Roger von Oech

"If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered."

— Roger von Oech

American Writer, Speaker

1948 -

Celebrate your mistakes.  Each mistake you make is an opportunity to discover a path to a new idea.  For many people mistakes and errors are failures and they quit.  Some people even deny they made a mistake.  Creative leaders understand that mistakes are only the first step on a journey to finding a new idea.  So celebrate your mistakes.  Welcome your errors.  Give thanks for new beginnings.  

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Mary Frank

Photo by Kate Joyce

"Decisions are like butterflies.  Their tongues are like springs, coils.  Butterflies go from one flower to the next looking for nectar, extending their coils, testing every flower.  I'm looking for nectar, too."

—  Mary Frank

British Artist

1933 - 

Do you have decisions that you have delayed making?  Are you riding the fence, not sure which path to take?  Making decisions is rarely easy.  Most of us struggle to make the right decision.  Yet maybe, we should be like the butterfly, flitting from one flower to next, testing every decision and not worrying about whether we make the right one or not.  Every decision will take us somewhere; and I believe that no matter what decision we make, we arrive where we were meant to be.  So be off with you now.  Go seek the nectar of the flowers.

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Carl Jung

"We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life."

— Carl Jung

Swiss Psychiatrist

1875 - 1961

Have you ever felt that you have been here before?  That you have traveled down this road and met these people before?  Life is a path or should I say a series of paths leading us to where we are supposed to go.  Sometimes we come to a fork and make choices that lead us in directions we could not foresee.  Sometimes the path dips and turns in ways we could never have imagined.  Sometimes the path almost disappears and we feel lost and disoriented.  But we are all on a path that intersects with the paths of others.  And we even meet ourselves in various disguises and masks.  Where are you on the path of life?  At the beginning?  Nearing the end?  Caught in the middle?  Have you looked in the mirror lately?  What disguise are you wearing today?

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Moliere

"The greater the obstacle, the more the glory in overcoming it."

— Moliere

French Playwright & Actor

1622 - 1673

We have all faced obstacles in our lives — some big, some small, some real and some imagined.  Sometimes these obstacles defeat us and sometimes we are victorious.  The winners never give up.  There is always a way either over or under or around or through the obstacle.  I have often backed up and found another route around the obstacle.  Sometimes I have plowed right through the obstacle smashing it.  On other occasions I have been able to leap over the obstacle or even dig a tunnel beneath it.  The key is not to let the obstacle stop you.  And the bigger the obstacle, the greater the joy in victory.  What obstacles stand in your way today?  How are you going to overcome them?

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Jasper Johns

"As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken.  Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion."

— Jasper Johns

American Artist

1930 -

Fool's House
(1962)

When I begin to write a short story, I see many paths for the story to take and I have to make choices.  The excitement comes in the choosing.  Sometimes the path ends and I have to retreat and find another path.  Sometimes the path branches and again I have to choose which direction to go.  The same is true when I start a painting.  So many paths.  So many possibilities.  And the same is true of life.  So many paths.  So many choices.  Some become paralyzed by having too many choices.  After I graduated from college, I was paralyzed because I did not know what to do with my life.  Too many choices.  Or in my mind, too few choices.  Once I made a choice, the path began to take shape and I followed it where I needed to go.  And I arrived where I was supposed to be.

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Steve Jobs

"Great art stretches the taste, it doesn't follow tastes."

Steve Jobs

American Businessman/Inventor

1955 - 2011

If you want to achieve greatness, don't follow the pack.  Don't go where others are going.  Choose the path least traveled or create a new path.  Create the world as you want it to be.  Steve Jobs was a visionary.  He took a path that few others could see.  The role of creative leaders is to lead the way to new worlds and new opportunities.  Great artists have a vision of where they want to go and what they want to achieve.  What is your vision?  What path are you on?  Are you leading the way or are you following the pack?

(Quote Source:  Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson)

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Gary Zukav

"Changing the world  begins with the very personal process of changing yourself.  The only place you can begin is where you are, and the only time you can begin is always now."

— Gary Zukav

American Writer/Speaker

1942 -

Painting and writing is about re-creating and re-structuring the world the way we would like it to be.  The creative process is about changing ourselves and in the process of changing ourselves we change the world.  How have you changed in the past year?  How have you grown and developed as a person and as a creative leader?  What choices have you made in the last year to change your life?  Do you understand yourself better today than you did a year ago?  What have you learned about yourself?  What are your plans for next year?  What do you want to be doing a year from now?

Here is Gary Zukav discussing change.

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Larry Wilde

"Like all creative souls, writers learn over time that while they may be failing, they are not failures.  They learn from their mistakes, and they keep on going.  When it seems they've hit a stone wall, they find a way to move ahead.  Even if it takes them down a radically different path."

— Larry Wilde

American Writer, Speaker

1928 - 

The challenge that many creative leaders face is learning to separate their creations from who they are.  If we identify too closely with our creations, we will not be able to handle criticism or failure.  We must realize that we are much more than our creations.  We are human beings with friends, families and other important relationships.  If we let the failure of our creations to depress or anger us, we are identifying too closely with them.  Sometimes our creations will not find a worshiping or adoring audience.  And this is okay.  Learn not to depend on the praise of others — editors, publishers, readers, critics, etc.  Taste is arbitrary and fickle.  Believe in your work and some day an audience will appear.  

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