Creativity: The Importance of Listening and Collaborating by keithsawyer

Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas. Theater is one of the most collaborative art forms, and you have to be able to absorb everything that people tell you….When I go into meetings with successful business people, I’m always amazed at how much they’re able to just sit there and absorb things and then make a really good decision.

Having original ideas is what makes you successful, if you know how to implement them. It’s a rare thing because some people have the ideas and other people have the mechanics, but they can’t do both.   You have to learn how to fail.----Keith Sawyer

First, Make Sure Your Idea Works on a Small Stage New York Times* with Francesca Zambello, artistic director of the Washington National Opera.

If my parents were working, I was backstage watching. Of course, I started to mimic them, but I was most interested in the stage manager. From about age 5, I loved to sit with that person as they would say, “Move this here, move that there.” When I was still a child I started a theater company in my basement with kids from around the neighborhood. So the directing gene, which is a leadership gene, started early on.

When you’re in your 20s and have that leadership gene, the bad thing is that you don’t know when to shut up. You think you know all the answers, but you don’t. What you learn later is when to just listen to everybody else. I’m finding that all those adages about being humble and listening are truer and truer as I get older. Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas.

It’s  all about that detail in the beginning — detail and honest, creative work. I have a lot of respect for many business people, because the reason they’re successful is they were creative. They had a vision, which is why I don’t think that’s any different than what I do. A lot of people know how to crank it out. A lot of people know how to copy others. Not a lot of people have an original idea. Having original ideas is what makes you successful, if you know how to implement them. It’s a rare thing because some people have the ideas and other people have the mechanics, but they can’t do both.

You have to learn how to fail. You have to understand that in any position where you’re at the top, you will fail, and if you don’t fail, you’re probably not that good. So you have to learn how to cope with that. The more you get knocked down, the more you learn how to pick yourself up. It’s like a boxer.

Don’t do something to make money.  When you’re starting something, I really believe you have to have that passion. There has to be a burn, like a shark going after blood.

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