Showing posts with label Inspired. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspired. Show all posts
Friday, June 8, 2012
Advice from Slovenia
"...Although (your departure) is a very sad news, I wish you all the best in Australia. Don't forget to follow your dreams, everything else will be ok."
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Creative Innovations - the creative economy
Creative Innovations - the creative economy
‘Ten Rules for Success’
1. Invent yourself. Create a unique cluster of personal talents. Own your image. Manage it. Build momentum. Leave school early, if you want, but never stop learning. Dance as if no one is looking. Break the rules. Be clear about your own assets and talents. They are unique. And they are all you have.
2. Put the priority on ideas, not on data. Create and grown your own creative imagination. Build a personal balance sheet of intellectual capital. Understand patents, copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property laws that protect ideas. Entrepreneurs in the creative economy are more worried if they lose their ability to think than if their company loses money. Think about it.
3. Be nomadic. Nomads are at home in every country. You can choose your own path and means of travel, and choose how long you stay. Being nomadic does not mean being alone; most nomads travel in groups, at night. Writer Charles Handy says leaders must combine ‘a love of people’ and a ‘capacity for aloofness’. Nomads appreciate both the desert and the oasis; likewise creatives need both solitude and the crowd, thinking alone and working together.
4. Define yourself by your own (thinking) activities, not by the (job) title somebody else has given you. If you are working for a company X on project Y, say you are working on project Y at company X. People who are brave call themselves ‘thinkers’. Computer companies try to concoct and sell ‘business solutions’ to their client’s problems; in the creative economy we each can think and exchange creative solutions with each other. Play Charles Hampden-Turner’s Infinite Game’, in which everybody seeks a mutually positive outcome.
5. Learn endlessly. Borrow. Innovate. Remember US Electric Power ad, ‘A New Idea Is Often Two Old Ideas Meeting for the First Time’. Use retro, reinvention, revival – be a magpie. Creative artists scavenge for new ideas. It does not matter where you get ideas from; what does matter is what you do with them. If you’re bored, do something else. Use networks. If you cannot find the right network, start it. Take risks and do unnecessary things. Completely ignore Frederick Winslow Taylor’s famous instruction to the Ford Motor Company’s workers that they should ‘eliminate all false movements, slow movements and useless movements’. Wayward movements can lead to amazing discoveries.
6. Exploit fame and celebrity. The production costs are small and relatively fixed. Fame is what economists call a ‘sunk cost’, which cannot be recovered but which can be freely exploited at no further expense, and both fame and celebrity bring virtually unlimited rewards in terms of the ability to charge more for one’s services and to revitalize a life or career that is momentarily stuck. Being well known (even slightly known) is as important in the creative economy of the twenty-first century as good typing speeds were in the clerical economy of the twentieth. The essence of being a star, as shrewdly revealed by David Bowie, is ‘the ability to make yourself as fascinating to others as you are to yourself’. This is not about being famous for fifteen minutes, which is how Andy Warhol characterized the transience of media attention, and being famous for being creative, which was Warhol’s own achievement, long after he had stopped painting or indeed working at all.
7. Treat the virtual as real and vice versa. Cyberspace is merely another dimension on everyday life. Do not judge reality by whether it is based on technology but by more important and eternal matters such as humanity and truth. Bandwidth is useless without a message, without communication. At all times, use the RIDER process: review, incubation, dreams, excitement and reality checks. Mix dreams and reality to create your own future.
8. Be kind. Kindness is a mark of success. Data never say ‘please’. Humans can and should say ‘please’, and mean it. People treat each other as they themselves are treated; exactly as a fast computer produces data more quickly, so a kind person will be invited to more networks, receive more knowledge and create more.
9. Admire success, openly. Martina Navratilova, who won Wimbledon nine times and the US Open four times, was right when she said: ‘The person who said, “It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,” probably lost.’ Equally do not be fixated on success: be curious about failure. Creative people are the strictest judge of their own successes and failures because they want to learn from them (see rule 5). The worst thing is depression, not recession. You will never win if you cannot lose.
10. Be very ambitious. Boldly go.
11. Have fun. Film-maker David Puttnam, who starts the next chapter, says, ‘The most exciting, creative period of my life was in the early 1960s at the Collett Dickinson Pearce advertising agency when I was a group head working with Charles Saatchi, Alan Parker (who later directed Midnight Express and Evita) and Ridley Scott (who later directed Alien) – a pretty good group, you’ll agree. But the only thing I remember doing a lot, a really loft of, was tap dancing. We spent hours practising tap dancing and in between we’d work out an ad. It was a fantastic thing. We’d be screaming with laughter, absolutely falling about and meanwhile creating some very remarkable work.’ People who enjoy themselves are not only happier but they achieve more, faster. Above all, do not worry; Tom Wehr of the National Institute of Mental Health, Maryland, says the sleeping brain sorts out the previous day’s affairs as ‘a creative worry factory’. Feed it.
And when writing the ten rules for success in the creative economy, don’t worry if you end up with eleven. You can break your own rules (see rule number 1).
(Pages 155-158)
An excerpt from author John Howkins on the Ten Rules for Success
‘Ten Rules for Success’
1. Invent yourself. Create a unique cluster of personal talents. Own your image. Manage it. Build momentum. Leave school early, if you want, but never stop learning. Dance as if no one is looking. Break the rules. Be clear about your own assets and talents. They are unique. And they are all you have.
2. Put the priority on ideas, not on data. Create and grown your own creative imagination. Build a personal balance sheet of intellectual capital. Understand patents, copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property laws that protect ideas. Entrepreneurs in the creative economy are more worried if they lose their ability to think than if their company loses money. Think about it.
3. Be nomadic. Nomads are at home in every country. You can choose your own path and means of travel, and choose how long you stay. Being nomadic does not mean being alone; most nomads travel in groups, at night. Writer Charles Handy says leaders must combine ‘a love of people’ and a ‘capacity for aloofness’. Nomads appreciate both the desert and the oasis; likewise creatives need both solitude and the crowd, thinking alone and working together.
4. Define yourself by your own (thinking) activities, not by the (job) title somebody else has given you. If you are working for a company X on project Y, say you are working on project Y at company X. People who are brave call themselves ‘thinkers’. Computer companies try to concoct and sell ‘business solutions’ to their client’s problems; in the creative economy we each can think and exchange creative solutions with each other. Play Charles Hampden-Turner’s Infinite Game’, in which everybody seeks a mutually positive outcome.
5. Learn endlessly. Borrow. Innovate. Remember US Electric Power ad, ‘A New Idea Is Often Two Old Ideas Meeting for the First Time’. Use retro, reinvention, revival – be a magpie. Creative artists scavenge for new ideas. It does not matter where you get ideas from; what does matter is what you do with them. If you’re bored, do something else. Use networks. If you cannot find the right network, start it. Take risks and do unnecessary things. Completely ignore Frederick Winslow Taylor’s famous instruction to the Ford Motor Company’s workers that they should ‘eliminate all false movements, slow movements and useless movements’. Wayward movements can lead to amazing discoveries.
6. Exploit fame and celebrity. The production costs are small and relatively fixed. Fame is what economists call a ‘sunk cost’, which cannot be recovered but which can be freely exploited at no further expense, and both fame and celebrity bring virtually unlimited rewards in terms of the ability to charge more for one’s services and to revitalize a life or career that is momentarily stuck. Being well known (even slightly known) is as important in the creative economy of the twenty-first century as good typing speeds were in the clerical economy of the twentieth. The essence of being a star, as shrewdly revealed by David Bowie, is ‘the ability to make yourself as fascinating to others as you are to yourself’. This is not about being famous for fifteen minutes, which is how Andy Warhol characterized the transience of media attention, and being famous for being creative, which was Warhol’s own achievement, long after he had stopped painting or indeed working at all.
7. Treat the virtual as real and vice versa. Cyberspace is merely another dimension on everyday life. Do not judge reality by whether it is based on technology but by more important and eternal matters such as humanity and truth. Bandwidth is useless without a message, without communication. At all times, use the RIDER process: review, incubation, dreams, excitement and reality checks. Mix dreams and reality to create your own future.
8. Be kind. Kindness is a mark of success. Data never say ‘please’. Humans can and should say ‘please’, and mean it. People treat each other as they themselves are treated; exactly as a fast computer produces data more quickly, so a kind person will be invited to more networks, receive more knowledge and create more.
9. Admire success, openly. Martina Navratilova, who won Wimbledon nine times and the US Open four times, was right when she said: ‘The person who said, “It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,” probably lost.’ Equally do not be fixated on success: be curious about failure. Creative people are the strictest judge of their own successes and failures because they want to learn from them (see rule 5). The worst thing is depression, not recession. You will never win if you cannot lose.
10. Be very ambitious. Boldly go.
11. Have fun. Film-maker David Puttnam, who starts the next chapter, says, ‘The most exciting, creative period of my life was in the early 1960s at the Collett Dickinson Pearce advertising agency when I was a group head working with Charles Saatchi, Alan Parker (who later directed Midnight Express and Evita) and Ridley Scott (who later directed Alien) – a pretty good group, you’ll agree. But the only thing I remember doing a lot, a really loft of, was tap dancing. We spent hours practising tap dancing and in between we’d work out an ad. It was a fantastic thing. We’d be screaming with laughter, absolutely falling about and meanwhile creating some very remarkable work.’ People who enjoy themselves are not only happier but they achieve more, faster. Above all, do not worry; Tom Wehr of the National Institute of Mental Health, Maryland, says the sleeping brain sorts out the previous day’s affairs as ‘a creative worry factory’. Feed it.
And when writing the ten rules for success in the creative economy, don’t worry if you end up with eleven. You can break your own rules (see rule number 1).
(Pages 155-158)
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Dreams and Nightmares
An inspiring post by Paulo Coelho:
No one will realistically think that you can make a living out of literature in Brazil. I faced many difficulties. When I was young, my parents in a desperate act of love, as they cared for me, sent me to a mental institution. They thought I was mad, as I wanted to be a writer. However, I was absolutely convinced about what I wanted to be.
The fact that you know your dreams is not enough. It is not good, living with the fact that you have it in you. You have to think of measures to manifest your dreams and be brave enough to pay the price of it. In a way, I postponed my dreams, and I was almost 40 when I dare to write my first book, The Pilgrimage.
And my second book, The Alchemist, was first published and then put out of print by my first publisher. “This title will never sell more than 900 copies”, he said. Today “The Alchemist is among the best selling books of all times.
If you are hurt about something that is meaningless to you, you can blame anybody else for it. But it is quite complicated to be hurt about something that is meaningful to you.
Then you get confused, as you know the dream is there. And the dream is not going to leave you as long as you live.
But besides the pain, there is also a great joy. You are fighting for something meaningful. Defeats are part of life, IF you don’t decide to quit.
And at the end of your life, you will understand: the journey was fantastic.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Caine's Arcade
When I was about 10, I tried to make my sister a birthday present out of an empty tissue box and a ball of purple wool.
Needless to say, I had obviously been watching too many episodes of MacGuyver.
Nothing eventuated out of that little venture.
This little guy not only did what I couldn't do, he's about to go to college on his creations.
From the generosity of a lot of people who were inspired by this little guy, to date, US$175K has been raised so he can definitely go to college and eventually swim in either as much cardboard and money as he likes.
I'd like to see a camera crew revisit him in about 15 years time.
Needless to say, I had obviously been watching too many episodes of MacGuyver.
Nothing eventuated out of that little venture.
This little guy not only did what I couldn't do, he's about to go to college on his creations.
From the generosity of a lot of people who were inspired by this little guy, to date, US$175K has been raised so he can definitely go to college and eventually swim in either as much cardboard and money as he likes.
I'd like to see a camera crew revisit him in about 15 years time.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
David Ogilvy: A "Lousy copywriter"
David Ogilvy liked rum!
Just like me!
Read below pearls of wisdom from the original and legendary Ad man, from a favourite blog of mine called Letters of note
British-born David Ogilvy was one of the original, and greatest, "ad men." In 1948, he started what would eventually be known as Ogilvy & Mather, the Manhattan-based advertising agency that has since been responsible for some of the world's most iconic ad campaigns, and in 1963 he even wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man, the best-selling book that is still to this day considered essential reading for all who enter the industry. Time magazine called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry" in the early-'60s; his name, and that of his agency, have been mentioned more than once in Mad Men for good reason.
With all that in mind, being able to learn of his routine when producing the very ads that made his name is an invaluable opportunity. The fascinating letter below, written by Ogilvy in 1955 to a Mr. Ray Calt, offers exactly that.
(Source: The Unpublished David Ogilvy: A Selection of His Writings from the Files of His Partners; Image: David Ogilvy, courtesy of Ads of the World.)
April 19, 1955
Dear Mr. Calt:
On March 22nd you wrote to me asking for some notes on my work habits as a copywriter. They are appalling, as you are about to see:
1. I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home.
2. I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.
3. I am helpless without research material—and the more "motivational" the better.
4. I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until the statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.
5. Before actually writing the copy, I write down every concievable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform.
6. Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines.
7. At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room I growl at her. (This has gotten worse since I gave up smoking.)
8. I am terrified of producing a lousy advertisement. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts.
9. If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy.
10. The next morning I get up early and edit the gush.
11. Then I take the train to New York and my secretary types a draft. (I cannot type, which is very inconvenient.)
12. I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft. After four or five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client. If the client changes the copy, I get angry—because I took a lot of trouble writing it, and what I wrote I wrote on purpose.
Altogether it is a slow and laborious business. I understand that some copywriters have much greater facility.
Yours sincerely,
D.O.
Just like me!
Read below pearls of wisdom from the original and legendary Ad man, from a favourite blog of mine called Letters of note
British-born David Ogilvy was one of the original, and greatest, "ad men." In 1948, he started what would eventually be known as Ogilvy & Mather, the Manhattan-based advertising agency that has since been responsible for some of the world's most iconic ad campaigns, and in 1963 he even wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man, the best-selling book that is still to this day considered essential reading for all who enter the industry. Time magazine called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry" in the early-'60s; his name, and that of his agency, have been mentioned more than once in Mad Men for good reason.
With all that in mind, being able to learn of his routine when producing the very ads that made his name is an invaluable opportunity. The fascinating letter below, written by Ogilvy in 1955 to a Mr. Ray Calt, offers exactly that.
(Source: The Unpublished David Ogilvy: A Selection of His Writings from the Files of His Partners; Image: David Ogilvy, courtesy of Ads of the World.)
April 19, 1955
Dear Mr. Calt:
On March 22nd you wrote to me asking for some notes on my work habits as a copywriter. They are appalling, as you are about to see:
1. I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home.
2. I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.
3. I am helpless without research material—and the more "motivational" the better.
4. I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until the statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.
5. Before actually writing the copy, I write down every concievable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform.
6. Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines.
7. At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room I growl at her. (This has gotten worse since I gave up smoking.)
8. I am terrified of producing a lousy advertisement. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts.
9. If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy.
10. The next morning I get up early and edit the gush.
11. Then I take the train to New York and my secretary types a draft. (I cannot type, which is very inconvenient.)
12. I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft. After four or five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client. If the client changes the copy, I get angry—because I took a lot of trouble writing it, and what I wrote I wrote on purpose.
Altogether it is a slow and laborious business. I understand that some copywriters have much greater facility.
Yours sincerely,
D.O.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The inspiring nightmare
I heard that Steve was a total prick. He never settled for less than what he wanted, was stubborn, demanding and at times completely disrespectful of those around him.Having said that, I think he had a tough life in the beginning and to have that level of confidence to ensure your visions are manifested, sometimes these things might have to come into play.
I heard he was the kind of guy that would always say to his designers, "I don't like this start again" and they would say "What don't you like about it?" and he would say " I'm not sure, but I'll know what I like when I see it."
Nightmare.
But you have to give him credit, he's probably just the kind of guy that had the guts to live life by his heart.
Blue or Red?
If you could take a daily pill that would profoundly speed-up the manifestation of all your dreams, would you take it without fail?
Yes, I thought so.
What if it was a big, ugly pill that took 5 minutes to dissolve on your tongue, and it tasted like medicine. Would you still do it?
Yes, all of your dreams…
Thought so too…
But what if during those 5 minutes each day you couldn’t watch TV, or talk with friends, or distract yourself in any way from your chore?
OK, what if you could skip the pill bit entirely, but instead you had to set aside 5 minutes a day to visualize, in a dark and quiet room, seeing your life unfold as if all your dreams were coming true, and for good measure you had to say or do something, each day, that implied the same?
No, you can’t go back to the pill idea.
Yours,
The Universe
From http://thisinspired.me
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Yours sincerely
"..., May the muses embrace you."
The wish author Norman Mailer had for Salman Rushdie, in a letter of encouragement that he wrote.
The wish author Norman Mailer had for Salman Rushdie, in a letter of encouragement that he wrote.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
WANTED
Wanted: A benefactor to support all my crazy projects.They just need to fund my modest lifestyle of soy lattes and internet connection and mobile phone bill while I concoct ideas and put them into action.
Sometimes I have so many awesome ideas I have no idea how I'm going to do them all this lifetime.
Going to work really gets in the way of my creative mojo.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
Anticipating!
I am so freaking excited about 2012, I have no idea why.
I just am. I can't stop smiling today.
2011 wasn't a particularly bad year for me. It was actually very good to me.
Weird to think I'm not smiling because the year is over, but because I'm looking forward to the future.
I formed a really strong bond with a great bunch of friends, and I kept my job and therefore my visa to live in Europe.
I travelled a lot, and saw a lot of new places on the planet.
I went home and saw my family and friends and had a lot of nice realisations about my life.
I didn't get slapped in the face with any obviously hard lessons this year, just some gentle reminders.
Here are my resolutions this year:
- Be more responsible. I want my finances to be in check and also my health. And I want to be reliable, so when I say I'll do something, someone can rely on me to do that. Turning up on time to things is a good start.
- Quit the social smoking. Blagh. It's going to be tough, but I want to live for a long time and be around to accomplish some great things.
- Lose weight before I go home in March.
- Plan time for exercise and passion projects. (See resolution number 1 to understand why this is important.)
- Be more selective about who I interact with and what projects I decide to take on. It's all about quality and not quantity this year.
BOOYAH!
I hope 2012 blossoms into a phenomenal year!
Happy New Year!! xxx
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
A very Belgian Christmas
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On Christmas Eve I jumped on a train to Belgium and met Sarah, Luke and Luke's BFF and his fiance in Brugge.
As usual, the Dutch trains delayed everything. A train that was supposed to take me straight to Antwerp became a train that only took me to the border, to a town called Roosendaal, and then I had to change to an ancient Belgian train to Antwerp and then I missed my connection and then had to wait an hour to travel to Brugge.
I had quite the relaxing, easy and lovely Christmas weekend with them.
I truly had a cosy Christmas day without going wild with the drinking, or shenanigans.
We had a champagne breakfast, followed by a long walk around the old town (everything was pretty shut but we enjoyed the wandering anyway) then headed into the centre for mulled wine and Flemish coffees at the Christmas market.
Mel bought some brownies from the patisserie around the corner from the hotel and then the ladies had an impromptu high tea infront of a (gas) fire.
Very civilised. Just like the little town.
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