How to be Creative

"How to be Creative"

13. "Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside."

One of my favorite quotes in this article that's featured in this rule is "The first rule of business is never sell something you love. Otherwise, you may as well be selling your children." The man McLeod speaks of loved collecting antiques, but didn't want to sell the one's he cherished, which led him to subconsciously overprice antiques so they wouldn't leave the shop. I can relate to the same thing, with guitars and guitar effects pedals, which can also be seen as antiques. Older guitars and pedals are not made the same way they used to be, and because of this they are very valuable. I've collected and acquired many guitar pedals, and I couldn't imagine giving them up even a little bit. Now I know I could never run a music shop that buys and sells old guitars, amplifiers, and pedals because I'd probably subconsciously overprice the items too.

15. "The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that seperates what you are willing to do, and what you are not."

I'm sure it confuses people when they hear Chris Ware, one of the top 2 or 3 cartoonists in the world, describes his profession as unrewarding. There have been football players who refuse to play for enjoyment after their careers are over, because their love for the game was ruined after being payed for doing it and being critiqued all the time. Even though Joaquin Phoenix tricked people into thinking he gave up his acting career to become a hip hop artist, he makes an example of how an artist can find his work unrewarding. I believe people have their vocations, and avocations. Your avocations could become the reward for your work, and could make hobbies more enjoyable. McLeod makes a good point that it's easier for him to hear someone say "change that ad" rather than "change that cartoon," since he's less passionate about creating ads.

24. "Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually."

McLeod is correct in saying inspiration/ideas never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long. If you've ever seen The Social Network about how facebook began, Mark Zuckerberg is inspired by normal, everyday ideas and as soon as he gets them he runs to a computer as fast as he can before the idea escapes him. Things like relationship statuses and birthday reminders were just things he noticed people try to keep up on, and he took that and made it easier for people to keep updated with. In a business class in high school, we made a company that sold special blends of coffee, but we didn't want to set up a typical bake sale stand for people to walk by and ignore. So we went to the consumer and bugged the crap out of them, because we realized people were more likely to buy our product then. And we had multiple people do this. We were the most lucrative business in our high school to date.