Creativity is important.
And I think I know what it looks like.
I think it’s what I see and sense when I peer over a creative’s shoulder.
As they stare at the fresh, untrodden snowcover of a creative challenge.
As they are about to embracing wholeheartedly the newness of this opportunity to make a mark.
Their mark.
The opportunity to use their imagination.
The opportunity to generate and then harness their ideas and their ambition.
Into something meaningful.
To muster something fresh and interesting.
(And yes.
It has to be interesting).
That’s what I think creativity looks like.
Creativity.
And I think I know what creativity feels like too.
And that is much easier and simper to describe.
I think that creativity feels like Free Falling.
Beware.
But beware the enemies of creativity.
Beware the things that block the feeling of Free Falling.
Things like money.
Money, I have found, can be creativity’s greatest enemy.
Because it’s normally somebody else’s money that’s in the mix.
And so there is someone else’s will in the mix.
Or taste.
Or instruction.
Or conflicting ideas.
That can bend your creativity out of it’s natural shape.
Such things can bend and break your natural free flowing, Free Falling creativity.
They bend it away from it’s natural course.
To an unnatural one.
A course where doubt ousts spontaneity.
And metrics neuter the beauty and purity of gut feeling.
Negotiate.
So negotiate your freedom to create.
With yourself.
And with others.
Look them in the eye.
Look for trust.
Look for a cultural fit.
Where you want them to be them.
And they want you to be you.
And where these two things sit in perfect harmony.
Because there is nothing worse on a creative brief, than when they want you to be just another version of what they already are.
And they think they can do what you do better than you can.
Free Falling.
Free Falling.
Go after it.
You know what it is.
You can feel it.
