Creative Confidence by Tom Kelly and David Kelly

When you hear the word “creativity”, what do you think of next?

This is the first line in the book ‘Creative Confidence’ by Tom Kelly and David Kelly. Take a moment and think about that question. If the words that come to your mind are along the lines of ‘drawing’, ‘art’ and ‘music’, you’re not alone. Nine out of ten times, we often conjure up the images of an artist or a painter toiling away at his/her desk ‘creating’ the next masterpiece. We rarely think of creativity in terms of it’s real dictionary meaning - the use of imagination or original ideas to create something - on in other words, ‘inventiveness’. ‘Create something’ is the key here, and it’s not limited to just the discipline of art. This is the first fundamental concept that the authors clarify in this book.

Now, why this book? David Kelly is the founder of the IDEO company which is excels at designing products and solutions to companies worldwide. Fun fact - IDEO designed the first manufacturable computer mouse for Apple, and one of its founders pioneered interaction design. So when I came across this book, it was surely tempting enough. And with all the drive around innovation and creativity everywhere, this book fits perfectly as the 101 book.

We often hear about how competetive the world is becoming and how everyone - companies and individuals alike - need to be more creative or innovative to stay ahead of the curve. While this urgency to get creative is good, what is not articulated is how we reach there. It’s not rare to hear someone in the management asking its employees to be more creative at some all-hands meet. Or organize an yearly ‘hackathon’ event, full of freebies. But this book shows us that it doesn’t need to happen once in a year or in a quarter. Through the chapters, the authors provide very clear and practical steps to get creative, in a tone that sounds more like a friend than an instructor.

A central idea in the book is the emphasis on ‘doing something’. It sounds very simple, but as the authors explain, this is the fundamental hindrance to start getting creative. We often have ideas, but simply lack the effort or courage to take the first step. A best example is my desire to get better at ‘writing’ - I have read multiple books on writing and grammar including ‘On Writing Well’, ‘Elements of Style’ - but it’s only when I actually started writing what you’re reading now that I started noticing changes in my writing. And I am not writing fiction or giving my perspective on a subject after deep research; it’s just writing about something I’ve read. Just this simple activity helped me explore my creative side in writing - how do I start? how does the flow go? where do I stop? how do I spark interest in the readers? Trust me, all we need is the first step! With the ideas presented in this book, I’m sure everyone can start taking that first step.

Here’re some interesting lines from the book:

  • Doubts in one’s creative ability can be cured by guiding people through a series of small successes.
  • Fear of failure is the single biggest obstacle people face to creative success.
  • If you want more success, you have to be prepared to shrug off more failure.
  • Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. To learn from failure, however, you have to ‘own’ it.
  • “Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain” - R.W.Emerson.
  • “Courage is only the accumulation of small steps” - Gyorgy Konrad.
  • “If you want a good idea, start with a lot of ideas” - Linus Pauling.
  • “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that ain’t so” - Mark Twain.
  • Focusing our energy on the right question can make the difference between incremental improvement and breakthrough innovation.
  • “Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda in Star Wars.
  • The desire to be best can get in the way of getting better.
  • The front end of innovation is supposed to be messy.
  • Never go to a meeting without a prototype.
  • Passion doesn’t preclude effort.
  • Leaders can’t dictate culture, but they can nurture it.

Read, write, create, do something!