Creativity + Productivity = Success
Once upon a time, I saw business as The Enemy.
As an aspiring young writer and poet, my worst nightmare was becoming a corporate zombie, sleep-walking to work in a faceless office block.
I wonder what my younger self would have made of this passage from Richard Branson’s book Business Stripped Bare?
Tweet
If you could choose any place and time in history in which to live and realise your creative ambitions, which would you pick?
A few years ago, if you’d asked me that question, as a poet, I’d have been spoilt for choice.
Ancient Ireland would be hard to beat. The Celts really knew how to treat a poet. The role of Bard was a respected position, as an official of the court and the guardian of the tribe’s history and tradition.
Poets’ satires were said to be so potent they could raise boils on the faces of their victims. They rode their chariots into battle, singing and playing the harp to encourage their troops – and protected by their magical aura, as it was bad luck to kill a poet.
Tweet
Photo by Andrew Magill
When Charles Schwab became President of Bethlehem Steel in 1903, he made an unusual offer to his consultant, Ivy Lee:
Show my staff and me a way to get more done in less time and I’ll pay you any fee within reason.
Without batting an eyelid, Lee offered to give Schwab a tip in a few minutes that would boost his productivity by at least fifty percent.
Tweet
If you’d like some free financial advice for your creative business, you may like to know Sarah Thelwall and I have just launched an email newsletter called Creative Money Tips.
Every month or so, we’re sending out a new article with practical advice to help you manage the money side of your creative business – covering topics such as pricing, accounting, negotiating, getting paid (on time!), and reconciling creativity and commerce.
Unlike most publications about small business finance, this one is written by two people who understand your priorities as a creative person – so we’ll focus on the bits you need to know to keep your creative business profitable and sustainable, and explain them in plain English.
Tweet
If you earn your living as a creative professional, you’ll be familiar with what Todd Henry of Accidental Creative describes as “the pressure to be brilliant at a moment’s notice”.
While we can all do this from time to time, the key to success in a creative career is the ability to do it again and again – without burning yourself out in the process.
I recently had the pleasure of asking Todd some questions about this and other issues he covers in his new book The Accidental Creative – and we recorded the interview for you to download and listen to.
Topics we cover include:
