On creativity for a living

The fear of having to be creative “on demand” – after selling your intangible services and finding a client – is enough to stop many would-be solopreneurs in their cubes. Getting over this hurdle is a necessary step for anyone who intends to work in a creative enterprise. Even if you don’t know where your vision is going to take you, and all you have is a little seed of curiosity about starting your own business, you need to let it grow and take form.

Here’s a couple of favourite quotes on the concept of imagination – “the workshop of the mind” (from Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich first published in 1945:

Gradually, the idea became a giant under its own power, and it coaxed, nursed, and drove me…Ideas are like that. First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all opposition.

Another from Pamela Wallin’s Speaking of Success book: Many creative people must take risks and do something no one else has done. The audience doesn’t want to keep reading the same book or hearing the same tune. Even the award-winning, internationally successful Margaret Atwood feels pressures, and she shared with me her sense of them:

Think of it – what could be more risky than going in with nothing but what’s inside your head and what you can do with your hands? You have nothing else… You have what’s in your head and what can come out by your hands, and that’s it.

So clear those obstacles, and get ready for the ride of your life. In case you’re wondering, the birthday card above was sent from a fellow corporate fugitive on my 42nd birthday, this past summer. We worked together in a corporate communications department many years ago – where the seeds were planted. She tagged me with the nickname Galloping – neither of us remember why - and it has stuck ever since.