of your “next big thing,” but you need all the other chapters to build on that foundation. Imagine that you are building a house:
1 The first chapter, with its ten thoughts on creativity, deals with the mechanics behind your vision. There’s no house yet—just a plot and a vision. The more clearly defined your vision is, the more likely your house will fulfill you in every detail. It is an art to have visions, and not everyone can see them.
2 The second chapter presents ten practical tools for brainstorming and finding ideas to help you design your house. You will create the plans and technical drawings, evaluate all the material requirements, and create the (theoretical) foundation of your house.
3 The third chapter provides ten tools for evaluating ideas: your construction plans will be checked by “structural engineers” with tests on safety, stability, durability, efficiency, and common sense. If your plans pass our inspection, your house will be structurally sound.
4The fourth chapter introduces ten success-focused ideas for powerful implementation. It will guide you through the construction phase of your house. You will learn how to lay the foundation and set the first bricks so that your vision can become reality.
5The fifth chapter provides ten thoughts on world-class leadership that will transform you from simple homeowner into full-blown winner in the game of the best version of your life. Your vision has been realized, and your plans fulfilled: your house is standing and it’s filled with great people who inspire you. Now the task is about having a household that not only works, but is also fun and fulfilling, bringing many happy moments to you and everyone else involved.
Okay, you may be thinking: “But I’m not creative at all!” An important thought before we go out on the thin ice of creativity together: Creativity is not so much a skill. It’s an attitude, and ultimately an evaluation made by the beholder. And as an evaluation, creativity comes after the creation.
An artist will throw four shades of yellow on a canvas and sell the thing for ten million dollars. Why? Because someone decided it was unbelievably creative. Which came first, the creation or that evaluation?
Let’s follow this train of thought for a moment. What would happen if we disregarded our nervousness and uncertainty about our own creativity, and only concentrated on the one element of the creative process that we can control, our action? So, in this chapter, we’ll disassemble creativity and—from now on—focus only on the nails we can sink.
The following ten thoughts about creativity are actionable and fool-proof, contrarily to whatever you might hear from art gallery small talk. Start before you’re ready! Creativity can only be confirmed after you’ve made the first brush stroke. Claim your creativity by just getting started! To believe in your gift, your talent, the artistry of your next really great idea—that is the true creativity, and that’s what will uncover your genius. Just between us: creativity is, above all, a synonym for courage. Let’s walk out onto the thin ice together! Let me help you grab hold of your courage and show the world your art—one step at a time!
1. Where Are Your Creative Ideas Coming From?
We’d made it! We (my three best friends and co-founders, Flo, David, Siamak—and I) were beaming: our entrepreneurial dream had come true! One hour before our fourth NEONSPLASH–Paint-Party® event, more than 5,000 guests lined up outside the door, waiting to be let into the sold-out concert hall. They came to dance to electronic music and get hit with neon paint balls. Something that, at the time, might have seemed unimaginable, and even offensive, became my first really successful business idea.
Our business idea worked, and it worked really well. More than 500,000 people have visited us to date in more than 60 cities throughout Europe. And they would readily agree. “The best party of my life,” is what most say after a NEONSPLASH–Paint-Party®.
I’m often asked how we got the idea. My answer is short and honest: “We didn’t come up with the idea; the idea came up to us!” Ideas come from the sum of everything you are exposed to—they are the product of your environment. Can you stay home and generate good ideas just by typing on your computer? Forget it! But go for a walk, talk to new people, read books that challenge you, and visit new places, and you won’t be able to save yourself from good ideas.
Fact: change yields progress. The average tenure at ultra-creative companies like Google is just over one year. Why? Because constant change promotes continual evolution. There’s a correlation between change and development. If the local bank down the street has been pursuing the same strategy for thirty years, this is certainly because the same heads have been sitting in meetings for thirty years. If the implementation of new ideas is related to the turnover of employees (and the new thoughts that new employees bring), then Google develops at a rate thirty times faster than the local bank. (In reality, it’s many times more.)
So, back to summer 2008—my first year at a typical U.S. university in Tampa, Florida. My buddy David and I love the new life at school (and the beach) and are realizing our version of the American Dream. We’re tens of thousands of kilometers away from home, from everything we know and understand. We are vulnerable, not always fully in control, and those are important ingredients for modesty and honesty.
Still, we don’t know our way around; we’re often lost or disoriented, and have to ask for directions. But it is specifically the things that we don’t yet know that are going to lay the foundation of our entrepreneurial success.
Change
Yields
Progress!
It’s a typical Saturday evening, but still somewhat special: A student fraternity invites us to a “Blacklight Paint Party,” where all the light bulbs have been changed to blacklight. Everyone will paint colorful quotes, names, and whatnot on each other’s t-shirts. Sounds weird and crazy, so David and I say, “We’re in!” The experience will change our lives forever. As the night progresses, the painting becomes messier and messier, but the vibe is indescribably special: it’s a hit! The music is loud, the air sizzling, and even though there’s little space for the few hundred people to dance, everyone—but really, every single one—feels that something extraordinary is happening. The organized painting has been forgotten, and everyone is smearing each other with paint. There are no taboos, flirting has never been so easy, and interaction has never been so high.
A supercharged version of a party game for young adults had emerged and was unstoppable.
And that’s what matters! An absolute parade of an idea drove past me, with sirens and flashing lights, certainly still very raw and unstructured, but obvious! And it was happening, not because I was so creative, but because I was in the right place at the right time. Whoever doesn’t jump on a chance like that—it’s their own fault.
The lesson is that you don’t come up with ideas like that, they come to you! You have to loosen your cognitive dependencies and be open to what would normally be impossible. Always question conventional logic, paint big pictures, and create your own reality—without boundaries.
Like a camera lens, I try to zoom out far and see everything in the long shot. I try to see things not for what they are, but for what they could be. I look at the party crowd, feel the energy that makes the room tremble, and the mental machine starts running. I don’t imagine a few hundred guests, but instead 5,000—a stage, a show, and a countdown, like on New Year’s Eve, until the first color hits. I sense a theme and tour. My head spins and I realize: This is the next big thing!
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2. Being Creative Means Discovering and Improving—Not Just Inventing!
After