Skip to content

Write Market

“Content, Marketing, Stuff”

February 21, 2012 New Brainstormed

It may be true that “no man is an island, but I can dream.  My friends think I’m joking when I tell them that if I could afford my own island and communicate with the world via the Internet and a very long-distance version of Fresh Direct, I’d go.  See ya in Google+.

So I loved Susan Cain’s article “The Rise of the New Groupthink”, which explores the notion that collective brainstorming is actually bad for creativity.  “Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption.”

I didn’t research to tell me that.  I’ve sat in too many “brainstorming” sessions that result only in a more detailed outlined of the problems we’re trying to solve –and a plan to schedule another meeting.  Typically, one person talks about the problem and their ideas.  Another person echoes back when the first person said.  And the others in the room are either hearing about the need for a solution for the first time –or are acting like they are.

Since I know that, for me, ideas tend to come when I’m walking around or on the subway, or other places where I can tune out conversation, I try to structure my own brainstorming sessions by sending the team an email a week or so in advance with a description or outline of what we’re trying to solve.  I want them to come to the table with ideas.

I’d like to say that this works, but for the most part, it doesn’t.  As Cain suggests, often people are still too fearful that their ideas will be rejected. “People in groups tend to sit back and let others do the work; they instinctively mimic others’ opinions and lose sight of their own; and, often succumb to peer pressure.”

Also, I don’t believe all people are creative, or at least, there are varying degrees of creativity.  Just because someone thought of a different a spreadsheet formula to use doesn’t mean that they’re going to come up with a new campaign idea.  But it doesn’t mean that they can’t.  But you can’t take everyone’s time up with meetings – just the right people.  So maybe I should try collecting ideas from those who want to offer them, and ask the most creative people to the meeting to explore them.

Cain says her point is not that people are islands; they need each other to develop greater meaning in their lives.  And I suppose the point of the creative endeavors is to have an impact on others.

But I personally would still like to be on an island.

Image:  vmiramontes

Tags: , , ,

February 15, 2012 An Entrepreneurial Teacher in Cambodia

I’ve always admired entrepreneurs, not just because they take huge risks to pursue something that they –and often only they – believe in from the outset. And they believe in themselves at the start in a way many of us only can after years of experience.

I wish that kind of optimistic drive could be taught.

And I’ve especially admired those who pursue a venture not only because they want to build a better product or business – but because they also want to better the way business is done – whether to benefit the environment, the community, or the world at large.

So when on vacation on Cambodia, I heard the story of Sot Kemsour, I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. I think too often we think of entrepreneurism as being a product of countries where things like infrastructure and access to credit and capital are non-issues. But here was someone who grew up in a small village in Siem Reap, put himself through night school to learn English while driving a tuk tuk to support himself, and eventually started his own business, operating a fleet of tuk tuks. But when he returned to his village for his wedding and realized how few children were able to afford the public school fees, he sold his business and founded New Hope Cambodia, and organization dedicated to helping the people of Mondul 3 village.

With help from Kerry Huntly Okoh, an Australian he met while she was volunteering in his village, he has not only built a free school for the children, but also training in computers, sewing (Cambodia and Vietnam both have many clothing factories), the restaurant business, sustainable farming, and tourism. And with some programs, like sewing, farming, and tourism, they not only help some students develop skills, but also start their own businesses.

They’ve also built a small health care center, are building a shelter for abused women and children, and conduct outreach throughout the village to help feed and educate the impoverished residents on such areas as human and drug trafficking, alcohol abuse, home repairs, and child care.

What Kemsour doing in his village is inspiring and, as I said before, surprising. I can immediately name 10+ entrepreneurs who made their success and then turned their attention to philanthropy. And I don’t blame them. Building a business is a mission of its own. But to hear about someone who walked away from a growing business – in a place where entrepreneurial success is so rare – made me realize that that optimistic drive can be found globally. And, as may be seen with some of Kemsour’s students, it can be taught.

Tags: , , , ,

February 12, 2012 Dude, Where’s My Muse?

I’ve heard many times that you should pursue your passion, and not worry about the money.  “It will come,” they say, “they” being people with vacation homes and retirement plans.

But many of us would love to pursue something that’s difficult to make money at, even for the best of us.  For me, it’s writing.  Over 90% of books published in a year don’t sell more than 1,000 copies, or so an agent cited at a recent Writer’s Digest conference.

It that’s not enough to make you hang up your keyboard, then you have the constant self-doubt and crushing criticisms.

And then there are days when you don’t even know what to write.

In her TED presentation, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, talked about the need to nurture creativity.  She spoke of her own pressure and the realization that it’s exceedingly likely that her greatest success is behind her.  “That’s the kind of thought that could lead a person to start drinking gin at 9 o’clock in the morning.”

I know how she feels.  Except for the greatest success part.

Then she muses on a creative force being outside the self, that maybe we should go back in time to when they used to think it was due to external forces, like the muses or – like where the word comes from – genies.  Then, rather than put all this pressure on ourselves to produce, we could blame our genies for not doing their jobs.

True creativity, she says, doesn’t come from a person, it comes from the creative genius that that person is connected to. Just remember that great ideas always come when you’re not thinking. You need the silence to connect to your ‘creative genius’.

As I listened to her, I thought, yes, that’s it.  I’m not lacking lost, my genie is.  And, being Irish, I figure my genie is probably just drunk somewhere.  I just have to wait until he’s sober.  Then I’ll know what to write.

But she also says that our job is to do the job, the work.  Do your part, show up, make the effort – again and again, and sooner or later, the genius will come.  And perhaps, so will the money.

Tags: , , , ,