Pablo Picasso

"There is nothing more interesting than people.  One paints and one draws to learn to see people, to see oneself."

— Pablo Picasso

Spanish Artist

1881 - 1973

La Vie
(1903)

For me, people are central to being a creative leader.  The stories that writers share are about people and their relationships.  When I speak on leadership, I talk about leadership being defined as people working with and through people.  I love paintings and photographs that involve people.  People communicate so much meaning through their expressions and gestures.  I find people fascinating because in them I see bits and pieces of myself.  Through interactions with others I learn more about myself.  People teach me important lessons that I need to learn.

If I were the only human remaining on this planet, life would be boring.  When I was young, I thought I would like to be a hermit and withdraw from the world, but I no longer feel that way.  I do need people.  Having said that, I must confess that I am still an introvert.  What that means is that many people take energy from me and I must have alone time to restore my energy.  Extroverts by nature enjoy people and are re-energized by being with people.  After spending two hours in a mall, I am exhausted and must withdraw to replace my energy and recharge my spirit.  One of the few places where I can be re-energized by people is when I am speaking in front of an audience.  Some audiences will take the energy that I give out when I speak and return it to me ten-fold.  Other audiences will absorb my energy and suck me dry.

Who are the people in your life?  Do they help restore your energy or do they drain your energy?  What about the people in your stories, your paintings and your songs?  Are your relationships positive and life-giving?  Or are your relationships toxic and destructive?  What are the people in your life teaching you?  Even the most difficult people in our lives are there to teach us lessons.  What are you learning about yourself?  And what are you teaching the people in your life?

Wendell Phillips

"Revolutions are not made: they come.  A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak.  It comes out of the past.  Its foundations are laid far back."

— Wendell Phillips

American Abolitionist, Orator, Lawyer, Author

1811- 1884

What, you might ask, do revolutions have to do with creativity?  Revolutions are a creative response to the status quo and happen at all levels of society.  Revolutions are happening in literature and art as each generation rejects the styles of previous generations.  Consider how Impressionism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism started out as movements outside the mainstream.  

Revolutionaries have to think outside the box.  They have to be willing to see the world through new eyes.  The abolitionists stood up against slavery.  The civil rights activists stood up against segregation.  Wendell Phillips also said:  "Physical bravery is an animal instinct, moral bravery is a much higher and truer courage."  

What risks are you taking in your art?  Your writing?  Are you challenging the status quo?  Are you standing up for what is right?  Are you looking at the world with fresh eyes?  Creative leaders have to think outside the box.  They need to risk trying new techniques — new ways of thinking.

Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard Law School.  He was a powerful speaker and became a voice of the anti-slavery movement.

Douglas Adams

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

— Douglas Adams

1952 - 2001

English novelist

When we are young, we have lots of dreams of what we want to do with our lives.  When I was in junior high, I wanted to be an architect.  My father was a general contractor and build over 300 houses in his lifetime so I am sure that was an influence on my dream.  But in recent years, I realize that I had as a child a desire to draw which no one encouraged.  When I was a sophomore in high school I made a commitment to be a minister.  By the time I was a senior in high school I had lost my faith in religion.  In college I dreamed of being a writer.  My life may not have turned out as I imagined, but I believe it turned out better and I became what I was meant to be.

I have spent more than 35 years writing poetry and short stories.  I have published 14 books and hundreds of poems.  I have spent over 20 years as a motivational speaker (ministry) touching people's hearts and souls.  And late in my life I have turned to painting masks.  I know I ended up where I needed to be and did what I needed to do.

I believe that we are all here on this earth to learn lessons and grow.  Everything that happens to us will teach us valuable lessons.  The choices we make will lead us down the roads we need to travel.  We will arrive where we are meant to be, having learned the lessons we were meant to learn.

When I was 50 I wrote an article, "What do I want to be when I grow up? Or how I found myself!", that appeared in my college alumni magazine.  In the article I describe how became what I was meant to be.

Ferruccio Busoni

"The function of the creative artist consists of making laws, not in following laws already made."

— Ferruccio Busoni

Italian Composer, Pianist

1866 - 1924

When I teach people how to speak, I always tell them to learn the rules of speaking, but to understand that they can break every rule.  Speaking is an art, not a science.  Creative leaders understand that there are rules and techniques governing their art, but they have the right to break the rules.  Creative leaders are willing to take a risk and attempt something that lesser artists are unwilling to risk.  If you study the long history of the arts, you will see the pattern — every generation breaks the rules of the older generations and makes new rules.  Think of the changes the impressionists, the cubists and the abstract expressionists  made to art in the last 150 years.  Think about the rules that writers and musicians have broken in the past and continue to break today.  What risks are you taking with your art?  What rules have you been willing to bend and break?  What new rules have you put in their place.  In art, nothing is absolute.

Theodore Roethke

"May my silences become more accurate."

— Theodore Roethke

American Poet

1908 - 1963

Many of us are afraid of silence.  We have a need to fill the the air waves with noise — television, radio, music.  And for those living in cities there are the sounds of cars, trucks, sirens, airplanes and neighbors fighting.  I enjoy external silence because it allows me to think, but I rarely experience internal silence.  My thoughts are always bubbling to the surface, brandishing their weapons.  Can you hear the silence when you are painting?  Do you listen to the silences between the words that you utter?  When I teach people to speak in public, I talk to them about the importance of silence — of learning the pregnant pause, of giving your audience the time to catch up with your words.  Storytellers understand the power of silence.  We must learn to appreciate silence, to enjoy its many flavors.  Sometimes we can learn more from silence than all the words ever spoken or written.

Erica Jong

"Everyone has talent.  What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads."

— Erica Jong

American Writer

1942 - 

What is your talent and have you followed where it will lead you?  As a writer, it has happened to me.  When I get close to revealing the darkness within my spirit, I back away.  My mind finds some reason to get up from the writing table.  And I don't follow my talent into the dark cave of my imagination.  As a speaker and storyteller, there are places I don't go because I know others will be uncomfortable.  It takes courage to follow your muse —  to open yourself up and expose your secrets to a world that might laugh and make fun.  Yes, Erica, everyone has talent.

Salvador Dali

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook.  At seven I wanted to be Napoleon.  And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

— Salvador Dali

1904 - 1989

What did you want to be at age six?  I spent the first eight years of my life on a farm.  My first memory of being interested in a career was when I was in junior high.  I wanted to be an architect.  When I was a sophomore in high school I decided to be a preacher.  And the funny thing is that for the last twenty plus years I have been a professional speaker.  People will come up to me after I have spoken and say that I have missed my calling.  "You should have been a preacher," they say.  I smile and thank them.  I have learned that in some ways I am a preacher.  I am also a farmer and maybe to a certain extent an architect.  I plant seeds of hope in people's hearts.  I build up their self-esteem and help them rebuild their faith in themselves.  What did you want to be growing up?

Pam Shaw

"If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it."

— Pam Shaw

When I graduated from college, I wanted to be a writer.  It took me four years to find employment as a writer.  My first job was writing policy and procedural manuals for a nursing home company.  I was very frustrated in those early years because I could only spend an hour or so every day writing poetry.  I wanted to be a full time writer of novels and poetry.  When I turned fifty, I realized that I had been writing my whole life and that I was a writer.  I may not be rich or famous or able to spend all day writing, but I still had written thousands of poems.  I believe that in the end we all end up doing what we are supposed to do.  At 61 I have spent 35 years working in health care and I know in my heart that is where I am supposed to be.  Yes, I am a writer.  I am a speaker.  And I touch people's lives.  So my advice to others is not to worry if you are not doing what you think you should be doing.  In the end we all do what we should do.  Pam Shaw, the author of the quote, was a school teacher before she became a top salesperson at Mary Kay Cosmetics.  I would change the quote to read:  Whether you are doing what you think you want or not, you are doing what you are supposed to be doing.