Stronger Than Ever: 5 Lessons for Dealing with Business Failure.
In one form or another, failure does happen. It’s an inevitable part of being a business owner we have to face. Not every idea is going to succeed, not everything we do will last forever. Part of what I took from my failed first venture pushed me to learn the financial aspects of business so thoroughly that future creative endeavours could flourish, not flail. Within a couple of years I was successfully managing multi-million dollar budgets and profit & loss.
And while I’ve had other business ideas, projects and partnerships go wrong, some small and some large, each has delivered a valuable learning that I’m more than willing to share in the hope that it may help you, too – to either avoid them (!) or learn from them if you’ve found yourself in tricky waters.
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When Opposites Align: Why Structure is the Key to Creativity
I have clients who say they are too creative for the numbers side of things or they don’t want to jeopardise their art by becoming too businesslike. When we dig a little deeper, however, there’s usually another truth hiding in the numbers... they’re not paying themselves adequately or they’re avoiding tough decisions around their business and the reality of its current viability. Completely understandable! When we tackle that zone though and put easy-to-use processes in place, then a huge amount of space and clarity opens up more time to create!
The push and pull between creativity and structure is very real but the reality is that while they are often viewed as enemies, keeping yourself in the realm of one will only remove you from the resources the other has to offer.
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A Better Tomorrow: Five creative initiatives that are leading the new way.
Never more than in the past year have I come across so many amazing initiatives and individuals focusing their productive energy on the greater good. It reaffirms for me… with all great challenges comes a host of wildly creative and wonderfully clever minds, all driven to find carefully considered paths forward.
Here are some of those companies and individuals (from a breadth of industries) that are inspiring me at the moment. Get behind them and get inspired, too!
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Ten pioneering women of the arts and what we can learn from them in 2021.
Throughout history, female artists have shaped and shifted culture, despite the limitations of their time.
Today, we call them trailblazers — back then, they were creating the work they felt was missing from the world, expressing their creative truth’s unapologetically. Above all else, these women prove that, even in times of unrest and uncertainty, courage has the power to propel us all ever forward.
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Ending 2020 with a Creative Pause...
Given the challenges this year has brought our way, perhaps part of the rush to get stuck into plans for the New Year is because we would prefer to just sweep 2020 under the rug and move on, quickly. But I really think, that more than ever before, what we need – is a Creative Pause.
The Creative Pause has been celebrated by scientists + philosophers alike and utilised since time immemorial by some of our greatest thinkers. Some of the most innovative philosophies, discoveries and businesses have arisen from moments when their creators – paused.
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Do you want to be McDonald’s or do you just want to be the little Deli down the road?!
The question, and more importantly my response, reminded me of why I’d gotten into the industry in the first place - my love of creativity, the magic and connection that can be created through design and the levels of craftsmanship, care and attention to detail I had come to deeply appreciate after having worked with some of the finest luxury brands and creative geniuses in the years prior…
I left that role shortly after that conversation.
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Stuck in a creative rut? Let’s get back into the flow!
“Creative individuals don’t have to be dragged out of bed; they are eager to start the day. This is not because they are cheerful, enthusiastic types. Nor do they necessarily have something exciting to do. But they believe that there is something meaningful to accomplish each day, and they can’t wait to get started on it.
Eventually most of the day should consist of tasks you look forward to, until you feel that getting up in the morning is a privilege, not a chore.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
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