differences between creative and noncreative individuals. That is, it may not be necessary to assume that creative individuals differ from the noncreative in any significant way, except for the knowledge they possess.
(Robert Weisberg, 'Creativity and Knowledge - a Challenge to Theories', in Handbook of Creativity, ed Robert Sternberg)
So for Weisberg, creative people differ from noncreative people not in their use of lateral thinking, but in possessing different knowledge and skills.
He does concede that analogies are important in creative thinking, but argues that these are typically 'near' (i.e. obvious) analogies rather than the 'distant' (surprising) analogies recommended by de Bono. To us, the analogy between kidneys and engineering may seem creative and surprising, but for the engineer it was obvious and mundane.
In support of his argument that unusual thinking skills are unnecessary for creativity, he cites research showing a low correlation between high scores on creative thinking tests and actual creative performance.
Weisberg also backs up his case with a mass of evidence (manuscript drafts, prototypes, notebooks etc) from the work of famous creators in the fields of invention, science and the arts. He deliberately includes detailed case studies of avant-garde artists such as Picasso and Pollock, to show that even their radically new creations did not involve extraordinary thinking processes.
De Bono's writings contain plenty of instructions on what he thinks we should do to improve our creativity. But although he mentions some impressive names along the way - such as Darwin, Marconi and Einstein - he offers nothing like the detailed evidence or analysis presented by Weisberg.
So if we put de Bono's writing side by side with Weisberg's, the evidence for lateral thinking techniques being used 'in the field' by distinguished creators starts to look a little thin.
Do you make use of lateral thinking techniques in your work?
Do you agree that creative people 'think different' to the rest of us?
Is it possible to be outstandingly creative without using lateral thinking?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Is Lateral Thinking Necessary for Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In my last article I reviewed the speech recognition functionality of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now I'm going to focus on the creative side of things, by looking at five benefits of speech recognition for writers - plus two pitfalls you should watch out for.
I'm a pretty fast touch typist, but even so my fingers often struggled to keep pace with my thoughts as I wrote. There were many times when I simply couldn't get the words down quickly enough, and found myself feverishly typing while trying to hold several sentences in my short-term memory. While I was doing that, of course, I was having to keep in check the impulse to follow the train of thought further. My mind was like an eager dog bounding ahead across the landscape, while my fingers plodded along afterwards, like the dog's owner. Every so often the dog would have to stop and impatiently retrace its steps, yapping at the owner to speed up.
The act of typing was also taking up part of my attention as I wrote. After many years of typing, it felt pretty automatic so I didn't really notice this - but switching to speech recognition has removed an element of friction that I didn't realise was there. It's common sense when you think about it, but the act of speaking is a far more natural and efficient way of generating words than moving your fingers over a keyboard. Making the switch is a bit like leaving the optician's with a new set of lenses and suddenly noticing all the fine details that you hadn't noticed you were missing.
Now, I can speak my thoughts as quickly as they come to me, and see them appearing magically on the screen. There is still a slight friction - Dragon mishears about 10% of words, so I have to go back and correct them. But the editing tools are superb, so this doesn't slow me down much. The result is that I can devote far more of my attention to what I want to say than to getting it down on the screen.
I recently wrote an e-mail to my brother-in-law, who told me it sounded like hearing me speak - more so than my previous hand-typed e-mails. I've also had feedback from writer friends that my style has become clearer and sharper over the past few months. I'm convinced that the switch to speech recognition has had something to do with this.
Dragon allows me to capture the natural quality of my speech. It feels more like talking to someone directly than trying to create literature. Hopefully this helps me avoid the temptation of self-conscious 'fine writing'.
This has clear advantages if you're writing for a blog or other forms of social media, where authenticity and a conversational tone are highly valued. It's much easier to 'find your voice' when all you have to do is open your mouth and speak. And the false notes in your writing are much more obvious when you speak the words aloud - they just don't feel right. Trust that feeling, it can be a great editor for you.
Poetry is my favourite form of writing - and as you know, poetry was originally an oral art form. Homer didn't write his poems, he spoke them aloud, and they were handed down through generations of poets as oral memories before they were committed to paper. Modern poetry is still a hybrid medium: poets read their work aloud in public and debates rage about whether they should write for the 'page' or the 'stage'. As yet I haven't written a lot of poetry using Dragon, but my early experiments have been great fun, and suggest that speech recognition could be a tremendous way for poets to capture the rhythms and cadences of a live speaking voice.
If you buy speech recognition software, I strongly suggest you get a version that supports a wireless headset. Using a Bluetooth headset means I'm no longer chained to my desk - I'm writing these words strolling around the room, which gives me an incredible sense of freedom. After spending years typing away at my desk, it feels like I've escaped from prison.
This is particularly important for me, because I tend to become very animated and un-British when I'm talking about something that interests me. I wave my arms about and walk around the room. My wife thinks it's hilarious that I invariably walk up and down when I'm on the phone to someone. There's something about walking and movement that facilitates the flow of words - and it's sheer joy to utilise this in my writing process.
As a poet, I'm claiming kinship with some of my heroes with this habit - Wordsworth and Coleridge are two of the many famous poets who composed verse while out walking in the countryside. Here's the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakowsky:
I walk along, waving my arms and mumbling almost wordlessly, now shortening my steps so as not to interrupt my mumbling, now mumbling more rapidly in time with my steps ...
So the rhythm is trimmed in take shape - and rhythm is the basis of any poetic work, resounding through the whole thing.
(Vladimir Mayakowsky, How Verses Are Made)
So as I stride around my room, I like to think I'm (ahem) following in the footsteps of the great poets of the past.
Dragon is excellent for getting ideas down and producing a first draft. But our goal is writers is not to produce a rambling collection of incoherent speech. We are still in the business of producing a carefully crafted piece of writing. Speech makes it quicker and easier to do this, allowing you to revise your draft by highlighting and replacing words with a few simple commands.
It's hard to describe exactly how speech recognition affects the process of editing and writing, except to say that I'm much more aware of the words themselves - their arrangement and impact - than I am of the writing process or the written document.
Again, poetry comes to mind for me - on the one hand it's one of the most deliberately crafted forms of literature, yet on the other it aspires
You can probably tell that I'm enjoying myself writing via speech recognition. Instead of sitting hunched over my laptop, willing my fingers to keep pace with my thinking, I'm now free to wander around the room, speaking in my natural voice and watching the words appear on the screen almost at the speed of thought. Which makes writing a positive pleasure.
And guess what? I'm now more motivated to write every day. I know from experience - and having coached many writers over the past decade or so - how much resistance and procrastination can get in the way of sitting down to start writing. And I've been delighted to discover that using speech recognition has significantly reduced my resistance to writing.
There's still some friction - probably there always will be. But these days I actively look forward to writing every day, and speech recognition has to take some of the credit for that. More importantly, I'm writing more, and more often. Many writers have said that the best way to improve your writing is to do a lot of it - so if we measure success by productivity then I'm certainly improving!
Nothing's perfect, and speech recognition is no exception. Here are two problems I've encountered as a result of using it:
You've probably noticed I tend to write fairly long blog posts, and this one is no exception. While I'd argue that this plays to my strengths as a writer and means I provide plenty of value to my readers, I do try not to overwhelm people.
Speech recognition can help you generate large volumes of text quickly - so there can be a temptation to ramble on and say more than is necessary. If you have a tendency to over-explain things, there's a danger that speech recognition will make this bad habit worse.
So you need to be on your guard to ensure that quantity doesn't overwhelm quality. Once you've written your first draft, come back to it with a sharp editorial eye and be merciless in separating out the wheat from the chaff. If you can, persuade a friend or colleague to help you with this - I know I've benefited from feedback from Brian and Tony while writing for Lateral Action.
I mentioned in my review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking that it never makes spelling mistakes but often makes 'word mistakes' - i.e. inserting the wrong word entirely. But because the word is invariably spelt correctly, it doesn't 'jump out' at me as I proofread the finished text. I can end up with a document littered with what look like Freudian slips.
So you have to learn a different style of proofreading, really reading every sentence for sense rather than scanning it for grammatical/spelling errors. Again, it can be invaluable to engage another pair of eyes to help you with this. (Shane Arthur did a great job of this for me on my e-book How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself)).
Overall, I've found the benefits of speech recognition far outweigh the pitfalls. It's transforming my writing. Maybe it could transform yours.
If so - how did it affect your writing?
If not - have I persuaded you to try it? Why/why not?
Either way - do you like the idea of speech recognition, or do you consider writing or typing to be 'the real thing'?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post 5 Ways Speech Recognition Can Make You a Better Writer appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Do you ever struggle to type out your thoughts as quickly as they come to you?
Do you get tired of sitting hunched over your laptop for hours on end? Or is spelling a bugbear that sucks all the pleasure out of your writing?
Have you ever dreamt of being able to talk to your computer and watch the words magically appear on the screen? Would you love to stroll about your office dictating to your digital PA?
Ladies and gentlemen, the future is here and it's called Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that RSI had forced me to explore speech recognition software and promised you a fuller review.
So this is the first of two articles about Dragon - in this one, I'm going to review the software's functionality and how to use it. In my next article, I'm going to suggest how speech recognition software can boost your creativity, especially if you're a writer.
Dragon does what it says on the tin - you can type as fast as you talk. One of the biggest initial hurdles I had was simply trusting that I could speak at my normal speed, instead of slowing down for the software. Counterintuitively, Dragon actually works better the faster you talk. I'm a reasonably fast touch typist, but there's no way I could type as fast as I can generate text with Dragon. Even allowing for mistakes (see below) and corrections, I can still churn out text much faster than before.
So I can't imagine going back to typing articles. Even writing a short e-mail, I often find myself switching to Dragon out of impatience because I know I can do it much faster via voice.
Several people had warned me that speech recognition software involves a significant 'learning curve' before you know it well enough to use it effectively. But this wasn't my experience, at least as far as drafting articles was concerned. I had to learn a few basic commands, but the process of speaking and seeing the text on the screen was remarkably smooth.
Dragon is made by Nuance in the US, but it handles my British accent no problem. Here's a video demonstration from Delhi, with Dragon responding perfectly to the user's Indian accent. I guess the ultimate test would be to challenge it to understand some of my relatives from Glasgow - I'll keep you posted if that happens! :-)
Oddly enough, it feels as though Dragon is doing more of the learning than you are. And the more you use it, the more it gets used to your accent and vocabulary, so the better it gets. When you set it up, I recommend allowing it to scan files on your hard drive to pick up unusual words and names that you use frequently. Right from the go, it was almost uncanny to see Dragon recognise words such as 'Iggy Pop' and 'Tyler Durden' from having scanned my documents.
If you buy Dragon, make sure you get the wireless edition, which comes with a Bluetooth headset, otherwise you'll miss out on one of the coolest features of the software. Using the wireless headset means you can literally get up and walk away from your computer, dictating text as you stroll around the room. Or simply stand up and stretch, or recline in your chair. This brings an incredible sense of freedom and ease, when compared to the endless hours I've spent sitting typing.
Suppose you're working on an article and want to check when the Mona Lisa was painted. Without leaving your word processor, you just have to say 'search Wikipedia for Mona Lisa' - and (almost) before you can say 'search Wikipedia for Mona Lisa' Dragon has flipped to your web browser and opened the relevant article. Ditto Google searches - just say 'search the web for Mona Lisa' and the search appears almost instantly. It's similarly easy to dictate the names of websites into the browser address bar and tell Dragon to 'go there'. So some aspects of browsing the web are mind-bogglingly good.
In my experience Dragon is about 90% accurate when taking dictation. But it does make mistakes - so you need to watch it carefully.
Dragon never makes a spelling mistake - but it does make 'word mistakes', i.e. inserting the wrong word entirely. So you can end up with a text littered with what look like Freudian slips. This can be particularly embarrassing when writing e-mails! I used to work as a proofreader and pride myself on being able to pick up spelling errors at 40 paces - but I'm having to learn a completely different style of proofreading, to pick up rogue words instead of typos.
In spite of Dragon's phenomenal learning capabilities, it has a few annoying sticking points. In my experience, there are some words or phrases it simply refuses to learn. E.g. I have a friend and regular e-mail correspondent called Jacqui, yet Dragon persistently uses the spelling 'Jacquie' every time I write her an e-mail, even after being corrected hundreds of times. Ditto punctuation, which doesn't seem to be included in the learning process. Dragon persists in giving me the words 'will stop' about 50% of the time I say 'full stop' ('period' to my American readers) - again, even after being corrected countless times.
The really stellar word processing performance seems to be limited to DragonPad - Dragon's own version of WordPad. When using other software, it doesn't seem to run as smoothly and not all the functionality is available. I don't find this a big problem - I tend to write articles in DragonPad and copy and paste them elsewhere. Plus Dragon's pop-up Dictation Box can be used within other applications and does a pretty good job. N.b. I haven't tried using Dragon with Microsoft Word, as I had already paid enough for Vista (see below) and didn't fancy buying Word for Windows when I have the Mac version - so would be interested to hear from any of you who have tried it in Word.
The one aspect of Dragon that I found disappointing was surfing the web. I've pointed out that some aspects of the web functionality are amazingly good. And really simple webpages work fine - e.g. I can use Twitter quite easily without ever having to touch the screen.
But I run into serious difficulties with more complicated websites, such as Gmail, Google Reader or forums. The more links there are on a page, the more likely it is that Dragon will choose the wrong one (or none) when I speak it aloud. The other options for moving the mouse around the screen (e.g. telling the mouse to 'move up 50 [pixels]' or a mousegrid system) are OK in some contexts but pretty cumbersome overall.
I'm tempted to attribute this to the limitations of speech recognition per se, except that Microsoft Vista's built-in speech recognition has a beautifully elegant solution - at any point, you just say the words 'show numbers' and a small number will appear over every button/link on your screen. Then you just have to speak the link's number for Vista to click it. (Screenshot here.) So why don't I use Vista for surfing? Because the speech recognition is so poor that rarely recognises the numbers when I say them. (Head - meet wall.) I'm assuming Microsoft must have patented this solution, otherwise I'd be amazed that Dragon hasn't implemented it.
Windows is streets ahead of the Mac as far as speech recognition is concerned. Even Windows Vista's built-in speech recognition is better than Mac O/S (though not nearly as good as Dragon). So after two years as an enthusiastic Mac convert, I had to grit my teeth, partition my hard drive and install Vista on my MacBook Pro. Which involved forking out for a Leopard upgrade (APS80) and Windows Vista (APS140) on top of Dragon itself (APS160). Ouch! But as it allowed me to work in spite of RSI, it was worth the investment.
I'd never seen my Mac crash before - using Vista, it's a regular occurrence. But Dragon is so good that I'm even prepared to put up with Vista.
There is a Mac alternative to Dragon - MacSpeech Dictate. Last autumn I read several reviews of MacSpeech comparing it unfavourably to Dragon, so I opted for the latter. But since then a new version of MacSpeech has been released, which uses the Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine.
Having spent more than enough on speech recognition already, I haven't taken the plunge and tried MacSpeech, so I can't give you a personal recommendation of this product. But Nick Cernis has kindly provided the following comments, based on his experience of MacSpeech:
If you want to become a dictator without having to quietly raise a team of elite commandos, MacSpeech Dictate is the perfect solution.
Star Trek fans will be delighted to note that you can customise spoken commands, changing a dull request like 'press the key enter' to a much more satisfying 'make it so'.
Not only does it do what it's told; it's trained in flattery too. The first time I spoke my name, it typed 'Rich Journalist'. I'm not ashamed to admit that I haven't bothered to correct it.
(Nick Cernis, Put Things Off)
Here's a Dyslexia.com review of the new MacSpeech Dictate, including some comments about the differences between MacSpeech and Dragon. Plus a review by lawyer Victor Medina.
Dragon will significantly boost your productivity, by making it quicker and easier to get words out of your head and onto the screen. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll wonder how you managed without it.
If you're unable to use a keyboard or mouse, Dragon could be a godsend for you, allowing you to do work that would be otherwise impossible. In my case, RSI has prevented me from typing for several months - without Dragon, there's no way I could have written all my articles on Lateral Action without hiring a PA. In his review of MacSpeech Dictate, RSI sufferer Victor Medina describes it as 'the software that most likely saved my career'.
I've read several comments from dyslexic people saying that using Dragon has given them a tremendous boost of confidence in their writing, as it eliminates spelling errors. So if you suffer from dyslexia, Dragon could allow you to focus 100% on what you want to say instead of worrying about your spelling.
Dragon could transform the way you write. It offers you a whole new way of generating text. You may not like it, but I'd suggest it's at least worth experimenting with speech recognition. In my next article I'm going to describe how I believe it has made me a better writer.
If your work involves image manipulation or other 'mouse intensive' operations, then I don't see how Dragon can help you with this. That's not a criticism of Dragon, but more a limitation of speech recognition per se.
If so ...
What software have you used?
What pros and cons did you discover?
Any tips?
If not ...
Is it something you'd like to try?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Dragon NaturallySpeaking â Speech Recognition That Works appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
And if you haven't read it before, pour yourself a large coffee/whiskey/absinthe and treat yourself to Hugh's original article How to Be Creative, which spawned the book. It will probably be the best thing you read this week.
One of the sample chapters in the free download is devoted to Hugh's 'Sex and Cash' theory:
THE SEX & CASH THEORY
The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.
A good example is Phil, a New York photographer friend of mine. He does really wild stuff for the small, hipster magazinesait pays virtually nothing, but it allows him to build his portfolio. Then heall leverage that to go off and shoot some retail catalogues for a while. Nothing too exciting, but it pays the bills.
...
One year John Travolta will be in an ultrahip flick like Pulp Fiction (aSexa), another heall be in some forgettable, big- budget thriller like Broken Arrow (aCasha).
...
Iam thinking about the young writer who has to wait tables to pay the bills, in spite of her writing appearing in all the cool and hip magazines . . . who dreams of one day not having her life divided so harshly.
Well, over time the aharshlya bit might go away, but not the adivided.a
This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.
And nobody is immune. Not the struggling waiter, nor the movie star.
Do you recognise the tension between sexy creative work and work that pays the bills?
Do you agree that this tension 'will never be transcended' however successful you are?
How do you resolve this tension?
The post Hugh MacLeod: Can You Do Sexy Creative Work AND Get Paid for It? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I reside in Paris, the revered Lady of the Palais du Louvre.
By day, crowds flock to look upon my face. By night, lasers and bodyguards keep vigil over me.
I have conquered countless hearts - more than any woman who ever lived.
My reign has lasted over 500 years - longer than any queen in history.
My face is known across the face of the earth.
The seasons come and go. The crowds come and go. Their fashions change. Only I remain.
My name is a byword for immortal beauty.
But it was not always thus. My fame has grown, a vast oak tree from a tiny acorn.
Come closer, and I will whisper in your ear the secrets of my fame. Should you wish to plant your own tree, my words may help it flourish.
Listen carefully, but do not presume to rival me - to dream of that, you should have planted your acorn a long, long time ago...
Ah, Leonardo. The stories I could tell ... But why break the veil of history? Why tamper with an image that has served me well? Why not let the man enjoy the mantle of Divine Genius? Should I kill the goose that has laid so many golden eggs?
All my life, the name of Leonardo da Vinci has opened doors for me. Those three words, like a magical charm, have assured my success. Before they even saw my face, his name prepared men for my beauty.
A few spiteful souls have tried to separate us, claiming Leonardo's hand never touched me. But their malice came to nothing. My fellow Florentine, Dante Alighieri, would have known how to describe their fate.
My advice to you: If you are ever fortunate enough to be associated with the image of Divine Genius - in yourself or another - you may notice many things up close that are invisible to the vulgar crowd in the distance. Things that may bring you to question the world's image. Ignore such trifles. And never breathe a word of them. When onlookers marvel at the stately progress of a swan, it profits no-one if you point out the toiling legs beneath the surface.
In the arts as well as in affairs of state there are greater and lesser kingdoms, principalities and courts. Certain places have an aura of power, attracting those who wield it. If Paris is the capital of the Empire of Art, the Louvre - my home - is its Palace.
My poor sister Cecilia did not understand this. For a while, in our youth, our beauties were spoken of in the same breath. But she made an unfortunate match. She found herself in Krakow, Poland - a pretty place, I doubt not, yet far from us in Paris. Little wonder the critics overlooked her, even less that I overshadowed her.
After all, had I not chosen Paris for my home, I should never have met Monsieur Gautier...
My advice to you: Even in this disembodied age, it makes a difference where you live. Where are the centres of influence for your art or trade? Make sure you can be found there, when it matters. And in the virtual world, build yourself a fitting mansion, well signposted from all the major thoroughfares.
Any woman knows men are slow to notice telling details. My famous smile, for instance. Did you know it took men over 400 years to comment on its mystery? That 16th century peasant Vasari said I was smiling at clowns, brought to entertain me while Leonardo painted. Vasari was the clown! It took a really cultivated man, Monsieur Theophile Gautier, to first notice the mystery of my smile and tell the world.
A respected man of letters, Monsieur Gautier was the foremost art critic of 19th century Paris. When he spoke, artists, critics and the public listened. Once, a single article of his in praise of Monsieur Ingres' paintings caused three thousand visitors to descend on the artist's studio. So you can well imagine the effect produced when he praised my 'sinuous, serpentine mouth, turned up at the corners in a violent penumbra':
this sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously in Leonardo da Vinci's painting, and he seems to pose a yet unresolved riddle to the admiring centuries ... her gaze intimating unknown pleasures, her gaze so divinely ironic. We feel perturbed in her presence by her aura of superiority.
Because he was a gentleman, Monsieur Gautier made sure the credit was mine. He made it clear that he added nothing to my image - he merely pointed out what had always been there, but men had failed to see. He removed the scales from their eyes. The beauty and the enigma were mine alone.
Even today, there are fools who dismiss my smile as common - they say there were many smiles painted in the Renaissance, so many that a sad face would have been more remarkable. They point to other smiles painted by Leonardo himself. Superficially, I grant you, there may be resemblances to these other smiles. But for to the discerning connoisseur it will be obvious that those smiles contain not a thousandth part of the mystery of my own. And you are among the truly discerning - are you not?
My advice to you: Do not tell all, do not show all. Find some point of ambiguity or conjecture in who you are or what you do. Highlight it - or better yet, find someone else to bring it to the world's attention. Whatever you do, never resolve the mystery - allow speculations to revolve around you, like the stars around the sun.
Monsieur Gautier was a true gentleman. Another such was Mister Walter Pater, the British prince among critics. He was educated, refined in his manners, attuned to the spirit of his Victorian age - and connected to all the best people.
There was a time when British visitors to the Louvre would be informed by their guidebooks that Leonardo was not as great as Raphael or Michelangelo because they painted more than him!
Mister Pater changed all that.
I cannot pretend that his words - known by heart to generations of critics and admirers - do not touch me:
she is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas, and keeps the falling day about her; and trafficked for strange webs with Eastern merchants: and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as St Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and changed the eyelids and hands.
Once he had praised my beauty thus, and educated the world in my mystery, I never lacked for attention or respect. My position was assured.
My advice to you: In every society there are those who rule opinion as a Prince rules his subjects. Seek out these influencers. Woo them. Guide them. Reward them. But do not let them rise above their station. If they attempt this, replace them.
It is said we never value a thing at its true worth until we lose it. So it proved with me.
On the morning of 21 August, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, a common painter and decorator working in the Louvre, had the insolence to lift me from the wall, slide me under his coat, and walk out of the building into the Parisian sunshine.
Yet my misfortune was my fortune: by this time, the machinery of the popular press was in full swing, carrying my story and my plea for help across the globe. My face was front-page news. My name was on the lips of people speaking a thousand tongues. All the old stories were told and retold; conjecture piled upon conjecture. Songs were written, films were made. Day after day, the people wept for me, prayed for me.
And you can imagine the celebrations that greeted my rescue! Italy's shame at giving birth to the thief became her pride and joy when I was recovered, in a Florentine hotel (in a scene fit for the many thrillers it inspired). Before my triumphant return to Paris, I made a stately progress through Florence, Rome, Milan. Once more, the people wept and prayed. Once more I was the star of the front page. Once more, conjecture vied with conjecture, as to the true story of my ordeal and rescue.
My advice to you: I would not counsel you to seek out danger or controversy... yet, should you find yourself attacked, abused or in some other difficulty, do not lightly let the issue slide. Tell the world your story. Make sure your role - the hero perhaps, or the victim - is clear for all to see. Yet leave some space in your tapestry for others to embroider - let them guess and gossip, swelling your story with their own invention.
There are those who think their essence so precious it should be shielded from the gaze of the vulgar crowd. Fools! To be seen or heard is not to be owned. There may be many copies, but only one original.
My likeness has been copied countless times, appeared in countless places. I hang on the walls of the rich and poor alike. I gaze at them from posters, postcards, comic strips, stamps, bath-towels and coasters. Was I diminished with each copy? No! I was magnified, a millionfold. The more familiar my face became, the more visitors flocked to see me in person.
I am the darling of the advertising industry. Since 1980, it has been conservatively estimated, I have graced at least one new advertisement every week. I have promoted everything from airlines and computers to champagne and laxatives; every single advert has promoted me.
My advice to you: Be promiscuous. Allow your work to be copied, commented, circulated. The more you give away, the more you will be recognised, the more visitors you will receive. But be sure to keep something back for their visit. In my case, they are willing to pay just to stand in my presence, to experience the true original. What can you offer them to justify their journey and their money?
On 14 December 1962 I set sail for America. My chamber, of course, was purpose-built for comfort and security. It was waterproofed to ensure my survival even if the entire ship and her crew should perish. I was greeted in Washington by President Kennedy and his wife. The crowds broke all records. Mister Warhol paid homage. I conquered the New World as I had the Old.
In 1974 I flew to Tokyo, then Moscow, feted and mobbed in equal measure. After that, the peoples of the world came to me. For these 'tourists' I am essential - no trip to Paris is complete without a pilgrimage to my bulletproof shrine.
In 1990 I was the symbol of the football World Cup, clasping a ball between my hands. It could have been the world.
In 1998 I became a Windows screensaver.
Today, I hold court in a Parisian throne room donated by the Japanese network Nippon Television (NTV).
Each new technology, every fad and fashion, fans my global fame.
My advice to you: For me it was a superhuman effort to spread my image and my influence across the globe. Fortunately, I was equal to the task. Yet now, even a mere mortal like yourself can reach the furthest corners of the earth. The portals of the world are opened wide for you. Take full advantage. Why beg for custom in your local marketplace? Surely this great globe holds finer, fitter patrons for your wares? Seek them out.
For more marketing secrets of the Mona Lisa, read Donald Sassoon's fascinating book Mona Lisa: The History of the World's Most Famous Painting.
What do you make of Mona Lisa's advice?
Do you think she needed all this marketing for her artistic merits to be recognised?
Does knowing her marketing secrets change the way you look at her?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Seven Marketing Secrets of the Mona Lisa appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One of the articles that caught my eye while surfing idly performing important research for Lateral Action was The business behind The Watchmen by Dan Matthews. The author gives some of the back story of a production process that has lasted over 20 years, and argues that 'the film's success was sealed off-set':
Like Cloverfield and the Dark Knight before it, box office receipts for The Watchmen will be inflated by events leading up to the filmas release. In Cloverfieldas case it was a clever marketing campaign, in the Dark Knightas it was the untimely death of Joker actor Heath Ledger.
But The Watchmen will enjoy a few more bums on seats thanks to a high profile court case between Warner Bros, the studio behind the film, and Twentieth Century Fox, who claim the original distribution rights...
...the case has turned the film from a niche geek flick into box office alchemy of X-Men proportions. It may turn out to be the biggest film of the year. The legal drama allowed marketing to start earlier than usual and sales of comic books and related paraphernalia have soared.
Throw in a big social media campaign, in the UK led by the Picture Production Company (PPC), and you have the ingredients for an absolute smash.
Reading this, it reminded me that I first heard about the film version of Watchmen via an interview with Alan Moore, in which he said 'I will be spitting venom all over it' and even suggested he had put a magical curse on the film.
So far, I can go along with Matthews' argument that off-screen events will have a big influence on the film's reception. But he goes further and argues that there is something wrong with this:
Early reviews suggest it is visually stunning although the translation from comic to film is not as smooth as modern classics such as the Batman, Iron Man and the X-Men.
But with the cult of business media so firmly behind the film, who cares about the critics?
Call me cynical, but I'm not sure what the problem is here.
Matthews seems to be suggesting that a film 'deserves' to succeed or fail commercially based on its intrinsic artistic merit (as judged by professional critics). Marketing, PR and even social media are part of 'the cult of business media' - so if they turn Watchmen into a box office hit it will be a travesty.
It's a nice idea, but I can't think of any creative field where this is how things work. Even in the fine arts and sciences, those who achieve public recognition are invariably either good at marketing and self-promotion (like Shakespeare) or have 'champions' who do this for them (as Thomas Huxley did for Darwin). As a seasoned journalist and author, I've no doubt Dan Matthews knows this, and is being deliberately provocative.
Yet there are a surprising number of artists and creatives who seem oblivious to the need to promote their work. These are the ones who spend their time complaining about not being 'discovered' and carping at those who achieve fame and fortune - instead of working out how to bring some art to their marketing and show the world how great their work really is.
I'm not saying artistic and commercial success are the same thing. But if you only care about artistic merit, surely it shouldn't matter whether anyone notices your work or not?
If Watchmen succeeds, will it have gained an unfair advantage from the pre-launch controversy?
Should commercial success be linked to artistic merit?
As a creative person, do you believe it's your responsibility to promote your work?
The post Will Watchmen Deserve Its Success? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
aWhether you think that you can, or that you canat, you are usually right.a ~ Henry Ford
Are you looking to take lateral action and make a life change of some sort? Why not try a little reverse engineering for your goals?
This article is for anyone who wants to STOP thinking about doing remarkable things and start making them a reality.
Everyone has dreams and goals, but some folks lack a method and vision for success; while others are just plain afraid to pursue their potentially life changing ideas because they are terrified of failure.
When it comes to your goals, I truly believe that there has never been a more perfect time to move beyond fear of failure or social stigma. With the current state of the economy, you almost have nothing to lose by trying.
I am well aware of the uncomfortable feelings, self-doubt and apprehension that can be associated with thoughts of failure, and have found myself in their grip often. But I must say, after years of trial and error and coming up with a system that works for me, I have finally learned to manage and control those uneasy feelings.
I was raised in northeastern U.S. (New England) and come from the stock of conservative Puritans and blue-collar workers. All of the friends I grew up with still live within a 20-mile radius of each other. Most of them were never prone to do anything out of the aordinary.a Except, perhaps, a backpacking trip through Europe after finishing university and before getting married and settling down.
My life turned out a little differently.
After being disillusioned by the corporate lifestyle at an early age, I began to make conscious choices that I believed would allow me to pursue a life that was more aligned with my personal happiness.
At about the same time that I decided I probably was not cut out for corporate culture, the idea of entrepreneurship and owning my own business in the Caribbean started to needle its way into my thoughts, and would eventually become a primary goal in my life.
The struggle of pursuing happiness over career or monetary gain has not always been easy and has included bouts of malaria, racial discrimination, and financial insecurity. However, I believe the results have been worthwhile.
As part of the astepping stonea path that led me to small business ownership in the Caribbean, I have lived for extended periods in the jungles of Papua New Guinea (Lakekamu Basin) in a location so remote that the worldas first documented poisonous bird, the Pitohui was discovered there. Additionally, I worked as a contracted IT consultant for over five years on both the island of Samoa (in the South Pacific) and in the British Virgin Islands.
When I was growing up, it was practically ingrained into your DNA that you got a job with benefits and stayed there. Forever. On occasion, you might change employers, but you wouldnat veer far off from your chosen career path.
From early on, whether I wanted to leave university and move to Hawaii, quit my job and join the Peace Corps, or even put life on hold at age thirty to complete a Masteras Degree I was typically met with the response, aOh, you canat possibly do that.a
Whether you are a creative type, a traveler, or an entrepreneur looking to start your first business; self-doubt, the safety net of a steady paycheck, and external peer pressure can be crippling. To overcome this, you need a change of mindset. And this is where areverse engineeringa can help.
I am currently reading the book, aMore Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Waya by Toby Tanser, which is his personal account of investigating why Kenyans dominate the world of distance running.
In the book, Tanser states:
The Kenyans win because they believe that they can and that they deserve to win.
Tanser goes on to clarify for the reader that the belief in their own success is manifested in a very humble and non-egotistical manner where failure simply is not an option.
Specifically, the runners from Kenya donat think they deserve to win out of arrogance and conceit, but they truly believe if they put in the hard work and commit to the goal and task at hand, then they have as good a chance to win as anybody.
From my own experience, before my wife and I opened our business and settled in our current location on Culebra Island here in the Caribbean, it took us over TEN years of struggling and hard work to get from the idea germination of, aOwning a B&B in the Caribbeana until it came to fruition.
However, not owning our own business in the Caribbean never really entered our minds, we just did what we had to do to progress.
In technical terms, reverse engineering can be defined in the following manner:
The process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking something apart and analyzing its workings in detail (source: Wikipedia).
To begin forward momentum, I apply my own interpretation of reverse engineering to my goals; whereby, I analyze and atake aparta precisely what it is I hope to accomplish (start a small biz, lose weight, travel, etc).
More specifically, I attempt to build a framework for success by breaking down, in reverse order (from the very beginning thoughts to goal completion), the steps and tasks that will be required to effectively achieve my ambition.
The four keys to reverse engineering for success are:
I have found that if I start off by visioning a successfully completed goal and imagining what was required to get me there it can help me identify what I need to do.
In order to get started, you begin from the most basic stripped down version of whatever your goal is - - work from home, move to Central America, become a copywriter, a pirate...and break it down to the basic components that are required for you to succeed.
So how do you put reverse engineering into practice?
Whether you want to move to a different country, run a marathon or make a million dollars the premise is always the same. You start with your specific goal first and work out the steps out in reverse.
For example, hereas what I would do if I wanted to start working from home as a consultant. The example does not include every single step, but should give you an idea of how I would get started towards this goal.
Work from home as a consultant and earn enough to support basic needs during the first year.
Do you really hate your job? Will you be better off on you own? Did you answer yes? O.K. then letas move on.
Ask yourself some simple questions: What did it take to complete that task at hand? What challenges were faced? What type of investment (time & money) was required? From the answers to these questions, you are going to list out all of the steps that you think will be required in order for you to pursue your quest to work from home. The following is what I came up with:
Your goal: Quit current job and start consulting from home.
A. Walk out the front door and donat look back.
B. Give notice.
C. Decide on date for when to quit?
D. Contingency plan for employment if clients are not forthcoming in six monthsa|
E. What hours will you work?
F. How much to charge? Hourly or flat rate?
G. Draft some keystone content for the blog.
H. Start to put out feelers in your network.
I. Purchase domain and setup website and blog.
J. Is it possible to take a leave of absence from current job? Or, can you begin slowly by starting in your off time at night?
K. What is the cost of health and liability insurance?
L. Where are clients going to come from?
M. What are monthly expenses? Do you have enough savings for six months to a year?
N. Investigate the cost of home office equipment and ongoing peripheral supplies.
O. Begin to tell a few select people about what you hope to do (this makes it real).
P. Do you really have the talent and drive to work from home and make it as a consultant?
Q. (If married) Does your spouse support this goal?
R. How long have you been thinking about this? Is it a whim or the real thing?
S. Be rational and donat quit right away.
End Reverse Engineering List - Youare Currently: Sitting in cube at work thinking about how to achieve the goal of working from home.
Note that while you plan the steps above in the order A-to-S, you execute them in the order S-to-A.
Why it works?
To be sure, areverse engineeringa is a lot like any other planning exercise. Although, I think it has worked for me because instead of just listing out the steps that you think you need at random, you must actually visualize yourself as having completed the goal. Not only does this help by making the objective seem more tangible, but it can also help to put you in the all-important proper mindset to start taking action.
As I am always looking to refine my system and learn, how do you find success and what is the method that you use, when pursuing a goal?
About the author: Mark Hayward hates the snow and cold! But he loves living in the Caribbean, owning his own business and is a co-founder of the nonprofit, Train for Humanity. You can follow him on Twitter @mark_hayward.
The post How to Achieve Your Goals Through Reverse Engineering appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Regular readers of Lateral Action will know we're pretty sceptical about the idea of creative genius. You've probably noticed we preach a gospel of creativity-as-hard-work rather than the proverbial flash of inspiration. We've looked at creators such as Michelangelo, Kurt Cobain, Darwin, David Bowie, Shakespeare and Stanley Kubrick, and shown how their apparently effortless genius can be traced to hard work, craft skills, effective business models and eccentric habits.
So when writer Elizabeth Gilbert takes the stage at TED and starts spouting a version of creativity based on supernatural genius and divine inspiration, you can expect squawks of protest from Lateral Action. Right?
Wrong.
This is one of the most inspiring and practical talks I've seen about creativity for a long time. (Watch the video here if you're reading the feed/e-mail version of this article.) Gilbert is a terrific presenter and the ideas she discusses are more than enough for an entertaining and thought-provoking talk. But what makes this really compelling is the fact that she's speaking from a place of conflict and struggle in her own creative career.
After years of working at her craft and enjoying steady but unspectacular success, Gilbert's last book, Eat, Pray, Love became, in her words 'this big mega-sensation international bestseller thing':
the result of which means that everywhere I go now people treat me like I'm doomed ... they come up to me now all worried and they say " aren't you afraid you never going to be able to top that? I'm sure afraid you're going to keep writing for your whole life and you're never going to again be able to create a book for anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?"'.
And, of course, the answer to all those questions is 'Yes'. Gilbert is honest enough to admit that, like most creators, she is afraid of failure, even in the face of overwhelming success.
So how does she cope with the fear of failure and the pressures of success? After some soul-searching, she's come up with an unfashionable solution.
In ancient Greece and ancient Rome people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then. People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source for distant and unknowable reasons. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity 'Daemons'. Socrates famously believed that he had a Daemon who spoke to him from afar. The Romans had the same idea but they called that sort of disembodied spirit a 'Genius', which was great because the Romans did not actually think that a genius was a particularly clever individual, they believed that a genius was this sort of magical divine entity who was believed to literally live in the walls of an artist's studio ... and who would come out and invisibly assist the artist with their work and who would shape the outcome of that work.
The great thing about this way of looking at creativity is that it doesn't pile so much pressure on the artist to produce a masterpiece - and it doesn't allow her to get too big-headed if a masterpiece somehow appears. After all, she's only an instrument of the Daemon or Genius.
If that all sounds very long ago and far away, consider Gilbert's report of a conversation with the American poet Ruth Stone about how she writes her poetry:
When she was growing up in rural Virginia she would be out working in the fields and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape and she said it was like a thunderous train of air and it would come barrelling down at her over the landscape. And she said that when she felt it coming - because it would shake the earth under her feet - she knew that she had only one thing to do at that point and that was to, in her words, 'run like hell' and she would run like hell to the house, being chased by this poem. And the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and pencil fast enough so when it thundered through her she could collect it and grab it on the page.
Now you might find this account hard to believe, but I've heard about - and seen - very similar creative processes when working with artists in one-to-one coaching sessions. I originally trained as a hypnotherapist, so I know how easy it is for people to experience vivid auditory and visual hallucinations. Hypnotherapists attribute these to the unconscious mind rather than a supernatural spirit, but the effect is the same - an image that appears or a voice that speaks to you as if out of thin air.
If there are any hardheaded rationalists reading this and shaking their heads, you may be interested to know that at least one psychologist has seriously entertained the idea of divine inspiration, and offered a scientific explanation of phenomena such as the Muses speaking to poets and the gods of the ancient world appearing to human beings.
In 1976 Julian Jaynes published a book with the magnificent title The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. He argued that hallucinations of gods and spirits were more common thousands of years ago because human consciousness was at an earlier stage of development. Instead of our modern sense of a unified conscious self, human beings had 'bicameral' minds, divided into two parts: the first part gave instructions, in the form of hallucinated voices and images; the second part received the instructions and obeyed them.
In support of his hypothesis, Jaynes cites a mountain of evidence from ancient literature. For example, in Homer's Iliad, when the goddess Athena appears to Achilles and told him not to draw his sword and kill King Agamemnon, Homer wasn't indulging in a flight of fancy: one part of Achilles' brain was talking to the other, which he experienced as a hallucinated voice. The same goes for the many other ancient accounts of gods appearing to humans or speaking to them from clouds, burning bushes, pillars of fire etc. The authors weren't making it up. They were reporting actual human experience.
Jaynes argues that this ancient mode of thinking has to a large extent died out in modern society, but it survives here and there: in the people diagnosed as schizophrenics; in those who practice as mediums and claim to hear the voices of spirits; and - you guessed it - in the many artists, writers and other creators who have described inspiration coming to them in the form of hallucinated visions or voices.
As we saw in my article about Michelangelo, the Renaissance brought about a change of attitudes to creativity and artists. This is how Gilbert describes it:
And then the Renaissance came and everything changed and we had this big idea and the big idea was let's put the individual human being at the centre of the universe above all gods and mysteries and there's no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine, and it's beginning of rational humanism and people start to believe that creativity can completely from the self of the individual and for the first time in history you start to hear people referring to this or that artist as being a genius rather than having a genius and I've got to tell you I think that was a huge error.
Why was it such a big error? Because, Gilbert points out, on the one hand it places too much responsibility on the individual, who feels a constant pressure to reach or live up to impossibly high standards; and on the other, it leads to the temptation of narcissism, of taking too much credit for success. No wonder post-Renaissance artists have earned a reputation as mentally unstable egomaniacs.
As soon as we talk about someone being a genius instead of having a genius, we are neglecting the art in favour of the artist. And we start to lose sight of how creativity actually happens. We complicate things by trying to do everything ourselves instead of being open and receptive to unconscious (or supernatural) sources of inspiration. Craft skills and practice start to be neglected or despised, so that a great artist like Michelangelo resorts to burning his working sketches so as to preserve the image of effortless genius.
So what does all of this mean for you when you start work on a Monday morning?
Does it mean you don't have to worry about working hard and perfecting your craft? Maybe you can abandon your studio or laptop and simply wait for the Muse to visit you? Or wander off into the hills in search of a goat to sacrifice?
I'm afraid I have bad news for you. (But good news for the goat.) After all the high-flown speculations of her talk, Elizabeth Gilbert circles back to a point very close to where she began as a writer: having to show up every day and put in the hours at her desk.
When I was in the middle of writing Eat Pray Love and I fell into one of those pits of despair that we will fall into when we're working on something that's not coming and we think 'this is going to be a disaster, this is going to be the worst book I've ever written -- not just that but the worst book ever written ... So I just lifted my face up from the manuscript and I directed my comments to an empty corner of the room and I said aloud ' Listen you, thing! You and I both know that if this book isn't brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see I am putting everything I have into this, I don't have any more than this, so if you want it to be better then you've got to show up and do your part of the deal, OK? But you know what? If you don't do that then I'm going to keep writing because that's my job and I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up and did my part of the job!
In one sense, Gilbert's concept of genius makes life easier for the creator - if your work is ultimately down to a genius outside of your normal self, then you can't be too crushed when your next novel turns out to be a flop. It should also mean you don't get too carried away with yourself should it turn out to be a best seller.
But it also makes life more complicated. Instead of just you doing the work, you have to somehow accommodate and negotiate with an external force in your life. You may not like it. It may be difficult or interrupt you at an inconvenient time. And you may not like what it shows you, and wants you to express in your work.
And because of the 'deal' Gilbert invites you to strike with your own Genius, you still have to show up every day and work just as hard as you ever have - if not harder.
In the words of the artist Philip Guston:
I go to my studio every day, because one day I may go and the Angel will be there. What if I don't go and the Angel came?
What did you make of the idea of having a Genius instead of being a genius?
Have you ever experienced inspiration striking you as if from outside yourself?
Have you ever tried to make a deal with your Genius/Muse/unconscious mind?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Elizabeth Gilbert: Is Creativity Divinely Inspired? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
OK it's time to spread the link love with another roundup of Lateral Activity elsewhere on the web.
If you're wondering how Armageddon the current economic crisis is likely to impact on the creative economy, you could do a lot worse than pour yourself a cup of coffee and peruse Richard Florida's article How the Crash Will Reshape America. Actually, you might want to make that a pot of coffee as it's even longer than my blog posts ( :-) ) but it should be time well invested.
Creative entrepreneurs -- we know you're looking for the opportunities in this crisis. Yes, these are tough times but Applicant points out that 'these are also times when its time to step up and take a different route rather than giving up and finding yet another boss to work for'. If you're up for finding that different route, you'll want to bookmark this great compilation of 60+ Resources For Entrepreneurs to Step up and Take Charge.
Someone who's been stepping up and causing havoc for a long time now is Hugh MacLeod, who recently posted this epiphany on his blog:
A. Most people work for the money. Most people wouldnat do their jobs for free.
B. Most people hate their jobs.
But Iam not thinking about aMost Peoplea right now. Iam thinking about the small percentage of the population who want to love their work; who want to find meaning in their work... and are willing to work like hell to find out how.
Those crazy, deranged foolsa|
I suspect there are plenty of crazy deranged fools like this reading Lateral Action -- if you're one of them, hop over to Hugh's blog and sign up for his crazy deranged fools newsletter.
And check out Hugh's latest venture, using his blog to sidestep the traditional art world gallery system and sell limited-edition prints of his artwork. If he can do it, what's to stop you?
You know how we keep telling you how you don't have to be a genius to achieve creative success, and that motivation, habits and persistence are more important than talent? Well don't take our word for it -- check out the article The Winning Edge in Psychology Today, which quotes a mass of evidence supporting the argument that 'Passion and perseverance may be more important to success than mere talent'. For example, one study of high achievers concluded:
There were certainly a fair number of people who were brilliant, ambitious and persevering ... But there were also a lot who were not a genius in any way but were really tenacious.
If you enjoyed our roundup of The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People then you should check out the two-part series by Steve Lawson: The Problem of Time -- The Eternal Crisis of Music-based Social Networks and Social Networks for Social Musicians. Steve is writing primarily for musicians, but his advice is applicable to people in most creative professions.
Finally, if you're a Lifehacker fan like me you'll want to subscribe to founding editor Gina Trapani's new blog Smarterware, for thoughtful productivity tips under the heading 'use your head (and great software)'
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About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Lateral Activity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Everyone knows Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the English language. But did you know he was also a highly successful entrepreneur?
Like Dick Whittington, the young Shakespeare left his rural home town to seek his fortune in London. In common with many entrepreneurs, he didn't have the benefit of a family fortune or a university education - just his talent, ambition and an enormous capacity for hard work.
In the course of his career in the great city, Shakespeare became a shareholder in an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who beat off fierce competition to become the most famous and successful theatre company in the land. They played to packed houses of paying customers and received regular summons to perform before Queen Elizabeth and King James. Shakespeare rose from the ranks of commoners to the status of a gentleman, taking great pride in the coat of arms he was awarded. And he earned enough money to buy the biggest house in his home town and retire there in comfort.
This story doesn't quite fit the Romantic image of the starving artist or the poet wandering lonely as a cloud - but Shakespeare lived 200 years before Romanticism, so perhaps we can forgive him.
In fact, if you ask me, entrepreneurship was not only compatible with Shakespeare's art, it made him a better writer. Here's why.
Do you recognise these lines?
Even as the sun with purple-colour'd face
Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,
Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laugh'd to scorn;
Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him.
Don't worry if they don't ring a bell for you - you're in the majority. Many people have never heard of Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis, let alone cracked the covers and read these opening lines. I've read the whole thing - but only because I had to for my English degree. And if I'm perfectly honest, it was a bit of a chore.
But in Shakespeare's day the poem was a bestseller. For a long time, he was much more famous as the the poet of Venus and Adonis than as a dramatist. These days however, critics tend to agree that if he had stuck to 'pure' poetry like this, Shakespeare would have been one of the also-rans of English literature.
There's not a lot wrong with Venus and Adonis, apart from the fact that it appeals to a very narrow audience - educated Elizabethan gentlemen. To appreciate the poem, you needed several things, all of which were out of the reach of most Elizabethans: the ability to read; a classical education; money for books, which were high-end consumer products; and leisure time for reading.
Why was Shakespeare writing for such a narrow audience? Because of his business model at the time. Venus and Adonis is one of two long poems Shakespeare dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare was working within an established tradition of patronage, whereby a rich and noble patron would reward an artist for producing work in his or her honour.
Looking at the poems now, we can see that Shakespeare did a good job for his client, but no one would argue that it was his best writing. This kind of work wasn't his first choice - he already had several successful plays under his belt, but had turned to poetry when London's theatres were closed because of the plague. The results suggest his heart wasn't really in it.
Luckily for Shakespeare - and for us - the emerging enterprise culture of Elizabethan England meant that there was a much more exciting business model on offer ...
OK, let's see if you recognise any of these:
'To be, or not to be: that is the question.'
'If music be the food of love, play on'
'All the world's a stage'
'Is this a dagger which I see before me?'
'The course of true love never did run smooth.'
'Once more unto the breach dear friends!'
A bit more familiar?
What accounts for the difference? How did Shakespeare go from writing conventional verse to writing so many lines that are instantly recognisable and vivid after 400 years?
There are plenty of literary explanations, but I'd like you to consider the difference made by his change of business model. I put it to you that Shakespeare's writing blossomed when he gave up being an artist in search of a patron and became an entrepreneur in earnest.
Lend me your ears and I'll show you how Shakespeare's entrepreneurial skills were critical to his artistic and commercial success. And I'll suggest what 21st-century creative entrepreneurs can learn from Shakespeare's example.
While he relied on a patron, Shakespeare's income was limited by the patron's generosity. Even an Earl's pockets were not bottomless (Wriothesley was actually in financial trouble at the time). And while he relied on a single client, Shakespeare was vulnerable - to the patron's whims, illness or death, or fall from political favour.
Elizabethan theatre, on the other hand, was highly lucrative mass entertainment. It is estimated that the Globe Theatre held almost 3,000 spectators. The 'groundlings' only paid a penny each to stand and watch the plays in the theatre yard, exposed to the elements - but the pennies soon added up when the crowds were packed inside. And there were plenty of gentlefolk prepared to pay considerably more for seats in the galleries.
Takeaway: Don't rely on a single source of income. Grow your revenue exponentially by making your work available to a wider audience.
Shakespeare was a competent actor, but he wasn't the star of the show. In performance he usually played minor parts, leaving the limelight to Elizabethan celebrity actors such as Richard Burbage, William Kempe and Robert Armin.
Where Shakespeare excelled, of course, was in writing. Elizabethan audiences had an insatiable thirst for new plays containing fantastic adventures in high fantastical language - which Shakespeare delivered in spades. The partnership structure of the company meant that each shareholder could concentrate on delivering exceptional value through his specialist expertise; when the individual contributions were multiplied through collaboration, the creative and commercial results were spectacular.
Takeaway: Don't try to do it all yourself. Find partners whose talents complement yours, and allow you to do what you do best.
Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men, was the first in the history of the English theatre where the actors were shareholders. Shakespeare invested APS70 for his share of the company - a significant amount, considering freelance playwrights were earning about APS6 a play at the time. But it paid off handsomely over the course of his career. Because he received a share of the profits on every performance by the company, he earned far more than he would ever have managed as a freelancer.
Takeaway: If a job's worth doing, it's worth owning the results. You'll get more profit and pleasure from building a business you own than you ever will from working for someone else.
The Lord Chamberlain's men owned the Globe Theatre in which they performed for most of their career. Unfortunately, they didn't own the land in Shoreditch where it originally stood - they leased it from the owner, Giles Allen. When the lease expired, the landlord claimed ownership of the building, forcing the actors to desperate measures: on 28th December 1598, while the landlord was still celebrating Christmas, they armed themselves, and 'liberated' the theatre building, dismantling it and hiding it in a warehouse. They later shipped it across the Thames to a new site in Southwark. And because the new site was outside the official limits of the city, it meant they were beyond the jurisdiction of the city fathers, who were often keen to close down the theatres.
Takeaway: Establish your business on your own domain - don't become someone else's user generated content. Otherwise your enterprise will be 'Like a fair house built on another man's ground' (The Merry Wives of Windsor).
Comparing Shakespeare's courtly poetry with his plays is like comparing a studio album with a live gig. While some artists thrive in the studio, Shakespeare came alive in front of an audience. And he faced the most demanding audience in the history of the theatre.
At the actors' feet was the rough-and-tumble of the crowd, like a football terrace. These guys were after entertainment - the more riotous and rude, the better - and they were quick to heckle if they didn't get what they wanted. As well as keeping them happy, Shakespeare also had to 'play to the gallery', providing the educated elite in the posh seats with sophisticated literary fare.
Shakespeare responded with a unique mix of high art and low entertainment, intermingling masters and servants, lords and peasants on the stage. He did the same with his language, at one moment flinging a crude joke to the groundlings, then in the next breath offering a philosophical reflection or a burst of pure poetry to the gallery. Words like 'puking', 'clotpole' and 'bastard' rubbed shoulders with fancy new inventions such as 'captious', 'intenible', 'multitudinous' and 'incarnadine'.
Takeaway: Get your work in front of an audience. If you're a writer, don't lock your words in the study - write a blog, where the comments push up against your words, like the crowd at the edge of a stage. The same goes for music, photography, design etc. The web tools now available give you an unprecedented opportunity to get feedback on your work from real people - and potential customers.
Elizabethan playgoers craved novelty and excitement - to keep them coming back, and to stay ahead of the competition, acting companies had to produce a constant stream of new plays. A large part of Shakespeare's success was down to stamina - 38 plays by him have survived, and it's likely that several more have been lost.
Most contemporary playwrights resorted to co-authorship to keep up with demand. This could reduce the time taken to write a new play from months to weeks - but it also reduced the fee each writer received, contributing to the financial hardship suffered by many playwrights of the time. Unlike Shakespeare, who was a shareholder and could therefore afford to devote most of his time to sole authorship of plays that would bring him a handsome reward in his own theatre.
Takeaway: Creativity + productivity = success. Make sure your business is set up to sustain your productivity.
There was no copyright protection for authors in Shakespeare's day. Every time he premiered a new play, there would be bootleggers in the audience - representatives of other theatre companies, memorising and writing down the script, to sell the text or use it in rival productions. Legally, there was very little Shakespeare could do about this.
But it doesn't seem to have done him much harm, financially or artistically. Like most bootlegs, the copies were poor quality, and rival productions were second to market and second best. The bootlegs may even have benefited Shakespeare by introducing his work to new people. None of the bootleggers built a reputation like the Chamberlain's Men for quality, consistency and sheer spectacle. The Globe remained the place to go for the real thing.
Takeaway: Your work is vulnerable if you reduce it to a simple format such as a text file or MP3. But it's impossible to pirate a live event or an interactive experience such as a blog, forum or membership site.
Do you agree that entrepreneurship and creativity can be mutually beneficial?
Which aspects of Shakespearean entrepreneurship resonate most strongly for you?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Shakespearean Guide to Entrepreneurship appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Photo by a.drian I discovered a fantastic blog at the weekend â Daily Routines: How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days (via Undead Pixel). It contains what it says on the tin: first-hand accounts of how famous people optimise their daily routines for creative work. For example, hereâs Haruki Murakamiâs typical working [â¦]
The post Daily Routines of Famous Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One of my favourite writers on creativity is the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In this video of his TED talk, he explains the concept of flow for which he is famous. Flow is his answer to the question 'What makes human beings happy?' - 'An almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness' that we can experience when devoting ourselves to a meaningful challenge. Flow can occur during any complex and difficult task, but you won't be surprised to learn it is often experienced by people engaged in creative work, when it is called creative flow.
In one of the slides in his TED presentation, Csikszentmihalyi outlines the main characteristics of flow, which you may relate to from your own experience:
How Does It Feel to Be in Flow?
- Completely involved in what we are doing - focused, concentrated.
- A sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality.
- Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing.
- Knowing that the activity is doable - that skills are adequate to the task.
- A sense of serenity - no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
- Timelessness - thoroughly focused on the present, our sin to pass by in minutes.
- Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.
Early in the talk, Csikszentmihalyi presents us with the following description by a leading composer, of his experience while composing music:
You are in an ecstatic state to such a point that you feel as though you almost don't exist. I have experienced this time and time again. My hand seems devoid of myself, and I have nothing to do with what is happening. I just sit there watching it in a state of awe and wonderment. And [the music] just flows out of itself.
This sounds like a mystical experience, yet Csikszentmihalyi offers a scientific explanation. Apparently our nervous system can only process about 110 bits of information per second. Listening to someone speak takes up about 60 bits of neurological 'bandwidth', which explains why we can't listen to more than one person at a time. Because the composer is concentrating so hard on his music, he is using all his available bandwidth and there's none left over to monitor his sense of self:
when you are really involved in this completely engaging process of creating something new - as this man does - he doesn't have enough attention left over to monitor how his body feels or his problems at home. He can't feel even that he's hungry or tired, his body disappears, his identity disappears from his consciousness because he doesn't have enough attention, like none of us do, to really do well something that requires a lot of concentration and at the same time to feel that he exists.
Takeaway: Concentration is critical to outstanding creativity - do everything you can to avoid interruptions and develop your powers of concentration. Try meditation or good old fashioned practice...
Csikszentmihalyi makes the point that the composer gives what sounds a very Romantic description of creativity, as if the Muse had taken possession of the composer or was dictating to him out of thin air. Yet he points out that this creative performance takes a huge amount of skill, which has been so honed by practice as to become practically automatic.
He says that it typically takes someone 10 years of acquiring technical knowledge by immersing themselves in a discipline before they create anything significant. Malcolm Gladwell makes a similar argument in his new book, Outliers - according to Gladwell, the magic number is 10,000 hours of practice.
Takeaway: Practice, practice, practice! There are no shortcuts to inspiration.
If the neuroscience and the daily grind of practice are in danger of taking away some of the magic of creativity for you, consider the experience of this poet, also quoted by Csikszentmihalyi in his talk:
It's like opening a door that floating in the middle of nowhere and all you have to do is going turn the handle and open it and let yourself sink into it. You can't particularly for sure self through it. You just have to float. If there's any gravitational pull, it's from the outside world trying to keep you back from the door.
Without the skill and knowledge that come from years of practice, the poet wouldn't be able to construct a door in the middle of nowhere, or to make something meaningful of what he finds on the other side. But none of that detracts from the mystical quality of his experience as he floats through the door...
Takeaway: It takes hard work to build the door in the middle of nowhere - but a leap of faith to step through it.
Creative flow is not limited to composers and poets - Csikszentmihalyi includes businesspeople among the creative exemplars he studies:
I've always wanted to be successful. My definition of being successful is contributing something to the world ... and being happy well doing it ... you have to enjoy what you are doing. You won't be very good if you don't. And secondly, you have to feel that you are contributing something worthwhile ... if either of these ingredients are absent, there's probably some lack of meaning in your work.
(Norman Augustine, former CEO Lockheed Martin)
Flow doesn't come from the extremes of self-indulgence or self-sacrifice, but from taking pleasure in using your own skills to contribute something of value to the world.
Takeaway: Ask yourself 'What work do I love doing the most?' and 'Where do I contribute the most value?'. Focus your efforts on the overlap between the two.
This slide from Csikszentmihalyi's talk shows flow located at the sweet spot between the difficulty of the challenge and your level of skill:
So if you take on a big challenge, you may well feel anxious at first - if you persevere and practice, you may eventually find it stimulating rather than stressful, and finally break through into flow. Or conversely, you may feel perfectly in control but bored by the lack of challenge in your work - by challenging yourself to seek out more difficult tasks, you can regain your sense of fulfilment and flow.Looking at the chart, I guess Lou is most comfortable in the 'control' zone - cranking out widgets without much imagination. Jack probably spends a lot of time hovering between anxiety, arousal, relaxation and control, because he's new to so many things and has a lot to learn - but he's tasted enough creative flow to know that that's where his passion lies. And one of the reasons Marla is so inspiring is that she's constantly learning and challenging herself and others, creating flow in herself and her team.
Takeaway: Keep checking in with your feelings - are you veering towards boredom or anxiety? If you're getting bored, set yourself a challenge; if you're frustrated break things down and learn to do one step at a time.
Have you experienced ecstatic joy while absorbed in creative work?
Do you think you'd be more or less happy without the urge to create?
How important is it to find a balance between happiness and contribution, or challenge and skill, in your work?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi â Does Creativity Make You Happy? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How Does Twitter Affect Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In his book The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria argues that there have been 'three tectonic power shifts over the last five hundred years'. Each of these shifts profoundly reshaped culture and economy on a global scale.
According to Zakaria the first shift was the rise of the Western World, starting in the fifteenth century. The second was the rise of the United States as an industrial world power. And the third shift - the one we are going through now - could be called 'the rise of the rest'.
If I were an entrepreneur today in India, Brazil or China I would probably not identify with the term 'rest of the world'. But my question is: How will we cope with the new reality that the economic logic of the Western world is just one of many world-views?
As the co-founder of www.shapeshifters.net - a crosscultural resource exchange for professional creatives - I spent almost two years travelling the world in order to get to know our future users personally. I wanted to have more than just 'digital relationships' with the people who joined our network. I wanted to learn what it means to run an architect's studio with 30 employees in Johannesburg. I wanted to see through the eyes of a graphic designer who operates out of a rural garage in New Zealand. Or just simply hear for myself that for some Chinese it is incomprehensible how one can have a decent conversation with just 26 letters in the alphabet! It made me smile - and think.
My first lesson was simple. Getting information about a far away business is one thing, but understanding a business as part of a different culture is a totally different animal.
My belief system was so different from the one of a Brazilian music label owner that it took more than an interpreter for us to understand each other. Even though we had been using the same expressions, the meaning of such words as 'money', 'strategy', 'plan' and 'time' had got nothing to do with each other. IA'm not saying that one culture is better than the other. IA'm just stating that we need to understand our own framework of understanding in order to build and sustain trustful business relationships within the global creative economy. This is what our work at Shapeshifters is all about.
The tricky thing about world-views is that we canA't see them. But we experience the consequences when our own world-views collide with others. Thus my second lesson being on the road to cross-cultural understanding was a bit harder:
I needed to give up my belief that Westeners are perceived as the 'good guys', bringing in smart solutions to the so-called 'emerging markets'.
Over the centuries Europe did not only export products and services, but also imposed its own logic onto other cultures. And not always for the mutual benefit - as we know. The 'rest of the world' is totally aware of this. But IA'm not so sure whether we in the Western industrialized world are as well.
Just the simple fact that Europe is prominently placed in the very center of most world maps has had a long-lasting impact on the mental maps of those people located on the rim of the very same map. Almost every Kiwi whom we met along our Shapeshifters World Seeding Tour claimed that New Zealand as a market is 'really far away'. But far away from what? The Zero Meridian? I guess we need new world maps, too. Who will create them?
Sure, we have social networks that transcend time and space. But there are other global grids and co-ordinates, too. Older ones. More persistent ones.
Recently I talked to a successful Indian interior designer. Anjalee has offices in New Delhi and Tokyo. She told me over the phone that so many of her Indian clients want to have office designs from her that look exactly like offices they have seen in London. The interesting thing is that she refuses to accept these jobs.
These days she spends plenty time reminding her customers that India has a precious design tradition of its own - its own values, its own shapes, its own materials. There is a cultural richness that goes far beyond the glass-and-steel office cubes that we all know from movie screens and design magazines.
This change of perception alone is not yet a tectonic power shift but definitely a sign that things are changing in this world. The rise of the rest will no longer allow one culture to teach another culture what it 'really' means to run a sucessful busines or what it has to look like. There is not just one truth anymore. There are many. This makes things more complicated, but it will definitely make us all richer if we talk business on an even playing field. Tolerance of ambiguity is definitely a key competence for the times we are in.
Try to give up the belief that your own culture is 'normal'. This is not just another new business skill, this is a change of attitude. There is an abundance of possibilities - but to realise them we will need to step outside our own cultural comfort zones.
The biggest shift is the one in your mind. It can create a whole new world.
Do you agree that Westerners are too quick to assume that they are the 'leaders' of the creative economy?
Have you ever had your own assumptions challenged by an encounter with another culture? What did you learn from it?
Do you think collaboration on a level playing field is the way forward for creative entrepreneurs across the globe?
About the Author: Eric Poettschacher is the co-founder of Shapeshifters - a crosscultural resource exchange for professional creatives worldwide.
The post Donât Assume Youâre Normal: What You Can Learn from Other Creative Cultures appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
What's the worst thing that could happen to a writer?
If you're a writer, I'm guessing you'd put 'not being able to write' pretty high on your list of potential disasters. Logically, there are plenty of far worse fates, but emotionally this one looms pretty large - especially if your living depends on your writing.
Last year, that's exactly what happened to me.
Since last April I've been experiencing debilitating pain and tension in my hands and arms, a.k.a. repetitive strain injury (RSI), which means I haven't been able to type or write more than a few short sentences at a time.
Yet during that time I've written 41 articles for Lateral Action, a 58 page e-book, various proposals and seminars for clients, built a steadily growing following on Twitter, rebuilt and rewritten my Wishful Thinking site, and (just about) managed to keep up with my e-mail.
If you want to know how I did it, read on ...
In spring 2008, life was good. Not only was my consulting business thriving but I had agreed to start a new venture in partnership with two of my Internet publishing heroes - Brian Clark and Tony Clark. After our initial discussions, I was fired up to write the cornerstone content of the Lateral Action website.
But I'd only written a few pages when something odd happened. I noticed a feeling of discomfort in my right arm when I was using the mouse. Thinking that maybe I was over-using it a bit, I went out and bought a Wacom tablet. I write left-handed so I could give my right arm a rest while still ploughing on with my work. For a couple of weeks that seemed to solve the problem. Then disaster struck.
It happened very suddenly. One day I was typing away as usual when I noticed a deep ache in my forearms and wrists. They felt very heavy and stiff, so that typing was like wading through deep water.
It felt like that scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo switches on the hyperdrive - but instead of leaping forward eagerly, the Millennium Falcon makes a shuddering noise and the engines fizzle out.
Realising something was seriously wrong, I took the unprecedented step of taking the week off, even though I had urgent work to get on with. That week felt like eternity - but little did I suspect that I'd be here nearly a year later, still unable to type more than a brief e-mail.
Now before we go any further, I'm in no need of sympathy - I'm pleased to say that I've had great treatment from my physiotherapists and my hands are vastly improved from a few months ago. So (touch wood) the end is in sight.
And I'm not writing this post to boast of any superhuman productivity powers. I want to share with you what I learned about wgat work is really important and how to be more effective at doing it. Plus I hope to alert you to some of the pitfalls of working with computers, so that you can avoid my mistakes.
I've been told that the cause of my injury was absurdly simple:
I changed my keyboard.
Ironically, I was trying to avoid RSI. I managed to cure a pain in my neck by putting my laptop up on a stand so I wasn't bent over the screen. I bought a desktop keyboard - but stupidly, not a wrist rest. This meant that my wrists went from being straight (supported by the surface of the laptop) to being bent back in a position known as 'the claw'. Which meant the muscles in the forearms were not only constantly tensed, but being used in a different way to my normal typing posture.
The analogy used by one of my physiotherapists was that it was like a super-fit cyclist suddenly deciding he can run a marathon tomorrow - forgetting that he will be using his leg muscles in a completely different way. Ouch!
A professional athlete would never make this kind of mistake. She would take care to adjust her posture, date and equipment to avoid strain and injury. And she would get expert advice on exactly how to do this.
Just because you're sitting at a desk all day doesn't mean you aren't using your body - quite the reverse, you could well be putting it under dangerous strain. Consulting a professional specialist could save you a world of pain. Where health care is concerned, prevention is always better than cure. But if you're hesitating, remember this is your livelihood - you literally can't afford to find out the hard way.
Takeaway: Think like an athlete: get the best advice and equipment you can get, to make sure that you are working with your body, not against it.
In The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss asks the following question:
If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day, what would you do?
When I first read this, I thought it was a clever thought experiment. I never suspected that a few months later I would find my workday cut down to almost exactly this length. My wife kindly volunteered to help me with computer work, but as she had her own work to do, there were days when she could only spare a couple of hours.
This forced me to look at what was absolutely essential for me to do. I realised there were only three things I had to do on the computer:
So no Google Reader, no Twitter, no Facebook, no Last FM, no football message boards, no tweaking my blog template, no checking my e-mail 10 times a day. I'm not saying there's no value or pleasure in these activities - but for me, this experience has hammered home the point that they should never take time away from my core work. And it made me appreciate face-to-face work with clients all the more.
Takeaway: Sit down and answer Tim's question for yourself. Then redesign your working schedule around those core activities.
My wife's help (and patience with my nitpicky writerly perfectionism) meant I got the foundation articles written. Ditto the slides for several seminars. I found physiotherapists who explained what had happened to my arms and gave me expert treatment and exercises to solve the problem. For one of my projects, I explained I couldn't carry on doing everything myself and funding was found for an IT assistant. For my Wishful Thinking site, I stopped fiddling with the code myself and enlisted Antonio to help me out. I also found a funky WordPress theme that does most of the heavy lifting for me.
Takeaway: Don't be too proud to ask for help. Even if you can do everything yourself, is it really the best use of your time?
What's the one area where Windows Vista wipes the floor with Apple? Speech recognition.
As an enthusiastic Apple convert, it was disappointing to discover that my MacBook Pro's speech recognition capabilities were frankly lame. Several people told me that Windows Vista had 'surprisingly good' speech recognition. I found this hard to believe, and waited wasted several months before I gritted my teeth and installed Vista on my Mac. It was like a door opening again. It was by no means perfect, but I could surf the web and write short e-mails without excruciating pain.
Then I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking and got my life back. You've probably guessed by now that I'm not typing these words. I'm strolling around my living room with dance music pumping out of the speakers, talking in my normal voice into a wireless headset - and watching the words magically appear on the screen, in an enormous font.
I'm going to write an in-depth review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Lateral Action, but for now I'll just say it's so good that I can't imagine going back to typing, even when my hands are fully recovered. I'm a pretty fast typist , but Dragon means I can generate text as fast as I can speak. So I'm getting my thoughts down much quicker, and it's great for editing and knocking the text into shape. So it's definitely increased my capacity for producing written content, and made the writing process more enjoyable.
(I've heard a rumour that Nuance have recently released a version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the Mac - if any of you have tried it, I'd like to hear from you ...)
Takeaway: Sitting hunched over a keyboard is sooooo last century. The Dragon and the Wii are just the beginning - explore new ways to interact with your computer. Ask it to dance!
Can you imagine how embarrassing it was to have written a popular e-book on time management, and to have an overflowing inbox, including many unanswered e-mails from three or four months ago? One of the first things I did when I started using Dragon was to have an e-mail blitz, pumping out grovelling apologies, especially to people who had asked for help on various things.
The result? The people who responded were fine, and had usually manage to solve the problem themselves. And a high proportion of people didn't even reply, which suggests that either (a) they were speechless with anger or disappointment, or (b) their requests weren't as important or urgent as they sounded.
Since then, I've felt a lot less guilty about prioritising important work over a squeaky clean inbox. At the time I wrote my e-book on Time Management for Creative People, I was following Mark Forster's excellent advice to 'Do It Tomorrow', i.e. don't respond to e-mail immediately, but within one working day. These days, it's more like 'Do It at Some Point This Week' - I answer genuinely urgent and time sensitive e-mails as quickly as possible, otherwise I have an e-mail catch up session once or twice a week. Most of my correspondents seem perfectly happy with that. And I'm getting a hell of a lot more done with the extra time.
Takeaway: Don't let your inbox dictate your day. Decide which e-mails merit an instant response, and catch up with the rest once you've dealt with your real priorities for the day.
One of the most productive changes I made was to take my daily to-do list off the computer and onto a Post-It pad. That meant that the computer didn't need to be on all the time by default - and I was less likely to get sucked into surfing or checking e-mail each time I consulted the list. Plus the size of the Post-It notes keeps me focused - instead of an endless digital to-do list, I know that if the list won't fit on a Post-It, it won't fit into my day. So I create more realistic daily lists - and actually complete them.
Takeaway: Try writing your daily tasks on a single Post-It note. If it doesn't fit, cut it down to size before you start work.
I answered a lot of e-mail by phone. In many cases, I saved time by avoiding several e-mails' worth of exchanges. Plus it was nice to hear people's voices and have a more meaningful conversation.
Takeaway: E-mail looks quick and easy, but in the words of Peregrine Took, shortcuts make long delays. For complex or emotionally sensitive issues, try a real conversation.
Just before I got injured, I had started experimenting with RescueTime - a web-based service that monitors your computer use, and gives you accurate feedback on exactly how you're using your computer. It can tell you exactly how long you've been using each software application and even how much time you spend on different websites!
Now that I'm in recovery mode and trying to gradually increase the amount of time I spend using the computer, RescueTime is helping me avoid overdoing it. More than that, high-quality feedback is essential for improving performance and achieving creative flow.
Takeaway: Gather data about how you're really using your time. If you don't trust RescueTime, fill out a time sheet every half hour for a couple of days. Notice what a difference it makes when you have to account for your time.
Whatever you do for a living there will be a downside. Unexpected problems. Unreliable tools. Annoying people. If you work in an office, your co-workers can get on your nerves. If you work alone, you can get lonely.
But the old saying rings true that you don't really know what you have till you lose it. Since getting back to work, I've really appreciated what a pleasure - and a privilege - it is to be able to write and share my ideas and enthusiasms with my readers. Since launching Lateral Action, the response we've had from you in the comments and elsewhere has been phenomenal, and I wake up everyday feeling grateful to be a part of it. Thank you!
Takeaway: If you notice your enthusiasm for your work drying up, take a break. Leave it alone and notice what you miss. Then come back and make that your focus.
Please note I'm not offering medical advice about RSI treatment. You'll need to consult a qualified professional for that. What worked for me personally was a combination of Western-style acupuncture (to reduce inflammation and tension in the muscles) and physiotherapy (mostly exercises to improve functioning and posture).
I've already said that prevention is the best cure - if you spend a significant amount of time at the computer, consult a professional specialist to make sure your working posture isn't putting you at risk. And beware of making any sudden changes! If you do change your setup, get advice to make sure you're making the right changes. I'm told that in my case, the cause of the injury wasn't so much repetitive strain as a different kind of strain brought on by the change in keyboard setup.
If you are experiencing pain or discomfort already, please consult a professional specialist without delay. If I'd done that, I could have saved myself months of lost work, not to mention pain.
And if you have successfully overcome RSI, I'd be really interested to hear your comments about how you did it. (N.b. I'm looking for personal stories of things that worked for you - comments from companies touting their own products or services will be deleted.)
Have you ever had to deal with an injury that interfered with your work? What did you learn from it?
Have you successfully overcome RSI? How?
Heavy computer users - how do you take care of your physical health?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How RSI Made Me More Productive appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Did you hear the one about the microwave bed?
Eight hours' sleep in ten minutes!
The nearest thing I've found to the microwave bed is a floatation tank. After relaxing for an hour in darkness, silence and what feels like zero gravity, it feels like I've been 'away' for much, much longer.
A chamber filled with water supersaturated with Epsom salts - which means you can lie back and float on the surface, like your own private Dead Sea. And because the water is maintained at body temperature, after a while you don't feel it. You're left with a sensation of weightlessness, like floating in space.
You can leave the light on if you want to, but trust me, it's better if you switch it off. And a pair of earplugs will block out any noises from outside.Weightlessness. Darkness. Silence.
Bliss.
Eventually, some new age music will filter into your chamber, signalling time to rouse yourself and leave the tank.
When you emerge into the outside world, only an hour will have passed. But inside, it feels like eternity.
There are several theories about how floating works and many benefits are claimed for it. In The Book of Floating, Michael Hutchinson proposes 'seven theories of floating', including explanations based on antigravity, the left/right brain, neurochemistry, brainwaves and biofeedback.
Benefits claimed include stress relief, detoxification, improvements in various health conditions, enhancing meditation or athletic performance, better sleep - and you've guessed it, 'creativity and imagination'.
During a float, you produce slower brain-waves patterns, known as theta waves, which are normally experienced only during a deep meditation or just before falling asleep and when waking up. This is usually accompanied by vivid imagery, very clear, creative thoughts, sudden insights and inspirations or feelings of profound peace and joy, induced by the release of endorphins, the bodyas natural opiates.
(The London Float Centre website)
This matches my own experience fairly closely. For me, there's a stage of floating which is very similar to falling asleep, when you can experience vivid flashes of hypnagogic imagery. (In my case, it's more likely to be minor auditory hallucinations, like snatches of voices speaking - but when I asked some friends whether they'd also heard the 'little voices' in the tank, they all laughed, so I may be in a minority there.)
I can't say that I've experienced any particularly clear thoughts or major insights while actually in the tank, but I definitely think it benefits my creativity, particularly during times when I've been floating fairly regularly.
When I come out of the tank my mind is much calmer and clearer than when I went in. It's almost comparable to the feeling after a weekend meditation retreat. You never realise how busy you've been until you stop and relax - and the same goes for switching off your mind, which the tank does very well. So floating helps me approach all my work in a calmer, more considered fashion, which I'm sure enhances my creativity.
I also feel more centred in my body and relaxed after floating, so I can chill out and enjoy life more. If you live in the country, the effect may not be so dramatic, but for city dwellers like me, floating can be a wonderful antidote to the hustle and bustle of urban life.
For these reasons, I think floating could be helpful if you're experiencing a creative block, particularly the kind brought on by working too long and trying too hard. I've not tried it under these circumstances, but if you've been tearing your hair out trying to crack a brief or write the next chapter of your novel, an hour in a floatation tank could be the perfect creative tonic.
If I've whetted your appetite for floating, there may well be a float centre in your nearest city where you can try it. Here in London, I've floated at Floatworks (who kindly supplied the photographs for this article) and The London Float Centre, both of which provide excellent facilities in a relaxed atmosphere.
If so - did you find it beneficial?
Do you think it boosted your creativity?
If not - is it something you'd like to try?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Can You Float Your Way to Creative Flow? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
She was beautiful. I couldn't believe my luck. She took my hand on the dance floor and smiled an ultraviolet smile. The pounding dance beat morphed into the beating of my heart as we found ourselves standing outside my flat. I fumbled with the keys. Somehow I got the door open. Taking her hand, I led her inside.
There was something strange about the flat - but what could it be? Was it a spaceship? A submarine? Maybe it was slowly sinking underground? Or occupied by chimps?"Cut! CUT!" The director clapped her hands and we turned to face the audience.
Photo by LePetitPoulailler
She smiled: "Mark, you're trying too hard! You're trying to anticipate and think of a really good answer - I can see the cogs turning in your mind! Just relax and say the most obvious thing that comes into your head. Your obvious is your talent. It's obvious to you, but the audience will love it, trust me!"
We started again:
Dancefloor. Outside flat. Keys. Door. Leading her inside ...
"Here we are," I said, "make yourself at home".
"It's a bit dark" she replied.
"Hang on a minute, I'll fix that."
"Where's the switch?"
"Just here, don't worry." I reached out my hand and felt something soft and warm.
"Why do the walls feel funny? It's like we're..."
"... Inside something."
"What's that noise? It's like a heart... beating."
I looked up into the darkness and smiled. "I call her Nelly."
The audience laughed and applauded. We bounded off the stage.
That was my first taste of stage improvisation. We were playing an acting game, where the class was split into pairs and had to take turns on the stage in front of the group, improvising a scene around the following scenario:
You two have just met at a nightclub. One of you has taken the other back to your flat. But when you get there, you find there's something unusual about the flat...
By the time my partner and I took the stage, we'd watched several other couples perform. This was my first time doing any kind of acting since school, and the group included professional actors and some very talented amateurs. As I sat there, watching scene after witty, amusing, entertaining scene, I couldn't help feeling anxious: What am I going to say? How am I going to do anything like that? Will it be funny? Will I just freeze up and look like an idiot?
But as the director - Deborah Frances-White of The Spontaneity Shop - pointed out, you can't anticipate improvisation. You can only do it. In the moment. The harder you try to be original, funny or entertaining, the more unoriginal, stilted and boring you become.
Yet the moment I relaxed and said the first thing that came into my head, the scene came to life. It stopped being about me and my self-image, and started being fun. Like throwing a ball and trusting the other person will catch it. Or the actors' 'trust game' where you have to deliberately fall backwards into the other person's arms.
I don't think I'm in any danger of being invited onto Whose Line Is It Anyway? but for me, something magical happened at that moment. I had no idea that we would find ourselves inside 'Nelly', and I couldn't say which of us thought of the idea first. Nelly just appeared, in that charmed space where we found ourselves finishing each others' sentences. And the audience laughed.
We are used to thinking of originality as very important to creativity. An artist's worst nightmare is to be called 'unoriginal' or accused of copying others' work. But it wasn't always like this.
Shakespeare famously never invented a plot. His Hamlet wasn't the first Hamlet to grace the London stage - he was recycling material from an earlier play with the same title, as well as popular legends. A bit like a modern rock band playing a cover version of a classic song. He was working within a long tradition of writers whose chief concern wasn't to create something original or radically new, but something that did the job - that entranced the audience and made them laugh or cry.
Compared to Shakespeare and his forebears, a lot of modern writers look like restless egomaniacs. They aren't content to stand on the shoulders of giants. They not only try to reinvent the wheel but ask whether we need a wheel at all, or something completely different.
The danger with trying to be original is that - like me, waiting in the wings - we become so concerned with ourselves and our self-image that we forget to trust our instincts. Because as Deborah pointed out, your obvious is your talent. It may seem dull or unremarkable to you, but to others, with different life experience, it will seem fresh and surprising. Original.
This is the kind of originality you can't help - any more than Shakespeare could help being original when he wrote Hamlet, or Michelangelo when producing throwaway sketches. It's unconscious, part of your creative DNA. You may not even notice it - but the clues may come from your audience, or a sensitive critic like Deborah.
It doesn't come from straining to think outside the box or trying to create something wild and wacky. It comes from being yourself and doing the obvious - and trusting that will be enough.
Do you think originality is overrated?
Have you ever created something amazing without realising it?
How do you stop yourself trying too hard?
PS - If you're interested in improvisation, check out the amazing work of Keith Johnstone, starting with his classic book Impro. And if you're in London I highly recommend the workshops at The Spontaneity Shop. Tell Deborah I sent you!
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Donât Try to Be Original appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Seth Godin posted some interesting thoughts on creativity this week:
What does it mean to be creative?
You could watch the most non-creative, linear-thinking, do-it-by-the-book cop work to solve a crime and you'd be amazed at how creative her solutions seem to be. Creative for you, because you've never been in that territory before, it's all new, it's all at the edges. Boring for her, because it's the same thing she does every time. It's not creative at all.
For me, creativity is the stuff you do at the edges. But the edges are different for everyone, and the edges change over time. If you visualize the territory you work in as an old Boston Bruins sweatshirt, realize that over time, it stretches out, it gets looser, the edges move away. Stuff that would have been creative last year isn't creative at all today, because it's not near the edges any more.
A couple of thoughts in response:
1. Seth's cop example is similar to Darwin's approach to the problem of evolution: by talking to pigeon fanciers, horse breeders, taxonomists and other specialists, he assembled all the pieces of the evolutionary jigsaw. Yet the specialists weren't doing anything 'creative', just the same thing they always did. The creative magic came from collecting the different pieces and seeing how the edges fitted together.
2. Note that Seth isn't telling us to think outside the box - it's more subtle than that. Chris Bilton, my old MA tutor, said something similar:
Creative thinking takes place neither inside the box nor outside the box, but at the edge of the box.
(Chris Bilton, Management and Creativity)
Seth and Chris aren't telling us to abandon everything we know and break all the rules - they're encouraging us to test the boundaries, to find the razor's edge between knowing and not-knowing, familiarity and strangeness, confidence and doubt.
That's what keeps things interesting - working to the limits of your ability, with that twinge in your stomach telling you you're doing a high wire act and you could fall.
Where are the edges of your current knowledge and abilities?
How have they shifted from a few years ago?
How do you challenge yourself to keep things fresh and exciting?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Seth Godin on Creativity at the Edges appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Monday's post on whether brainstorming is a waste of time provoked an excellent debate in the comments.
In this post I want to highlight one of the threads in the discussion, as it touched upon a fundamental question about creativity -- is it something we all have, which should be encouraged in everyone, or is 'serious' creativity best left to experienced professionals?
Here's a slightly edited excerpt of the relevant comments:
#19 | Michael Plishka | 1/26/2009 at 11:42 am
... Bottom line: we want ALL our people to contribute in some way to idea generation and our creative cultures. Traditional team brainstorming isnat the way to do this.
#21 | Rasmus | 1/26/2009 at 1:22 pm
...brainstorming is an awesome tool. In my experience though, corporate pen pushers arenat very good at it. They should leave creative methods to creative people.
#23 | Tony | 1/26/2009 at 1:40 pm
I think Rasmus nailed it with, aIn my experience though, corporate pen pushers arenat very good at it.a Let the creatives do the creative work, thatas what weare getting paid for.
I think my general dislike of brainstorms is that most of them are set up to be inclusive of everyone at the earliest stages of idea creation, and a lot of those people shouldnat really be there, not because theyare not creative, but because theyare not creative when put on the spot in front of an audience.
#25 | Michael Plishka | 1/26/2009 at 2:01 pm
@rasmus and tony and a few others,
Donat you think thereas a problem with:
a Let the creatives do the creative work, thatas what weare getting paid for.a and
a a lot of those people shouldnat really be there, not because theyare not creative, but because theyare not creative when put on the spot in front of an audience.a ?
1. Iam paying EVERYONE to be creative! Humans are creative by nature, if they werenat we wouldnat be having this conversation. I want all of my team to be a rockina innovative powerhouse and that means they need to be firing on all cylinders as humans. This leads to:
2. We are content with losing creative input because someone canat deal effectively with the social pressures of brainstorming?!? !
I really canat believe people are willing to kick creative input/people to the side?!?
#27 | Tony | 1/26/2009 at 2:14 pm
@Michael
I donat disagree that everyone is creative, and that their input is valid. However, we donat hold big meetings to discuss how weare going to do the accounting whenever something new comes up where everyone is invited to pitch new ideas, generally we let the accountants handle it because thatas what theyare good at. This isnat by any means a claim that people can only do what theyare hired to do, but I donat think the brainstorm as run in most organizations is the way to bring in outside input to the creative process. It tends to lead to the dreaded acreativity by committeea as the creative process morphs into a democracy, which it is surely not in its most natural state.
#31 | Michael Plishka | 1/26/2009 at 4:26 pm
back @Tony,
Now weare talkina!!! :-)
Thanks to Michael, Rasmus and Tony for raising this important question -- and debating it in gentlemanly fashion.
(You might also like to check out Michael's post Five (weak) reasons for continuing to use team brainstormings.)
Is creativity something we all have naturally, or is it a skill developed by practice?
In the workplace, should we involve everyone in the creative process or 'Let the creatives do the creative work'?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Should We Leave Creativity to the Professionals? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Richard Huntington, Director of Strategy for Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK, has a pathological hatred of brainstorming:
I hate brainstorms.
I hate running them, I hate contributing to them and I hate using them to solve problems.
They waste huge amounts of time and talent and they are no fucking good at delivering decent ideas.
And so six months ago I cleansed my professional life of this trojan horse of mediocrity, favouring aggregated individual working or two person thinking sessions.
I suggest it's time you gave them the boot too.
Death to the brainstorm. Long live great ideas.
He's not alone. In spite of the fact that brainstorming is virtually synonymous with creativity in some quarters, there are plenty of people who would love to erase brainstorms from their working life.
In some cases these are people who wouldn't describe themselves as 'creative', who find it embarrassing and slightly intimidating to be asked to come up with wacky ideas in front of their colleagues. But the critics also include some very talented and successful creative professionals, like Huntington or Gordon Torr, formerly Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson, Europe, Middle East and Africa:
by far the most egregious example of creative mismanagement is the brainstorm ...[Brainstorming] didn't work, it never had worked, it never will work, and there was proof that it couldn't work way back in 1965. If, during all this time, any ideas found their way out of brainstorming sessions and were implemented successfully to the great delight of all, it was in spite of the technique, not because of it.
(Gordon Torr, Managing Creative People)
I've heard similar complaints from quite a few creative directors and professional creatives - instead of seeing brainstorming as essential to the company's creative process, they see it as a chore, something to get out of the way as quickly as possible so that they can get on with the real business of creativity. Particularly in companies where everyone is expected to contribute to the brainstorm - not just the 'creative team' - some creative directors have said they see it as a matter of political expediency rather than a source of inspiration: by involving other departments, everyone gets to 'have their say', but the really valuable ideas don't emerge until afterwards, when the creatives start work in earnest.
And as Gordon Torr points out, there's a lot of 'proof' from research to back up the criticisms.
'Brainstorming' is such a common word that it's often used to describe any meeting or conversation designed to generate ideas. But what the critics are really complaining about are formal brainstorming sessions, governed by a set of rules that originated with advertising manager Alex Faickney Osborn, in his 1963 book Applied Imagination. The basic assumption is that by suspending judgement, people free themselves to come up with unusual and potentially useful ideas. The four most important rules are:
A leader is appointed to facilitate the session, encouraging people and making sure they stick to the rules. The leader is also responsible for collecting the ideas, usually by writing them on a whiteboard, flipchart or post it notes. Once ideas have been generated, they are evaluated at a later stage, to see which are worth implementing.
There has been a lot of research into brainstorming, most of which confirms the criticisms levelled at the technique:
Studies have compared the quality and quantity of ideas generated in group brainstorming sessions with those generated by individuals working in isolation. The researchers found that groups produce fewer good/relevant ideas than those produced by individuals. According to the researchers, it's more effective to ask team members to generate ideas individually or in pairs before a group meeting at which ideas are shared and compared.
Brainstorming is said to work because critical thinking is banned, allowing for a freer flow of original ideas. But again, the research raises doubts about this. One study compared classic brainstorming sessions with sessions in which brainstormers were told what criteria would be used to evaluate their ideas and encouraged to use this information to guide their idea generation. The 'criteria cued' groups produce fewer ideas, but a larger number of high-quality ideas. The danger with brainstorming is that quantity does not equal quality.
A common source of frustration for professionals is having to sit through brainstorming sessions in which other people generate a stream of ideas that 'simply won't work'. Sometimes the subject experts have tried the ideas before, sometimes they just have technical knowledge that allows them to see why the ideas will never work. But because of the rules of brainstorming, they aren't allowed to say so, as they will be labelled 'idea killers'.
One theory for the poor performance of brainstorming groups is that people feel inhibited by the presence of others, particularly their boss or other senior workers.
In a group situation, lazy individuals can get away with contributing little to the discussion, allowing noisier colleagues to do all the work. If asked to produce ideas in isolation, everyone has to contribute their share.
In sessions where people have to take turns to speak, this can slow down the idea generation process. If you think of an idea while someone else is speaking, you have to wait your turn to share it with the group. By the time your turn comes round, you may have forgotten it or lost interest. Even if you manage to remember it, the chances are the effort of remembering will have stopped you thinking of other ideas in the meanwhile.
In spite of being encouraged to come up with wild or wacky ideas, there's a tendency for groups to converge on similar kinds of idea. Once this starts to happen, it can be hard for an individual to propose a radically different idea, and risk going against the flow. If not properly managed, a brainstorming session can lead to 'creativity by committee', in which good ideas are diluted by consensus and compromise.
So the case against brainstorming is pretty damning. Or is it?
Stanford Engineering School Professor Robert Sutton is critical of the critics:
Here's the problem: Most academic studies of brainstorming are rigorous, but irrelevant to the challenge of managing creative work. They argue that people brainstorming alone speak more ideas (per person) into a microphone during a 10-minute period than those in a group brainstorm. A "productivity loss" of group brainstorming happens because people take turns talking and therefore can't spew out ideas as fast.
But comparing whether creativity happens best in groups or alone is pretty silly when you look at how creative work is actually done. At creative companies, people switch between both modes so seamlessly that it is hard to notice where individual work ends and group work starts. At group brainstorms, individuals often "tune out" for a few minutes to sketch a product or organizational structure inspired by the conversation, and then jump back in to show others their idea...
Many academic experiments into brainstorming are fake. They usually involve people who have no prior experience or training in group brainstorming. They often are led by undergraduates in psychology classes who are briefly presented a list of "rules" and then instructed to spend 10 or 15 minutes generating novel ideas about topics that they know - and most likely care - nothing about. A common question in these experiments is: "What would happen if everyone had an extra thumb?" This might be fun but isn't a problem that they will ever face.
For Sutton, the problem isn't with the technique but the way it's applied: 'when brainstorming sessions are managed right and skillfully linked to other work practices, they can promote remarkable innovation.'
Tom Kelly agrees with Sutton. And as Kelly is General Manager of IDEO, the world-famous design consultancy whose work for clients such as Apple, Kodak, Pepsi and Gap has racked up over 1,000 patents and more design awards than any other company, he should know what he's talking about:
the problem with brainstorming is that everyone thinks they already do it. ... many business people treat brainstorming as a checkbox, a threshold variable, like "Can you ride a bicycle?" or "Do you know how to tie your shoes?" They overlook the possibility that brainstorming can be a skill, an art, more like playing the piano than tying your shoes. You're always learning and can get continuously better. You can become a brainstorming virtuoso ...
Brainstorming is practically a religion at IDEO, one we practice nearly every day. Though brainstorms themselves are often playful, brainstorming as a tool - as a skill - is taken quite seriously. And in a company without many rules, we have a very firm idea about what constitutes a brainstorm and how it should be organised.
(Tom Kelly, The Art of Innovation)
What's going on here? How come the academics can't agree on the evidence for and against brainstorming as a tool for creativity? And how come there are outstanding creative practitioners arguing passionately on both sides of the debate?
Do you think brainstorming is a waste of time?
Or do you think it just needs to be done properly to be effective?
Come on, let's get as many responses as we can - just type the first thing that comes into your mind! :-)
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
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It's time to spread the link love by highlighting some great examples of Lateral Activity elsewhere on the web...
You can tell the economy is in a bad way when we cautious Brits are seized with entrepreneurial fever. According to Money Market UK, job losses are spurring 'a new breed of UK entrepreneurs':
The growing number of talented high earners losing their jobs across Britain is spurring a revolution and new generation of entrepreneurs.
Taking what experience and contacts they have, many currently out of work would rather work for themselves carving out new business opportunities, surfacing as a direct result of the credit crunch.
Quality of life, job security and becoming the master of one's own destiny are primary factors driving this surge in new business creation.
(Their prehistoric website doesn't allow me to link to the actual article, but rest assured this is the interesting bit.)
If you find the prospect (or reality) of the entrepreneurial life a daunting one, you might want to take Tim Ferris's advice on Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You:
Ever since the mediaas Chicken Little response to the tremors in the financial markets, Iave felt like shouting from the rooftops anow you know how it feels to be an entrepreneur!a
Maybe Marla was right when she said 'We're all entrepreneurs now'.
For some great examples of real life Marlas, check out Fast Company's Top Women Entrepreneurs in Tech.
And according to the US National Endowment for the Arts, it's not just tech creatives who are the future of the economy:
aArtists now play a huge but mostly unrecognized role in the new American economy of the 21st century,a said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. aThis report shows how important American artists are to both our nationas cultural vitality and economic prosperity of our communities.a
The New York Times describes artists who are Transforming Art into a More Lucrative Career Choice:
Rather than seeing art as something to pursue in the hours when they are not earning a living, these artists are developing businesses around their talents. These artists are part of a growing movement that has caught the attention of business experts and is being nudged along by both art and business schools.
No wonder Steve King advises artists to Take Business Classes with That Art Training.
In his usual inimitable style, Hugh MacLeod explains why the artist is the ultimate global microbrand:
4. Being an artist has three main components- 1. Making the actual work 2. Running the business and 3. Promoting the business. It's REALLY hard to do all three at the same time. It's EQUALLY hard to find people who can take over some of the duties and responsibilities of 2 and 3. Good people who actually know what they're doing are rare and expensive.
Moving on from entrepreneurship to 'making the actual work', Scott Belsky of Behance has a great short essay on Productive Creativity.
If you appreciate the value of creative constraints, you'll enjoy Dan Siedell's uncompromising view of artistic discipline:
Studio work is an ascetic practice. It demands that the artist place limits on his or her freedom to do anything in order to do something. The artist must develop ascetic disciplines in order to avoid one of the worst of aesthetic vices: self-indulgence.
(If Dan's surname sounds familiar, it's because he's the brother of another bright creative fellow, Tim Siedell.)
Digital Apple Juice offers A Different Look at Creativity, suggesting that creative types occupy a spectrum between Creators, Makers and Producers. In a similar vein, Chris Brogan muses on the relationships between Vision, Creation and Execution.
Teresa Amabile, one of my favourite creativity theorists, explodes The 6 Myths of Creativity.
And if that's not enough reading for you, Mark Dykeman has a great list of 22 Ultra-Inspiring Blogs about Creativity and Idea GenerationI'll admit he didn't do his chances of inclusion here any harm by featuring both Lateral Action and Wishful Thinking. :-)
That's all for this week folks -- have nice weekends!
The post Lateral Activity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But Darwin was not content to be a mere collector - he was determined to solve the problem of how evolution took place. For the next 20 years he devoted himself to studying the specimens he had brought back and working out his theory of evolution.
In my last article I looked at Darwin's early career, based on what I learned at the Darwin Big Idea exhibition. Although Edward de Bono and others have attributed Darwin's success to his powers of lateral thinking and his lack of subject knowledge, there wasn't much evidence of this at the exhibition. Instead, there was an awful lot of evidence of hard work, dedication, study and direct experience.
Now, in the final article in this series, I'll look at Darwin's later career, still focused on the question with which I began this series: How Did Darwin Get His Big Idea?
Darwin's collections gave him access to the elite scientific circles of the day, of which he took full advantage. Hobnobbing with leading scientists meant he could draw on their expertise and contacts. It also gave him privileged access to information and specimens for study. For example, membership of the Zoological Society meant he was allowed to visit London Zoo, which was closed to the public until 1847. When the time came to publish his findings, Darwin's influential connections helped ensure the book's success.
Takeaway: Find out who the movers and shakers are in your industry. Your career will be a lot smoother if you make friends with them.
Takeaway: Don't try to do it all yourself. Find people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than you, and persuade them to help you.
Darwin didn't just talk to the academic experts. He visited working men's pigeon clubs and asked the top pigeon breeders about the effects of selective breeding. He also consulted dog and horse breeders, including his hairdresser who turned out to be a keen amateur enthusiast. This was part of a lifelong habit of treating others with respect and affection, no matter what their social station. For instance, while studying at Edinburgh he was happy to learn taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a freed black slave - unlike many of his contemporaries, Darwin did not view other races as inferior, and often spent time in the company of this 'very pleasant and intelligent man'.
Darwin's open-mindedness and willingness to listen to others meant there wasn't really any need for to him to 'think outside the box' or 'break down his associative barriers' - by simply talking to people with different backgrounds, knowledge and social status, he accumulated a rich variety of different perspectives on his problem.
Takeaway: Everyone you meet can teach you something, provided you keep your eyes and ears open.
Darwin wrote 'my life goes on like clockwork and I am fixed on the spot where I shall end it'. He wasn't joking. This was his typical day, spent studying at home:
Rising early - A walk in the garden before breakfast.
After breakfast - Work in his study.
9:30 am - Retiring to the drawing room to listen to letters being read to him. Note the importance of starting on his own work first, rather than being distracted by others' demands in the form of letters.
10:30 am - More work in his study.
Midday - Another walk in the garden, 'rain or shine'.
Afternoon - Reading and maintaining his vast correspondence.
Evening - Relaxing with a game of billiards, which 'drove the horrid species out of my head'
Darwin's routine was clearly devised to minimise interruptions and maximise his productivity. These working habits meant he got through an immense amount of work - he wrote 16 books and innumerable papers, not to mention countless letters. He was so wedded to the routine that if he was interrupted or somehow distracted from his work, he experienced spells of dizziness and vomiting.
For some reason, my wife seemed to find this part of the Darwin exhibition very funny. 'He was just like you!' she said. 'He got up early and did his own writing before he answered his e-mail!'. A few minutes later, watching me scribbling in the notebook about the notes in Darwin's notebooks, she laughed and said 'Now I understand why you British are so good at discovery and invention - you don't mind being boring!'.
Takeaway: Arrange your day around your creative priorities and rhythms.
Looking at Darwin's routine, it carefully alternates physical and mental activity. His walks were so important to him that he had a special path laid out in the grounds of his house. They helped break up the monotony of seated study, and had obvious health benefits. But they were also part of his working process - he called the route through his garden his 'Thinking Path' because, like many creators, he found that walking stimulated his thoughts.
Takeaway: Creativity is a full body sport. Keep your body fit and healthy or your imagination will go stale.
Takeaway: Design your office setup around your work. If you're going to be sitting for long time, get the best chair you can afford.
Darwin's notebooks were some of the most memorable exhibits in the exhibition for me. Not only did they provide the thrill of seeing the first tentative expressions of a momentous theory - such as the sketch of an evolutionary tree next to the words 'I think' - but when I looked at them I really felt in the presence of Darwin the man.
The notes written in fountain pen looked antiquated, Victorian, distant. But some of them were written in pencil, on what looked like A4 paper. They looked as though they'd been written last week. Like the kind of notes I scribble down myself when I'm thinking something through.
Evidently Darwin used notebooks in the same way as most other creators - to capture thoughts and work them out. As a thinking space and later on a reference library. Looking at them, I could see he wasn't superhuman. Somehow, the notebooks seemed to bring extraordinary achievements within the grasp of the rest of us.
Takeaway: Don't put great creators on a pedestal. Study their methods and see what you can learn from them. And always have a notebook to hand.
In a famous passage from his Autobiography, Darwin writes about the effect on his thinking of reading the political economist Thomas Malthus:
In October 1838, that is, 15 months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well-prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long and continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would be tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by which to work.
This is a clear case of insight via analogy, comparing the 'struggle for existence' in the human population and in different plant and animal species. Edward de Bono claims analogy as a technique of lateral thinking, so this looks like the clearest evidence for lateral thinking in the Darwin story.
Now, as a poet I'm sold on the value of analogy in creativity, and I'm prepared to admit this was a significant step in Darwin's journey - but it was just one step. Darwin himself tells us that he was 'well-prepared' to receive the analogy, given his habitual focus on the problem of evolution. In other words, the analogy wouldn't have had much effect if he hadn't spent so long engaged in'routine learning'. Robert Weisberg argues that 'Darwin's reading of Malthus, rather than producing a great leap of insight, was simply the final step in a long process'.
Takeaway: Focus on your goals, but take time off to read books and watch movies that have nothing to do with your work. You may make some surprising discoveries.
You knew this was coming didn't you? Darwin gave a famous description of the moment he solved the problem of evolution:
I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long after I had come to Down. The solution, as I believe, is that the modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.
Autobiography, 1887
So does this mean that de Bono is right, that the key to creativity lies in the flash of insight rather than dogged hard work? Not if you ask me. I've written before that inspiration tends to strike after intensive work, not before. It must have been a wonderful moment for Darwin when the solution came to him as if from nowhere - but it was probably more satisfying because he knew that it didn't come from nowhere. It was the final piece of the jigsaw, the culmination of years of work on the problem.
Takeaway: 'In the fields of observation, chance favors the prepared mind' - Louis Pasteur.
One of the problems with the concept of Darwin as a towering genius is the fact that he wasn't the only person to formulate a theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1858 he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace, which outlined a practically identical theory of evolution to Darwin's own.
Darwin had delayed publication of his theory, partly because he was still working out the details, and partly because he was worried about the reaction from Victorian society to a theory that challenged received ideas about faith and progress. Announcing his theory, he said, would be like confessing to murder. But when he saw one of these essay, he realised he could delay no longer, or risk being pipped at the post by Wallace.
At this point Darwin's contacts and standing within the scientific community came to his aid. In what the exhibition describes as 'a burst of energetic networking', Joseph Hooker and Charles Lyell negotiated a compromise, resulting in both Darwin and Wallace presenting papers to the Linnean Society in London, before Darwin went on to publish his book On the Origin of Species.
Darwin later wrote to Wallace:
I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect - and very few things in my life have been more satisfactory to me - that we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in one sense rivals.
Takeaway: Build your network before you need it. Don't be ashamed of your ambition - but don't walk over other people to achieve it.
in a little-known book published in 1831, Patrick Matthew, a Scottish botanical writer, presented a theory of evolution by natural selection that was the same as Darwin's and Wallace's, so much so that Darwin acknowledged in a letter to Wallace that 'he gives most clearly but very briefly ... our view of natural selection. It is the most complete case of anticipation.' Matthew's work went unnoticed partly because of his obscure position and partly because it appeared at the end of a book on trees.
(Robert Weisberg, Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius)
Darwin didn't make this mistake. His book announced his discovery with a killer headline:
On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection
And Darwin's position was anything but obscure. Through his eminent scientific contacts, he made sure that leading thinkers in the field were aware of the book and primed to promote and defend it. Thomas Huxley famously acted as 'Darwin's bulldog', arguing for Darwin's theory and defending it against all challengers.
The result? Unlike Patrick Matthew's book, The Origin of Species sold out on its first day of publication, caused a sensation in Victorian society and sent out intellectual shockwaves that have yet to subside to this day.
Takeaway: Marketing is crucial to creative success - whether you like it or not.
I began this series by looking at a popular view of Charles Darwin as an outstanding lateral thinker - someone who looked at the same evidence as other scientists, but drew different conclusions. According to Edward de Bono, he was able to do this because his education was limited, meaning he wasn't blinkered by assumptions from received knowledge.
De Bono describes Darwin as a 'gifted mind' with a 'lack of interest in routine learning'. The world of lateral thinking is full of leaps of insight and flashes of inspiration - so it's easy to see how this has become a popular view, not just of Darwin but of creativity in general.
But the evidence of the Darwin Big Idea Exhibition contradicts this image. Far from neglecting 'routine learning', Darwin had an enormous capacity for it - first in his painstaking field work, collecting specimens from across the globe, then later over 20 years of sustained study on his return to England. He saw knowledge as essential to creativity, not its enemy.
Apart from the great adventure of the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin lived a pretty boring life, governed by a 'clockwork' routine of daily study. He did experience a moment of insight, but this was the tip of an enormous iceberg of knowledge and hard work.
Some people might be disillusioned by the story I've just told, but I actually find it more inspiring than the original version. Here's why:
Darwin wasn't a cleverdick who sauntered into the room and effortlessly pointed out what others were too stupid to see. He was passionate about the natural world and scientific discovery. His passion led him to travel the world in search of evidence, and to toil away for years on his return. When inspiration struck on that carriage ride, it wasn't a bolt from the blue - it was the reward for a lifetime's dedication.
Darwin didn't get his big idea because he was cleverer than anyone else or because he used special techniques of creative thinking. He got his big idea - and got it noticed - because he cared more about it than anyone else.
What do you make of Darwin's work habits?
Do you think being boring gives you a creative advantage?
Which version of Darwin do you prefer - the creative thinker of genius, or the dedicated worker?
The images in this article are all from the Darwin press pack from The National History Museum, London
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How Darwin Devised His Theory of Evolution appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
In the first article in this series, I asked the question How Did Darwin Get His Big Idea?. I considered a popular theory, based on Edward de Bono's lateral thinking, as to why Darwin, unlike his learned contemporaries, was the one who devised the theory of evolution by natural selection.
According to this view, Darwin was a creative thinker of genius who looked at the facts unhampered by the blinkers of professional education and preconceived notions.
I contrasted this with Darwin's own explanation, from a letter displayed in the wonderful Darwin Big Idea exhibition, which emphasises habitual searching (not a flash of insight), first-hand observation (giving him richer knowledge than most other scientists of the day), and the acquisition of subject knowledge (not ignoring it):
As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs. This implies sharp observation and requires as much knowledge as possible of the subjects investigated.
Now I'm going to look at the evidence of Darwin's early career, including the famous voyage of the Beagle, as it appeared to me when I visited the Darwin Big Idea exhibition. I'll explain why I find Darwin's own explanation of his creativity more convincing than that given by de Bono. I'll also suggest what we can learn from Darwin's example. The final article in the series will look at his later career, when he formulated his theory of evolution on his return to England.
So, to return to my original question - How Did Darwin Get His Big Idea?
Even as a young boy, Darwin was curious about the natural world, spending family holidays collecting wildlife specimens. At Cambridge he was an enthusiastic collector of beetles. His descriptions of the voyage of the Beagle are frequently radiant with enthusiasm:
The delight of experiences in such times bewilders the mind. If the eye attempts to follow the flight of a gaudy butterfly,
it is arrested by some strange tree or fruit; if watching an insect, one forgets it in the strange flower it is crawling over [a|]
The mind is a chaos of delight.
(Beagle voyage quote by Charles Darwin, from Annieas Box by Randal Keynes)
As he matured, this curiosity developed into a passion that would last a lifetime.
Takeaway: Follow your heart.
According to the exhibition, many naturalists in the 18th and early 19th centuries collected animal and plant specimens and classified species in groups, but only a few of them speculated that species had evolved. One of them was Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin, who wrote about the problem of evolution in his book Zoonomia.
Another was the Frenchman John Baptiste Lamarck, who formulated an influential theory of evolution. In his book Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius, Robert Weisberg points out that while a student at Edinburgh University, Charles Darwin became close friends with Doctor Robert Grant, a zoologist who believed in Lamarckian evolution. At Cambridge University, Darwin associated with leading scientific thinkers, many of whom were interested in questions of evolution. When the Beagle set sail, Darwin whiled away his time at sea reading Charles Lyell's freshly published Principles of Geology, which included detailed speculations about the development of the Earth and living species.
All of which meant that - unlike many of his contemporaries - Darwin had inherited a set of burning questions about evolution and the nature of life on Earth.
Walking through the Darwin exhibition, one of the first things things I noticed about Darwin's journals was his constant harping on the theme of evolution. He was not simply looking at the world around him with a fresh eye and an open mind, but scrutinising everything he saw through the lenses of these questions, which he had inherited from previous thinkers: Why had the species he observed taken that particular form? How did they relate to one another? What could explain the relationship between species that looked very similar, but had significant differences?
In his own words, he was 'habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs'.
Takeaway: Listen to the giants of the past. What questions are they asking you? Are you ready to stand on their shoulders?
Visiting the Darwin exhibition was a bit like spending time in the company of a charming but obsessive friend. We all know them - people who never shut up about football or cooking, or who reinterpret every conversation in psychological or political terms. They can be fascinating, but you sometimes wish they would change the subject. I got the impression Darwin hardly ever changed the subject. It seemed to be constantly on his mind. Even he found it wearying -- while working on his theory of evolution he used to play billiards every evening, in an attempt to 'drive the horrid species out of my head'.
The Japanese have a word for this kind of obsessive person - 'otaku'. It means something like 'geek' or 'nerd'. A classic otaku has an encyclopaedic knowledge of things like manga comics or technology, but you can also be an otaku about any subject. We've seen before on the Lateral Action that obsessive behaviour is often critical to creative achievement - whether in Michelangelo's countless drawings, Brian Wilson's marathon recording sessions, or Stanley Kubrick's mind bogglingly detailed research for his films.
Darwin was clearly an evolution otaku. His curiosity about the natural world combined with the questions he had inherited from past thinkers, leading to the habitual observation, questioning and thinking to which he attributed his success. His obsession manifested firstly in the meticulous observation and collection of specimens during the voyage of the Beagle, and later in the endless hours of study and reflection through which he worked out his theory. The fact that he was an otaku meant he persisted when the dabblers gave up.
Writing this, it's just struck me that I must be a creativity otaku. I didn't enter the Darwin exhibition with a completely open mind - I went looking for evidence of Darwin's creative process. When I found it, I had to start scribbling in my notebook. Now, I feel compelled to share it with you. I originally only meant to write one short post, but I found the subject so interesting I couldn't help writing three articles. Even now, I'm wondering if I have room to cram it all in. That's what it feels like to be an otaku.
Takeaway: Give in to your creative obsessions. But don't forget to switch off with a nice game of billiards in the evening.
Darwin lived at a time when education and scientific investigations were to a large extent the preserve of those who could afford it. He came from a rich family, so there was no pressing financial need for him to earn a living, and he could afford to devote himself to speculative pursuits. The position of naturalist on the HMS Beagle was unpaid - but as Darwin received an allowance from his family, he could fund it himself. How many of us could afford to take five years out to travel the world on the Beagle? More of us, probably, than in Victorian England.
So Darwin's was a theory born of privilege. Even so, it required a sacrifice. One of the more amusing items in the exhibition, is Darwin's list of the pros and cons of marriage. His chief concern was a 'terrible loss of time', which very nearly outweighed the attractions of 'a nice wife on the sofa'. In the event he managed to accommodate marriage and a family within his working schedule - but it was evidently very much in that order, in spite of the fact that he was obviously devoted to his wife and children.
Takeaway: Get born into a rich family. Or if that's not an option, find a job that gives you plenty of free time. Or devise a business model that earns you lots of cash for a small investment in time.
Darwin's academic career looks undistinguished: he abandoned his medical studies at Edinburgh University, and failed to gain admission to the medical school at Cambridge. When he did go up to Cambridge, he studied divinity, with a view to becoming a clergyman, but failed to graduate. Edward de Bono seizes on this as evidence that Darwin's 'gifted mind' was unsuited to the shackles of conventional education and 'routine learning'.
But we've already seen that Darwin read and consulted leading thinkers about evolution. Robert Weisberg points out that he also learned 'the scientists next observation and data collection' while assisting one of his professors on a geological expedition. And we'll see in the next article, that when studying at home, Darwin had an appetite for routine learning that was far greater than his fellow students, many of whom probably never opened an academic book after their graduation ceremony.
Reading through the accounts of Darwin studies in the exhibition, it seemed pretty clear to me that Darwin was not a poor student by any means - he simply wasn't interested in becoming a doctor or a clergyman. He'd much rather spend his time collecting beetles or discussing evolution and geology with his mentors. By the time he set sail on the Beagle, he was an educated scientist with everything but the letters after his name.
Takeaway: Follow your heart (even when you're grown up). Don't become a doctor just because daddy thinks it's a respectable career.
On 27 December 1831, the HMS Beagle set sail from Plymouth. Its mission: to survey the coastal geography of South America. Charles Darwin joined the passengers, originally as a companion to the captain Robert Fitzroy, but also with the aim of collecting specimens for the study of geology and natural history.
The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career. Everything about which I thought or read was made to bear directly on what I had seen or was likely to see; and this habit of mind was continued during the five years of the voyage. I feel sure that it was this training which has enabled me to do whatever I have done in science.
(The life and letters of Charles Darwin, 1887)
We've already looked at the lateral thinkers' claim that Darwin had the same information available to him as other scientific investigators, and it was only his superior powers of creative thinking that separated him from the rest. But this passage shows that Darwin did not think so. He says that his unique experiences on the voyage of the Beagle 'determined my whole career'.
Logically, it may be true that all of the 'facts' necessary to solve the problem of evolution were available to the scholars back home, even before Darwin set sail. But Darwin hadn't just read the information in a book - he had a richer experience and understanding because he had been there, seen the species in their natural habitat, marvelled at them and collected them.
The voyage of the Beagle was the culmination of his youthful ambition, and the springboard for his mature achievement.
Takeaway: There's no substitute for experience. You will learn more from taking action with total commitment than from just sitting and reading a whole library.
The big advantage Darwin gained from his travels was the opportunity to observe animals and plants in their natural habitats, and to compare species from different locations. But he wasn't simply observing with a fresh eye, as the lateral thinkers suggest. He tells us that 'Everything about which I thought or read was made to bear directly on what I have seen or was likely to see' (my emphasis).
Darwin explicitly tells us that it was not observation alone, but the combination of observation, thinking and reading that produced results. And it didn't happen quickly - this was a 'habit of mind [that] was continued during the five years of the voyage'.
Takeaway: Keep switching between action and reflection. Let your theory inform your practice and vice versa.
Darwin didn't simply observe what he saw and make notes in his notebook. He collected specimens - hundreds of them - catalogued them and sent them back to England for analysis. The quantity and quality of specimens he sent back was so remarkable that, although he had left Plymouth as a virtual unknown, he returned as something of a scientific celebrity, with leading zoologists, botanists and geologists eager to meet him and inspect his collections.
Apart from the intrinsic value of the specimens to Darwin's theorising, they gave him an entree into elite scientific circles. While de Bono claims that Darwin had little interest in 'routine learning', his collections suggest otherwise. Darwin was no lofty thinker in an ivory tower - he did his own donkey work.
Takeaway: Don't be afraid to roll your sleeves up and do the hard graft. You may get more for it than you expect.
I was surprised to learn what an inspiring writer Darwin could be. We tend to associate the appreciation and expression of beauty with artists rather than scientists. But Darwin had an acutely developed sense of the beauty of the natural world:
It creates a feeling of wonder that so much beauty should be apparently created for such little purpose.
(Charles Darwin Beagle Diary, edited by Randal Keynes)
As well as drinking in the beauty of the natural world, Darwin sought to express his theory in aesthetically pleasing terms. He described his use of an analogy, comparing nature to farmers selecting breeding stock, as 'the most beautiful part of my theory'. And he didn't hesitate to compare his scientific endeavours with those of the fine arts:
No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem published than I did at seeing, in Stephensa Illustrations of
British Insects, the magic words, acaptured by C Darwin, Esq.aa
(The life and letters of Charles Darwin, 1887)
If I were tempted to attribute Darwin success to a distinctive intellectual approach, I would probably focus on this finely developed sense of aesthetics. It was not so much a different way of thinking as a deeply felt sense of harmony and beauty in the forms of the natural world, which he sought to reproduce in his great theory.
Takeaway: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty' (John Keats).
Can you recognise yourself in any of Darwin's creative work habits?
Are you a creative otaku?
Have you ever been on a voyage of discovery? What did you learn?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Darwinâs Voyage of Discovery appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you had an idea that was going to outrage society, would you keep it to yourself?
This question is at the heart of the Natural History Museum's Darwin Big Idea Exhibition, currently running in London to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. It's a superb exhibition, well worth a visit for the sheer interest of the momentous discovery it describes, as well as the human story of Darwin's quest for understanding.
And for the student of creativity, this exhibition is a treasure trove. When I visited it a few weeks ago, I was hoping that, in amongst the explanations of the actual theory, there might be a few clues as to how Darwin arrived at his big idea. I was wrong. Because of the way the exhibition is arranged, and the incredible array of exhibits, including Darwin's original specimens, notebooks and even the furniture from his study, it displays his entire creative process in mesmerising detail.
This is the first of three articles in which I'll share with you what I learned about how Darwin got his big idea. But first, I'll consider a view of Darwin's discovery that is popular in the literature on creativity.
The facts needed for the formulation of this theory had been available for some time. What eluded investigators was a way of combining these facts into a coherent theory of evolution.
(Janet Davidson and Robert Sternberg, 'What is insght?', Educational Horizons, Summer 1986)
Janet Davidson and Robert Sternberg lay out the problem of evolution like a giant jigsaw puzzle, over which scientists of the day pored, struggling to fit the pieces together into a meaningful pattern. Like all jigsaw puzzles, it started out as a bewildering mess - but once fully assembled, it was hard to see how it could have been put together in any other way. At least, that was the response of Thomas Huxley, Darwin's friend and colleague, on being shown Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection:
How extremely stupid not to have thought of that.
Of course, we know that Huxley was not stupid. He was a highly educated and intelligent man, one of the leading scientists of the day. So how come Darwin managed to 'think of that' when Huxley could not?
For Edward de Bono, the answer to this kind of question is the type of thinking we use:
Why do some people always seem to be having new ideas while others of equal intelligence never do?
Since Aristotle, logical thinking has been exalted as the one effective way in which to use the mind. Yet the very elusiveness of new ideas indicates that they do not necessarily come about as a result of logical thought processes. Some people are aware of another sort of thinking which is most easily recognized when it leads to those simple ideas that are obvious only after they have been thought of... For the sake of convenience, the term 'lateral thinking' has been coined to describe this other sort of thinking; 'vertical thinking' is used to denote the conventional logical process.
(Edward de Bono, New Think )
According to this view, Darwin was essentially a genius, who looked at the same facts as others but because of his prodigious powers of creative thinking, he was able to 'break the set' of previous assumptions and combine the data into a new and coherent pattern. The fact that Darwin failed to distinguish himself at university was a distinct advantage, since it meant he was free to 'think outside the box' of received knowledge:
To accept the old holes and then ignore them and start again is not as easy as being unaware of them and hence free to start anywhere. Many great discoverers like Faraday had no formal education at all, and others, like Darwin or Clerk Maxwell, had insufficient to curb their originality. It is tempting to suppose that a capable mind that is unaware of the old approach has a good chance of evolving a new one.
(New Think)
So for de Bono, Darwin's lack of qualifications was one of his chief qualifications as a creative thinker:
Darwin failed to get into medical school at Cambridge, and there are many other instances where a gifted mind has shown a similar lack of interest in routine learning.
(New Think)
De Bono's disdain for 'routine learning' leads him almost to deplore Darwin's 'years of hard work' on his theory:
Unfortunately new ideas are not the prerogative of those who spend a long time seeking and developing them. Charles Darwin spent more than twenty years working on his theory of evolution, and then one day he was asked to read over a paper by a young biologist called Alfred Russell Wallace. Ironically the paper contained a clear exposition of the theory of evolution by survival of the fittest. It seems that Wallace had worked out the theory in one week of delirium in the East Indies. The full development of an idea may well take years of hard work but the idea itself may arrive in a flash of insight.
(New Think)
In de Bono's universe, the hare wins the race. Darwin was in danger of becoming like one of his beloved Galapagos tortoises - charming but plodding and easily overtaken. The 'flash of insight' trumps hard work every time.
De Bono's ideas on lateral thinking have been hugely influential on the field of creativity. These quotations from his work are from the 1960s, but similar ideas can be traced in many more recent accounts of Darwin's creative process.
For example, Frans Johansson describes the episode when Darwin returned to England after travelling the world on the HMS Beagle, and sent a collection of 13 birds to the eminent zoologist John Gould for analysis. Gould was perplexed by the collection - the birds were all finches, yet each was slightly different from the rest. Like most people at the time, Gould assumed that God had created a fixed number of unchanging species when He made the world, so he found it hard to decide whether they were the same species or not.
Before consulting Gould, Darwin was apparently so ignorant that he hadn't even realised that they were finches. But Gould's response prompted the realisation that here were 13 finches, from 13 different Galapagos Islands, all very similar but with slight differences. Could it be, Darwin wondered, that they had originally been one species and were now evolving in response to the different environments on their separate islands...?
What is remarkable ... is not the insight and success that Darwin ultimately garnered, but that John Gould was unable to achieve it. He had the expertise, he was a leader in his field, and he had all the pieces of information available to him. But Gould associated everything he observed according to the rules of taxonomy, and he therefore attempted to fit what he saw in Darwin's book collection into those rules. His insight was good and helps increase our understanding about the number of beaches in the world. Darwin's insight, on the other hand, explained why the field of taxonomy exists in the first place. He had this flash of insight because he was able to break down his associative barriers.
(Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect)
Now I should point out that I'm a big fan of Johansson's work. I've previously enthused about The Medici Effect on Lateral Action, and I'm in complete agreement with its central thesis - that multiple perspectives provide fertile ground for creative insights. But in this instance, I'm not sure I can go along with his interpretation of how Darwin arrived at his insight. Before I offer an alternative, I want to summarise the popular view, described by de Bono and Johansson, and which can be found in many other accounts:
But from what I saw at the exhibition, I'm not convinced that any of these three statements are true. And I'm absolutely convinced that, in spite of de Bono's focus on the moment of insight, Darwin's years of hard work were crucial to his success.
I'm not saying that Darwin didn't display open-mindedness and intellectual courage in considering ideas that went against popular opinion at the time. But I don't think he arrived at his big idea by simply letting go of the past and looking at things afresh, nor by using lateral thinking techniques. In fact, I saw a lot of evidence that he actually built on past knowledge and assumptions in order to formulate his theory.
Regular readers of Lateral Action will know that we are sceptical about the idea of 'thinking outside the box' and the value of creative thinking on its own. And we're not very keen on the idea of towering geniuses who have abilities denied to the rest of us mortals. I actually think it would do Darwin a disservice to attribute his discovery purely to flashes of insight and effortless genius. As usual with the creative process, it's more complex and interesting than that.
But if Darwin's breakthrough didn't come through extraordinary creative thinking processes, how did he get his big idea?
One of the exhibits at the National History Museum is a letter from Darwin to his son, in which he gives a succinct explanation of the 'art' of scientific discovery - and one that has nothing to do with unusual thinking processes:
As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs. This implies sharp observation and requires as much knowledge as possible of the subjects investigated.
I've highlighted the words that jump out of this description for me:
Darwin doesn't speak of an isolated flash of insight, but of the habit of a lifetime's enquiry. As we will see in the next article in this series, he didn't look at things completely afresh, but through the lenses of a set of questions about the nature of life on Earth.
First-hand observation was key to Darwin's success. Unlike most scientists of his day, he travelled the globe, observing animals and plants in their natural habitat. This meant that he did not have the same 'facts' as everyone else - unless you believe there is no difference between reading about something in a book and experiencing it for yourself.
Darwin's own explanation flatly contradicts de Bono's. He saw subject knowledge as an advantage, not a disadvantage, and amassed as much of it as possible. He may not have had the letters after his name, but he had done his homework.
In this brief passage, Darwin gives us a thumbnail sketch of a complex creative process, in which he alternated between questioning and observing, direct experience and studious reflection.
In my next two articles, I'll show how the evidence of the exhibition bears out Darwin's account and raises serious doubts about explanations of his discovery based on lateral thinking. I'll also suggest what we can learn from Darwin's creativity and and apply to our own creative work.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How Did Darwin Get His Big Idea? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Earlier this week I switched on the TV halfway through a documentary about the late, great Stanley Kubrick. Presenter Jon Ronson was obviously a huge Kubrick fan, and was thrilled at being invited to the director's home by his family and chief assistant. What did he find when he got there? Cardboard boxes. Thousands of them. Big ones, small ones, scruffy ones, neat ones. Boxes in the living room, boxes in the dining room, boxes in the study. Boxes in the outhouses, stacked from floor to ceiling.
Each box was labelled with the name or initials of one of Kubrick's films, such as 'EWS' (Eyes Wide Shut) or 'FMJ' (Full Metal Jacket). And inside? The family admitted they hadn't opened most of them, so the contents were still a mystery. But they allowed Ronson to start exploring. While I watched, the boxes he opened were mostly full of photographs - endless photographs, of the same kind of objects or places. Bedside tables. Gates of country houses. Doorways to prostitutes' flats. Cafes. It was clearly source material for his films, but on a mindbogglingly obsessive scale.
How many pictures of fancy dress costume shops do you need? Don't they all look pretty much the same? Not to Kubrick, evidently. The director's nephew was introduced as principal photographer, recounting how he traipsed round every single fancy dress shop in south-east England to capture the required images.
On another occasion, Kubrick decided he wanted photographs of every single building on Commercial Road in London, so that he could lay them all side-by-side and inspect the entire road in his living room. But crucially, he didn't want perspective to get in the way - if taken from street level, the buildings would look tilted backwards, and he wouldn't be able to line them up properly. So the photographer had to take a large ladder to the Commercial Road, climb up 12 feet in the air, photograph the first building, then climb down, move the ladder along to the next building, and climb up to take the next photo. All along the road (it's not short). Both sides. All the while fielding phone calls from the director asking him to hurry up and how soon could he get the photos back to him. Nice work, if you can get someone else to do it.
A lot of people would find this behaviour eccentric. An unhealthy obsession? I'm guessing Kubrick would have said he was just doing his job. It's hard to argue with his track record. Maybe the secret of his greatness was that he was simply prepared to work harder than other filmmakers (as well as delegate the 'no fun' jobs to willing helpers).
Look at the career of any truly outstanding creator, and you'll find a similar pattern of obsession, which often takes physical form in collections of objects.
Legendary promoter Bill Graham is credited by many people as the inventor of the modern rock concert. The roll call of acts he put on is like a Who's Who from the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame, including Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Santana and U2. An article from CBS News explains how "for nearly 30 years Graham saved everything he could get his hands on from every concert he ever put on". After his death, businessman Bill Sagan bought the entire collection for a reported $6 million. He believes he got a bargain. It took 25 40-foot trucks to collect the collection and move it over to Sagan's warehouse.
First there are the photographs. "I thought there was maybe a half million to a million slides and negatives," said Sagan. "As it turned out, there's probably is closer to a million and a half to two million slides and negatives."
There are posters by the thousands, the psychedelic artwork that went up weekly in San Francisco in the '60s. "We have more than 500 posters that are so rare that their retail price would be in excess of $15,000," Sagan estimated. "There were drawers full of tickets from decades of concerts."
Graham seems to have kept every contract he ever signed. But he had one more big surprise in store, and only after he bought the collection and started going through boxes did Sagan discover what may be the most valuable asset.
"There are nearly 7,000 tapes of 7,000 different performances,' said Sagan. "And the reason I say nearly is because we haven't counted them all and we haven't looked at them all."
According to Janis Joplin, what set him apart from other promoters was that "Graham really understands musicians, and that's really important to musicians". Evidently, it wasn't just a business to him - it was his passion, embodied in this fabulous collection.
Artist and illustrator Robert Crumb is another famous creative collector, having amassed a huge stash of 78 record albums. In an interview with Boing Boing, he describes collecting as "creepy", but with a positive side:
A true collector is more of a connoisseur, and thatas the good thing about collecting. It creates a connoisseurship to sort out whatas worthwhile in the culture and what isnat. Wealthy art collectors in this country have sorted out who the great artists are. If youare collecting a lot of objects of one particular kind, you develop a very acute sense of discrimination.
One theory of creativity suggests that sharp critical judgement is what separates truly great artists from the rest. And to exercise judgement, you need plenty of material - photos to sift through, books to read, records to play. So perhaps this kind of obsessive collection is inevitable for some kinds of creativity.
I'm not in Kubrick's league, but when I saw those boxes on TV, I couldn't help thinking of the day I moved in with my wife-to-be - and the look on her face when she saw the 42 boxes of books I'd brought with me. To me, this was travelling light, just the bare essentials...
Do you have a collection of treasured objects that relate to your creative passion?
Do you think it helps you develop your critical judgement - or is that just a handy excuse? :-)
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post What Do Your Possessions Say about Your Creative Obsessions? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But the show has a rabid fan base thatas brought it back from the dead not once, but twice. And itas the basis of a $2 billion empire for creator Seth McFarlane.
Whether you like the show or not, you can learn a lot about the business of creativity from peeking behind the scenes. Seth McFarlane was featured in a recent issue of Fast Company as an example of the new breed of creative entrepreneur who plays by a different set of rules.
Here are 5 areas where Family Guy can help you succeed with your own business:
Trying to appeal to everyone is the kiss of death in modern business. Family Guy goes to great lengths to demonstrate this edict better than just about any other example.
Not only does the show stick to pleasing the core fans, it delights in offending the non-core (mainly the easily offended). Having a relatively small group of rabid fans is so much more powerful that a larger group of lukewarm people who you carefully avoid offending. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference... and indifference kills.
The Family Guy story is instructive to every entrepreneur who is trying to attract attention online with free content. Family Guy was cancelled in 2000 and again in 2002, but Fox was convinced to bring the show back not once, but twice (most recently in 2005). Why?
Strong DVD sales of past episode compilations. Family Guyas rabid fan base was more than willing to pay to own beloved episodes, which was too powerful for Fox to ignore. McFarlane used this as leverage to ink a record $100 million-plus contract with Fox last year.
With his show resurrected from the dead twice and a huge new contract, McFarland was willing to trust Fox with his future, right? Not exactly. Shortly after the deal was cut, Seth sidestepped Hollywood and headed for Silicon Valley. Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is distributed by Google via its AdSense network.
These 30-second to two-minute animated shorts are sponsored by advertisers and represent a new method of entertainment content distribution that demonstrates Google is not satisfied with its current level of domination. With social media, you can do an end around the traditional entertainment powers, the venture capitalists, and your competition. And, like McFarlane with Cavalcade, you retain ownership of your work.
For years, Seth McFarlane involved himself in every aspect of Family Guy and his other animated projects. This led to a serious case of creative burnout that landed him in the hospital.
Now, McFarlane delegates much of the production of his shows, but stays deeply involved in what he lovesahe voices three of the main characters on Family Guy, plus scores of supporting characters. He also obsessively coordinates the music for the show, which is powered by a full orchestra. It may take a while, but the best part of being a creative entrepreneur is focusing on the fun and letting go of stuff others can handle.
Why is a successful animated series the most profitable for a network? In a worda| merchandising.
T-shirts, action figures, stickers, posters, video games, song clips, ring tonesa| the core fans are hungry for it all. Fox owns the intellectual property rights to Family Guy, so McFarlane gets only a percentage of these sales. But even a solo entrepreneur with the right creative product can start thinking in lateral directions when it comes to her intellectual property. What can you give away in order to create desire for something related that sells?
Perhaps you see parallels between your own ideas, art or business and an animated television series. If not, perhaps a shift in thinking will help you see that weave entered a phase of human history where all business is essentially a function of creativity.
Richard Florida said it best in The Rise of the Creative Class:
Todayas economy is fundamentally a Creative Economy. I certainly agree with those who say that the advanced nations are shifting to information-based, knowledge-driven economiesa| Yet I see creativitya| as the key driver. In my formulation, aknowledgea and ainformationa are the tools and materials of creativity.
No matter your business model, youare working with intangible information and knowledge to create value for others and wealth for yourself. If thatas not a creative function, I donat know what is.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post What Family Guy Can Teach You About the
Business of Creativity appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Happy New Year everyone! The Lateral Action team would like to wish you all a creative, productive and fulfilling 2009.
To help you kick start your enthusiasm for the challenges ahead, here's a free e-book for you: How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).
It began life as a series on my Wishful Thinking blog, and is primarily aimed at leaders, managers and others responsible for getting the best out of creative people.
But I've written it to be useful to anyone with a passion for creativity. So if you and/or your team want to do better creative work and enjoy yourself more in the process, download your copy now.
The e-book is published under a Creative Commons licence, which means you're welcome to download and share it on a non-commercial basis, provided you keep it in its original format and credit me as the author.
(NB the images are governed by separate licenses if you want to publish any of them separately - please don't do this without reading the copyright information on page 2.)
If you enjoy the e-book, please feel free to pass it on to friends and colleagues who may find it of interest.
The post Free E-book â How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
David Bowie is most famous for his glam rock creation Ziggy Stardust, but his best and most interesting work centres around his 'Berlin period' - the three years he spent living in Berlin, producing the experimental electronic albums
So you can imagine my delight when Santa left me a copy of Thomas Jerome Seabrook's new book, Bowie in Berlin, telling the story of this period of Bowie's career. It's a great read and full of lessons for the aspiring artist and creative entrepreneur. Here's what I've got from it so far:
In the mid-70s Bowie kept his audience on their toes with a series of changes of direction. He famously 'killed' Ziggy Stardust at the height of his fame, when it looked easier and more profitable to carry on down the same glam rock path. He then went to America and attempted an ambitious rock musical (Diamond Dogs) which he abandoned mid-tour, ditching the expensive sets in favour of a stripped down stage on which he played the 'plastic soul' of Young Americans. Just as people were getting used to Bowie the soul singer, he left America for Europe and started dabbling in experimental electronic music.
Brian Eno described these shifts as attempts to "duck the momentum of a successful career" and keep his work fresh and interesting, for himself as much as for his audience. Bowie's record company wasn't always so enthusiastic - when the experimental album Low was handed into RCA it was met with "mild panic":
one executive famously declared that he would buy Bowie a house in Philadelphia if he would, please, make another Young Americans.
Takeaway: Keep asking yourself - "What's my obvious next move? Is it also the smartest/most interesting move?"
When Bowie first went to America he found it fresh and artistically stimulating. But by the time he recorded Young Americans and Station to Station he was on a downward spiral, shut away for long periods in his Los Angeles home, his paranoia fueled by cocaine and books about black magic and fascism. On the surface he had the dream lifestyle of an artistic celebrity, but in reality he knew he was destroying himself, and it was time for a complete change of scene.
Takeaway: If what you're doing isn't working, do something different.
Iggy Pop, Brian Eno, Nicholas Roeg, Robert Fripp, Tony Visconti - these are just some of the better-known names with whom Bowie collaborated during his Berlin period. Others included obscure session musicians who couldn't believe their luck when they found themselves in the studio with a superstar. Like the young guitarist Phil Palmer, who was at his Mum's house when he received a call from David Bowie asking him to drop in and help out with some guitar work. Robert Fripp was unavailable and Bowie considered his own attempts at the guitar parts to be substandard - so without standing on ceremony, Bowie directed this virtual unknown to do a better job than he could himself.
Although best known as a front man, Bowie had a gift for collaboration, finding the right partners to create something bigger and better than any of them could do individually. Often, this meant drafting in musicians to help with his own albums, but he could also take direction from others (e.g. Nick Roeg, director of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie starred) or remain in the background, pulling strings and directing others' talents (as the producer of Iggy Pop's albums The Idiot and Lust for Life).
Takeaway: Multiply your talents with creative partnerships.
After the opulence and celebrity culture of Los Angeles, the austerity and anonymity of Cold War Berlin was a deliberate culture shock for Bowie. His stated intention was to "find some people you don't understand and a place you don't want to be and just put yourself into it". In LA, drugs, sex and other commodities were only a phone call away - but Berlin was a place where you "force yourself to buy your own groceries":
"Nobody gives a shit about you in Berlin," said Bowie. The city's vague aggregation of social misfits, draft dodgers, and struggling artists had more than enough problems of their own to be worrying about an ex-pat British pop star.
Apart from the personal disorientation that came from losing his celebrity status, the political and social tensions within a city divided by the Berlin Wall had a profound influence on the edgy, alienated music he produced while living there.
Takeaway: If you're stuck in a creative rut, go somewhere that will disorient you.
Seabrook has a healthy scepticism about some of the wilder rumours about Bowie's behaviour and state of mind while in LA, but Bowie himself has admitted that he seriously lost the plot during this period of his life. Siebert concludes that he was frequently "not of sound mind" due to his drug intake and occcult obsessions. This resulted in a gap of several months between recordings, and he screwed up a few TV interviews with some pretty eccentric performances. But he still maintained a pretty astonishing rate of artistic production, and the impression I get from the book is that, when it really mattered, Bowie was able to put his problems on hold - or use his work as a cathartic channel - and get down to business. Cocaine seems to have been a normal part of the creative process for musicians on the LA scene at the time, fueling marathon recording sessions. And Bowie seems to have largely stuck to his resolve to leave drugs alone during the filming of The Man Who Fell to Earth, stabilising his mental condition and turning in the best acting performance of his career.
In this respect, Bowie was in marked contrast to Iggy Pop during the same period. For all his excesses, Bowie managed to maintain a productive output and the status and trappings of fame. According to Seabrook, Iggy was living in "a nomadic, shambolic lifestyle, largely reliant on the kindness of friends and acquaintances who put him up and put up with him as he continued to fight seemingly endless battle with heroin addiction". Bumping into him on Sunset Boulevard, Bowie tried to help his friend by booking studio time to record a solo Iggy Pop album. But when Iggy failed to turn up for the second day's recording, after a night of overindulgence, Bowie was furious and abandoned the project. To me, this vignette offers a glimpse of a disciplined, workaholic side of Bowie: when it was time to work, the work came first.
Takeaway: Know the difference between work and play. Mix the two up if you like, but be prepared to make sacrifices when it's time to get down to work.
One of the reasons Bowie was able to 'coast' during periods of indulgence without hitting the skids like Iggy was that he had a well oiled money-making machine in place. Notwithstanding disputes with and sackings of managers, he had a close-knit team of personal assistants and administrators who made sure things got done and he got paid.
Iggy was greatly impressed and inspired by the professionalism of the Bowie operation: Rolling into towns across America and Europe without a hitch, playing to crowds of thousands night after night, and making a tidy profit along the way, all the while maintaining a steady stream of high quality recorded output.
On the face of it, this wasn't quite as rock 'n' roll as Iggy's wild child persona, but it actually meant that a lot more rock 'n' roll got made. Bowie's business sense not only saved him - and Iggy - from personal disaster, it meant he was in a position to help Iggy get his career back on track with the classic albums The Idiot and Lust for Life.
Takeaway: Explore and test different business models. Invest time and effort up front to create business systems that will take care of you - and your creativity - in the long term.
Bowie has been criticised for being a cultural magpie, dabbling in various genres and cherry picking themes and styles for his own purposes. To me, this is one of the things that makes him interesting. As Oscar Wilde said, "talent borrows, genius steals". To the uninformed, Bowie's career during the 70s looks like a series of huge artistic leaps, but Seabrook shows that at every stage, he was assembling and building on influences in other people's work. What sets them apart from more predictable artists was a restless curiosity that led him to explore different genres. Eno and Kraftwerk were two prominent influences on Bowie's new electronic direction, but for him they were just two among several European artists working in similar territory, including Neu!, Faust, Tangerine Dream and Cluster.
Takeaway: Keep following up on your curiosity and hunches - you never know what they might lead to.
One of the things that Tony Visconti brought to the Low sessions was a machine that "fucks with the fabric of time" - an early form of sampler, capable of capturing and distorting sounds. This resulted in what Rolling Stone magazine described as "one of rock's all-time most imitated drum sounds". Not to be outdone, Brian Eno turned up with an equally futuristic piece of kit:
His main tool was his current calling card, the EMS Synthi A, a 'synthesiser in a briefcase' comprising three oscillators and a patchbay system, controlled by joystick rather than a keyboard, which he used both to add colourful flourishes of his own and to manipulate the sound of parts played by the other musicians
Takeaway: Look for technology that opens up new creative possibilities. Hang around with people who know about the latest developments.
Right from the start of the Low sessions, producer Tony Visconti made sure that recording tapes were rolling at all times, as he knew from experience that what Bowie might consider to be rehearsals and demos "could end up as masters, and they did":
Bowie had originally assumed that the sessions would result merely in a collection of demos to use as a starting point for a 'proper' new record. But when Visconti made him a tape of what they'd done during the first two weeks, Bowie realised that, to his surprise and amazement, they were well on the way to making an album.
Takeaway: Be prepared to work hard, but don't throw out 'throwaway' material without having a good look at it - you may have done a better job than you realise.
The Man Who Fell to Earth has stood the test of time as Bowie's greatest screen role, but in retrospect he was lucky it happened at all, considering his behaviour when the prospective director, Nick Roeg, requested an initial meeting:
[Bowie] arrived eight hours late - he had first forgotten that he was supposed to meet Roeg, and then assumed that the director would not have bothered waiting, so busied himself elsewhere. Eventually, Bowie returned to his rented New York residence in the early hours to find Roeg sitting at the kitchen table.
I guess we could all measure our reputation and influence by imagining how long the director would have waited for us at that table. Eight hours? Four hours? Five minutes if you're lucky? I'm not suggesting we should all aspire to extravagantly inconsiderate behaviour, but if you want opportunities to come to you - even wait for you, on occasion - the smartest career move you can make is to build a reputation for yourself as a creative rock star.
Takeaway: Initiate creative projects that will build your reputation. Take commissions and do client work if you need to pay the bills, but don't rely on this in the long term. And don't act like a prima donna if you haven't earned it.
Which of these lessons resonate most strongly for you?
For the Bowie fans - what other lessons do you draw from his career?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post 10 Creative Lessons from Bowie in Berlin appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Corp. House
The screens were on standby, the hard drives as still
As the stars in the sky and the snow on the sill.
The workers were gathered all snug in the bars
With visions of turkey and good R&R
So the office was empty, except for the sight
Of a solitary figure by monitor light ...
With his nose to the grindstone, his foot to the floor,
His backups, his buckets, his charts on the door,
His 43 folders, his weekly review -
Who was working so late? Why none other than Lou!
He was missing the mistletoe, champagne and smiles,
He was ticking off items and tickling his files,
He was skipping the party and shunning the fun,
He was cranking out widgets and getting things done!
Till a voice from outside called: "Ho ho there my lad!
Good tidings! Good tidings! Rejoice and be glad!
For tonight's the most magical night of the year,
So put down your checklist and join the good cheer!"
Lou snorted and answered without turning round:
"You slackers get on with your night on the town,
With your skiving and drinking and your antics grotesque.
While there's work to be done I shall not leave this desk!"
Then out in the car park arose such a clatter,
Lou sprang from his desk to see what was the matter.
To the top of the bookshelf he flew like a flash,
Tore open the window and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
Gave the lustre of midday to objects below.
When, what to Lou's wondering eyes should appear,
But a digital sleigh and eight virtual reindeer.
With an avatar driver, so lively and quick,
Lou knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than e-mails his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and tweeted, and called them by name!
"Now Dasher! Now, Tumblr! Now, Flickr and Vixen!
On, Comet! On Reddit! On Dopplr and Blitzen!
To the ends of the car park! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the rooftop the reindeer they flew,
With the sleigh full of data, and St Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, was heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As Lou drew in his head and came down from the shelf,
Through the wi-fi St Nicholas downloaded himself.
He was dressed all in pixels, from his head to his feet,
And his beard was a-flicker like snowflakes or sleet.
His eyes - how they twinkled! His sides how they shook!
As he chuckled at Lou, and gave him a kind look.
"Next actions and projects are all very well,
But the year's work is finished - do you not hear the bells?
Why not put down your notebook, leave a few things undone,
Meet up with your colleagues and join in the fun?"
"How can I? How can I?" said Lou in despair,
As he wrung his long fingers and pulled at his hair,
"This to-do list's as long as an elephant's trunk.
If I don't get it finished by midnight, I'm sunk!"
When St Nicholas heard this he roared and guffawed,
Slapped his thighs and his stomach, and rolled on the floor.
"Now sunshine you may think you've a lot on your plate
But check out my schedule and look at the date:
"By sunrise I must leave a gift or a toy
For every man, woman, each girl and each boy
In each village, each city, each country on earth,
And all the while spreading good tidings and mirth!
"So you have to admit, when comparing our chores,
My to-do list is longer and harder than yours.
If you don't mind my saying, your 'elephant's trunk'
Is looking a little deflated and shrunk!"
"But how will you do it?" said Lou in amaze,
"I couldn't get through it in thousands of days."
"Me neither," said Santa, "if I went it alone,
But the answer's not working your hands to the bone,
"Innovation, innovation, is what brings success,
And web tools will increase your e-ffectiveness,
Judicious joint ventures will lighten the load,
If you get the right compound, your results will explode!
"When I started this business I did all jobs myself,
Till I needed assistance and took on an elf.
Then we quickly expanded, adding factories, machines
Faster sleighs, chartered liners and two submarines.
"We've always been global but now we're much bigger
The challenge is scaling without losing vigour.
I've got nothing against modernising as such,
As long as we don't lose the personal touch.
"So Twitter is crucial for keeping it real,
And giving that old-fashioned intimate feel.
To-do lists, address lists and things of that ilk
Are dealt with by Evernote and Remember the Milk.
"The actual production has all been outsourced
To invisible helpers who work while I snore,
Then wrapping, addressing and final delivery
Are handled by sleigh teams in Amazon livery
"Who navigate safely the whole planet's girth
By plotting trajectories with Google Earth;
The challenge of tracking we easily surmount
By giving each reindeer a Dopplr account.
"When the night's work is over they head back to base
And vanish like snow without leaving a trace."
As his words petered out, sunlight peeped through the blinds,
Causing Lou to cry out and leap off his behind.
"Relax!" laughed the old man, "Merry Christmas to you!
The one day of the year when you've nothing to do!
Put your feet up! Do nothing! It may sound a big ask,
But before my work's done I have one final task:
"Now Dasher! Now, Tumblr! Now, Flickr and Vixen!
On, Comet! On Reddit! On Dopplr and Blitzen!
To the front page of Digg! This is your final haul!
Now Digg away! Digg away! Digg away all!
Then the miracle happened: on thousands of screens,
As the families were gathering under their trees,
As the lovers were poised by the mistletoe sprig,
"Goodwill to All Men" hit the front page of Digg!
St Nick sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
But Lou heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
As they pulled out of view the elves took off their masks,
The reindeer unbuttoned and pulled out hip-flasks,
St Nicholas shrugged off his cape and his beard -
And the mischievous features of Marla appeared!
"Well done team!" she chuckled and popped the champagne,
"We've managed to break last year's records again!
We've earned a good break now we've done our good deeds:
Engage hyperdrive! Prepare for light speed!"
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The To-Do List Before Christmas appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
He's really looking forward to the freedom, travel, and new experiences his new business will provide him.
Lately, Lou has been giving Jack all this wonderful free advice about VC funding, staffing up, and getting big fast.
Jack didn't think all that was necessary.
Lou says Jack needs to give him 50% of the company or risk certain disaster.
Will Jack make that deal?
See the shocking result for yourself in the fifth Lateral Action animated video:
Will Jack Make a Deal?
If you've missed the previous episodes, check 'em out first:
The post Will Jack Make a Deal? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
At the same time, being 'more aware' is not an excuse for losing focus. Focus is equally important if you want to get things done.
This is precisely the reason I cringe when I look at some of the 'awareness tests' that are used by some 'creativity gurus' to highlight a point.
The example of one such awareness test will be something like this: The 'creative guru' will ask the audience to spend a minute focusing on all the "green objects" in the room. After that one minute, the 'guru' will ask the audience members to close their eyes and recollect all the "yellow objects" in the room. You fail in this 'awareness test' if you can't recollect 'N' number of yellow objects.
The point is that if you do recollect 'N' number of yellow objects, you win in the "awareness test" but you probably failed in the 'focus test.'
You can't have one (awareness) at the expense of the other (focus.)
There is a famous video that has made the rounds on YouTube that will demonstrate this awareness test.
The summary of the video is "It is easy to miss something that you are not looking for" and I agree. It has nothing to do with awareness. When you specifically ask someone to look for something, you are forcing the person to focus. Asking a question outside of that "focus area" is moot.
Not all creativity tests are equal. Just because something is popular does not mean that it is logical.
About the Author: Raj Setty is intimately involved in working with like-minded entrepreneurs to bring good ideas to life and spread their adoption. You can learn more about him at www.rajeshsetty.com or follow his blog at Life Beyond Code or on Twitter at @UpbeatNow
The post Beware of Awareness Tests That Fail appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
As existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, we already face real barriers to achieving our goals. The idea is to embrace these constraints as positives that kick creativity into gear and result in smart solutions.
On the other hand, we often impose constraints on ourselves that are pure fiction. We accept certain symbolic boundaries as true barriers, when theyare not real and actually ripe for busting though.
Take elephants for example. As babies, elephants are kept in place chained by the leg to a strong iron stake. When older and stronger, elephants can be constrained by a simple rope and wooden stake, even though it couldnat possibly stop them.
Because they believe it will stop them.
Money
An entrepreneur with a great idea often has no casha| and thatas a good thing. Rather than spending time thinking of how to find investors, start thinking of ways to bootstrap the entire operation.
People often think they need to spend money to attract attention. But with the Internet in general and social media in particular, throwing money at getting attention may mean your idea isnat all that good. Get creative to spread the word, and people will help you if youare on to something.
Other times, you need funds to develop a product. But you can find creative ways to partner with the talent you need, or turn your idea on its head and bootstrap it. Say youave got a great idea for productivity software. Create a digital information product or training course on the topic first to fund development (youare also creating a fan base of prospects and customers as you go).
Time
Time-based constraints can either be real or the product of our own ambition and imagination. But like a lack of money, a compressed time period can help you get ultra-creative and super-productive at the same time.
Time constraints allow you to avoid the trap of perfectionism. Good enough is better than never got done. Plus, in areas ranging from software to paid content to even art, the ready-fire-aim approach to iterative development works.
Another benefit of speed is one we donat like to think aboutayou can fail faster. Failure is crucial to innovation, and the less time you spend on the wrong idea is more time to move to the right one. Plus, you wonat release junk just because youave invested way too much of your life to let go.
Market Realities
Sometimes we want to do something thatas just not possible due to the realities of a particular market. Say you have an idea for a great feature for a mass market website, but it only works in the Firefox browser. Given that the mass market still largely embraces Internet Explorer, youad be shooting yourself in the virtual foot.
But market realities can create powerhouse ideas with observation and a shift in perspective. Hereas an example.
The market norm for paid software has been feature overload, with each new release jam packed with new power. The market reality to the keen observer was that most people didnat use much beyond core functions and the feature-bloat went unlearned. 37 Signals created a market and a movement around aless is bettera in constrained software development and use.
Institutions
Imagine youare looking down on the earth from the International Space Station. You donat see the boundary lines of nations, which in turn lead to a variety of customs and immigration laws, governmental and economic philosophies, criminal edicts, civil legal systems, mores and cultural norms.
You donat see the lines because they donat exist outside our minds and on paperaand neither does any of that other stuff. Traditions, institutional rules, industry standards, marketing abesta practicesa| all consensual hallucinations.
Now, breaking many of these imaginary rules will get you in real trouble. Breaking others will make you successful beyond your wildest dreams.
Fear
Institutional constraints come into being due to consensus among groups of people about how things should work. The most insidious constraint, however, is self-imposed.
Being afraid of change and failure is perfectly natural. Itas also a primal subconscious force that must be mastered or ignored.
Often, we let others reinforce our internal fears due to societal shame, disapproval, or ridicule. All I can advise is to revisit Tyler Durdenas first 2 Rules of Innovation.
Communication
Even if you have a war chest of advertising loot, youad still be ignored if you followed standard practices. Most ame-tooa marketing ignores basic human psychology by focusing on the features of the product or pure entertainment instead of the benefits to the buyer.
But thatas just the beginning. We tune out everything we can, especially the conventional.
Come up with a better story, a more powerful metaphor or analogy, or a novel focus on your marketas needs (shedding communication constraints works great with spotting market realities) . Often the best use of your creativity is positioning yourself differently from the ame-toa crowd, even if what you offer is similar.
If I'd listened to customers, I'd have given them a faster horse. ~Henry Ford
All entrepreneurs satisfy a market desire. Innovation happens when you help people desire something they didnat know or think they wanted.
That can happen with a revolutionary new product or service. Or, it can happen through a smarter way of describing something that already exists.
All you have to do is use and lose your constraints wisely.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Constraints: How to Use Them and When to Lose Them appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Think of a story.
How did you get on? Was it easy? Difficult?
Were you pleased with the story you came up with?
Okay here's another one. Same rules as before - 30 seconds after reading to come up with the best story you can.
Think of a story about two thieves.
How was that? Easier? Harder?
Let's do one more. As before, you've got 30 seconds to make the most of the instructions.
Think of a story about two thieves. The thieves are brothers, who have spent their whole lives together. All this time, one of them has kept a secret from the other. But recently it's become harder and harder to keep the secret. The thief with the secret is horrified to notice that it's starting to interfere with his work - on their last job, they almost got caught because of a mistake he made. But he's terrified that confessing the secret will destroy their relationship.
How did you get on that time? Was it easier or harder than the previous experiments?
When I've run this activity with a group, it is not uncommon for people to 'draw a blank' when they do the first experiment. Like the proverbial writer gazing at the blank page, they are stuck for inspiration. 'Creative freedom' is usually spoken of as a positive thing - but in this case, having total freedom to write any kind of story they like tends to paralyse people. Even if they do manage to think of something, 30 seconds isn't long, and because they are starting from scratch to stories tend to be pretty unimpressive.
The second experiment tends to get better results. We may not like thieves, but they tend to have interesting lives. They provoke all kinds of emotions and associations. We are reminded of characters and situations from books and films. Where do they live? What do they steal? Who are their victims? Are they small-time crooks or elite criminal masterminds? Suddenly the whole genre of crime fiction is there for us to riff on. And the fact that there were two of them has all kinds of dramatic possibilities. Why are they working together? Are they part of the same gang? Do they have complimentary skills? Do they like each other, or are they sick of each others' guts by now? Crime is a stressful business - they must have a few arguments and dustups along the way ...
The third experiment usually works better still. In addition to all the great dramatic inspiration from the crime genre, most of us have either experienced sibling relationships ourselves or observed our friends and their siblings at close hand. We recognise the dramatic tension in the interplay of affection and rivalry. And we all know what it's like to keep a secret, to be afraid that others will find out. The questions come pouring out: What's the secret? How did he manage to hide it from his brother all this time? Why is it a problem now, when it wasn't before? How is it affecting their relationship? Does the other thief suspect his brother? Maybe you've guessed it already? How is it affecting their work? What happened on that last job? How will the secret come out? Will he confess it or will it be discovered? What will happen then ...?
So the more details you are given, the more images and thoughts are sparked in your mind. And the easier it becomes to make up a story. The story starts to write itself, as the details spark questions, the question spark answers and the answer spark images, characters, situations ...
But the thing is, every detail that is added to the instructions takes away a little more of your creative freedom. Want to write a story about two window cleaners? Sorry. Rather write about sisters and brothers? Tough luck. Or two brothers with nothing to hide from each other? No chance.
As we saw last week, being told to 'think outside the box' is no guarantee of inspiration. And the thought experiments suggest that sometimes it's easier to be creative 'inside the box' of details and constraints.
Could it be that creative freedom is overrated?
Ernie Schenck would answer that question with a resounding 'Yes!'. As an Emmy Award-nominated creative director with a string of successful advertising campaigns behind him, he should know a thing or two about creativity. In his book The Houdini Solution, he shares the creative wisdom accumulated in his career and invites us to "put creativity and innovation to work by thinking INSIDE the box":
the biggest secret of productive creative people is that they embrace obstacles, they don't run from them. In their minds every setback is an opportunity, every limitation is a chance. Where others see a wall, they see a doorway.
Schenck draws inspiration from Harry Houdini, bound in chains and lowered into a glass box full of water. Resisting the box and fighting against the chains would have been fatal. Houdini had first to accept the reality of the constraints on his movement, and work within them to find a way out.
Another of his examples is the Apollo 13 mission, when an explosion on board caused the spacecraft to lose oxygen, electricity, light, and water 200,000 miles from planet Earth. Unless the engineers at Houston could find a solution the astronauts could implement using the materials on board, the crew would die of asphyxiation before they made it back home.
talk about thinking inside the box. You've got to design a new product. You've got to build that product. Your raw materials consist of cardboard, plastic bags, duct tape, and other low-tech materials. And, hey, just for good measure, you've got less than 48 hours to do it all people are going to die.
Fortunately, as we know, in this case necessity really was the mother of invention.
Schenck is scathing about "self-styled creativity guru[s]" who tell us to "think outside the box":
if only we could free ourselves, if only we could climb out of that infernal box, they told us, we could discover our true creative selves.
And yet for millions of us, those boxes of very real. Almost everything in our lives is a box. Our relationships. Our jobs. Where we live. How young or old we are. Our bank accounts. They're all boxes. They all have walls. They all have boundaries. But they are not all bad.
So next time you feel frustrated by constraints that limit your options - take a deep breath, centre yourself like Houdini, and start looking for the creative opportunity...
What did the thought experiments tell you about your own creativity?
When starting a new project, would you rather have complete freedom or a few pointers as 'building blocks' to help you get started?
Can you think of a time when rules and/or constraints helped to spark your creativity?
Do you agree with Michelangelo that "art lives on constraint and dies of freedom"?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Spark Your Creativity by Thinking INSIDE the Box appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
During their journeys, these millionaires were living like poor people in roach-infested homes with broken mattresses and holes in the walls. Yet they woke up every morning with the goal to help someone else. And along the way, they not only realized that they were helping others but they, too, were being helped. In the first of two episodes that aired Wednesday night, one of the millionaire men acknowledged that the poor individuals were some of the nicest people they met and that they were good people. They had been invited out to meal after meal, made friend after friend, and in all the aired segments, they generally had a good time.
Of course, on day 6, their facade would be shed when they admitted their "wrongdoings" as they conveyed to these poverty-stricken individuals that they were living a far more fortunate life. At the same time, though, they'd whip out the check for that substantial amount of money and say that they are happy to be helping another person in need.Watching this two-hour segment on Wednesday was like watching an emotional rollercoaster in action. It was tear-jerking: sad and beautiful all at the same time.
But it also proved something else to me, and something that we all can apply in our creative endeavors.
I feel a little more empowered now than I did before I watched that episode. I'll feel stronger the next time it airs, and then again the following week. Doing something completely different -- something good -- is a wonderful thing, and sometimes leaving your natural habitat will inspire you to do more than just one good deed; it can motivate you to do more.
If you feel restrained, do something that you do not normally do and see if it triggers an emotional or intellectual response that will provoke you to implement those ideas in your daily routine. Get out of your comfort zone and aim to do something completely different. Rinse and repeat.
Chances are, there's something out there for you, and it can inspire you. Possibly to change the world.
Watch a preview for The Secret Millionaire here.
About the Author: Tamar Weinberg is Lateral Action's Associate Editor. Tamar is a former contributor to Lifehacker and displays her skills as a social media maven at her blog Techipedia.
The post What âThe Secret Millionaireâ Can Teach You About Creativity and Inspiration appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
'Think outside the box' is one of the biggest creativity cliches. The basic idea is that to be creative you need to challenge your own assumptions and look at things from a fresh angle. You need to break out of conventional thinking and take off the blinkers formed by past experience.
But is that really how creativity happens? And will learning to 'think outside the box' help you become more creative?
The phrase is generally held to have originated with the classic 'nine-dot' creativity puzzle. If you haven't seen this problem before, try to solve it before scrolling down and reading the rest - you'll get a lot more out of this article.
Get a pen and some paper and copy the nine dots arranged in a square below. To solve the problem, you need to join all nine dots by drawing no more than four straight lines. The straight lines must be continuous - i.e. you must not lift your pen from the paper once you start drawing. Don't read any further until you've tried to solve the problem.
How did you get on? If you managed to solve it, give yourself a pat on the back and read on. If you're not there yet, here's a clue to help you. If you're like most people, you will have tried to solve the problem by keeping your lines inside the 'box' created by the dots. But if you look at the instructions, there is no requirement to do this. So have another go at solving the problem, allowing yourself to draw outside the box. Again, don't read any further until you've either solved it or given up.OK if you've either solved it or had enough, click on the image below to see two of the usual solutions. Each time you click, a new solution will be revealed.
What did you make of that? Could you solve the problem the first time? Did it make any difference when I said you could go outside the box?
The usual way of presenting this problem is for a creativity trainer to only give the first set of instructions - i.e. without mentioning the fact that you allow to go outside the box. And nearly everybody (including me, when I first saw it) completely fails to solve the problem. But most creativity trainers don't bother with the second stage - they simply reveal the solution to cast of astonishment and protest from the audience: "that's not fair! You didn't tell us we could go outside the box!" To which the trainer typically responds "Aha! But I didn't tell you you couldn't go outside the box!".
The trainer then trots out the conventional explanation of the puzzle: we can't solve the problem as long as we are thinking 'inside the box' created by our assumptions. Once we start to think 'outside the box' we open up many more possibilities and it becomes easy to solve the problem. This is true in so many areas of life - our education, past experience and habitual thinking patterns keep us trapped in limiting assumptions. It takes a real effort to challenge the assumptions and think outside the box. Most of us are very poor at doing this and have to work hard at it - unlike creative geniuses to whom this kind of thinking comes naturally.
In case you think I'm having a go at creativity trainers I'll confess that a few years ago, on a couple of occasions, I was that trainer. Never again.
The trouble with the usual way of presenting the nine-dot problem is that it contains (ahem) an unexamined assumption. I.e. that all we have to do is tell people they can go outside the box and they will find it easy to solve the problem. But most of the time people are not given the chance to find out - they are simply given the solution and told that the problem was their limited thinking. They are usually so astonished to discover that they are allowed to draw outside the box that they readily accept this explanation.
A few researchers have been sceptical and curious enough to test this assumption. In Creativity - Beyond the Myth of Genius Robert Weisberg describes two experiments in which people were told that the only way to solve the problem was to draw lines outside the square. Contrary to the 'outside the box' school of thought, this did not make problem easy to solve. In fact, only 20-25% of subjects were able to solve the problem, even though all of them allowed themselves to draw outside the box. And even the ones who did solve the problem took a long time to do so, and used trial and error, making many different drawings, rather than any special form of 'creative thinking'.
Researchers went on to show that the success rate could be improved by giving subjects prior training in solving simpler line-and-dot problems, and also by giving them "detailed strategy instructions" about how to solve the problem:
Lung and Dominowski's strategy instructions plus dot-to-dot.training facilitated solution of the nine-dot problem, but still only a little more than half of the subjects solved the problem, and they did so not smoothly in a sudden burst of insight, but only after a number of tries. This study provides particularly graphic evidence that insightful behaviour, contrary to the Gestalt view, is the result of expertise.
Robert Weisberg, The Myth of Genius
So the research evidence suggests that thinking outside the box fails to produce the expected creative solution. And far from being a hindrance, past experience and training can actually be the key to creative problem-solving.
If the problem was new to you, could you solve it just by following the original instructions?
Did it make any difference when you were told you could go outside the box?
Is 'thinking outside the box' a useful way to approach creativity or does it deserve its status as the most despised piece of business jargon? Or is it simply that, as Brian likes to say, there is no box?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why Thinking âOutside the Boxâ Doesnât Work appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When you think of success, what comes to mind? One might say success is bringing home lots of money. Another might say that success is feeling like you're satisfied. A third person may disagree and say that success is feeling consistently productive and accomplished. Or that you're lucky. Or that you're happy without a worry in the world. What elements comprise your recipe for success, and how do you define it?
I leveraged my large community of Twitter followers to get a sense of how people define success. Even in this economy, the collective decided that if you're happy, you're successful.
@rickjulian (rickjulian) says:Lateral Action readers, what have you achieved when you feel successful? Do you find that you are reaching success on a consistent basis? Share your tips in the comments!
About the Author: Tamar Weinberg is Lateral Action's Associate Editor. Tamar is a former contributor to Lifehacker and displays her skills as a social media maven at her blog Techipedia.
The post How Do YOU Define Success? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
R.I.P., Productivity Pr0n
Friends, Iam done with aproductivitya as a personal fetish or hobby. There are countless sites that are all too happy to vend stroke material for your joyless addiction to puns about procrastination and systems for generating more taxonomically satisfying meta-work. But, presently, you wonat find so much of that here.
I guess Merlin can expect an angry e-mail from Lou.
But I hear Jack has subscribed and is eagerly looking forward to the next chapter of 43 folders. Here's why, from the new About page:
43 Folders is Merlin Mannas website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
You can probably imagine this is music to the ears of the Lateral Action team, as it backs up what we've been saying about avoiding foolish productivity and focusing on getting creative things done.
With Behance's tools for promoting 'productive creativity' and LifeDev's writings about creativity and workflow, it looks as though 'creativity and productivity' is becoming something of a movement.
What other blogs have you noticed that combine creativity and productivity?
Any must-reads you'd recommend?
The post Creativity and Productivity at 43 Folders appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have a look at the picture below and answer this simple question:
Which square is darker - A or B?
(Don't scroll down and read the text until you've answered the question.)
Easy huh?That's right - the correct answer is 'neither'. Squares A and B are exactly the same colour and shade.
Don't believe me? Have a look at the image below, then move the mouse over it to isolate the two squares in question.
Click through to the original post to see the animation.
Still not convinced?
I must admit I was sceptical myself. Have a look at this next image - this time when you move the mouse over you'll see the edges of the squares surrounding A and B, which should make things a little clearer:
Click through to the original post to see the animation.
Is that proof enough? If you're STILL not convinced, you can print out the image and fold or cut the paper so that you can see squares A and B side-by-side.
They say seeing is believing. But after looking at this image many times I'm not so sure.
The first time I saw it, I was convinced the two squares were completely different shades. That's why I asked Tony Clark - our resident graphics wizard - to create the animations. Now I trust Tony implicitly, but when I saw this I was convinced the squares changed colour in the second frame. So I asked him as tactfully as I could whether he hadn't messed with the squares. Here's his reply:
I was the one doing it and still was fooled. The proof was that in Photoshop I used the same exact color to shade out the "A" and "B" - so it really is the same color :)
How can an illusion be so powerful that it even fools the person creating it? Because of the way our brains are wired - we've evolved to notice differences (such as a movement among motionless trees) and to be highly sensitive to context (such as the shades of adjacent squares). These abilities are so important to survival that it's almost impossible to override them. Which means the squares still look different even when we 'logically' know they are the same.
Remember the spinning lady? Which way did she spin for you? What did you conclude from that?
I was fascinated by the comments on Brian's post, as they mirrored my own responses when I first saw the spinning lady. Like most people I saw her spinning counter-clockwise at first - which, according to the conventional explanation means I'm more left brained and logical than right brained and creative. How do you think that made the poet/creative coach feel?
Reading through the comments I recognized my own mixed thoughts when I first saw the illusion. Some people were convinced it was going one way, some were certain it was going the other. Some said it was clearly going one way then changing direction. Some said it was obviously a hoax. Some were pleased because it confirmed their image of themselves as left or right brained. Some were disappointed that it meant they weren't 'creative' enough.
Can you see how black-and-white this kind of thinking is? As soon as we see the image, we want to put it - and ourselves - into a mental category as quickly as possible. Clockwise or counter-clockwise? Left brain or right brain? Logical or creative? Real or hoax? We feel uncomfortable with ambiguity, shades of grey and subtle distinctions.
Hardly any of the commenters responded to Brian's assertion that "your left brain plays a crucial role in creativity as well", and his questioning of the conventional wisdom about brain hemispheres and creativity:
Weigh in with your opinion about the right brain versus left brain for creativitya| isnat it really a awhole minda thing?
The 'whole mind' concept of creativity is like the true appearance of the two squares on the chessboard: it's staring us in the face but we can't see it because of the black-and-white shades competing for our attention.
But these are just illusions, a bit of harmless fun - right? Well see what you make of these examples of real-life black-and-white thinking:
This atelephonea has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.
Western Union internal memoDrill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy.
Drillers whom Edwin Drake tried to engage in his enterprise to make money from drilling for oilLouis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction
Pierre Pachet, professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872What would I do? Iad shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
Michael Dell on Apple ten years agoWho the hell wants to hear actors talk?
H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927We donat like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
Irving Fisher, professor of economics, Yale University, 1929DOS addresses only 1 megabyte of RAM because we cannot imagine any applications needing more.
Microsoft, 1980Windows NT addresses 2 GB of RAM which is more than any application will ever need.
Microsoft, a few years laterEverything that can be invented has been invented.
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
What do you make of the chessboard illusion?
Have you ever got stuck in black-and-white thinking?
Have you ever broken out of it? What did you discover?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Are You Trapped in Black-and-White Thinking? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
the yin to the yang of ritual anchors is pure novelty. Bradford Keeney is a strong advocate of creative living by shaking up habitual routines and rituals. There is definitely something to this argument as well.
Ideally the ritual functions as a gateway to the magical realm of the imagination -- but what if it descends into a mindless routine?
Gustave Flaubert advised artists to abe regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your worka. But Lou is regular and orderly in everything he does, and no-one would describe his work as violent and original.
So what's the difference between a creative ritual and a mundane routine?
Here are some answers that occur to me -- I'd love to hear what you think.
Mundane routines produce mundane work. Creative rituals produce remarkable work.
Mundane routines make life dull and predictable. Creative rituals make life rich and rewarding.
Mundane routines are often imposed from the outside. Creative rituals emerge from inside.
Mundane routines kill time. Creative rituals take you to a timeless place.
Mundane routines keep you busy. Creative rituals make you productive.
Mundane routines are a distraction, a kind of procrastionation. Creative rituals force you push through resistance and get on with your real work.
Mundane routines are a coping mechanism. Creative rituals help you rise to lifeas challenges.
What's the difference between a creative ritual and an empty routine?
How do you avoid mundane routines in your work?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Ritual or Mundane Routine? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
The Priestess of Apollo - Greece, 403 BC
She has fasted for several days prior to the 7th of the month, which is sacred to her God. She washes in the Castalian Spring, then drinks the waters of the Kassotis which confer the gift of inspiration. Clutching laurel leaves and a cauldron of water, she descends into a chamber beneath the temple and mounts a high tripod seat. Alone in the darkness, she waits.
Minutes later, the famous Spartan general Lysander is led into the temple above. Like the priestess, he has undergone rituals of purification and arrives clutching a laurel branch. On entering the temple, he brought a black ram as a gift for Apollo. The ram was showered with water and closely watched to make sure that it shivered from the hooves upward. The animal was then sacrificed and its organs examined for auspicious signs.
The voice that comes up to Lysander from the darkness is sluggish, as if the speaker were entranced or waking from sleep. Some of the words are unintelligible to him, but a chill runs though him when the voice hisses: "Beware the earthborn serpent, in craftiness coming behind thee!"
Eight years later Lysander is killed in battle - stabbed from behind by a warrior with a serpent painted on his shield.
Friedrich Schiller - Germany, 18th Century
The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visits the house of his friend and fellow writer Friedrich Schiller. While waiting for Schiller to return home, he notices a terrible smell coming from the writing desk. When he comments on it, Schiller's wife laughs in embarrassment and explains that her husband always keeps rotten apples in the desk, claiming he is unable to write without the smell wafting into his nostrils. Frau Schiller shakes her head as she adds that when writing at his desk, her husband also immerses his feet in a tub of iced water.
Knife fighter - Philippines, 20th Century
A middle-aged man prepares for a machete duel. The knife he clutches has had the poison of deadly spiders beaten into its blade during the forging process. Around his neck is an amulet, around his waist an apron inscribed with a prayer, which he recites with utmost seriousness, certain that these preparations will make the difference between life and death.
The England rugby team - London, 21st Century
Jason Robinson keeps an eye on the clock in the buildup to kick off. He has a strict routine of bandaging his arm and leg joints in a particular order, at specific times before the game. His teammate Mark Cueto, having eaten his usual pre-match meal of beans on toast, is careful to put his left boot on before his right. As usual Cueto was last off the team bus, but he will be jostling with Mark Regan when the teams are called out, as both players like to be last out of the changing room for every game. Other players will make a point of touching the ceiling as they leave the room or putting on their mouth guards at the precise moment they step across the touchline onto the pitch.
Steven Pressfield - USA, 21st Century
The novelist puts on his lucky boots, ties up their lucky laces and heads for his office where he finds his lucky hooded sweatshirt, lucky gypsy charm and lucky nametag. On his shelf is a lucky acorn from the battlefield at Thermopylae. A lucky model cannon sits on top of his thesaurus. He points the cannon towards his chair then recites a prayer to the Muse from Homer's Odyssey. Only then does he start to write.
So what's your answer?
If you're a hard-core rationalist you will probably dismiss such antics as 'superstition'.
Even if you're not wedded to scientific materialism, you may find this kind of behaviour pretty weird.
But if you are an artist, athlete, actor or another kind of performer, you may well have similar warm-up rituals of your own. You might feel slightly embarrassed by such 'illogical' behaviour - but not enough to change it. In my coaching work with professional creators, performers and sports players, I've often heard clients say "You'll think it's silly but ..." before telling me about their pre-work ritual.
I'm going to suggest that this kind of ritual is far from silly or irrational. In fact, if you're a creative professional, it may be the most important thing you do all day.
You may know from your own experience that such rituals 'work'. If so, then you probably have your own explanation as to why. While respecting your explanation, I'm going to offer another perspective based on my original professional training, in hypnotherapy.
Looked at through the lens of hypnosis, each of these people is engaged in a ritual that helps them enter an altered state of consciousness that is essential for enhanced performance. If any of these people were prevented from carrying out their ritual beforehand, the chances are they would fail to perform to their usual high standard.
Dr Ernest Rossi is a leading hypnotherapist and investigator into the connections between mind and body. A few years ago I had the privilege of attending a residential therapistsa retreat with Dr Rossi, and I can testify to his deep understanding of states of consciousness and their effect on performance. Central to his work is the concept of state dependent memory, learning and behaviour (SDMLB), which means that as we learn skills and knowledge they become associated with a particular mental, emotional and physiological state.
For example: right now youare reading this blog post so youare probably in areading modea which makes it easy to absorb these words and relate them to other things youave read - whether in books, blogs, journals or other sources. But you donat spend your whole life reading blogs (do you?). At other times you exercise or play sports, work in the garden, around the house or workshop, run around with your kids or do some other kind of physically engaging activity. Thereas a whole lot of skills and knowledge tied up in those activities, but right now it probably seems a bit vague and far away, because youare not in the aactive zonea.
Next time youare engaged in energetic activity, fully absorbed in whatever youare doing, I wonder how vivid the world of blogging will seem to you. You probably wonat give it a thought - and if you were suddently interrupted and asked to recall the details of this article, you would probably struggle to remember at first.
The more complex the task, the more important SDMLB becomes. Dr Barry Gordon, a neuropsychologist, uses the term 'minimind' to describe such automatic, state-dependent abilities:
Driving a car is a good example of mental skills that have become automatic.
When you were learning to drive, you had to learn to pay attention. You watched your hands on the steering wheel, the hood of the car, each sign and traffic light, the other cars on the road, and every pedestrian. You also had to think about what to do in special situations: the stop sign or the yield sign, a car getting too close, a pothole. But as you practiced driving and became better, your ability to detect what was happening on the road as well as your reactions became automatic. You didn't have to consciously look for a stop sign or a red light in order to notice it and automatically respond the right way. And if a pothole suddenly appeared, you immediately saw it and not only swerved but checked your mirrors for other cars nearby.
What you did through all this practice and attention was create automatic mental abilities. You used your conscious mind and deliberate intention to instruct your brain on what to attend to, what decisions to make, and what to be done. Your conscious mind programmed the necessary circuits in your brain. It instructed your vision to pay attention to the color red. Your mind established a network of override circuits so that the need to stop took precedence over almost everything else. It also set up a watchdog circuit, so you would not stop too quickly if a car was on your tail. Finally, it programmed what you have to do to stop: take your foot off the gas and push the brake pedal. All these mental processes were practiced to the point that they became instinctive, like a separate intelligence or "minimind" operating on its own.
...
All of your thinking, all of your decisions, all of your creativity comes from the same kind of miniminds you apply to skillful driving.
Dr Barry Gordon, The Neuroscience Behind Intelligent Memory
When it comes to creative work, your state of mind is critical. Youave probably tasted the deep pleasure and satisfaction that comes from being absorbed in creative flow. And if youare like most creators, youave also experienced the maddening frustration that comes of not being able to get into the creative zone. Most of the clients who have consulted me about creative blocks over the years have been looking for ways to access the SDMLB or 'minimind' of their creativity.
Rituals are important for creativity because they can unlock the state of mind in which you do your most inspired work. They may seem silly or irrational but they are powerful precisely because they are so different to the kind of activities you engage in in other areas of your life.
When I trained in hypnotherapy one of the first things we were taught was the power of a unique stimulus to trigger a state of consciousness. Three of the most important factors that affect the power of a trigger are:
For most of us a coffee cup doesnat act as a powerful trigger - weave drunk so many cups of coffee in so many different situations that the object is not particularly distinctive or emotionally charged. But I have a very special coffee cup - a beautiful china one covered in Japanese calligraphy (distinctive) that I bought when I visited Kyoto to get married (emotional intensity) and which I only drink from first thing in the morning as Iam sitting down to write (repetition + more distinctiveness + emotional intensity). Over the past three years itas become a kind of touchstone for me, connecting me with whatas most important before I start writing.
Note that the trigger itself is not necessarily possessed of magical properties. Its power comes from unlocking an ability you acquire through sustained practice. In the driving example, it takes many hours of driving before the triggers (the steering wheel and other controls; a red stop sign) become associated with automatic behaviours (controlling the car's movements; stopping quickly and safely). Similarly, you could run through exactly the same routine with exactly the same objects as Steven Pressfield, without producing a decent novel. But the ritual has become magically charged for him because it gives him access to skills he has developed through thousands of hours of practice.
Have another look at the examples at the top of this post. Can you see how each of the rituals combines emotional intensity with a distinctive set of circumstances and actions that are repeated over many occasions? So far from being illogical or silly, they are vitally important to the performersa preparations.
Isn't it about time you took such 'superstitions' a little more seriously?
Do you have a 'lucky' object that you like to have near you while you work?
Do you have any rituals that are part of your creative process?
What kind of triggers are most effective at getting you in the creative zone?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Do You Take Your Creative Rituals Seriously Enough? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Most people will see her turning counter-clockwise, which apparently means you're more left brained (logical). I see her spinning that way, and it's at first almost impossible to imagine her going clockwise. But it happens, usually by focusing or when something unexpectedly alters your perception.
Here's the typical run down on left versus right brain:
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
Many people associate the right brain with creativity and lateral thinking, and there's certainly something to that. Our left brains create structures that can act as barriers to alternative solutions and perspectives.
But your left brain plays a crucial role in creativity as well. Seeing logical associations between seemingly unrelated things is a hallmark of creativity. And the critical-thinking skills necessary to tell a good idea from a bad one are pretty important to.
So... tell us which way your dancer spins for you in the comments. And weigh in with your opinion about the right brain versus left brain for creativity... isn't it a really a "whole mind" thing?
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Which Way Do You Spin⦠Left Brain or Right Brain? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
On a cold winter's day shortly before his death, the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti gathered a large sheaf of drawings from his studio and carried them outside. As he stepped through the doorway he caught his breath - first at the frosty Roman air, then at a gust of smoke from a bonfire burning in the yard. Approaching the fire with the breeze at his back, the artist bent over and started feeding it with the drawings - single sheets at first, for fear of choking the flames, then more and more as the blaze took hold, finally dumping the whole pile into the heart of the conflagration. Reaching for a pitchfork, he scooped up stray sheets and scraps, folding them back into the flames.
An outstretched arm shrivelled and blackened before his eyes. A woman with the face of an angel flickered out in an instant. A cathedral facade burst into flames and collapsed. A fury screamed silently in its miniature hell. Without a second glance, the artist went back into the house for another load. Then another. As the morning progressed, the column of smoke grew thicker and rose higher, visible across the city in the clear winter sunshine. Michelangelo did not stop until he had emptied the studio, until every last scrap was safely gathered in to the fire. Until there was nothing to show for his years of toil with chalk and ink but a heap of embers and ashes.
Why?
What on earth possessed Michelangelo to destroy his own drawings, on which he had worked so hard? Why did he deprive the world of so many precious masterpieces?
Even in his own lifetime, Michelangelo was revered as a divine genius, and his sketches were valued accordingly. He was the first artist to have his biography written while he was still alive. His biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote that he treasured a drawing by Michelangelo 'as a relic' - i.e. a physical object with miraculous qualities. A 16th century Italian Catholic would not use such a term lightly.
Perfectionism was Vasari's explanation for the burning: 'Michelangelo's imagination was so perfect that, not being able to express with his hands his great and terrible conceptions, he often abandoned his works and destroyed many of them.'
Craftsman and author Roger Coleman offers another interpretation:
Michelangelo was, if anything, ashamed of his drawings. In his thinking the 'art' stage of creative production, which he identified with the careful procedure of making studies, sketches and working drawings, was the menial and mundane side of the business, where is true merit was to him displayed in the rapid and apparently effortless execution of a painting or sculpture.
The Art of Work
By burning his drawings, Michelangelo was destroying the evidence of the 'menial and mundane' work that constituted his creative process. His aim was to leave behind only finished masterpieces, bolstering his image as a creator of sublime genius. With the drawings gone, the public would be reduced to gaping at his paintings, sculptures and buildings, shaking their heads and asking themselves 'How did he do it?'.
Michelangelo was a notoriously proud individual, yet there was more to this attempted deception than vanity. Coleman points out that Michelangelo was living at a time when the whole concept of art was in transition.
The world of the medieval guilds was coming to an end. In this tradition, there had been no concept of an individual 'artist' in the modern sense. 'Art' simply meant 'skill' or 'labour', and artists were essentially craftsmen. They were hired labourers, paid according to the hours they worked. Most projects were collaborations, making it hard to single out any individual and credit him as 'the artist'. Skill and knowledge were highly prized, handed down from master to apprentice and guarded closely as trade secrets within the guilds. Drawings were functional, containing important knowledge and 'working out' necessary to create the finished artefact. They would not have been seen as artworks in their own right, any more than the scaffolding used in the construction of a building.
The brave new world of the Renaissance brought with it a very different concept of the artist - as a solitary, divinely inspired 'genius' capable of feats of creation that ordinary mortals could not aspire to, but only marvel at:
Michelangelo was actually working within the context of a tradition in which art was synonymous with skilled work and, as any skilled worker knows, the preparatory stages of any job of work are of fundamental importance and determine absolutely the quality of the finished product. But Michelangelo's work was appreciated and commissioned by class of patrons which was already attached to the idea of genius: individuals who advertised their social status by surrounding themselves with the works of 'genius'.
The Art of Work
Among this class of patrons was Giovanni Rucellai, a wealthy Florentine who was the first art collector to catalogue paintings by the name of the artist instead of the subject. Michelangelo was keenly aware of the economic benefits of being perceived as a lofty genius instead of a lowly craftsman. Destroying the evidence of his labours was part of a calculated strategy of projecting the image of genius.
As time went by, artists ceased to be paid for mere labour, and were instead rewarded in proportion to their perceived level of genius. The modern art market evolved through the mutually reinforcing benefits that accrue to artists and collectors: the former increased their status and earnings exponentially; the latter enjoyed healthy returns on their investments while basking in the reflected glory of genius.
Far from being divinely inspired, it looks as though the modern concept of genius originated in market forces and naked ambition.
So what?
If you aspire to high level creative work, and/or depend on your creativity for a living, then the myth of genius could seriously damage your work and your career. Here's why.
Firstly, it's all too easy to place the 'geniuses' in your field on lofty pedestals, and tell yourself you have no hope of emulating them. Not only is this discouraging, but it also deprives you of the opportunity to learn from their example. In a way, it's a form of laziness - it takes a lot less effort to gawp at Michelangelo's David than it does to carefully study his surviving drawings (he missed a few) and apply the lessons to your own practice. It's all very well to swoon at Mozart melodies, but if you're a professional composer then it's your business to study his technique and learn from it.
I sometimes encounter a subtle variation on the genius myth when working with coaching clients. Some of them get stuck worrying about whether they are 'a real writer' or 'a genuine artist'. They mistake the image for the process. My answer is always the same: 'Forget about "being a writer", let's focus on "doing the writing"'. Once they do this it becomes much easier, as we can usually find the point in the process where they get stuck, and come up with new options for working through it.
Secondly, although genius is a myth, it's a very popular and persistent one. Canny marketers will tell you that perception is reality as far as the market is concerned. If you understand the genius myth, you can learn a thing or two from Michelangelo about how to exploit it to your advantage. Otherwise you risk being cast in the shade by self-proclaimed 'geniuses' - just as Michelangelo intended.
Robert Weisberg is a psychology professor who has devoted two books to demolishing the myth of genius. In the popular view, he writes, genius has two main attributes:
His central argument is that there is no evidence for either of these attributes: high-level creativity does not involve special 'creative thinking' techniques, but results from ordinary thought processes; and that genius cannot be reduced to a set of personality characteristics. Creativity - Beyond the Myth of Genius is a provocative and stimulating book that will give you a very unconventional take on creativity. You may not agree with everything Weisberg says, but he will make you question some of your fundamental assumptions about creativity. And if you've ever worried that your thinking isn't sufficiently 'lateral' or 'outside the box', or that you're simply 'not mad enough' to be a real creative genius, you may even find it an encouraging read.
Robert Weisberg lists the following factors as essential for creative achievement: talent and skill; motivation and productivity; and knowledge of your chosen field.
My brother is a musician. He's forever humming, tapping, running through tunes in his mind. If his guitar is nearby his fingers start itching to pick it up. If I bought a guitar tomorrow and practised with every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn't get half the music out of it that he does. I don't have the talent. Words, on the other hand are a different matter. My friends are sometimes amazed that I can remember whole poems by heart or repeat back exactly what they said several years ago. But to me it comes naturally, I can't help it. Words are in my blood.
Raw talent will only get you so far - skill and mastery come from practice. Each time I hear Paul play, sometimes at intervals of several months, I can swear he's better than the last time. Which he is, of course. Because he's always playing. Just as I'm always writing - I start most working days by writing for several hours. When I look at something I wrote years ago it's easy to cringe - any improvement in the meanwhile has come from all those hours of practice.
I even find myself writing at weekends, when I don't really have to. But if an idea for a piece gets into me, it won't leave me alone, so work is more enjoyable than lying in bed. It doesn't even feel like work. According to Weisberg, I'm not alone, since 'a strong desire to succeed and a high level of commitment to one's chosen field' - in other words powerful extrinsic and intrinsic motivations - are typical of creative people.
Motivation and practice lead to productivity:
one particularly impressive characteristic of the most esteemed individuals (and presumably the most creative) in any field is that they are almost always extremely productive. In addition to possessing talent, then, one must be willing to work, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else.
Creativity - Beyond the Myth of Genius
One of the root causes of the Florentine Renaissance was the excavation of Roman ruins and rediscovery of ancient forms of sculpture and architecture, which had been lost for centuries. Without this knowledge, the great Renaissance artists could not have produced such an extraordinary flowering of sculpture, painting and building, no matter how talented they were. Weisberg argues that 'one must become immersed in the field and develop a deep expertise before one becomes capable of going beyond what has already been produced'.
Bearing in mind Michelangelo's example, I would add the following factors to Weisberg's list:
Art historian Ernst Gombrich was evidently under the spell of the genius myth when he wrote The Story of Art:
it is very difficult for any ordinary mortals to imagine how it could be possible for one human being to achieve at Michelangelo achieved in for lonely years of work on the scaffoldings of the papal chapel.
In fact, historian William E. Wallace has shown that Michelangelo collaborated with no less than 13 people on the Sistine Chapel, and with around 200 on the Laurentian Library in Florence. So much for loneliness. As Michael Michalko points out, 'Michelangelo was not only a great artist, he was a CEO of other talent that collaboratively made the art that bore his name'. As we've seen elsewhere, collaboration is critical to success and creative rock stars love to work with other cool creative dudes.
Gombrich was writing 400 hundred years after the death of Michelangelo, and is still far from alone in his veneration of the artist's divine genius. So it looks like Michelangelo did a great job of his marketing - if we define marketing as projecting the right image to the people who matter. Genius may be a myth, but as Seth Godin reminds us, all marketers are liars - they understand that nothing sells like a good story.
Economist Tyler Cowen is pretty blunt in his description of Michelangelo:
Beethoven and Michelangelo, who sold their artworks for profit, were entrepreneurs and capitalists. Rembrandt, who ran a studio and employed other artists, fits the designation as well.
In Praise of Commercial Culture
Michelangelo's art and business were inextricably intertwined - his materials were expensive, and he was ambitious to have his work on display in the most prominent places - so he depended on his ability to win lucrative contracts from wealthy clients, beating off stiff competition from the likes of Raphael and Leonardo. If you want to make a living from your creativity then you'll need a similarly sound business model. Even if you're content to pursue your art as a hobby in your spare time, you still need to pay the bills and buy materials in the mean time. Remember, artistic self-expression is fairly near the top of Maslow's pyramid.
Do you agree that genius is a myth?
Are there people in your creative field (alive or dead) that you would class as geniuses? Do you find their example inspiring or discouraging?
What difference does it make to your creativity when you forget about being ('a genius', 'a great artist', 'a good writer' etc) and concentrate on doing (actions, routines, processes)?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Why You Donât Need to Be a Genius to Achieve Creative Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Have you ever spent a whole day doing absolutely nothing, either for productivity or pleasure?
The closest I've come has been on silent meditation retreats at a Buddhist monastery.
The retreats I've attended have lasted between 3 and 10 days. The schedule and rules are designed to minimise not just fun and distractions but also productive activity. That means no talking at any time, except for essential practicalities such as 'Where are the saucepans?'. It also means no TV, radio, Internet, mobile phone, or entertainment of any kind. There are a few spiritual books, but you're even discouraged from reading them, as they take you away from the present moment. No work either, apart from an hour of 'working meditation' each day, hoovering floors and cleaning toilets to keep the retreat centre running. And obviously everybody's tucked up in single beds at night.
So what do you do all day? The wake-up bell rings at 5 a.m., giving you half an hour to get ready for the first meditation session. The rest of the day alternates between sitting meditation (usually for 30 to 45 minutes at a time) and walking meditation (walking back and forth between two fixed points, while maintaining present-moment awareness). The most exciting events of the day are the two meals: breakfast at 7 a.m. and the last meal of the day, lunch at 11 a.m. The eating part's not as bad as that might sound - the food is usually delicious and there's plenty of it. If you're really feeling faint during the afternoon someone will probably find a piece of chocolate, which technically counts as 'medicine'.
So what is all this designed to achieve? As usual with Buddhism, that's the wrong question. It's not designed to achieve anything, quite the opposite. The idea is to be very present and aware of every moment, and to let go of your desire to 'achieve' things. In short, the idea is to do nothing at all.
Meditation is not about doing anything. It is pure attention without grasping, without interference. It is simply paying attention...
But isn't paying attention doing something? Actually, no - not if it is pure, simple attention devoid of hope, fear, great, or expectation. Bare attention, in fact, is the only activity that does not involve doing something.
Zen priest Steve Hagen, Meditation - Now or Never
If you're anything like me, someone who loves to work so much it can be hard to switch off at the end of the day, this is quite a shock to the system. Suddenly you're off the hamster wheel, but your mind is still racing, thinking, planning. You're itching to get on with something and you feel lost was nothing to do. The first few days of the retreat are usually the hardest, when you'd rather be anywhere else on earth - back in the office, in a meeting, in a pub, even in an argument - at least you'd have something to do, someone to spark off.
You've probably had a similar feeling at the beginning of the holidays. After weeks and weeks of activity, it takes a few days before you can really start to relax. But after that, it takes you into a different place entirely. You almost become a different person.
Absolutely nothing.
Seriously. Meditation is not designed to make you more creative or productive. If the monks saw me writing about meditation in the context of these things, they would probably find it very funny. Like watching someone climb into a jet plane, only to use it to drive down the road to the local supermarket for his weekly shopping.
If you approach meditation with the goal of boosting your inspiration or productivity, you will be disappointed. You'll also miss out on the opportunity to experience what meditation does have to offer, which is far beyond the scope of this article.
It would be a bit like approaching a relationship with the goal of 'developing your emotional intelligence'. While that might be a nice side effect of falling in love and having to deal with the consequences, I hope you'll agree that the 'falling in love' part is the main event.
So I want to make it clear that what I'm going to write about next are really the side-effects of meditation. If I'd set out to achieve them, they probably wouldn't have occurred.
To a degree, they are also likely side-effects of any 'non-productive' activity, such as taking a holiday, a day off or even a short break during a busy day. My aim is to highlight one of the paradoxes of productivity and especially creativity: beyond a certain point, doing more or working harder is actually counter-productive. Your energy and concentration levels dip, your frustration increases, and if you're not careful you could be on the slippery slope to creative burnout.
I'm not suggesting you all rush off and join a monastery, but if you're serious about creating and achieving things that really matter, you can't do it all through sheer hard work. It feels counterintuitive, but in the context of your creative process, sometimes the most 'productive' thing you can be doing is chilling out at a barbecue, lying on a beach, watching a DVD or mucking about with your friends. Apart from any effect on your career and your business, it will do you the world of good.
So here's what I learned about productivity from getting nothing done:
It's only when you relax that you realise how tense you've been. After a few days of doing nothing but paying attention to my breathing, I could literally feel the tension easing out of my body. It struck me how uncomfortable and probably inefficient it was to be tensed up by constant activity. The quotation from William Blake is designed to remind me of this when I need it.
A retreat is a quiet time to step away from your everyday life. All your usual concerns and activities are far away, beyond the monastery walls. They start to seem small and trivial. It occurs to you that maybe, in fact, they are small and trivial. Things around you seem much more real and important - the grass beneath your feet, the blue sky yawning over your head, steam rising from a cup of tea in front of you. A bird singing. Your own breathing.
If you're focused on getting things done, the danger is you do this indiscriminately - you try to do everything, for everyone, all the time. But when you step away from your to-do list and look at the big picture, some things strike you as more important than others, either because you care about them more, or they are areas where you can make a bigger difference, or both. From this perspective, being 'busy' starts to look like an excuse, but distraction from your real business in life. Once you see your real priorities clearly, it's harder to go back to the old way of doing things.
A few days into my first ten-day retreat, I notice something odd happening. I started to experience moments of clarity, or sudden insight, about situations and problems I was dealing with at the time. It became obvious how I had been limiting myself, or looking at things in an unhelpful way. I could clearly see a 'next step' towards resolving the issue. And the odd thing was, I hadn't been thinking about the situation at all - the realisation just struck me, out of the blue. If you've ever had an idea pop into your mind while you were doing something else, you'll know what it felt like.
It usually didn't happen during sitting meditation, when frankly I found it very easy to get lost in my imagination instead of paying attention to the present moment. More often than not, it was during walking meditation, out in the meadow at the back of the monastery. At no time did the insight come through thinking about or analysing the situation. All I was doing was being very present and paying attention to my senses - my breathing, the movement of my body while walking, the grass under my feet, the cloud-shadows racing across the grass.
My friend and colleague John Eaton would tell me the insights came from Bodymind, 'the intelligence of the body, working through the Brain, the Nervous System, the Glands, the cells and the Immune system'. He would remind me that there is no absolute distinction between the brain and the rest of the body, just an artificial one in our mind.
As someone who had always performed well academically, and taken a certain pride in intellectual accomplishment, this was a surprising experience. It suggested that reason is a fairly limited tool for understanding myself and making decisions about things that really matter. And the parallel with the well-known 'Eureka!' moment of creative inspiration didn't escape me. Since then, I haven't given on rational analysis altogether, but I find it faintly comical that so many people seem to deify reason. And I now incorporate physical activity and body awareness in my daily routine, particularly before writing. The best thing I can do before sitting down to write is to stop paying attention to my thoughts and get centred in my body. When I do that, writing becomes a breeze.
Inevitably, I got attached to the moments of clarity. I started to wonder whether they meant I was 'good at meditation'. I wanted more of them and was disappointed when an 'insightful' morning was followed by an afternoon full of irritation, frustration and boredom. This happened for several days running until I realised that I was simply much more alert in the mornings. So instead of getting quite so frustrated during the afternoons, I became fascinated by the ups and downs of my energy and concentration during the daily cycle. It was like riding a rollercoaster or a water slide - after a few goes you get to know where the big dips and climbs are, and you can relax and go with the ride instead of clinging on full of tension. Scientists call this daily cycle the circadian rhythm, or 'human clock'.
When I went back to work afterwards, I noticed how much easier it was to do focused tasks like writing in the morning. After lunch, the words and concepts wouldn't flow, and I found myself getting frustrated. After about 5 p.m. I realised my mental energy was almost depleted.
So I've redesigned my working day around my circadian rhythm: whenever possible I keep the mornings free for writing; I schedule meetings from late morning onwards, when I could do with a bit of company and stimulation; afternoons are also for dealing with e-mail, errands and less demanding work tasks; by four or five o'clock I'm pretty unproductive, so this is a great time to head to the gym, for a change of scene and re-energising. And I've come to distrust any decisions or conclusions I arrive at after 5 p.m. As a general rule I try not to work in the evenings and leave the computer alone. Apart from the fact that I won't get much done, even I've come to realise that there's more to life than work! Taking time out to relax will also help me get a good night's sleep, ready to get going again in the morning.
Do you make time for doing nothing? How? When?
What time(s) of the day are you most alert and productive?
What benefits have you noticed from doing nothing?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post How Getting Nothing Done Can Make You More Productive appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Spaces with tall ceilings certainly seem more inspirational, right? Thatas why itas the second thing your real estate agent points out (right after "Look how big it is!"), and why you might feel a sense of elevated spirituality in a cathedral.
Turns out there may be something to this.
A study (PDF) seems to have confirmed that higher ceilings can, in fact, help with creative thinking. Essentially, expansive spaces prompt higher levels of big-picture abstract thinking, while confined areas lead to more granular, detail-oriented thinking.
Hereas what Rui Zhu, co-author of the study, has to say:
When a person is in a high-ceiling environment, they are able to process information in a more abstract, creative fashion. Those inside a room with relatively lower ceilings will process in a much more concrete, detail-oriented fashion.
So according to these findings, you want a bit more ahead rooma for creative thinking. But when it comes to action (and those devilish details), a confined space might help you focus.
What do you think? In your experience, do high ceilings prompt creative thinking?
Via Tall Matters.
The post Spark Better Creative Thinking With Extra Headroom appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Artist, entrepreneur and creative rock star John T. Unger left such a great comment on the post The Dark Side of Creativity: Burnout we thought it deserved a wider audience. If you've not read it already, you might like to read the creative burnout post to get the context before reading John's response.
Yeah, Iave definitely had all these symptoms [of creative burnout] at one time or another, and learning to deal with them effectively took a long time.
Thereas one more symptom that I think you missed, which is that when you reach the stage of creative burnout, thereas a fear that you may never get back to a state of healthy creative production, or maybe even *any* creative productiona| Iall give a couple examples of that fear, and then show how overcoming the fear helped me to overcome all of the other symptoms as well.
My first first creative career was as a poet and writer. For about 15 years, that was my main gig. I had some moderate success critically if not financially. Every now and then, Iad reach a wall and stop writing. The words just seized up and I would begin to fear that they werenat going to come back again. Ever. Iad start looking at the most recent piece I had written and wondering whether it was in fact the last piece Iad ever write. Itas difficult to describe just how terrifying this can be if your whole life is wrapped up in identifying with the worka| Itas like being erased. It felt like a degenerative disease where I retained just enough awareness to watch as my consciousness melted away.
There were a number of specific things I could do (diving into the work of other writers I admired, revisiting my unfinished work and notes, or taking a sudden turn to new subject matter) to try to get the juices flowing again - I think most creative people have got some system that works for them sooner or later. But, most of the time when youare burned out, the best you can do is stare into spacea| it isnat going to get better until youave let some time go by and recovered your balance. Just like being sick. While youare in that state of fear, nothing makes you feel any better until you manage to become conscious of it and see it as a cyclical event that *will* pass because it has come and gone before. Unfortunately, the only way to be aware of it as a cycle is to learn by going through it a couple times.
The same cycle has happened to me as a visual artist, as a blogger, as a coder, as a designera| basically in any creative endeavor Iave taken seriously. When I switched to visual art from poetry, I was just as terrified the first time or two that I realized I hadnat made any art for a while. And then I remembered having the same experience with writing and recognized the cycle for what it is. Having seen it before made me less afraid of it, and knowing that I had experienced it in more than one creative discipline helped me to realize that if I was finished with what I had to say in one medium, I could always try bringing the creative process to yet another medium.
How does this relate to the other symptoms above? Essentially, if you can make down time a part of your creative process and recognize it as a naturally occurring break, it will help you to keep the other obsessive behaviors in check. When your creative mind feels blocked, itas probably time to take a rest, step back and reassess your work to date, look for new ideas or challenges, pay some attention to the relationships or obligations you may have ignored while in the white heat of working, etc. Try to see it it as a good thing, as a cycle, as a balance, as a safety measure. Hell, as a vacation even.
Trying to force it isnat gonna do you any good. Put your stuff away and ignore it for a bit. Do other stuff. If youare really wired for creative work you will eventually get bored and start some small project just to amuse yourself, and before you know, the project has grown huge, become something cool and inspiring, and generated ideas for yet more projects. There you go, youare back!
The post From the Comments: John T. Unger on Creative Burnout appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Lou knows how to administer business, and thatas what Lou does.
In fact, Louas a master at it. Says so right there on the wall.
But lately, everyone seems to want him to do more, be more creative, solve more problems.
Lou is really starting to resent people like Jack and Marla... until he has what he thinks is the killer idea.
See what Lou's thinking in the fourth Lateral Action animated video:
Lou Has a Killer Idea.
If you've missed the previous episodes, check 'em out first:
The post Lou Has a Killer Idea appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This is especially more challenging for the Marlas in the house, as creativity requires being ahead of the curve. Marla is consistently kept busy, and that's probably because she's kept abreast of those technological innovations. But that could be a time sink too, unless she has the right tools to manage her emails, projects, and time.
Those who are like Lou, though, don't know that it's possible to everything one can do in the corporate world at home at a fraction of the cost (for even better returns). Without being armed with that know-how, how does a guy like Lou actually take the initiative to do what he can -- at home (as he soon may have to)?
In the creative world, you don't have to confine yourself to costly enterprise-level applications. Free (or really affordable) opportunities are available. In this article, I discuss my favorite tools to manage my clients and time online, and I invite you to share your favorite tools of the trade too.
The first step to communicating with local clients and overseas prospects is to make sure you have a good email system in place. My recommended tool? Gmail (armed with Better Gmail 2 for Firefox). The primary reason for choosing Gmail over all other web app solutions is because it has colored labels. I note my client projects with a gray label called "Clients" and use the yellow "todo" label (or a star) for any actionable items that need my attention. Gmail also scores big points for having the capacity to handle large files, and with over 7.2GB of storage at the present, I don't have to download my messages locally and can access my entire inbox from my cell phone and the many computers I use.
Many people use Gmail as a business tool and don't mind having a "professional" email address with the gmail.com domain (I actually use my gmail.com email account straight-away for some tasks). But fortunately, you can get all benefits of Gmail on your desired domain name by utilizing Google Apps for Business. The free option is more than sufficient for the creative professional.When I need to collaborate, Google Documents is fascinating. Have you ever tried to work with someone else on the same document at once? (If not, give it a try.)
Offline, I actually am still using Microsoft Word, but I'm a proponent of the free Open Office suite, which is a full-featured office application with a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool.I often find myself working in a simple notepad replacement known as Notepad2 (Windows only) for note-taking, writing drafts to blog posts (like this one), and if I want to copy/paste text to save for later. Big applications such as Microsoft Word and OpenOffice don't come to play very often unless I need to work on a professional presentation.
Most of us creative types like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP for photo editing. I'm more of a creative writer and not a graphic designer, so Irfanview (Windows only) is great for small image editing tasks, such as resizing and cropping, which is often necessary for blogging. I hear great things about Pixelmator for the Mac.
CalendarsIs it a surprise that I like Google Calendar? Again, it's collaborative, and that's a plus.
One-on-One CommunicationThe bottom line: when you're in a creative discipline, you need to be able to talk to your peers online (and quickly) -- whether to bounce ideas off of them or whether to ask them for immediate feedback about a new design or whatnot. While many individuals think instant messages are a productivity waster (and that's true if you get carried away), it helps to be accessible. Personally, I'm always online, but I'm barely chatting. And for communication, my preferred tool is Pidgin, which integrates Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and others.
For overseas conversations, Skype is a great option and the free option may work for you, though there are paid subscriptions depending on who you need to call. Collaborative CommunicationWith the web becoming increasingly social, the next step would be to find a way to bounce idea off of the collective or to get inspiration. I prefer two tools for this, Twitter and FriendFeed.
Twitter is a microblogging tool that lets you tell the world in 140 characters or less about what you're doing and your thoughts. In the past several months, Twitter has gained momentum and now is a great broadcast medium if you want a lot of people to give you immediate feedback about an idea. It's also a great place to network with like-minded professionals. There are a lot of creative folks using Twitter, that's for sure!
On the other hand, FriendFeed is a tool that lets you share your "lifestreams," such as your Tweets, the RSS feeds of your websites, the social sites you're using, and more (including your Amazon wish list!). While FriendFeed has a much smaller audience than Twitter, it has a lot more in-depth conversation and is very powerful tool for sharing tips, pictures, and more. I find FriendFeed as a great source of inspiration, and active participants will find that it really does have a powerful and very engaged community. Client CommunicationIf email doesn't do it for you, Basecamp is a very cool application that lets you communicate with the many clients you have. Basecamp is professional and lets you categorize your projects. It also allows you to share files, create to-do lists and milestones, track time, and more.
Web SurfingIs it any surprise that I stand by Mozilla Firefox for my web surfing? With all the plugins it supports, I'm able to do a whole lot with a single application.
MediaMy favorite media player ever is VLC media player and that's because it saves time and energy since it doesn't require you to install codecs in order to run that AVI file your colleague just sent you.
InvoicingBy far, the best tool available for invoicing clients is Freshbooks. It gives freelancers the ability to create professional looking invoices for a fraction of the cost (free for up to 4 different clients!) Freshbooks also has time tracking software for the computer and for the iPhone.
Time TrackingI mentioned Freshbooks in the previous category, but I find another tool useful to track where I've been online. That tool is called RescueTime and it lets you know what you've been doing and when. RescueTime lets you tag your activities and then graphs it out so that you can find out whether you were wasting time or actually doing productive work. It is one of my favorite tools ever.
BackupsWhile I do a lot of my work online, I also do a chunk of work offline. I need a tool to back up my most important files in case something happens. Carbonite is a powerful application that does that for you and it isn't intrusive at all.
Other FavoritesI use a lot of shortcut applications on my Windows machine, including Everything, a powerful search tool that will scan files of your entire hard drive and find the filename you were looking for without the extensive search. I have it running on a computer with about 1.6TB of data. Once it profiles your hard drive, you'll find the file you're looking for instantaneously.
I also like Launchy (Windows) and Quicksilver (Mac) to launch applications without requiring me to use my mouse in order to navigate to my Start Menu, then Accessories, then Entertainment,and then Sound Recorder. Using Launchy, for example, I hit ALT+Spacebar, type "soun," and Launchy discovers that I'm intersted in Sound Recorder and will launch it for me. It saves a whole lot of time, and once you get the hang of it, I assure you that you won't go back to the mouse if you don't need to. I disperse my work among four different computers, so RealVNC lets me get remote access to the other machines located elsewhere. Additionally, I also play with a Linux server, and I usually remotely connect to it via Putty (Windows and Linux).To make this truly the "ultimate" productivity toolbox for creatives people, we need your input. What applications and tools are in your creative arsenal?
Feel free to share any tools or tips in the comments!
About the Author: We're pleased to announce that Tamar Weinberg has joined Lateral Action as Associate Editor. Tamar is a former contributor to Lifehacker, works with the lads over at Mashable, and displays her skills as a social media maven over at her blog Techipedia.
The post The Ultimate Productivity Toolbox for Creative People appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Rock stars Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have assembled a stellar lineup, all riffing on the theme 'Why Don't They Get It?'; in relation to the new media/communications landscape.
I'm on backing vocals, having contributed one of the 400-word chapters, titled 'Peripheral Creative Vision'. I'm trying to encourage you to buy the book so I won't tell you what's in it, except to say that I wrote it to be a companion piece for Lateral Action so if you like the one, then you'll hopefully want to have the other. Plus there are another 236 pieces by some of the finest minds currently active on the Internet, so you're pretty well guaranteed a great read.
The Age of Conversation definitely qualifies as Lateral Action - here are a few action steps for you to help Variety's work to improve children's lives:
Special thanks to Drew and Gavin for getting the show on the road, and to David Armano for doing his usual stellar job with the cover design.
Here's the full author list:
Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem
The post 237 Creative Rock Stars in the Age of Conversation 2 appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But Kurt Cobain?
It may seem a stretch to call Kurt Cobain and Nirvana entrepreneurs. After all, Cobain was so disturbed by fame that he ultimately took his own life to escape the pressure.
The success of the album Nevermind was an accident of creative genius by punk rockers who reluctantly hit it big, right?
Not exactly.
I didnat want to be a fringe alternative banda| Iad rather be a rock star. ~Kurt Cobain, About a Son
An entrepreneur is successful because his passion for an outcome leads him to organize available resources in new and more valuable ways. When you look at it that way, Kurt Cobain was definitely a creative entrepreneur, and he and the other members of Nirvana knew the outcome they wanted.
They wanted to be rock stars.
Now, that doesnat mean they wanted to be rock stars like the crop at the time, like Bon Jovi. Ironically, Nirvanaas success quickly knocked the hair bands off commercial radio.
The innovative mix of punk, pop hooks and 70's guitar rock allowed Nirvana to change the face of popular music forever. And even though it's likely they never imagined how big it would get, Cobain candidly reveals it was all according to plan in the 2006 documentary About a Son.
Take a look at the three elements that propelled Nirvana to the top of the charts. They just might help you succeed in your own entrepreneurial endeavors.
It wasnat cool to play pop music as a punk band. And I wanted to mix the two. ~Kurt Cobain, About a Son
To innovate in epic ways, the first step is to rebel against the status quo of the industry or community you belong to. In Nirvanaas case, the music scenes in Seattle and Olympia, Washington, were notoriously anti-commercial.
Nirvanaas indie debut Bleach showed promise, but that abrasive, relatively unstructured noise rock was considered aacceptablea to the Pacific Northwest music scene. Cobain wanted to create hybrid songs with pop elementsaalong the lines of the Pixiesabut met resistance from the community and even from Sub Pop, the label he'd worshiped such a short time ago.
So Nirvana made the heretical move of signing with a major label, releasing Nevermind with Geffen. Once Smells Like Teen Spirit broke through, the grunge gold rush began, and Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains crossed over next.
Takeaway: Be a leader, not a follower. Youall certainly annoy the status quo, but only until youare reaping the rewards of the innovative pioneer.
I donat think weare better than the other bandsa| We got attention because our songs have hooks, which stick in peopleas minds. ~Kurt Cobain, About a Son
Most of the songs on Nevermind were written before the band went into the studio. While the music is no way conventional, the tracks possess catchy hooks that are psychologically pleasing.
In other words, Cobainas desire to add pop hooks to punk compositions is a classic way to aorganize available resources in new and more valuable ways.a This is creative entrepreneurism at itas finest, and Cobain got the rock star outcome he hoped for (be careful what you wish for, etc.).
The band chose producer Butch Vig, whose work with Sonic Youth Cobain admired, and selected Andy Wallace to mix the album. The group walked a fine line by combining polished production with punk aesthetics, and they nailed it (even though Cobain complained years later that Nevermind was too polished).
Takeaway: This is the fine line all creative entrepreneurs walk. Ignore market desire and human psychology, and you fail. Diminish the innovative elements that set you apart, and you become another unremarkable ame tooa effort.
We didn't do anything. It was just one of those 'Get out of the way and duck' records. ~Geffen President Ed Rosenblatt
When Nirvana signed with Geffen Records, they got a tried-and-true marketing machine. Radio promotion and retail positioning had been boiled down to a science in the days before digital distribution turned music marketing on its head.
The selection and release of singles was classic record-label strategy. Smells Like Teen Spirit would go first, which would introduce the band to radio listeners, DJs, and programming directors. This would pave the way for Come as You Are, which would be the more likely hit.
Thatas where the plan fell apart.
To say Smells Like Teen Spirit did better than expected is a monumental understatement. A song recorded in three takes with lyrics penned minutes before turned Cobain into the reluctant voice of Generation X.
Geffen hoped that Nevermind would sell at least 250,000 copies, which is what the Vig-produced Sonic Youth album sold. Nevermind has sold over 10,000,000 copies to date, and is critically-regarded as one of the best rock albums in history, just as Smells Like Teen Spirit is considered one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded.
Takeaway: These days, creative entrepreneurs of all stripes can use the Internet to spark their own viral success stories by creating remarkable products and services. Home runs like Nevermind are rare and unexpected, so you still need a smart marketing plan. Just know when to aget out of the way and ducka when the audience decides to market for you.
Kurt Cobain can definitely teach us things about starting our own business, whether big or small:
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Kurt Cobain Guide to Startup Success appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
This is the final post in a series that has looked at creative rock stars - the creative entrepreneurs who get paid to do what they love and to wow their audience. When they succeed, they have an incredible life. They get to reinvent themselves and live life on their own terms. They get to work and play with other cool creative dudes. They enjoy the acclaim of their fans and the respect of their peers. They even have the privilege of using their fame and fortune to make the world a better place.
But in spite of appearances, stars are not superhuman. A shot at stardom is always a leap of faith.
Because there are no guarantees. Otherwise I guess everyone would go for it. Creative entrepreneurs spend their lives balanced on a razor's edge between creativity and commerce - or as creative rock star Eric Poettschacher puts it, between money and meaning. It's great to be paid for doing creative work but if you are not careful you can be distracted from your true calling by money, fame and other external rewards. Get too obsessed with your vision and you risk creative burnout. Neglect the business side of things and you could end up being exploited or just plain broke.
Weighing up the pros and cons, you may decide the rock star life is too risky for you. Maybe, like the Magic Theatre in Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf, it's 'Not for Everybody'.
So you might decide you're better off keeping your creativity separate from your career or business. That way you can be financially secure and enjoy your creative work purely for its own sake. That's not a bad choice. It seems to be the default setting for people in my own creative sphere - poetry. T.S. Eliot worked in a bank. Wallace Stevens was an insurance executive. Frank O'Hara worked at the Museum of Modern Art. Philip Larkin was a librarian. William Carlos Williams was a doctor, writing his poems on prescription forms between patients. It doesn't seem to have done their poetry any harm at all.
I know what Marla would say. She would tell me they were living in a different world, with different rules and different opportunities. She would remind me of Shakespeare - not only the greatest poet in English but also a highly successful entrepreneur. She would ask me whether I thought that was a coincidence. To which I'd probably reply that I may not have Shakespeare's gift, but his life looked a lot more exciting than Larkin's.
And I know what she'd say to that - that anyone can be a creative rock star if they really want it enough. But you have to be prepared to step - and here she'd smile mischievously - 'outside the box' of your usual idea of creativity.
Then she'd remind me of the E-Myth.
Michael Gerber's classic book The E- Myth is subtitled 'why most small businesses don't work and what to do about it'. The first two sections of the book should be required reading for anyone who even considers going into business for themselves.
The E-Myth Gerber refers to is the assumption that anyone who sets up in business for themselves is an entrepreneur. For Gerber, an entrepreneur is someone who thoroughly understands how a business works, and uses that knowledge to create a successful enterprise. He argues that most small business owners don't fall into that category. Instead, they are typically former employees who have fallen victim to what he calls the Entrepreneurial Seizure - in which they are seized with a conviction that they could do better than their current employer, and resolve to set up in business on their own. A noble resolution - except that it is usually made without proper understanding of what it takes to run a business. The basic problem, according to Gerber, 'is that everybody who goes into business is actually three-people-in-one: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician'.
Looking at these three roles, we can see that they are complementary. Properly coordinated, they would make the perfect business team, with The Entrepreneur inspiring the others with the vision, The Manager setting up systems and processes, and The Technician carrying out the daily tasks. Such a system can work whether the roles are played by different people, or whether an individual plays all three roles at different times.
But according to Gerber, what usually happens is that The Entrepreneur only appears for a moment - during the Entrepreneurial Seizure - then vanishes again. Into the void comes The Technician, convinced that he knows what needs to be done, and ploughs ahead working morning noon and night. Only instead of just doing his own technical work, he finds he also has to do everything else necessary to keep the business afloat. For example, a mechanic who sets up his own business finds he not only has to work full-time as a mechanic, he also has to be his own marketer, manager, accountant, IT department and CEO.
Inevitably The Technician discovers that there aren't enough hours in the day. But instead of calling in The Entrepreneur or Manager for help, he adopts the only solution known to a Technician - working harder and longer. Because of his pride in his work, The Technician is convinced that nobody can do it as well as he can, and tries to do everything himself. This drives him to obsess over the details and get bogged down in perfectionism. Having made so many promises - to himself, to his family, to his customers - the weight of expectation bears down on him remorselessly. He refuses to give up, but it gets harder every day.
Does any of this sound familiar? That's right - The Technician's case has all the symptoms of creative burnout. In fact, we could say that The Artist is like The Technician on steroids. Both have the same love of work and perfectionistic pride in what they do. This can produce great results - but it can also spill over into workaholism and exhaustion.
Let's face it, you don't start a graphic design business because you love the idea of setting up business systems. You do it because you love design and want the freedom to do things your way. But if you've spent months working seven days a week, juggling graphic design work with bookkeeping, marketing, fixing your own computer and dealing with demanding clients, then you're probably asking yourself whether it's worth the hassle.
Just to be clear: there is nothing wrong with being a Technician or an Artist. Problems only occur when they take the place of The Entrepreneur and The Manager, and start trying to run every aspect of the business. They make wonderful Indians but terrible Chiefs. Creating and maintaining a successful business require different skills - and a different mindset.
Gerber's solution to the problem of the E- Myth involves a radical change of perspective:
The point is: your business is not your life.
Your business and your life are two totally separate things.At its best, your business is something apart from you, rather than a part of you, with its own rules and its own purposes. An organism, you might say, which will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function: to find and keep customers.
Once you recognise that the purpose of your life is not to serve your business, but that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work on your business, rather than in it
The E- Myth
The Technician works in the business because he only sees the business as a vehicle for doing work. He doesn't see it as an entity in its own right - something that you could go to work on, to build it, craft it and reshape it to make it more effective. That is the speciality of The Entrepreneur.
Personally, I'm intrigued by the fact that Gerber describes The Entrepreneur rather than The Technician as the 'creative' one:
The Entrepreneur is the creative personality - always at its best dealing with the unknown, prodding the future, creating probabilities out of possibilities, engineering chaos into harmony.
The E- Myth
The first time I read this I was surprised - surely the person who actually makes things is the creative one? But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes.
Obviously The Artist is creative, but his creativity is limited to artistic or technical spheres. He would never dream of seeing the business as a piece of creative work, which means he will never apply his creativity to the business itself. And he won't trouble to learn the business skills that could transform his working life.
The difference between The Artist and The Entrepreneur is the difference between Jack and Marla. Jack has wonderful technical and artistic talents, which have made him a rising star at work. He's recently been gripped by the Entrepreneurial Seizure, and dreams of travelling the world with his new business, but he has yet to learn what it really takes to be an Entrepreneur. Marla has the technical and artistic skill in spades, but these days she gets just as much satisfaction from applying her creativity to business problems. She's the fully fledged Creative Entrepreneur - the rock star.
The rock star dream is creating a business that supports you and your creativity, allowing you to focus on the work you love while getting help with the rest - whether through partnering, outsourcing or automating the necessary processes.
Some of you will achieve the dream without literally becoming entrepreneurs. You'll be lucky enough to find an organisation that allows you to be yourself and achieve your creative, professional and financial ambitions. But the chances are you'll do it by taking an entrepreneurial approach to your career - always looking at the big picture, alert to opportunities and proposing solutions.
And like I say, there are no guarantees. For some, this means the dream will be too complicated, too difficult or too risky to pursue.
For others, like Marla, they'd never forgive themselves if they didn't go for it.
What's the balance between money and meaning in your life right now? Is that the way you'd like it to continue?
Do you recognise a Technician/Artist tendency in yourself? If so, what are the consequences, good and bad?
Would you describe yourself as an Entrepreneur? Why/Why not?
How do you feel about pursuing the creative rock star dream?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Do You Really Want to Make a Living from Your Creativity? appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Just ask Howard Tate. In 1966 he was an aspiring soul singer working as a bricklayer. One day he got home from the building site to find a Cadillac parked at his front door. In the car was Bill Fox, one of the partners in the record company he had recently signed for. Fox told Tate he had to get in the car and fly to Detroit immediately. There wasn't even time to shower.
So [Bill] ran his hand in his pocket and gave me ten $100 bills, a thousand dollars. He says, "Buy somethina to wear out there. Your recordas number one, youare playina the Twenty Grand with Marvin Gaye." So they whizzed me to the airport, I got on the plane, dirty as a pig, they mustave thought I was nuts or somethina, but thatas just how quick it happened... But this the only business you can be poor as a Georgia turkey today and make a record, go to sleep and wake up a multi-millionaire. Thatas how quick it can happen.
Howard Tate interview with Gadfly Online.
That was the first of a string of hit singles for Tate. His songs were acclaimed by critics and fans alike, and were covered by Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. He looked to be set for life. There was just one problem ...
Well, the only problem I had with Atlantic and with Verve back then was gettinga paid. We did fine with everything, but then when it came time to get paid, you could never get paid. So that was the problem I had. And that disgusted me at the time ... and I just said, the heck with it. You know, if theyare not gonna pay me, then I just wonat record.
Gadfly Online interview.
So Tate turned his back on the music industry and went to work as an insurance salesman in order to make ends meet. As far as the public were concerned, he simply vanished. Away from the spotlight, his life descended into tragedy, with the death of his daughter, breakup of his marriage, homelessness and drug addiction. In 1994 he felt a calling to the Ministry had dedicated himself to God and to helping the homeless, eventually setting up a chain of shelters to care for them.
Tate may have been gone but he wasn't completely forgotten. Most people assumed he had died, but in the late 1990s New Jersey disc jockey Phil Casden launched a campaign to find the missing soul legend. As a result, Tate was spotted in a supermarket in 2001. The discovery caused a sensation. The man at the centre of the mystery was both surprised and touched to discover that people still cared about his music.
"It was a shock to hear" that people thought he was dead, he said. "I'm glad I'm not."
Spinner.com
Miraculously, Tate's voice had come through the ordeal intact, as he had been singing in church for years. In 2001 he started playing gigs again and in 2003 he released Rediscovered, his first album in over 30 years, to critical acclaim.
Tate's story has a happy ending, but a middle that you wouldn't wish on anyone. In the words of a song he recorded (ironically) before the years of obscurity, 'I Learned It All the Hard Way'.
None of this is new of course. In the 17th century John Milton notoriously received just APS10 for the copyright of Paradise Lost, and condemned the publishing profession as 'old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of bookselling'. Howard Tate pointed out he was far from unique among soul artists in not being paid for his work. And the long list of rock stars who have sued their record company over disputed earnings and copyright includes Metallica, the Allman Brothers, Dr Dre, Poison and The Smashing Pumpkins.
So why are creative types so frequently left feeling exploited when it comes to business? And is there anything we can do about it?
As we've seen before in this series, intrinsic motivation is key to understanding creative people. We commit ourselves to creative work because we love it. So much that we'd do it for free. Which is fine if you don't depend on your creativity for a living. But if you do, this can put you at a serious disadvantage, especially when dealing with professional negotiators. One of the cardinal rules of negotiation is not to appear too eager to close the deal - if the other party knows how much you have invested in your work, they can use this as a powerful bargaining lever, to pressure you into accepting less than you're worth.
This one comes under the heading of the 'blindingly obvious' but it's worth considering the implications. A creative type with no interest in business will have neither the knowledge to make good decisions nor the skills to act on them effectively. I can recall plenty of occasions when friends or clients have told me they are pleased to be have landed a commission but have no idea whether they are being ripped off or paid the market rate. This affects not just individual commissions and contracts, but the way you approach your entire career.
Many creatives think of their career purely in terms of 'getting work', such as a part in a production, a commission from a client or a job from an employer. There's nothing wrong with this up to a point - most of us have to serve our time working for others in order to acquire skills and experience, as well as contacts in the industry. But if 'getting work' is the extent of your career plan, then you are likely to hit a ceiling in terms of the opportunities available to you, the extent of your reputation and your earning power. All of this can be changed if you focus on building your brand, reputation, intellectual property assets, and a profitable business - but that requires a significant change of mindset for most creative people.
Because creative work is so sexy and glamorous, lots of people want to do it. The competition is fierce. And market forces dictate that when buyers (managers, agents, editors, producers and other gatekeepers) have an abundance of choice (plenty of aspiring creatives) then the price goes down.
At the beginning of their career, many creatives are desperate for opportunities. They can't wait to get a foot on the ladder, and they know there are hundreds of other young hopefuls scrambling for the same opportunity. In many creative industries, there is a tradition of new entrants working for little or no money in order to gain experience and skills. These are the apprentices, runners, interns and understudies who make the tea, mix the dyes, work the bellows, do the photocopying and order the taxis. This is probably inevitable, and there's arguably nothing wrong with expecting people to pay their dues and learn their trade through hard work and dedication.
Problems start when there are so many applicants and so few opportunities that some people are prepared to do almost anything to get a foot in the door - and some gatekeepers have no scruples about demanding it. Some of the darkest corners of the creative economy have been rife with emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Even when things don't go that far, there are plenty of cases where people have given their time and labour in return for promises that never materialise.
In many cases it's obvious that creatives and artists could have benefited from solid business advice. But where should they go? Do they need a manager? An agent? A lawyer? An accountant? How can they tell whether the people they meet are either competent or trustworthy? Sadly the people in greatest need of good advice are often the ones with the least idea where to find it.
For many creative people, the Holy Grail is getting 'signed' by a record company, publishing house, film studio or the equivalent. It's the gateway to fame, fortune, fast cars and vast mansions. So it's tempting to sign the first thing you're offered - after all, isn't this your big chance?
But a few years later, the small print can come back to haunt you - you may be a household name, but your income falls way short of public perceptions and your own expectations. Clauses in the contract commit you to projects for which you no longer have any enthusiasm. The Holy Grail starts to feel like a pact with the devil.
That was evidently how it felt for Metallica in 1994, when they sued their record company:
"To this day," said Lars Ulrich, the band's drummer, "we're still operating under the same contract we had with those guys in 1984, and getting the same royalty rate."
Signing a book deal was the best day of Jack's life. Sitting in a restaurant with his publisher over lunch, he felt he'd 'arrived'. But did he get proper advice before putting pen to paper? I hardly like to ask him.
==============
None of this stuff is rocket science. For anyone with the skill, intelligence, discipline and capacity for hard work required to master an art, business skills shouldn't be all that hard to learn.
The trouble is, many of us are so preoccupied with our creative dreams that we don't spot the danger until it's too late. Like Howard Tate, we have to learn it all the hard way.
Can you recognise these challenges in your own career?
Are there any others you would add to the list?
If you've overcome any of them, how did you do it?
For more experienced readers - what's the one piece of advice you wish you'd been given when you started your career?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
Special thanks to Paul McGuinness for the Howard Tate story.
The post The Flip Side of Fame: Exploitation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Who wouldn't want to be a creative rock star?
After all, rock stars astound their audience, they get paid to do what they love, they are worshipped by adoring fans, they can be who they want to be and work with other cool creative dudes. Some of them have so much money, fame and influence, they can put them to good use and give something back to the world around them.
But the rock star life can get pretty ugly. The job itself is demanding enough - composing new material to order, recording it in marathon studio sessions and promoting it on punishing tours. Dealing with eccentric colleagues, brutal management and hysterical fans would try the patience of a saint - and most rock stars are not saints. And it's all played out in the glare of a media who would like nothing more to fill the front pages than your grisly, spectacular demise.
No wonder some of them wonder why they got into the business in the first place. The original spark of creative inspiration was extinguished long ago. All that's left is a treadmill of writing, recording, touring, parties, arguments, drink, drugs and despair.
For me, film of the year in 2007 was Control. Having been a fan of Joy Division's music for over 20 years I wasn't exactly expecting a feelgood movie, but I was blown away by the devastating power of the story it told. It's easy to romanticise artists who die young, like John Keats, Sylvia Plath, Jim Morrison or Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis. But Anton Corbijn's film shows the human tragedy behind the rock 'n' roll myth. As the film develops, the band's growing fame and artistic success only serve to exacerbate Curtis' personal problems. On the verge of a US tour to promote their second album, he fails to share the excitement of the rest of the band:
Unknown Pleasures [Joy Division's first album] was it. I was happy. I never meant it to grow like this. When I'm up there singing they don't know how much I give, how it affects me.
In this case a number of factors contributed to the artist's downfall - including epilepsy, depression and his tortured love life. But maybe we should also factor in the nature of creativity itself. Ian Curtis is not the only artist who has listened to the voice of the Muse, only for it to turn into a Siren song of death and destruction.
Now you may not be battling as many demons as Ian Curtis. And your work may not have the same existential intensity as Joy Division's music. But if you take your creativity remotely seriously, you can probably recognise a tendency to one or more of the following symptoms of creative burnout. Tick too many of the boxes on this list and it could be time to take a break - for the sake of your health and well-being as well as for the quality of your work.
For Tim Ferriss, 'work for work's sake' is the cardinal sin of the entrepreneur, to be avoided at all costs. For an artist, it's taken for granted. We've already looked at the role of intrinsic motivation and creativity - basically, we fall in love with our art and pursue it because it fascinates us. There are many amusing stories of creative types wandering around in a trance or locked away in their rooms, so taken up with their work that they forget to eat, shower or stay in touch with the world around them. One of my favourites is the author Steven Pressfield's account of spending weeks writing in his little house with no TV or newspapers, only to be surprised when he overheard a neighbour talking about the resignation of the President.
I had missed Watergate completely.
This single-minded dedication is admirable and necessary for creative work - up to a point. But there's an imperceptible turning point, beyond which dedication spills over into obsession. And the work can suffer as much as the artist. You go beyond working hard, and start trying to force things, getting frustrated when it won't turn out the way you want to. If you're wise, you take the proliferation of typos and mistakes as a hint that it's time to take a break, recharge and return later on with a clearer head. Otherwise you keep banging your head against that brick wall. The artist has become a workaholic.
But this kind of obsession isn't just about overwork - it can get to the point where your creative vision consumes all your attention and everyday life fades out of your awareness. The consequences depend on the nature of your vision. If you're obsessed with the structure of the universe as Einstein was, then the worst that can happen may be a reputation for comic eccentricity - putting your coat on with the coat hanger still inside it, and so on. But for an artist whose imagination runs on darker themes, there's a danger of turning away from life, and in the words of John Keats, falling 'half in love with easeful death'.
Robert Smith spoke for legions of creatives when he sang 'It's Never Enough'. However much we achieve, however pleased we are with our latest work, whatever praise or awards we win, we are never satisfied. And this is as it should be. Perfection may be elusive, but the vision of it spurs us on to greater efforts. It stops us resting on our laurels and settling for mediocrity. The same goes for the example of the great masters in any creative field. I may be pleased with a poem I write, especially if it's accepted for publication. But I've only got to open a volume of Shakespeare or Dante or Eliot to be reminded of how much I have to learn.
But like dedication, perfectionism has a dark side. Martha Graham's 'divine dissatisfaction' degenerates into pedantic nitpicking and grumpiness. Your inner critic berates you from morning to night, reminding you of your failures, your mistakes your shortcomings, castigating you for daring to think yourself worthy of creative achievement. As with obsession, you can have too much of a good thing - instead of raising your standards, self-criticism stops you in your tracks.
Why are creative people so sensitive to criticism of their work? Because our work is not just something we do, it's an expression of who we are. As Gustave Flaubert put it:
A book is essentially organic, part of ourselves. We tear a length of gut from our bellies and serve it up.
So when the critics get their knives out, it feels like a direct personal attack. When nobody comes to the show it feels as if your innermost soul has been rejected. And again, this is as it should be - up to a point. If you didn't care enough to put your heart and soul into your work, there would be no reason for anyone else to care about it. But if you really want to improve, you have to learn to let go of the work, to stand back and appraise it coldly, to see whether it measures up to the standards you aspire to. And you have to be able to listen to others' feedback and see whether you can learn from it. Otherwise you set yourself up for a world of pain each time you present your work to an audience.
You can probably see where the control freak comes in. If you're obsessed by your work, driven to achieve perfection and regard any flaws in the work as stains on your inner soul, is it not the most natural thing in the world to want to control every aspect of the process? How could you trust anyone else to do it as well as you? As the old saying goes, if you want a job done properly you have to do it yourself. All the jobs.
And of course you can guess how it ends. The control freak can only spin so many plates before he misses one and it smashes - then another and another. If he doesn't get help it won't be long before he finds himself standing in the wreckage of his shattered dream.
Success may breed success - but it also breeds expectations, in other people as well as yourself. I've written before about 'difficult second album syndrome' - the quotation from Control above is a classic example of this. When recording Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division were free to concentrate on their music. But by the time they made Closer they had a passionate following and increasing pressure to deliver on their touring and recording commitments. One of the most telling scenes in the film is of a gig shortly after Curtis has made a suicide attempt. He's clearly in no mood to go on stage, but with an angry crowd yelling for the band, the manager Rob Gretton is torn between making sure the singer is okay and trying to prevent a riot:
You all right Ian? You ready to go on?
When he does get out on stage, it's clear that the baying crowd have absolutely no concern for Curtis the person, only what he can deliver for them. It's like a pack of dogs trying to get at a fox. When he fails to deliver, fleeing the stage, they tear the place apart.
====================
The individual symptoms of creative burnout are bad enough - but notice how they're all linked together, mutually reinforcing. Perfectionism naturally leads to obsession. When the work falls short of expectations, to words of the inner critic are all the more painful because we are hypersensitive to criticism. Fear of criticism and desperate perfectionism are what drive the control freak to take on more and more responsibility. And the more responsibility you claim, the more promises you make, the more things you forget the more mistakes you make. Which brings that weight of expectation crashing down with a vengeance.
There are no simple solutions to creative burnout, but rest assured these are issues we'll return to on Lateral Action. The first and most important step is to be aware of the symptoms, and to take them as a cue to slow down, maybe even take a break altogether, and take care of yourself.
It's also important to talk to people around you, and get help and support when you need it. Creative burnout can be a very lonely place - but it's amazing what a difference it can make when you realise that others have been through similar experiences and learned valuable lessons from them.
Have you experienced any of the symptoms of creative burnout?
How did you overcome them?
Who or what was most helpful to you?
How do you structure your work habits to safeguard against burnout?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Dark Side of Creativity: Burnout appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Although we (and they) love the image of the star, in lots of ways they're just like the rest of us.
I should know. Iave had a few of them in my consulting room, as a coach and originally a psychotherapist. People you might have heard of. People who made me sit up a little straighter, with a slight shock at being that close to them. And theyave told me what itas really like to be a star.
And you know what? Theyare just like you.
Just like you, they have their doubts and insecurities. They may show a confident face to the world, but deep inside they are as vulnerable as the rest of us. Criticism hurts. Praise is always welcome. There are times when they worry about failure. Sometimes they even feel a fraud, in danger of being found out.
So how come they are where they are, doing what theyare doing?
Obviously they are talented. But so are we all, to some degree. And talent is not a silver spoon, a birthright granting automatic fame and fortune. According to renowned creative director Dave Trott, it can even be a handicap:
What chance do those of us who arenat talented stand against those who are?
Is it ever possible ordinary people to beat the gifted?
In my experience, yes.
Talented people tend to be complacent, and consequently lazy.
All you have to actually do is work harder.
Like many of us, the stars began with a dream. But dreams are cheap. Instead of sitting around daydreaming, they took action. Each of them did something very unusual. Something distinctive, outstanding, unique. They learned their craft. They worked hard. They took risks. They took their craft and transformed it into art. They took kicks in the teeth and learned from them. They got effective people on board. They got the word out. They promised and delivered, over and over again.
If you think you work hard, imagine being Jimi Hendrix. Yes he had a sublime gift, but he honed his talent with constant practice. Chas Chandler described Hendrix as never going anywhere without a guitar. At one stage, Chandler said it was impossible to get into the toilet because Jimi would take his guitar and sit there for hours because he liked the sound of the guitar bouncing off the tiles on the wall.
If you think youare a perfectionist, imagine being Brian Wilson, who went through 17 recording sessions, 90 hours of tape and a reported $50,000 to record just one track. It's not hard to imagine the complaints along the way, but no one complained about the result - 'Good Vibrations', a number one hit, acclaimed as one of the greatest tracks of all time.
If you find it daunting to present your work to a client, boss or potential funder, imagine being Pulp, backstage at Glastonbury in 1995. After 10 years in the indie wilderness, you're only headlining tonight because Stone Roses guitarist John Squire broke his arm last week. You're about to face tens of thousands of disappointed Stone Roses fans, knowing it will take something special to win them over. Your electrifying performance catapults you, at last, to national stardom. (I was in the crowd that night, definitely a show to remember.)
If you get discouraged by rejection, imagine being The Beatles in 1962, turned down by just about every record label in the land. You are losing patience with your manager Brian Epstein, as he trudges off to one more meeting, at Parlophone (a division of EMI, who have already rejected you once) ...
These people didnat stop at wishful thinking or working hard at a predictable career.
They didnat just think different, they acted different. They took Lateral Action.
And they did it all with no guarantee of success. Because stardom is a risky business - as we'll see in the next post...
Whatas your biggest success so far?
When did you first dream of doing it?
What obstacles did you encounter?
How did you deal with fear?
What did success cost you?
What did you learn from that experience, that will contribute to your future success?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post The Difference Between the Stars and the Rest of Us appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
It is also part of Blog Action Day, which this year is about Poverty.
Charity is one of the nicer rock-and-roll cliches. These days, it's easy to be cynical about celebrities who talk about their charity work, but none of the ageing rock 'n' rollers who were around at the time will forget the impact of the Live Aid concert. For the first time, it seemed as though rock music really could change the world. One of the truly staggering things about Live Aid is that this global spectacular, uniting millions of people across the world, was achieved before the birth of the Internet.Bob Geldof is the archetypal rock star turned creative and social entrepreneur. Having achieved fame and fortune himself, he saw the opportunity to make a difference in the larger world, and coordinated a massive effort to make the project happen. And Live Aid was far from a one-off. Earlier this year, Geldof was far and away the most memorable speaker I saw at NESTA's Innovation Edge conference. Over two decades after Live Aid, he paced the stage full of passion, energy, anger and humour, still pushing for change on a massive scale.
Another inspiring example of social entrepreneurship is Steve Mariotti, a successful entrepreneur whose life was turned upside down in 1981, when he was mugged by three teenagers in New York's Lower East Side.
"The mugging caught me emotionally off guard," remembers Mariotti. "In the months that followed I suffered painful flashbacks. And, being an entrepreneur, I thought, 'Why would these kids rob me for a few dollars when they could make much more money running a business together?'"
Answering that question led him to form The National Foundation For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE, pronounced "nifty"), teaching entrepreneurship to young people from low income backgrounds and helping them to find their own pathway to prosperity. In a presentation titled Solving the Problem of Poverty, Mariotti makes an original and compelling argument for unlocking the potential of children born into poverty:
I know a secret which, if fully understood by our government, business, and community leaders, could have enormous positive implications for the future of our society. Simply put, the secret is this: Children born into poverty have special gifts that prepare them for business formation and wealth creation. They are mentally strong, resilient, and full of chutzpah. They are skeptical of hierarchies and the status quo. They are long-suffering in the face of adversity. They are comfortable with risk and uncertainty. They know how to deal with stress and conflict. These are the attitudes and abilities that make them ideally suited for breaking out of the cycle of dependency that so often comes with poverty and for getting ahead in the marketplace. In short, poor kids are "street smart," or what we at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) call "business smart." Precisely because of their poverty-that is, because of their experience surviving in a challenging world-they are able to perceive and pursue fleeting opportunities that others, more content with their lot in life, tend to miss.
Foe me, Mariotti's work is special because it is based on empowerment rather than handouts, giving people the tools to unlock their talent and take control of their lives.
Both Mariotti and Geldof embody an idealism that can be found in many entrepreneurs and stars. This involves a recognition that fame, fortune and freedom are privileges that carry responsibilities, and a deep desire to change the world for the better.
As bloggers we have a fantastic array of communication tools at our disposal, and one of the most inspiring things about the blogging community is the proliferation of projects combining creativity and social action. Only this week, the following projects appeared in my inbox/feed reader:
The Age of Conversation Volume 2 organised by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan in aid of the children's charity Variety.
Train for Humanity - Leo Babauta, Dan Clements and Mark Hayward get fit and get sponsored to help Darfur Peace and Development Organisation.
Tim Ferriss encouraged his readers to click on a webpage in aid of Donorschoose and mobilise others in their networks to do the same.
And let's not forget Blog Action Day itself, now in its second year running, involving thousands of bloggers worldwide to raise awareness and initiate action on poverty. This page will give you some suggestions for things you can do to help out.
Everyone involved in these projects is a rock star in my book.
The post Creative Rock Stars Give Something Back appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Yes, stars love the limelight and many of them qualify as egomaniacs, but a lot of the fun of being a star comes from the opportunities to work with other fascinating, talented, creative people. Like Samuel L. Jackson telling George Lucas he would play a stormtrooper if it meant he could be in the new Star Wars movie. Or Hugh Laurie enthusing about acting with Stephen Fry, saying it was better than having a front row seat.
Collaborating with others brings out the best in us. We spark off one another and build on shared ideas. Our different talents, backgrounds, knowledge and personalities complement each other. We challenge each other to raise the bar. Sometimes there are tensions, arguments and fights. But when you put a group of gifted, ambitious and fired-up stars to work together, the results are bound to be interesting. I gather the parties are pretty good too.
If youare lucky you already work with people who have that star quality. Even so, you probably wouldnat pass up the chance to meet a few more, share ideas and add them to your network of contacts and collaborators. If youare just starting out or youave been stuck working on your own too long, then youall be hungry to meet creative partners who can help you take your work to the next level. But where can you find them?
Well, if youare reading this, then youave probably noticed thereas something interesting happening on the internet right now. Call it the Age of Conversation, the Relationship Renaissance, whatever you like. Basically, more cool dudes are hanging out together than have ever hung out together in the history of the universe. Which means there are more opportunities for you to meet and connect and work and party with said cool dudes than you probably know what to do with a yet.
At the beginning of 2007 I was approached by the UK creative industries magazine Creative Review, to contribute to a feature about the web developers WeFail. The editor wanted my view on the psychological implications of the partnership, which was made up of two developers, one in the US and one in the UK, who had met via the internet. In four years of business they had only met in person three times and they made a point of never meeting their clients, as they thought meetings were a waste of time. This attitude, and the fact that they were just two guys working from home, hadn't stopped them creating work for clients including Eminem, Dixie Chicks, Christian Aid and BBDO. At the time I thought it was an intriguing idea, but didn't imagine I'd end up doing it myself.
Here at Lateral Action we'd hardly claim to be rock stars, but it may interest you to know that none of us have ever met face-to-face. With Brian in Texas, Tony in North Carolina and me in London, in the normal course of events we would probably never have heard of each other, let alone considered going into business together. But our blogs brought us into contact and over time our interests converged to the point where it seemed like a natural next step to set up Lateral Action. Since doing the Creative Review piece, I've also collaborated with Liz Strauss (in Chicago) and Sandy Renshaw (in Des Moines) on an e-book for Successful Blog, and with Cat Morley (in Bangkok) on an e-book for Business of Design Online. A few years ago this would have seemed outlandish to me. Now it feels perfectly normal.
And it's not confined to the internet. All the usual haunts of creative types a the cafes, bars, galleries, studios, agencies, conferences and shows a are still open for business. Social media is really just the catalyst for the socialising that has always been the catalyst for creativity. Since I started blogging nearly 3 years ago, my network of business contacts has grown exponentially. I've met a huge variety of people doing all kinds of fascinating work. I've also made some really good friends. Every time I attend a social media get-together, it feels as though we've been somehow teleported down from the Starship Enterprise. I'm used to it now but there's still something magical about it.
You donat need a teleport machine or VIP pass to join in. On blogs, forums, social networks and countless areal lifea meetups, the doors are open for you to walk right in and join the conversation.
Welcome.
Who were the best people you ever worked with?
How did you meet?
What qualities did you bring out in each other?
Where do you go a online and offline a to hook up with other creative people?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Rock Stars Get to Work with Other Stars appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When Bowie sang 'Who Can I Be Now?a it wasn't a hypothetical question. The Chameleon of Rock achieved fame by playing a series of alter egos, including Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke. He took things to extremes, but in a sense all stars are their own creation. They project a persona that may or may not resemble their private personality. They are also free to express themselves by making original or even eccentric choices about where to live, what to wear, how to amuse themselves, and especially how, when and where to work.
Looking at these freedoms, we can probably relate to the fan who asked Robert Smith aWhy canat I be you?a. Now for practical reasons we canat all be Robert Smith or David Bowie, but many of us now have options for reinventing our identity and lifestyle that used to be the preserve of rock singers like them. And no, Iam not talking about Second Life.
At the shallow end of these options are the flexible schedules, relaxed dress-codes, Playstations and pool tables that are found in modern workplaces designed to foster creativity. Many of us no longer have to don the corporate uniform a instead, we are encouraged to be ourselves and express ourselves at work. If it helps our talent flourish we can work at home, in the park, in sandals or in the middle of the night.
Moving in a little deeper, we can set up creative side-projects or part-time businesses, to express sides of us that donat appear in our day jobs. Like Jackas blog. Or we can work for ourselves and arrange our time as we please. We can create alter egos or avatars for ourselves, like the Manolo, Badbanana or (ahem) Copyblogger.
Towards the deep end, we can create careers or businesses that enable us to travel the world, working as much or as little as we choose, even if itas only four hours a week. Tim Ferriss calls this alifestyle designa, emphasizing the aesthetic character of this approach to life. The growing popularity of lifestyle design can be seen in the proliferation of blogs devoted to the mobile life, such as Anywired, My Tropical Escape, Finance Your Freedom and Digital Nomads.
Out in uncharted waters is the British artist Banksy, famous for being anonymous. In his case the pseudonym is a tactical necessity given that most of his work involves breaking the law - painting graffiti on public walls or hanging his own subversive works in public galleries including Tate Britain in London and the Louvre in France. There have been several attempts to unmask him, but no one has conclusively proved his identity. His outlaw status and the biting anti-capitalist satire in many of his works make him an artistic V for Vendetta or Tyler Durden.
Banksy would never call himself an entrepreneur - his work is a one-man campaign against business as usual. But he does sell his work - in 2007 his piece 'Space Girl & Bird', the artwork for Blur's Think Tank album, fetched APS288,000 at auction. And he's even helping to shore up the faltering British housing market. Have a look at the photo. When my wife and I went to see this Banksy, shortly after it was painted onto the wall of a north London chemist, we found that the building's owner had covered it up with Perspex to stop over-zealous council workers cleaning it off. Having an original Banksy on the wall can thousands of pounds to the value of a property. The irony is not lost on the artist:I love the way capitalism finds a place - even for its enemies. It's definitely boom time in the discontent industry.
Another of Banksy's pithy remarks was that no one cared who he was until he became anonymous. In a sense it doesn't matter who the 'real' Banksy is -- the fictional character is much more interesting. Like Ziggy Stardust, the alter ego allowed its creator to express a side of himself that might not otherwise have seen the light. As John Keats put it more poetically, 'That which is creative must create itself'.
We are like Harry in Herman Hesseas novel Steppenwolf, who sat down to play a marvellous chess game in which the pieces were the many different facets of his personality. An enigmatic chess master explained the game to him:
It is known to you that man consists of a multitude of souls, of numerous selvesa| We demonstrate to anyone whose soul has fallen to pieces that he can rearrange these pieces of a previous self in what order he pleases, and so to attain to an endless multiplicity of moves in the game of life. As the playwright shapes a drama from a handful of characters, so do we from the pieces of the disintegrated self build up ever new groups, with ever new interplay and suspense, and new situations that are eternally inexhaustible. Look!
Your move.
Who are your creative heroes?
Who are your favourite fictional characters? In books, films, comics, songs?
What is it about them you admire?
What would they do in your shoes?
Who are you outside of work? Outside the person your family and friends know?
When are you going to give these characters their chance?
The post Creative Rock Stars Reinvent Themselves appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Who doesnat want to be adored? To have others think youare talented, cool, interesting and sexy? Even if you can live without hordes of screaming fans, Iall bet youad at least like the respect of a select group of your peers.
Talent is attractive. We admire it, crave it, analyse it, envy it. For rock stars talent and fame go hand in hand. But in the old world, if you wanted to be a star you had to be adiscovereda by a kindly A&R man, talent scout, manager, editor or casting director. And there was only so much fame to go around.
Andy Warhol famously said aIn the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutesa. So far his prediction hasnat come literally true, but if we take it to mean aEveryone can have their own slice of famea, then we are now living in Warholas future. Kevin Kelly said as much when he pointed out that an artist only needs 1,000 true fans to make a living, and that the current state of the internet makes that eminently achievable for anyone who really wants it.
Steven Van Yoder riffs on the same theme in his book Get Slightly Famous, where he points out that many of us donat need to become world famous, but can reap large rewards by becoming a mini-celebrity in a specialist niche. The aslightly famous youa has rock star status in the eyes of the people who matter to you - bringing you as much work and adoration as you can handle.
Like David Airey. Mention the phrase aspecialist logo designera to me and David is the first name that pops into my mind. In fact, since Iam not a designer, itas the only name that pops into my mind. Now I know there are lots of other designers who can create excellent logos, and since Davidas in his youthful prime there may well be specialist logo designers who are more famous than him to other designers. But I doubt that matters much to David, since he probably doesnat sell many logos to other designers. He sells them to non-designers who need specialist help.
David is an independent contractor, recently moved to Northern Ireland from Edinburgh. Once upon a time he would have been well-advised to seek out clients in his local area. A careers counsellor would probably not have suggested that he build a global audience of thousands in order to attract interesting clients from the other side of the world. Yet thatas exactly what heas done - his blogs DavidAirey.com and Logo Design Love are read by thousands of people every week and his name is probably the first on the lips of any of them who find themselves in need of a logo. Davidas fame has led to commissions from the high profile Dosh Dosh blog and Berthier Associates, a corporate interior design firm in Japan. His client list also includes companies in France, Norway, the USA, Canada, South Africa and Greece. He is also attracting the attention from the press, with recent features in Digital Arts and How magazines.
Or how about Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, two young Americans who quit their jobs to fulfil their dream of making a feature film about two young Americans who fall in love. $100,000 of credit card debt later, they had completed Four Eyed Monsters a but in their own words they atotally faileda to get a distribution deal.
No one from the film industry approached us and the excitement was basically over.
They were told that the film would be hard to market because it had no stars, which would make it very difficult to find an audience. Everyone they spoke to was using the film industryas usual formula for success:
Film + Stars = Distribution = Audience
Faced with this logic, many aspiring film makers give up. Not Susan and Arin. They decided to find the audience themselves.
In 2005 they started a video blog about the making of the film and started to attract attention from other bloggers. At the end of each podcast was an invitation to visit the Four Eyed Monsters website, which featured the following message:
Do you want to see our feature film in a theater? Just fill out the request form and if more then 150 people request our film in one area weall set up screenings.
Because they were collecting zip codes as well as email addresses, they could contact people in the local areas and make sure the cinema screenings were sold out. They used Google Maps to create a aHeart Mapa, with hearts marking the places where screenings had been requested by their fans. The bigger the heart, the more names on the list - when they reached 150 names they approached theatres direct and negotiated screenings.
The online campaign lead to festival spots, awards, features in the New York Times and on Fox 25 News, cinema distribution, and money making deals with YouTube, Spout.com and TV broadcasters. The DVD is now on sale in Borders.
All of which is clearly immensely satisfying to the film makers, but they have said that it is not as important as the audience response. Four Eyed Monsters could not have succeeded without the audience becoming evangelists and recruiting their friends to screenings. A community mushroomed around the film, making each screening an event. Audience feedback even shaped the editing of the film.
Four Eyed Monsters rewrote the formula for success in the movie industry. The same principles can be applied to any creative medium:
Film + Audience = Distribution = Stars
In this video, Susan and Arin describe the journey in their own words. Itas worth setting aside 30 minutes to hear a truly inspiring story.
Like David, Susan and Arin, you donat need a million fans. You donat need to wait to be discovered. You donat even need to throw a TV out of the window. With enough imagination and persistence, the opportunity is there for you to earn a great living doing what you love and enjoying the acclaim of your fans and the respect of your peers.
When and where have you received the most praise and adulation from others?
(If you find it hard to think of an example, remember what it was like to receive a round of applause at a public event, or a compliment from a friend.)
How did you feel? Did you want to bask in the applause or disappear into a hole in the ground?
Is that a feeling you could get used to?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Rock Stars Attract Fans appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
One of the main reasons weare so envious of rock stars is they donat have to trade off time doing what they want vs what pays the bills. Even better, they are very well paid for doing something they love to do.
Have you ever felt a twinge of anxiety or guilt at devoting time to a fascinating creative project with no obvious commercial value, when your Inner Boss was telling you you should be doing something more aproductivea? If so, then the idea of getting paid for having that much fun may sound too good to be true. Not for a rock star it isnat.
Even if you already make a decent living out of your creativity it may not yet have sunk in that the more you enjoy your work, the better it will be. And the better it is, the more you can expect to be paid for it. So if you ever find yourself feeling astuck in a ruta at work, alarm bells should be ringing - the more bored and dissatisfied you are, the poorer your work will be anda| I guess you can finish that sentence.
To see why enjoyment and creative excellence are so intimately linked, letas turn to the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who has spent a lifetime researching happiness and fulfilment. He is famous for his concept of flow, which he describes as aan almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousnessa which we experience at moments of absorption in challenging activity. Flow is what happens when you become so pleasantly absorbed in writing, drawing, playing music or sports, or presenting to an audience that you acome rounda at the end and wonder where the time went.
You can experience flow when engaged in a wide range of activities, but you wonat be surprised to learn itas particularly common during creative work. After all, that fascinated absorption in your work is one of the main reasons you devote yourself to creative pursuits - right?
So far so fun. But Csikszentmihalyias research shows that the pleasurable experience of flow occurs during times of peak performance. He cites the following three performance-related conditions of flow:
- There are clear goals every step of the way
- There is immediate feedback to oneas actions
- There is a balance between challenges and skills
So unless youare stretching yourself and making progress towards meaningful creative goals, flow will be in short supply.
Now hereas the tricky part - while creative flow is an intrinsic motivation (i.e. the experience is rewarding in itself), money is an extrinsic motivation (i.e. something you get for the end product of the work). This means that the more you are focused on the work itself and enjoying the act of creation, the better it will be. But the moment you start thinking about what you hope to get for the work - such as money or fame - you take your eye off the ball and risk turning out something mediocre. Which ironically, will have less commercial value.
So if you really want to make money out of your creativity, one of the most important things you can do is find work you absolutely love to do. Of course, you also need to be producing something others want to buy - but unless your spaceship is fuelled by premium-grade creative enthusiasm Major Tom ainat going anywhere far or fast.
The poet Anne Sexton summed it up when she told her agent that she would love her poems to make her a lot of money, but she had to forget all about that in order to actually write them.
Another example is the well-known adifficult second album syndromea. Debut albums are usually the result of an irrepressible musical spirit that bursts forth from the band. Itas great when fame and fortune result, but it also gives you a challenge: how do you ignore the weight of expectation - from your fans, the media, your management and each other - long enough to write and record music for the sheer joy of it? Sometimes itas easier to get famous slowly.
So getting paid to do what you love can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you deal with it. You could create the Sistine Chapel or Led Zeppelin IV. Or you could end up as another rock 'n' roll casualty, burnt out and/or selling out.
Either way, money and creativity are an explosive combination. Handle with care.
What kind of creative work do you enjoy the most?
What creative work has brought you the greatest external rewards - such as money, fame, critical acclaim or new opportunities?
How does getting paid for your work affect your creativity? Do you find it a help or a hindrance?
The post Creative Rock Stars Get Paid to Do What They Love appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
What was the best gig you ever went to?
Stop for a moment and replay the experience in your minda|
How old were you? Where was the gig? Who did you go with? What were you wearing?
How close were you to the stage?
How did it feel when the lights went up and the band came on?
How did the singer look? And the lightshow? How loud was the band? What did they play?
What was the high point of the show?
Notice the goosebumps?
Now, if thatas how it feels to just remember something someone else created - imagine how it feels to be doing it yourself. I know - youave imagined it already, many times. We all have. Who wouldnat want to be John Lennon or Blondie or Jimi Hendrix for a day? Who wouldnat want to wake up each morning with the opportunity to create the next Ziggy Stardust or Blonde on Blonde or Physical Graffiti?
Bottom line: rock stars create amazing stuff. Stuff that shatters preconceptions and astounds their audience. Stuff that isn't necessary or expected. Stuff they create for the hell of it, because they can. Because they can't help it.
Everything else is secondary to the sheer joy of creation. All the money, fame, fans and glamour are mere side-effects, bonus prizes. (The trouble starts when people forget this.)
What makes creative work - the process, not just the product - so compelling? Well, to astound others you need to astonish yourself. Every real creator will tell you about the moment of surprise, when 'something happened' that took them beyond what they knew or anticipated - a flash of insight or an experience of finding themselves in the groove, when everything fell into place and became effortless and enjoyable.
No wonder Noel Coward said 'Work is more fun than fun'.
For a rock star every day is a new start, a new game, a new chance to discover and create something incredible. Monday morning blues never sounded so good.
Have another look at the image at the top of this post. At first glance it looks like an unearthly supernova but in fact it is a massive steel sculpture erected in Manchester, England by the British sculptor, engineer and architect Thomas Heatherwick. Itas a stunning combination of vision and engineering and entirely typical of Heatherwickas extraordinary imagination.
Heatherwickas projects include an unravelling handbag, a staircase like a waterfall, a glass bridge, another bridge that curls up like a caterpillar, more gigantic sculptures and a Zen temple like a rumpled cloth. Terence Conran, who knows a thing or two about design himself, has compared Heatherwick to Leonardo da Vinci.
And the thing is, none of this stuff was necessary. People manage every day with normal handbags, functional staircases, concrete bridges that stay still and temples that look like temples. We don't even notice the 'lack' of a giant sculpture in an empty town square.
When you think about it, we didn't really need Voodoo Chile (slight return) or Anna Karenina or Blade Runner or The Waste Land.
That doesn't stop the stars. They make it all to delight themselves and us. To sprinkle our lives with stardust.
What creative masterpieces do you most admire? What qualities would you like to emulate in your own work?
When did you last astonish yourself?
How did it feel?
How does that feeling spur you on to future achievements?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Rock Stars Astound Their Audience appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Eccentrics. Misfits. Outsiders. Starving artists and tortured geniuses. Once upon a time, to be a creative person was to feel marginalised, banished to the garrets and studios, cafes and bars of the bohemian quarter. To the rest of society, you were a sideshow. Sometimes entertaining, occasionally envied or scorned, mostly ignored.
It might have seemed Romantic from a distance, but up close it wasnat so inspiring. Faced with the demands of the areal worlda you had a choice: follow your dream and suffer for your art, living on the breadline while you waited to be discovered by a well meaning agent or editor; or swallow your pride and take a day job, relegating your dream to the status of a hobby.
If you were one of the lucky few - the very few - you had a chance to escape the ghetto and become a star. To join the gods of stage and screen, the giants of science and literature, the headline acts in the rockanaroll hall of fame. To live a life of creative fulfilment, glamour and luxury. To be one of the people the rest of us read about on our way to work or paid to see at weekends.
But times are changing. For reasons weave already discussed, creativity is now an economic hot property. And that means the rules that govern the areal worlda are a lot more susceptible to being rewritten by people like you. If you are a creative entrepreneur in the 21st century, then your talent opens up the possibility of spectacular creative and commercial success.
Now, weare not saying everyone can achieve fame and riches on the level of Elvis or The Beatles. The juryas still out on whether thatas such a good idea anyway. But in contrast to the bad old days of starving in a garret or selling your soul to The Man, you now have the chance to taste the kind of creative, financial and social freedom that was once reserved for rock stars.
So how come we think rock stars are so cool? And what makes us think we could be like them? That's what we'll be looking at in a new series of articles - starting tomorrow...
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Creative Entrepreneurs Are the Rock Stars of the 21st Century appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
No one wants to spend the day engaged in mundane productivity in pursuit of a meaningless consumer existence. Certainly not you, right?
So why do we find it so hard to break out of our rut and do truly innovative things?
Because itas hard. Because it often requires us to significantly alter our perspectives and step outside of our comfort zones.
Itas almost like becoming another person.
If you havenat seen the movie Fight Club (or read Chuck Palahniukas excellent novel), I wonat spoil the fantastic plot twist where we come to understand who Tyler Durden really is. The story isnat for everyone, but if you think itas about fighting, youare on the wrong track.
At its core, Fight Club is about living the life you truly want to live, and the hard path to getting there. Tyler helps the storyas nameless hero (usually referred to as Jack) down that path to enlightenment, so maybe what Tyler says can help the rest of us as well.
Luckily, Tyler says a lot of things that apply directly to innovative action. Here are his 8 rules for creative people to live by.
"No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide."
This is the most important lesson, and itas the one people struggle with and resist. Tim Ferriss advocates the 80/20 rule of productivity, where you focus relentlessly on the 20% of the actions that lead to 80% of the return. People see this as nice in theory, but not practical.
But believe it or not, this is how Iave been running my businesses for the last 10 years. I used to actually feel guilty because I wasnat constantly agetting things donea at a maniacal pace, even though I was enjoying increasingly significant success each year. Itas only been in the last few years Iave realized that this approach is essential for entrepreneurs and creative professionals of all stripes.
The 80/20 rule of productivity requires radical elimination, or letting that which does not matter to creative moves truly slide. Use that newfound time for creative thinking that leads to innovative action, and you will succeed, guaranteed.
"No fear! No distractions! The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide!"
Seriously. Donat break the first two rules.
"I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say letas evolve, let the chips fall where they may."
Letas face it, when we break Tyleras first two rules of innovation and distract ourselves with foolish productivity, itas often because weare afraid (which also violates Tyleras first two rules). Weare afraid of failure, ridicule, risk, mediocrity, and perhaps even success itself.
If youare going to evolve and grow as a creative person, youare going to make mistakes. In fact, you should start making twice as many mistakes as soon as possible if you want to have an innovative breakthrough.
Make mistakes and let the chips fall where they may. You might like the landing.
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
Oh, yeaha| donat be afraid to make big mistakes. More importantly, donat worry about everything going according to plan. In fact, if everythingas going according to plan, thereas a good chance nothing remarkable is getting done.
They say life is what happens while youare making other plans. Innovation is what happens when you recognize when to change the plan and perhaps the entire game. Maybe your initial plan falls apart, or maybe you simply need to throw the current plan away.
Donat let the plan restrict the freedom to have a game-changing idea, and act on it, at any time. Losing everything may be the best thing that ever happens to you.
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis."
When we talk about fear, risk, mistakes, and losing it all, what are we really afraid of? Are we defined by the stuff we own, or would we prefer to be defined by what we accomplish and create for the world?
Iam not saying give all your stuff away or take foolish risks that harm your family or yourself. Iam saying donat let the stuff you own start to own you to the point that you canat live the life you want to live and do the things you want to do.
"People do it everyday, they talk to themselves... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
I bet youave got a great idea right now, bouncing around in your head. What are you going to do with it?
Be what youad like to be, and do what youad like to do... it really is that simple. Having the courage to just run with it is the difference between a fulfilling life and a life full of regret.
"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."
On the other hand, wearing black hipster clothing and hanging in cafes smoking Gaulloises cigarettes does not make you creative. Buying a MacBook Pro and an iPhone doesnat get it done either.
Creativity and innovation are mainly about hard work. Itas about constantly coming up with ideas and thinking through problems instead of vegging out. And itas about taking action, plain and simple.
"This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time."
First, you have to know, not fear, know that someday you are going to die. Until you know that, you have no sense of urgency. You think you have all the time in the world to do amazing things, but you may not live to see that particular someday.
So quit reading articles for a bit and go do what really needs to be done today.
About the Author: Brian Clark is a new media entrepreneur and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
The post Tyler Durdenas 8 Rules of Innovation appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
It's soul-destroying.
In my student days I spent a few months on the shop floor in my local Taylorist emporium, a factory manufacturing industrial steel chimneys. Clock in. Clock out. Put the steel tube in the machine. Align the seam with the notch on the machine collar. Make sure the entire rim is flush against the collar. Press the button. Take it out. Put the next tube in the machine. Align the seam with the notch. Do as you're told, as fast as you can... I still remember the faces of the guys who had been doing it for twenty years.
It doesn't have to be this way, even on a production line where rules and procedures are essential:
For years the Victory Optical plant had been an exception to the organizational age rule: it was operated entirely by foremen and self-made managers like my father, who had worked their way up from the factory floor. These workers had tremendous respect for the ideas of the factory workers. I can even remember the workers looking at samples of the latest designer eyeglass frames from overseas, and coming up with their own designs to improve on the high-priced imports. (The Rise of the Creative Class, p.65)
No-one could reasonably have blamed the factory workers if they had been 'too busy' to take a step back and do the hard thinking that saved a fortune on imports. And maybe no-one will even notice the next time you are reorganising your files, emptying your inbox or ticking off items on a to-do list when you could be doing something bigger and better.
Something infinitely more satisfying.
Have you ever got to the end of a day spent busily responding to demands from clients and colleagues, ploughing through e-mails and checklists, and asked yourself What have I really achieved today? If you've ever had the same feeling over weeks or even months, then you don't need me to tell you about creative frustration.
If you look at the best writers on time management and productivity, Personal Taylorism is not what they intended. They teach us to manage the small stuff in order to free ourselves for bigger challenges.
Steven Covey tells us to prioritise 'important but not urgent' tasks over the ephemeral demands of the moment. David Allen recommends taking time out to look at your life 'from 50,000 feet' and 'intuiting your life purpose and how to maximise its expression'.
Leo Babauta reminds us to put the 'big rocks' into your schedule before the time is filled up with 'pebbles and sand'. Tim Ferriss takes this to extremes, advising us to eliminate all tasks apart from the mission-critical 20% that delivers 80% of the results.
So how does this apply to you in the context of the creative economy? What can you do to make the biggest difference - and reap the greatest rewards?
Or to put it more positively:
OK so what are we talking about? It sometimes goes by the name of 'creativity' or 'innovation'. But while we like those terms, they can be ambiguous. There's a tendency to equate creativity with creative thinking and to see it as wishy-washy daydreaming that doesn't achieve much.
So we propose the term Lateral Action.
'Lateral' means sideways or unexpected. Lateral Action means not just getting things done, but getting unusual, distinctive, valuable, creative things done.
Lateral Action means getting up at 5am to write your novel before work.
It means saying No to an 'urgent' meeting in order to fully explore a problem and think it through.
It means letting the e-mails pile up until you've finished the critical first draft of a design.
It means staying late and revising something everyone else thinks is 'good enough already'.
It means redesigning your business and your offering so that you are operating in a space where effectively you have no competitors.
It means meeting the difficult, uncomfortable challenges head-on, and using all your ingenuity and determination to succeed.
It's second nature to someone like Marla.
Rest assured, it's also about fulfilling your professional obligations and being someone your clients and colleagues can rely on. But you can only really do this well by devoting most of your time and energy to your biggest creative challenges, day after day after day.
To leave no room for doubt, we've wrapped it up in this little formula:
Creativity + productivity = success
Success can be about fame, money, status or other forms of external reward and recognition. It can also be about the fulfilment you get from using your talents to create something remarkable.
Ultimately, your success and satisfaction come down to how much Lateral Action you are taking. Today.
Have you ever struggled to find time for a creative project that was close to your heart (but maybe of no interest to people around you)?
How did you manage it?
What was the payoff that made it worthwhile?
What difference does it make to your quality of life when you spend even a few minutes every day on creative work you care about?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Get to know Mark better on Twitter.
The post Beyond Getting Things Done: Lateral Action appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Your projects are marching steadily towards completion. Your files are backed up, your filing cabinet a thing of orderly beauty. Your workflow system is a well-oiled, efficient machine.
The trouble is, youare not getting much done that has an impact. Not much that grabs the attention of the people who matter. Not much that gets them talking. Not much that youall point to with pride in a few yearsa time.
If youare not careful you could end up like a certain person we know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said aA foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little mindsa. Iad like to put forth for your consideration that foolish productivity is the hobgoblin of creative minds.
Surea| thereas a lot to be gained from time management and personal productivity systems. Having written an e-book on the subject, Iam sold on the idea. But I know from personal experience that such systems can become a distraction from your real work.
In the middle of fine-tuning your e-mail system and to-do lists, you can lose sight of the difficult and challenging creative work that only you can do. At one extreme, you can spend more time on your workflow system than on the work itself, the digital equivalent of shuffling paperclips. But even when youare busy working, you can get caught in the aefficiency trapa a what I call Personal Taylorism.
To see what I mean, letas take a detour through early twentieth century heavy industry.
Frederick Winslow Taylor was athe father of scientific managementa a a system for managing human work by developing standard methods for performing each task on the production line. Procedures were designed for maximum efficiency and workers were trained to stick to them, rigidly. Hierarchy and authority were used to maintain control.
Richard Florida sums it up succinctly in The Rise of the Creative Class:
Under Taylorism, a manager could not only tell a worker to stoke a furnace, or install a bolt, or type a business letter, but could arrange the task and show the worker exactly how to do it for maximum efficiency.
In the early twentieth century, Taylorism was widely adopted and became one of the key mechanisms of mass production. (Lou thinks of this as athe golden agea). These days, in developed Western economies, Taylorism is a historical curiosity, usually cited as an example of What Not To Do when managing human beings. No one seriously advocates using it any more.
Why?
Because efficiency is no longer the name of the game.
As we saw in Innovate or die, China and other nations are out-competing Western economies on productivity, by churning out goods at prices impossible to match within the US or Europe. Western companies can no longer compete on efficiency a so they need to do something else.
This is one of the primary drivers of the creative economy, in which innovation is now the key source of competitive advantage. And Taylorism has a poor record on creativity.
Richard Florida links Tayloras ideas with those of Henry Ford in what he calls athe organizational modela:
Despite the initial creative efficiencies of this new system, the eventual creative limits of the organizational age are obvious to anyone who lived through this time. Large organizations were beset by the conflict between creativity and control. The bureaucratic values of the period often functioned to snuff out creativity on the factory floor, smother it or ignore it in the R&D lab and discourage entrepreneurshipa|
So what does all of this have to do with you?
On a personal level, you face the same problem as modern businesses. Efficiency and productivity have become necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions of success. If they are the basis of your approach to work, then your options a and rewards a are going to be severely limited. If you want to succeed in the 21st century marketplace, youare going to have to do something very different.
Outsourcing to India and China started with industrial manufacturing, but it has now spread to secretarial, administrative, accounting and legal work a even acreativea jobs such as graphic design and programming. Why should I pay you top dollar for a website when I can get something that looks perfectly good (to me) for a fraction of the price overseas?
You might recall the story of AJ Jacobs, the editor of Esquire magazine, on his first experience of outsourcing to an Indian personal assistant as told in The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss:
Honey has completed her first project for me: research on the person Esquire has chosen as the Sexiest Woman Alivea| When I open Honeyas file, I have this reaction: America is fucked. There are charts. There are section headers. There is a well-organized breakdown of her pets, measurements, and favorite foods (e.g. swordfish). If all Bangalorians are like Honey, I pity Americans about to graduate college. Theyare up against a hungry, polite, Excel-proficient Indian army.
So if your approach to work is based on apersonal productivitya, you risk falling into the trap of Personal Taylorism. Youare becoming more efficient at the risk of losing your creative spark and your competitive edge, and youave already lost the efficiency game, anyway.
At which point, that aempty inbox feelinga can start to feel a littlea| empty.
Right, Lou?
Have you ever found yourself being busy and aproductivea at the expense of being creative and effective?
If you got out of this cycle and back to your creative best, how did you manage it?
How do you stop your personal productivity system becoming an end in itself?
The post Foolish Productivity: The Hobgoblin of Creative Minds appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
There's a saying that we all have a book inside us. Itas a lie.
Just ask any X-ray technician.
Now, if that saying has motivated you to actually sit down and start writing your book (or making your film or building your prototype or starting your company) all well and good, no harm done. But if you've been telling it to yourself for years, saying it's just a matter of time and space, and 'one day' you'll get round to writing it, then stop right now.
It's a dangerous fantasy thatas blocking your creativity.
It's dangerous because it suggests that the essence of creativity lies in an intangible idea - which is somehow already safe and sound inside us, with no use-by date. Many of us associate the word 'creativity' with lateral thinking, brainstorming, and thinking aoutside the boxa.
But as any real writer will tell you, there's a lot more to it than that. Things like pens and paper, laptops and typewriters, dedication, habit, discipline and frustration. (Poverty is optional.) No wonder Kingsley Amis said 'the art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair'.
You will either write your book or you wonat. Until you do, it doesnat exist.
But hang on a minute, didn't Michelangelo say that he saw his sculpture waiting for him inside the marble, that it was simply a matter of releasing it from its prison? Sure he did:
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.
The key point here is that Michelangelo used his vision as a spur to action. It guided his eye, his hand, his whole body as he leaned in to get just the right weight behind the hammer. Each chip of marble that landed at his feet was witness to a hammer tap - a definite action he'd taken towards realizing his vision.
Even before he raised his hammer, Michelangelo located the phantom shape inside a specific stone out there in the world - not inside himself. He didn't run around for years doing other stuff, telling himself his statues were safe and sound inside him, and 'one day' he'd get round to taking sculpture classes. He began with a lump of rock and usually a commission. Both of them supplied by a rich, powerful and very demanding client - just in case he needed any extra incentive to put the hours in.
I've deliberately used writing and sculpture as examples, because these are creative pursuits that are easy to romanticize. But even in the novelist's garret and the sculptor's studio, creativity is a business of toil and struggle. Every time we tell ourselves there's a book already inside us, we're taking someone else's hard work for granted.
If that's true of the arts, then it's certainly true in business. Over forty years ago, Theodore Levitt wrote a classic paper for the Harvard Business Review, entitled 'Creativity Is Not Enough', in which he attacked advocates of 'creativity' in business:
they misdefine 'creativity' itself. Too often, for them, 'creativity' means having great, original ideas. Moreover, the ideas are often judged more by their novelty than by their potential usefulness, either to consumers or to the company.
Even when the idea is potentially useful, Levitt argued that thinking it up is the easy part:
A powerful new idea can kick around unused in a company for years, not because the merits are not recognized but because nobody has assumed the responsibility for converting it from words into action. What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in the action-producing sense, i.e., putting ideas to work.
If you are tempted to dismiss Levitt as an old-school businessman who doesnat ageta creativity, compare his words with those of Roger von Oech, one of the greatest living authorities on creative thinking:
the world isnat set up to accommodate every new idea that comes along. As a matter of fact, thereas a lot of competition out there. If you want your idea to succeed, youall have to take the offensive. So, you become a Warrior and take your idea into action.
(A Whack on the Side of the Head)
Creative vision and flashes of inspiration are all very well, but they are worse than useless unless you actually do something with your ideas. We all do plenty of lateral thinking every night, but nothing much comes of it. What separates real creators from daydreaming amateurs is their willingness to roll up their sleeves and get on with the hard work of creativity.
So we've replaced 'lateral thinking' with Lateral Action. And if you stay with us on this journey, we'll offer you some solid practical advice to help you translate your own creative visions into reality.
Another reason we're emphasizing action is that things have changed since the time of Michelangelo - even since the heyday of Amis and Levitt. Great artists have always been good at getting things done. Some of them, such as Shakespeare and Hogarth, were also excellent businessmen and entrepreneurs. But these days there's a lot more pressure on artists and creatives to be businesslike and professional, not just in their working habits but in how they (whisper it) sell themselves and their work.
Marla didnat get where she is by just sitting around daydreaming. Thatas often the first stage, but itas not long before she starts sketching, writing, researching, planning and making phone calls. Sheas a visionary who makes things happen, one of the classic definitions of an entrepreneur.
On a bigger scale, businesses are waking up to the fact that creativity is no longer a nice idea but an essential source of competitive advantage. In case you haven't heard, the creative economy is coming. And as Lou is finding out, routine aproductivitya is no longer enough for economic survival, let alone a comfortable and enjoyable life. But those are stories for another time.
Unlike your book, which may well be a case of now or never.
Do you have a creative dream youave been meaning to start work on aone daya?
What would be the very first a maybe very small a step that would get it under way?
When are you going to take that step?
The post Why Creative Thinking Doesnat Cut It appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
So how come Marlaas having such a ball? How did she get to be queen of the roost? And what does she know that Lou doesnat?
Marla is the consummate creative entrepreneur. She's a bright creative thinker who follows through and gets things done. Everybody loves her for a reason - she treats everyone she works with, big and small, as a valued collaborator and potential ally. And her creativity is not limited to the artistic sphere - her entrepreneurial vision allows her to conjure new opportunities out of thin air, and she has the business savvy to make her dreams a reality.
Her success a like yours a depends on her ability to master three critical skill-sets:
Of course, entrepreneurs have always relied on their creativity to produce wealth, but the modern creative entrepreneur goes further. John Howkins defines creative entrepreneurs as people who ause creativity to unlock the wealth that lies within themselvesa (my emphasis) rather than external capital.
The value they create lies not in their physical products (if any) but in intangible assets such as their brand, reputation, network and intellectual property. They are adept at projecting a desired image and creating a personal brand, both online and offline. They also understand the principles of intellectual property law and use copyrights, trademarks, patents and licenses to exploit the full potential of their ideas.
Creative entrepreneurs are not freelancers. Freelancers earn a living by doing paid work for clients, usually charging by the hour, day or project. Freelancers think in terms of agetting more worka. Creative entrepreneurs think in terms of creating opportunities, producing results and making profits. This leads them to create systems and businesses that generate wealth and free up their time for their next big idea.
Once upon a time there was aa young girl who just wanted to draw picturesa. When she was 11, her family created a astudioa for her by empying out a linen closet, where she would sit and draw for hours, no matter how hot it was in summer.
She grew up into a woman who wanted to draw pictures. She took a job at an ad agency and freelance commissions from clients - but she wasn't satisfied adrawing to ordera for other people. So she started licensing her designs to greeting card companies and saw her levels of income and satisfaction rise.
She branched out into other media and took on staff to help her. To this day, she still draws the originals of all her designs, before her staff areformatsa them for licensed products including cards, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, books and animated films. One day her fame and personal brand were so well established that she was able to launch a national magazine bearing her name - Mary Engelbreit's HOME COMPANION.
Had she remained a freelancer or even become a contracted author, Mary Engelbreit would no doubt have made a comfortable living. But because she became an entrepreneur, licensing her art and building a business around it, she has achieved lifetime retail sales of more than $1 billion. She has also touched the lives of millions of people with her artwork, and partnered with the charity First Book to promote literacy by delivering millions of books to low income children.
Conventional thinking sees art and business as worlds apart, with little or nothing in common. Here at Lateral Action we think this is a deeply uncreative way of looking at things. In Mary Engelbreit we see the Artist and Entrepreneur working together in harmony:
It's an amazing degree of success for any company, but even more remarkable considering that it all began with a single-minded young girl who decided at age 11 that she was going to be an artist. And while Mary Engelbreit Studios has grown into a global licensing and retail business, that same girl still sits at its core, grown up now, but still drawing her pictures with the same sense of wonder, imagination and enthusiasm.
(MaryEngelbreit.com)
Or how about Caterina Fake, who started out as a designer, then later an Art Director at Salon.com before she co-founded Flickr, the photo-sharing phenomenon. These days her business interests include sitting on the boards of Creative Commons and Etsy, speaking at conferences and universities, and advising startups. She also finds time to write fiction and poetry and make sculpture and art installations. Are her businesses really any less creative than her artistic pursuits?
Marla wouldn't say so. She calls herself an 'Artist in Business', meaning both 'an artist who is in business' and 'an entrepreneur whose business is a work of art'.
As Lou is finding out to his cost, the steady job and predictable career path are now historical relics. The only real security lies in taking an entrepreneurial approach to our own careers, by taking responsibility for developing our skills, building our network and reputation, and creating opportunities for ourselves. Taking a job can be a great opportunity to learn and a worthwhile investment in yourself - just don't assume it will be there forever.
Of course this is great news to someone like Jack who values his independence and always has plenty of creative side projects on the boil. He'll get bored and move on long before he's made redundant. That blog he's been writing in the evenings has grown arms and legs - as well as landing him a book deal it's put him in touch with collaborators around the globe. He's convinced he's on the verge of making it big... but heall need more than dreams to succeed.
Because the new economy is founded on creativity, it would be easy to assume we all need to get our creative thinking hats on and schedule a lot of brainstorming sessions. But there's a little more to it than that - as we'll see in the next article in this series.
Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? Why?
How have the skills of creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship contributed to your success?
Which of these three skill-sets come easiest to you? Which do you have to work at?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Get to know Mark better on Twitter.
The post The 3 Critical Characteristics of the Creative Entrepreneur appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
So people like Lou are having to update their c.v.s while people like Jack and Marla are in such demand they no longer need a c.v.
These changes have given rise to the idea of the creative economy.
One of the books that inspired me to specialise in consulting in the creative sector was The Creative Economy by John Howkins, in which he identifies creativity as central to the emerging 21st century global economy.
The creative economy consists of the transactions in a| creative products. Each transaction may have two complementary values, the value of the intangible, intellectual property and the value of the physical carrier or platform (if any). In some industries, such as digital software, the intellectual property value is higher. In others, such as art, the unit cost of the physical object is higher.
(John Howkins, The Creative Economy)
So the physical components of a DVD, laptop or Picasso are of trivial value compared to the intellectual property value of the film, design or art they embody.
While data and knowledge are important resources, the creative economy represents a significant development from the familiar idea of the knowledge economy:
Todayas economy is fundamentally a Creative Economy. I certainly agree with those who say that the advanced nations are shifting to information-based, knowledge-driven economiesa| Yet I see creativitya| as the key driver. In my formulation, aknowledgea and ainformationa are the tools and materials of creativity.
(Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class)
The key difference is that in the creative economy it is not enough to store, process or analyse information a it must be creatively transformed into something new and valuable.
John Howkins describes the creative economy as consisting of 15 creative industries, including advertising, architecture, design, film, music, publishing, R & D, television and video games. In 1998 the UK government came up with this definition of the creative industries, when it identified them as critical to the country's economic future:
[The creative industries are] those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.
(1998 Creative Industries Mapping Document, UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
One problem with this definition is that it could apply to any industry, since itas hard to think of an industry that does not rely on creativity, skill and talent; and copyright, trademarks and patents are becoming more prominent in a wide range of industries. According to creative industries expert Chris Bilton the creative industries cannot be divorced from the aold economya which often provides athe labour and the material componentsa for athe glamorous world of creativity and culturea (Management and Creativity).
So some writers stress the differences between the creative industries and other industries, while others emphasise their similarities and connections. A recent report by the Work Foundation shows the creative economy as a series of concentric circles, with creative content producers at the core, surrounded by industries in which creativity plays a less prominent role.
The Creative ClassThere are other ways of defining the creative economy. Richard Florida describes it in terms of the people employed in creative occupationsawhat he calls the creative class.
The economic need for creativity has registered itself in the rise of a new class, which I call the Creative Class. Some 38 million Americans, 30 percent of all employed people, belong to this new class. I define the core of the Creative Class to include people in science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or new creative content. Around the core, the Creative Class also includes a broader group of creative professionals in business and finance, law, health care and related fields.
(The Rise of the Creative Class)
Florida has been criticised for stretching the definition of acreativea occupations too widely, but for me the key point is that we should not think of creative people purely in terms of artists and entertainers. Creativity must be systemic throughout 21st century organisations.
When I asked Jack whether he considered himself a member of the acreative classa he looked surprised. aIave never thought about it like that,a he said, aI guess I donat think of myself as part of a class, it sounds a bit old-fashioned.aMarla said shead read The Rise of Creative Class when it came out. aProfessor Floridaas definitely onto something. I donat agree with everything he says but heas real sharp. And pretty cute.a
Measuring the value of the creative economy is not easy and depends on which definition you adopt. However it is already a significant proportion of the world economy, particularly in the more developed areas. The following estimates are from the Work Foundation report, based on figures published in 2004 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:
The global market value of industries that rely heavily on creative and cultural inputs is estimated at $1.3 trillion according to UNCTAD figuresa| while the OECD points to annual growth rates of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent in its countriesa creative and cultural industries. As high value added, knowledge-intensive sectors and with real disposable income rising globally, the demand for goods and services produced by the creative industries is anticipated to rise further, fuelling growth in these sectors. [Emphasis added.]
When I asked Lou what he thought of the creative economy he said aShow me the numbersa. So I showed him these numbers and he went very quiet.
Even at the conceptual stage, creative work involves more perspiration than inspiration. According to Richard Florida, the creative class works very long hours. Just ask Jack and Marla a they may not spend all day chained to their desk like Lou, but even when they are relaxing on holiday they have a notebook with them to jot down ideas and work on them in odd moments.
Another limitation of the creative economy comes from the highly subjective value of creative products. Remember the last argument you had with a friend about music or films. How come they couldnat appreciate the genius of one of your favourite masterpieces? And how come they spend so long watching or listening to rubbish? These differences of opinion make creative products highly volatile. Just ask anyone who has invested a fortune in a high profile movie that flopped. The dot com crash is (so far) the most spectacular demonstration of this volatility, often cited by those who criticise the new economy as pie in the sky.
In reality the creative economy is neither a panacea nor a mass delusion but somewhere in between. The opportunities are balanced by dangers. Chris Bilton concludes that the creative economy is important anot because it represents a bright new future, but because it represents a future of uncertainty and riska.
So how can we navigate this uncertain future? Thatas what weall look at in the next post.
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Get to know Mark better on Twitter.
The post The Rise of the Creative Economy appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
So youave met Lou, Jack and Marla, and you can see theyave experienced a relative change of fortunes in recent years. Once upon a time Lou, with his MBA and finely-tuned productivity system, was the darling of the corporate world. Meanwhile creative types like Jack and Marla were not taken seriously, at least in the [â¦]
The post Innovate or Die: Why Creativity Is Economic Priority Number One appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
She has so many great ideas, she routinely gives most of them away.
But Marla uses her best ideas to make lots of money.
Marla hasn't had a job in 7 years.
She wonders why anyone has one.
Check out this final introductory video from Lateral Action to find out why everybody loves Marla.
First time here? Meet Lou and Jack first.
The post Everybody Loves Marla appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Jack's action items are in disarray.
Jack has no five-year vision.
And yet... Jack just got promoted.
But will he bother to keep the corporate gig?
Check out this second video from Lateral Action to find out more about Jack, and what fuels his smirking revenge.
If you missed the first video, watch Lou Needs a Clue first.
The post Jackâs Smirking Revenge appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
But Lou's five-year vision is not going to work out like he thinks.
In fact, the only thing that's truly done may be his career.
Why?
Check out this first animated video from Lateral Action. You'll meet Lou, and find out why he needs to get a clue as soon as possible.
The post Lou Needs a Clue appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
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Introduction In a world dominated by technology, the importance of effective documentation cannot be overstated. It is the secret sauce that allows big tech companiesâ¦
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Introduction In today's rapidly evolving world of technology, effective and clear technical writing has become more important than ever. As a renowned technical documentation expertâ¦
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Introduction Welcome to our in-depth article on âThe Role of Gamification in Technical Documentation.â In today's fast-paced digital world, where attention spans are fleeting andâ¦
The post The Role of Gamification in Technical Documentation appeared first on Doakio.
Introduction In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, the concept of the metaverse has emerged as a groundbreaking paradigm shift. As technical writers, our role extendsâ¦
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The post Documentation Debt: The Hidden Burden in Tech Companies appeared first on Doakio.
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The post Is âSearchabilityâ Killing Good Structure in Tech Documentation? appeared first on Doakio.
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The post Why Do Dogs Circle Before Lying Down? appeared first on Reader's Digest.
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The post 12 Dog Breeds with Long Noses Youâll LoveaNo Snout About It appeared first on Reader's Digest.
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