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Creativity is a forced savings account.  You make small, daily deposits. And then you look back after a period of time and say, wow, I have a huge balance. I wonder what I should spend it on?  That’s how I’ve been working for years. Every day, I put as many words on the page as I can. I get on kicks, I follow conceptual pathways as long as they…

Gould first conceived the invention of the laser in a late night flash of inspiration.  According to the obituary of the prolific physicist, when he first got the idea, he knew it would be the most important work of his career. And so, he spent a caffeine and nicotine fueled weekend laboriously compiling pages of calculations in his laboratory notebook, and then had the foresight to have his work notarized at…

All creativity begins with the moment of conception. That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here. And so, in this blog series, I’m going to…

The creative brain often has trouble quieting itself. At any given moment, the mind darts and moves and skips and rises. And if we’re not careful, its tremendous racing power can overwhelm our system and cause anxiety, restlessness and mania.  The goal, then, is to calmly beat our brain to the punch. And to take control of our mind before our mind gets in control of us.  What’s exciting…

Abramović, the grandmother of performance art, famously said anything that is revolutionary is in front of your nose and is never complicated, but you don’t see it until you have a safe mind.  Then question, then, is how do we acquire a safe mind? What can we do to make ourselves more amenable to the innovative possibilities that surround us?  Simple. Go backwards. Work by process of elimination. Recognize…

Wearing a nametag everyday for fifteen years taught me a lot about boundaries.  Since beginning my experiment at the age of twenty, I’ve had stalkers try to befriend me, cult members try to covert me, hockey players try to fight me, drug dealers try to sell me, religious zealots try to proselytize me and pyramid schemers try to recruit me.  Woops.  Turns out, if you don’t set your own…

Ideas are free, execution is priceless. That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business. It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here. But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly,…

All creativity begins with the moment of conception. That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here. And so, in this blog series, I’m going to…

Debono famously said that the measure of a great mind is its ability to generate alternatives. That’s the calling card of every great innovator, artist and thinker. When they see something they don’t like, they create a way around it. They invent their own options. And they believe, against all odds and all evidence, that there will be another path available.  This capability exists at the intersection of stubbornness,…

I once overheard a conversation between two women, one of whom said, it’s taken me a long time to start dreaming again.  Simply devastating.  Anytime I hear about a person whose dreams are blinked out of being, my eyes start welling up. It just breaks my heart. But it also wakes me up the realities of being a dreamer. Because if we truly want to follow our dreams, we…