Usually, I only flip through a few pages of the hard copy edition Ad Age sends me via snail mail because I’ve already read a chunk of the articles as they arrive in to my GMail on a daily basis.
Then, I read through “The Creativity 50”
Much as it sounds, “The Creativity 50” is a run down of the top 50 most creative individuals, regardless of profession, in the world.
Three members of this list had comments that struck me as awe-inspiring and / or amazing (usually both).
So without further ado …
“Dan Wieden said that we’re no use to him unless we’ve failed three times.”
– Eric Quennoy // Executive Creative Director @ Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam
Love this quote because it brings to light the fact that you should not be scared to fail.
As a basketball player, failing 60% of the time from 3-point range gets you known as a sharp shooter. In baseball, failing 70% of the time at the plate leads to a Hall of Fame career. In display media buying, failing 99.8% of the time results in a stellar banner campaign.
You should not be scared to fail – You should be scared not to try.
Failure is our our most effective teacher. Anytime I fail I remember the missteps I made so when I repeat that task I can correct myself and avoid making the same mistake twice.
“Being forgettable is risky”
– David Droga, Founder of Droga5
This statement is true on so many different levels, some of the principal ones being:
- People don’t remember average. If you’re average, that means people aren’t remembering you.
- If you’re too “vanilla”, you may tend to get overlooked. Don’t be afraid to stand out! “Macho Man” Randy Savage wasn’t all that bright of a guy, but how could you ever forget someone who dressed like this
- Don’t do anything that would tarnish your image in the eyes of those who are important to you. Once you do so, ensuing missteps will make it easy for you to drift slowly out of their realm of concern …
In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes you can make it your personal / professional life is to walk out of a room and be instantly forgotten. If people have to ask, “Who was that guy, again?” then you obviously didn’t do enough to make an impression.
“Age is the biggest creativity killer”
– Brian Wong, founder of Kiip
I founded The Anti Resume on a concept similar to this (that age shouldn’t be the sole determining factor in employee potential) and Brian took it to a whole ‘nother level.
And I love it.
It’s brash, honest and cocky as hell. And the older I get, the more I agree that it becomes harder and harder to think creatively.
Who knew that all I needed was a 20-year old CEO to remind me of this fact to get me thinking creatively again!
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A link to the full “Creativity 50” can be found here.