Soren Kierkegaard

"Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards."

— Soren Kierkegaard

Danish Writer, Philosopher

1813 - 1855

Do you understand who you are and from where you have come?  Only in looking back at our lives can we begin to have inkling of who we are as we begin to connect the dots in our lives — as we begin to tell the stories of what has happened to us.  Some of the dots in my life begin with my loud voice.  As a child, I was asked to participate in church programs because I had a booming voice.  When I was a sophomore in high school I decided to become a preacher.  I have spent the last 25 years of my life as a motivational speaker.  Three dots that when I look back at my life begin to tell the story of who I was and who I became.  And there are other dots that connect me to my father and the father that I became.  And dots that point to my perception of myself as an outsider, an underdog.  What are the dots in your life that you are beginning to connect and therefore to understand?  What are the stories you are telling yourself but nobody else?  What are the stories that you are sharing with the world?

Ernst Bacon

"A teacher's hardest lesson is to limit his explanation to the minimum."

— Ernst Bacon

American Composer, Pianist, Conductor

1898 - 1990

Sometimes less is more.  For creative leaders this is a valuable lesson.  Writers often put too much into their works.  Sometimes what is not said is more important than what is said.  Too much explanation can destroy the novel.  We need to learn to leave out the kitchen sink.  The same is true for painters.  What is left out of the picture is more important sometimes than what is included.  Photographers understand this.  What can we take away from this photo to make it even stronger?  Remember less is more.  What sentences or paragraphs can be left out of the story?

Here is a short piano piece by Ernst Bacon.

Pat Conroy

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."

— Pat Conroy

American Novelist

1945 -

What is your favorite music?  Do you listen to various genres of music depending on your mood or the time of the day?  What impact does music have on your creativity?  Does music speak to your heart and spirit?  Do you listen to music when you read a book?  Do you prefer to dance to music?  What is your favorite song?  Who is your favorite musician?  What would your life be like if you could not hear music?

Let's make music together?  Can you play an instrument?  Can you sing? Or can you dance?  Do you sing in the shower?  Or do you sing along with the radio while driving a car?

David St. John

"There were times when depression, anxiety, whatever, would keep me from writing.  I still get depressed and anxious, but I just don't let it stop me.  I've learned to move it to one side if I want to work."

— David St. John

American Poet

1949 - 

Sometimes we let our emotional and mental states become excuses for why we are not working.  We tell ourselves that we are too tired, too agitated, too depressed, too unhappy, too nervous, too worried or too upset.  The work must continue no matter how we feel.  We must work through the emotion and the pain.  We must keep working and not let our feelings become a barrier.

Emile Zola

"There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman.  One is born a poet.  One becomes a craftsman."

— Emile Zola

French Writer

1840 - 1902

There are two sides to every artistic creation:  the creative and the analytical, the poet and the craftsman, the writer and the editor.  These are two sides of the same coin.  We need both the spontaneity of creation and the analysis of the editor.  The poet is who we are on the inside — who we were born to be.  The craftsman learns certain behaviors to fit into the expectations of society.  If you draw it this way, you are accepted and considered a genius.  If you deviate from the expectations of the masters, you are an amateur and labeled no good.  If I had to choose between the poet and the craftsman, I would choose the poet.  I would rather create than edit.

Terry Pratchett

"Real education happens when you pick up a fact here, and another fact there, and put them together and get an insight."

— Terry Pratchett

English Novelist

1948 -

One of my greatest pleasures is when I create a moment of insight by combining multiple facts into a new idea.  I believe we are in charge of our own education.  Books, classes, schools are just tools to help us gain information.  The real education is in the application of the information to how we live our lives.  Some people are book smart but have no idea what living is all about.  Some people are street smart but may have lost their souls in the process of surviving.  The education for creative leaders occurs during the process of creating.  This is where we synthesize all the information we have accumulated in our brains and bodies.  This is where our souls are reborn.

David Steindl-Rast

"Impatience makes us get ahead of ourselves, reaching out for something in the future and not really being content with where we are, here and now."

— David Steindl-Rast

Austrian Writer / Catholic Monk

1926 - 

Many creative leaders don't live in the here and now.  They are always looking forward to tomorrow when they sell their first book or have their first gallery showing or have enough money to create their works of art full time.  They spend most of their time in the future and ignore the beauty around them.  They are not grateful for what they have and the people in their lives.  They want to be where they are not.  Then one day they wake up and life has past them by and they have grown old and there is no tomorrow where they can dwell.  

Are you living in the world of tomorrow?  Or are you living in the now?  Are you grateful for what you have and what you have been given?  Or are you seeking new opportunities, living in a time beyond time where only dreams exist?

I am not saying that one should not have goals or dreams.  Both are necessary for living.  We just shouldn't spend all our time there.  We need to appreciate where we are now and what we can learn from this moment in our lives.  We need to enjoy the people in our lives and appreciate their friendship and love.  Don't let your impatience for success keep you from enjoying the moment.

Take a few minutes to watch this video and listen to the words of David Steindl-Rast.

Roger von Oech

"If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered."

— Roger von Oech

American Writer, Speaker

1948 -

Celebrate your mistakes.  Each mistake you make is an opportunity to discover a path to a new idea.  For many people mistakes and errors are failures and they quit.  Some people even deny they made a mistake.  Creative leaders understand that mistakes are only the first step on a journey to finding a new idea.  So celebrate your mistakes.  Welcome your errors.  Give thanks for new beginnings.  

Bertolt Brecht

"It's alright to hesitate if you then go ahead."

— Bertolt Brecht

German Poet, Playwright

1898 - 1956

Making decisions is often difficult.  We hesitate, not sure if we are making the right decision.  Sometimes we need to trust ourselves and move ahead.  It is normal to second guess one's self — to question if one is doing the right thing.  But ultimately, one must stand up and be counted.  What decisions are you facing that you are uncertain about?  What decisions are you regretting having made?  What does your heart say?  Don't let your analytical mind win.  Trust your heart.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"A painter should be solitary.  Solitude is essential to his art.  Alone you belong to yourself only; with even one other person you are only half yourself, and you will be less and less yourself in proportion to the number of companions."

— Leonardo Da Vinci

Italian Artist / Creative Leader

1452 - 1519

Our society is filled with noise and distractions.  Some days it is difficult to think because there is so much activity.  A creative leader must have solitude if he is to create.  People can block the flow of creative juices.  But we also need people for stimulus and inspiration.  So it becomes a balancing act between too many people and too few people.  If we have too many people in our lives, we stop creating.  If we have too few people, we fail to incorporate new ideas into our work and become stagnant.  What is the balance in your life?

John Cleese

"We don't know where we get our ideas from.  What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops."

— John Cleese

British Actor

1939 -

Sometimes we need to walk away from our computers and walk back into the real world.  Inspiration does not come from spending hours and hours in cyberspace.  Inspiration visits poets who take long hot showers and artists who take walks through wooded parks.  Where do you find your ideas?  In your coffee cup?  Dancing under a full moon?  Behind the piano?  Surely not in the software on your computer.

T. S. Eliot

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.  The good poet welds his theft into a whole feeling which is unique, utterly different from that which it was torn."

— T. S. Eliot
American Poet
1888 - 1965

Every aspiring artist and writer needs to expose his mind and heart to the creative works of others.  Originality comes not from creating something from nothing, but from putting a new twist on old material, by changing what was into what is.  What writers are you reading today?  What artists are you studying?  

Edgar Degas

"I frequently lock myself in my studio.  I do not often see the people I love, and in the end I shall suffer for it . . . painting is one's private life."

— Edgar Degas

French Artist

1834 - 1917

Sometimes we sacrifice our relationships because of our commitment to our creative work.  We ignore the people we love because of the creative work we must do.  The challenge is to find a balance between the work and the people.  We need the people to hold us to this earth so we don't disappear into thin air — so we don't drop off the deep end.  So if you have been ignoring those you love, go give them a hug and a spend a few minutes with them.

Marcel Duchamp

"I don't believe in art.  I believe in artists."

— Marcel Duchamp
French Artist
1887 - 1968

What is more important the work of art or the artist?  Let me ask that again?  Which is more important the creative work that you produce or yourself?  For me, this is a difficult question.  If I had to choose between the creative work that I have produced over the years or the person I have become, which would I choose.  My first reaction would be that I would choose the work.  I want it to outlast me.  It is my ticket to immortality.  It is what reaches far beyond where I can reach.  It will touch people I will never meet.  It will touch people who will not yet be born when I die.  Yet, does the work really exist outside myself?  If I had never lived, my work would never have been created.  

Do you believe in art?  Or do you believe in the artist who produced the work?  Can one exist without the other?  We know the creative work could never have existed without the artist, but can the artist exist without the creative work?  I don't think so.  If the art does not exist, then I, who believes he is an artist, does not exist.  I and my art am one.

Mary Frank

Photo by Kate Joyce

"Decisions are like butterflies.  Their tongues are like springs, coils.  Butterflies go from one flower to the next looking for nectar, extending their coils, testing every flower.  I'm looking for nectar, too."

—  Mary Frank

British Artist

1933 - 

Do you have decisions that you have delayed making?  Are you riding the fence, not sure which path to take?  Making decisions is rarely easy.  Most of us struggle to make the right decision.  Yet maybe, we should be like the butterfly, flitting from one flower to next, testing every decision and not worrying about whether we make the right one or not.  Every decision will take us somewhere; and I believe that no matter what decision we make, we arrive where we were meant to be.  So be off with you now.  Go seek the nectar of the flowers.

William Ralph Inge

"What is originality?  Undetected plagiarism."

— William Ralph Inge
English Author
1860 - 1954

Is it possible in this day and age to create something original.  Probably not.  Everything we create is build upon the past.  Artists are influenced by earlier artists.  Poets are influenced by other poets.  What we do is change, adapt and modify the works of others.  Even the Bible says that there is nothing new under the sun.  So in a sense, we all plagiarize.  Even those who sue others over copyright infringement have plagiarized earlier works.  So don't fret.  Even the best artists have stolen from others.

Hans Hofmann

"A work of art is finished, from the point of view of the artist, when feeling and perception have resulted in a spiritual synthesis."

— Hans Hofmann

German Painter

1880 - 1966

Do you find that your creative work is spiritual work?  Do you connect with something beyond yourself?  Are you in touch with the great silence of the universe?  Is your creative work a form of prayer?  Does your creative work give you hope?  Does it give you a sense of peace?

The Gate
(1959 - 60)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Jonah Lehrer

"Every creative journey begins with a problem.  It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer.  We've worked hard, but we've hit the wall.  We have no idea what do do next?"

— Jonah Lehrer

American Author

1981 - 

Do you ever feel that you have hit a wall and don't know what to do to solve a problem?  Fantastic!  You are at the beginning of the creative journey.  Don't give up now.  The fun process is just starting.  Wait patiently for answers to arrive.  Keep plowing the soil of the brain planting seeds that will ultimately bear fruit.


Watch this video that introduces Lehrer's new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.

Albert Einstein

"Creativity is the residue of time wasted."

—  Albert Einstein

German Theoretical Physicist

1879 - 1955

Do you waste time?  Or spend time daydreaming?  Do you take walks alone?  Or sit thinking about nothing?  Does your family think that you are lazy and won't amount to anything.  Contrary to popular opinion, a little bit of laziness is good for the creative soul.  By relaxing and being silly, we actually free our creative spirits from the shackles of the Puritan work ethic.  As the old saying goes:  all work and no play makes Jack a very boring lad.  Play is fertilizer for the creative spirit.  So why are you sitting here in  front of a computer?  Go play.  Daydream.  

James Abbot McNeill Whistler

Arrangement in Gray:
Portrait of the Painter
(Self-Portrait, 1872,
Detroit Institute of the Arts)

"As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and the subject-matter has nothing to do with the harmony of sound or color."

— James Abbot McNeill Whistler

American Artist

1834 - 1903

Some artists and writers believe that the story is less important than technique used to communicate the story.  The flow and interaction of color is more important than the subject being painted.  The subject, whether a person or a landscape, is secondary to the colors.  For some poets and writers the same is true.  The creative use of language is more important the story being told.  The quality of the writing is judged not by the story told but the uniqueness of the words used to tell the story.  What do you think?  Is technique more important than  meaning?  Is color more important than subject?  Are words more important than story?

Whistler is best known for his painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly called Whistler's Mother.

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1
(1971, Musee d'Orsay, Paris)

Here is another painting by Whistler: Symphony in White No. 1.

Symphony in White, No. 1:
The White Girl
(1862, The National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.)