INSPIRATION CAN BE COOL AGAIN

INSPIRATION CAN BE COOL AGAIN

The number one song in New Zealand over the Holidays was one that only Dogs could hear…right—humans couldn’t hear it. Well, it’s certainly a very creative approach to the shrinking CD market.

Big week for Celebrity Crimes Against Humanity:


*Lindsey Lohan posing nude as a modern Marilyn Monroe in New York Magazine. The thing here is that junk culture is SO bankrupt, it again needs to look BACK to create a stir. Let Marilyn rest in peace…

*Sharon Stone is a mouthpiece for American affairs in the Dubai papers. I guess that they see Pop and Junk Culture as being our primary export so she must be credible. Kinda like how 100 years ago they’d want to talk to Henry Ford...now it's Sharon Stone. That’s a problem though. She’s a fucking MOVIE star…she’s cute…big deal.

Then…

*Bullet hits a bullet. Nice to see that he missile intercepted the satellite. Impressive creativity and mastery of technology that went into that one. Some say it’s “horrible” that space is being used like this. Guess what? It’s the high ground. This is just the beginning of military applications in space. I’m glad we are on top of it since we’re getting clobbered in so many other areas that involve tech and creative. Then there are the conspiracies---It didn’t really happen. Get a life. It happened..OK? Interesting to see how many though it was going to fail. “Oh, the government…they’ll screw it up”. 180 degrees from the macho we can do anything Captain America attitude of the 50’s. I think we have a confidence problem.

*My Fair Lady. Heard that the other day. It’s really good in a British kinda way. Not a big Showtunes guy, but I like that one. Not sure why I mentioned his, but I can’t get some of those Verrrrrrrrry British songs out of my head.

*Geldof praises George Bush for his efforts in Africa. I commend Sir Bob for that. Refreshing in that you’d expect him to say “Screw Bush” but he gave credit where credit is due. Of course the media, except for Fox, underplayed and under reported it because Bush isn’t fashionable. More interested in Lindsey Lohan I guess.

*A major new network (hint: It wasn't Fox) spends about an hour covering an “emergency”. It was absolutely ridiculous. There was no emergency. An American Airlines MD 80 had a landing gear door stuck and diverted to Miami. Routine, but they treated it like some huge disaster in the making. The misinformation, “Oh my God” timbre of the newscasters and sheer misinformation was frightening. A dis-service. Horrible sensationalism. Finally they had an American Airlines Captain on the line who said “Nothing against your network, but this really is no big deal”…of course the plane landed without incident, though it was covered with the ferocity of a major disaster. Junk culture personified. The payoff was that it was a big nothing.

There are times I get bummed out by the state of our culture and the LACK of the ultra powerful media doing anything about it. I’m not talking the shut down of the mainstream…but INVENTION. Stimulation. I always like to borrow from some great thinkers….a reminder that inspiration is timeless…and can be cool again:



"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
— Niccolo MachiavelliThe Prince (1532)
"The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades."
— John P. KotterLeading Change
"Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times."
— Niccolo Machiavelli
"People don't resist change. They resist being changed!"
— Peter Senge

"It is a bad plan that admits of no modification."
— Publilius SyrusFirst Century BC
"The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better."
— Robert P. Vanderpoel

"Every generation needs a new revolution."
— Thomas Jefferson

"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
—John F. Kennedy
"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

"Capital isn't so important in business. Experience isn't so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."
— Harvey Firestone
"Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart."
— Mencius (Meng-Tse), 4th century BCE
"Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results, is the definition of crazy."
— Unknown
M. A. Rosanoff: "Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe."Edison: "There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish somep'n!"
— Thomas Edison
"Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted."
— George Kneller
"It isn't the incompetent who destroy an organization. The incompetent never get in a position to destroy it. It is those who achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up."
— F. M. Young
"It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date."
— Roger von Oech
"We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode. Not that the closed mode cannot be helpful. If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies. When you charge the enemy machine-gun post, don't waste energy trying to see the funny side of it. Do it in the "closed" mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the "open" mode—to open your mind again to all the feedback from our action that enables us to tell whether the action has been successful, or whether further action is need to improve on what we have done. In other words, we must return to the open mode, because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent."
— John Cleese
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas."
— Dr. Linus Pauling
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."
— Albert von Szent-Gyorgy
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science."
— Albert Einstein
Without the playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable."
— Carl Jung
"When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light."
— John W. Gardner
"To be creative you have to contribute something different from what you've done before. Your results need not be original to the world; few results truly meet that criterion. In fact, most results are built on the work of others."
— Lynne C. LevesqueBreakthrough Creativity
"We shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
— T. S. Eliot
"Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future."
— James Bertrand
"There's a way to do it better—find it."
— Thomas Edison
"The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail."
— Edwin H. Land
"Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."
— Arthur Koestler
"There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns."
— Edward de Bono
"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found."
— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
"The things we fear most in organizations—fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances—re the primary sources of creativity."
— Margaret J. Wheatley

"The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction."
— Lawrence Miller
"When the 'weaker' of the two brains (right and left) is stimulated and encouraged to work in cooperation with the stronger side, the end result is a great increase in overall ability and ... often five to ten times more effectiveness."
— Professor Robert Ornstein, University of California

The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away."
— Linus Pauling
"To have a great idea, have a lot of them."
— Thomas Edison
"Companies have to nurture [creativity and motivation]—and have to do it by building a compassionate yet performance-driven corporate culture. In the knowledge economy the traditional soft people side of our business has become the new hard side."
— Gay MitchellExecutive VP, HR, Royal Bank
"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time."
— John Stuart Mill
“Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits.”
— Edward de Bono
"Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport."
— Robert Wieder

"Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried."
— Frank Tyger
"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction."
— Picasso
"If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail."
— Heraclitus
"The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive. Great Groups offer a new model in which the leader is an equal among Titans. In a truly creative collaboration, work is pleasure, and the only rules and procedures are those that advance the common cause."
— Warren Bennis


"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
— Howard Aiken
"Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?"
— Robert Kennedy
"In every work of genius, we recognize our once rejected thoughts."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants."
— Roger von Oech
"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things."
— Theodore Levitt
"Innovation is the process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form."
— Watts Humprey
"The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams."
— W. Arthur Porter

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions"
— Albert Einstein
"I roamed the countryside searching for the answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains along with the imprints of coral and plant and seaweed usually found in the sea. Why the thunder lasts a longer time than that which causes it and why immediately on its creation the lightening becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone and why a bird sustains itself in the air. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life."
— Leonardo da Vinci
"Slaying sacred cows makes great steaks."
— Dick Nicolose
"In the modern world of business it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman."
— David M. Ogilvy

"A person might be able to play without being creative, but he sure can't be creative without playing."
— Kurt Hanks and Jay Parry

"[I]in 1913, the first assembly line was implemented at Ford Motor Company. The process grew like a vine and eventually spread to all phases of the manufacture of Ford cars, and then through the entire world of heavy industry. There can be no doubt that a powerful revolution occurred at Highland Park—but it was not the assembly line itself that provided the power. Rather, it was the creation of an atmosphere in which improvement was the real product: a better, cheaper, Model T followed naturally. Every man on the payroll was invited to contribute ideas, and the good ones were implemented without delay."
— Douglas BrinkleyWheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and A Century of Progress
"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."
— Erich Fromm
"It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you."
— Tony BennBritish politician, in the Observer
"The world is but a canvas to our imaginations."
— Henry David Thoreau
"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."
— George Lois
"If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original."
— Sir Ken Robinson