Define yourself by your own (thinking) activities
Do not shape yourself by the job title somebody else gives you. People who are brave call themselves ‘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.

The power of thinking is an underestimated value to most of the business activities we do today. Most of the times we only see acknowledgement for great thinking by ‘leaders’ of companies. People like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama and Winston Churchill are just a few examples. We see their actions and acknowledge them by thinking power. This is great, but mostly happens because they made a difference.

In our creative economy it’s great we more and more see the power of the individual. Driven by networks like, for example, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter the voice of the crowd gets a saying in a growing amount of important decisions around the world. We see change both big and small.

Combining the power of individuals and a growing set of creative ideas and impulses requires us to channel. We need to conceptualize our ideas in order to make them work and be able to put them out in the open. An idea is worth nothing. Everybody has ideas and it gets easier to put them out there. We need concepts, not ideas. Beautiful names, concrete plans, shapes and designs. Driven by actions is key because most people with the ability to come up with concepts, don’t get the chance to create them.

In my opinion, thinking activities are big pillars on which we can define ourselves. People that are able to create change from their thoughts are the new leaders. It’s an encouraging thought that in the world of tomorrow there will be room for millions of small and individual leaders and not only thousands of leaders that control the change the world is going through.

I was happy to see Rattan Chadha talk about this subject in his interview with KBIRI. He only rarely gives interviews, which is good because most of his time goes to building business and changing the world.

Rattan Chadha “Everytime I go on a holiday, I start new businesses” from KBIRI on Vimeo.

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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.

This is actually one of my favorites. Maybe a bit strange, I’ve only flew once in my life and probably won’t leave the country on short notice. But I believe being nomadic is more about blending in, not necessarily traveling around the globe.

A nomad needs to be able to acclimatize in groups, changing environments and businesses. This sounds general, but I believe it’s not. In my everyday life I see a lot of people that are in the creative industry and aren’t nomadic at all. They’re lead by the urge to comply to expectations of their environment. Not a bad thing, but limiting at least.

In my opinion people (and creatives in particular) need to be able to adapt to change. This requires you to easily blend into groups, work with new people, processes and even more important, work everywhere. If it might be on the train, airplane or in a crowded office.

Now if we blend that together two things pop into my mind. If you need to be able to work everywhere, determination and focus are key. Second, you need to be able and adapt to change or be able to change things for yourself. Can’t focus? Be nomadic, find another spot to work. Sounds logical, but for a lot of people it just isn’t.

For sometime now I have this big plan to life abroad… Not that average trip to New Sealand, USA and all. But more like how I’m going to combine a style with frequent trips abroad with work and personal life. This can be hard and needs a lot of re-considering and preparations before starting off.

My plans involve at least living in New York. Why New York if I never been there before? Because I think it’s one of the role models of how our cities will become one day. It intrigues me how it develops, appeals to millions of people and grows beyond a size we can think of.

So one day I will be one of those international Nomads. I will.

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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.

I believe the quote contains a contradiction. As an entrepreneur I surely value the ability to think above earning every penny I can get. When you make sure you keep the thinking process on the go, you’ll be able to make money with your intellectual property quite easily. The contradiction lies within companies being worried to lose money. Here’s why.

I love to share my ideas and knowledge. With everyone interested but also with companies in the same industry or maybe even direct competition. This is related to an active thinking process. If done right, you’re always ahead of the competition or at least be able to use you thinking power to change your idea, concept or strategy.

People asked me if I’m not scared people ’steal’ an idea. I’ve always told that idea’s can’t be stolen because they’re just a bunch of thoughts. I focus on the difference between ideas and concepts. Developing an idea to a strong and valuable concept takes time, thinking power and skill. Now the concept has a small market worth, but more important  Depending on the level of completion of the concept you need to be careful about what to tell and what not to tell.

When a competitor copies and launches on of your concepts, is your company losing money? I think not. I even think it’s good when it happens. When competition sees the same opportunity as you, this is evidence there is a market for your product. Besides that you can watch what they’re doing and learn from it. Use that information in your thinking process and it will enable you to take more balanced decisions.

Be open on abstract levels and get people to think with you. Do this face to face, or if you like on big scale via blogs and twitter. This opens the freeway of collective creative intelligence.

Here are some of my tips regarding this TCE rule.

1. Train your thinking power
   Read blogs, articles and books related to stuff your working on. Keeps you sharp. But also talk with other people about their ideas. Not only do most of them like to hear your feedback, it trains your thinking power because you get better at it and learn from them.
2. Don’t overprotect your ideas
   It is very important to protect your ideas, but over protection makes it harder to apply changes when needed.
3. Be open
   Closely related to my first tip. When working on your own ideas, share your thoughts with others. They maybe working in your industry, but maybe even more important in a different industrie. Learn from their thinking process when pitching your idea. Best example is related to on of the ideas we’re working within Firmhouse, Dealkeeper. At a conference I talked about it and somebody pointed me directly to a competitor still quite under the radar. I probably wouldn’t found that competitor myself.

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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.

I consider myself a full time entrepreneur, working hard on starting my company and inventing myself. I’m also a student, working hard to get my bachelor in ‘Communication and Multimedia Design’. This means I’m in a continuous mode of self-exploration.

Luckily, there aren’t big contradictions in the combination of my study and company, which creates room to explore knowledge outside my company and study.

But who or what am I?

I’m a generalist. I know a little about a lot of subjects. Maybe you can call me a ‘Creative Generalist’. I love to explore information and trends, but I won’t digg in too far. Some people think being a generalist has a lot of downsides, but I believe it’s a great thing. However last year I really didn’t think about it this way.

Last year there were two ‘changing’ moments. Merging Firmhouse with Michiel’s company and switching my major study.

Within Firmhouse I’m responsible of planning projects and testing our ideas so we can launch them as new products and services. This creative process involves a lot of thinking and quick analysis. When concepting is done with ‘too much’ knowledge, it becomes a burden that keeps you from ‘freewheeling’.

My first major study was focused on business intelligence and informatics, a study teaching you to become a specialist in analyzing business processes and translating these experiences to system designs and blueprints. I didn’t like it because of the contents of the study, but more important I couldn’t focus on something I was already capable of doing on a basic level. I switched to a more creative study: Communication and Multimedia Design. It’s closer related to my tasks within Firmhouse and it focuses on trends.

These moments are important because it teached me more about being a generalist. I was told by experienced people that I needed to find my specialization in order to become a better at what I’m doing. I needed to find that ‘inner spark’ so I could develop better skills and add more value to the projects I worked on. After a lot of thinking about this, I can say I’m becoming a specialist in being a generalist… If I look at how fast I can go from idea to concept compared to one year ago, I’ve made tremendous progress.

What do I do to invent myself?

I try to be as diverse as possible. It enables me to put things in perspective and allows me to do a good job at Firmhouse. I read a diversity of books and blogs. The people I know are diverse, which allows me to learn from their experiences and knowledge. I use my blog and Twitter to re-share my experiences and knowledge so other people can learn from me.

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Most of the assignments involved communication problems, to be more specific most the charities asked a creative approach to generate more money for their cause.

StopTBC!
I was assigned to the KNCV Tuberculosefonds which recently launched a new campaign to get more attention for the problems of TBC in developing countries. It’s called StopTBC! and will be all over the place in the coming weeks. They asked us to think of ways how they can generate a steady and growing income for cause.

So we did. The first session resulted in three idea’s. These contained two important aspects, awareness and the simple actions people can take to donate and let others donate. In the second part of the evening the ideas where translated to one concept.

We presented the concept twice, in Dutch. Below you find the pitches I’ve recorded with my Zi6, sorry for the bad quality . The room was quite dark.. Enjoy!

8UO TBC – Presentatie eerste ideeën from Bob on Vimeo.

8UO TBC – Eindpresentatie from Bob on Vimeo.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this, I love to hear you.

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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’.

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. 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 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.
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 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Be very ambitious
    Just Go.
11. 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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To be creative and move forward we need to play. That’s what Tim’s message is. Children play a lot and that’s when they explore their world for new possibilities, opportunities and things to learn. While playing they are more involved in open possibilities than adults. They don’t fear judgement by their ‘peers’ upon their actions. The more a child is trusting the environment he is in, the more he will play and forget everything that is happening around him.

To play we need to trust our environment and peers. Becoming part of the adult world, the first things that will be removed are our toys. All those things we enjoyed and had fun with. Lego that we used to build all those nifty constructions! Not good as Tim Browns says, and I agree.

Brown acknowledges a three stage process: ‘Playfull Exploration’, ‘Playfull Building’ and ‘Roleplay’. In short:

• Playfull Exploration is about going out and use play to discover new stuff
• Playfull Building is about executing your creative plans, still part of the game and not a different process. It’s just the moment you switch to build something that is tangible and could be discussed with others. During this process creative solutions for problems is key.
• Roleplay if there’s nothing to build, let’s say your desinging a new service process, use roleplay instead of playfull building.

So fast forward, we aren’t kids anymore. What do you need to implement play?

Besides an office that has room for relaxation and thinking, you need stuff that’s laying around to play with. Stuff you can throw at each other. Stuff you can use to show what you mean. Stuff that recharges your creative mind when having a ‘creativity block’.

Nobody within the professional field will be able (and probably doesn’t want) to play all day. ‘Play mode’ is the equivalent to divergent thinking. As a professional you need to make choices, therefore converge your thoughts. According to Tim Brown, those two go very good together.

I’m still learning and figuring how to switch between those modes more easily as I do know. Anybody that has tips and tricks on that, please let me know . I’d like to start some discussion and get more thoughts about this out there.

To conclude. One of my Twitter friends shared this video. A french speaking girl makes up this fairytail about ghosts, monsters, wizards, frogs. Not only very cute, we need to learn from this.

It’s time to press play.

Once upon a time… from Capucha on Vimeo.

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