"The function of the creative artist consists of making laws, not in following laws already made."
Italian Composer, Pianist
1866 - 1924
When I teach people how to speak, I always tell them to learn the rules of speaking, but to understand that they can break every rule. Speaking is an art, not a science. Creative leaders understand that there are rules and techniques governing their art, but they have the right to break the rules. Creative leaders are willing to take a risk and attempt something that lesser artists are unwilling to risk. If you study the long history of the arts, you will see the pattern — every generation breaks the rules of the older generations and makes new rules. Think of the changes the impressionists, the cubists and the abstract expressionists made to art in the last 150 years. Think about the rules that writers and musicians have broken in the past and continue to break today. What risks are you taking with your art? What rules have you been willing to bend and break? What new rules have you put in their place. In art, nothing is absolute.
