Currently I’m reading this book ‘The Creative Economy‘ by John Howkins. It’s a great book on how people make money from ideas. He shows some basic principles, provides details on creative industries and then jumps in with practicle tips on how to combine creativity with business.
The book is a must read if you consider yourself in the creative industrie and work a lot with ideas, concepts and designs. Therefore I will only share an excerpt from his ‘Ten rules for success in the creative economy’.
- 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. Break the rules. Be clear about your own assets and talents. They are unique. And they are all you have. - Put the priority on ideas, not on data
Create and grow your own creative imagination. Build a personal balance sheet of intellectual capital. Understand patents, copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property laws. Entrepreneurs are more worried to lose their ability to think than if their company loses money. - 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 isn’t about being alone. They are likely to travel in groups. Writer Charles Handy says leaders must combine ‘a love of people’ and ‘capacity for aloofness’. Creatives need to be able to think alone or working together. - Define yourself by your own (thinking) activities
Do not shape yourself by the job title somebody else gives you. People who are brave call themselfs ‘thinkers’. Computer companies try to sell ‘business solutions’ to their client’s problems. In the creative economy we each can think and exchange creative solutions with others. - Learn endlessly
Borrow. Innovate. ‘A New Idea is Often Two Old Ideas Meeting for the First Time’. Be a magpie. Creative thinkers scavenger for ideas constantly. It does not matter where you get your ideas from. What you do with them is what matters. 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 ‘elimanate all false movements, slow movements and useless movements’. Wayward movements may lead to amazing discoveries. - Exploit fame and celebrity
Fame and celebrity are the so called ’sunk cost’. They cannot be recoverd but can be further exploited at no expense. 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 wel known is as important in the 21th century as typing speeds were in the clerical economy. The essence of being a star, as revealed by David Bowie, is ‘the ability to make yourself as fascinating to others as you are to yourself’. That is for being famous about being creative, not to get a lot of media attention. - Treat the virtual as real and vice versa
Cyberspace is another dimension to everyday life. Do not judge reality by wheter it’s based on technology but by more important and eternal matters suc as humanity and truth. Bandwith is useless without a message. - Be kind
Kindness is a mark of success. Data never say please. Humans can and always should say please, and mean it. People treat each other as they themselves are treated; exactly as a fast computer produces more data more quickly, so a kind person will be invited to more networks, receive more knowledge and create more. - Admire success, openly
‘The person who said, “It’s not whether you win or lose that counts” probably lost…’Don’t be fixated on success, be curious about failure. Creative people are strictest judge of their own successes and failures because they want to learn from them. The worst thing is depression, not recession. You will never win if you cannot lose. - Be very ambitious
Just Go. - Have fun
Creatitivity is supported by ‘Play’. When people have fun together some remarkeble work can be created. People that enjoy themselves are not only happy, but achieve more and fast. Be sure to not worry, the sleeping brain sorts out the previous day’s affairs as a ‘creative worry factory’. Feed it.
At the end, Howkins notes: ‘And when writing the then rules for success in the creative economy, don’t worry if you end up with eleven. You can break your own rules’.
When reading them, somehow I think I already apply a part of these rules somehow. In the coming weeks I share my experience on how I apply these ‘rules’. As the ‘rules’ are more guidelines I will share my experience on how I put them to practice.
I look forward to reply’s and experiences from others. So please share them. Let’s colaborate!
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