There is no definition for the single biggest asset that exists in any creative business — the creative force that lives between your ears. And since there is no definition — how do you value it? Nurture it? Leverage it?
If you jump over to any known asset in business, even if intellectual property, valuing, nurturing and leveraging said asset is the stuff of all business school study.
Oh the conundrum, to define the undefinable or let it lie as being truly amorphous is a world of rationality. Even more, will you leverage and nurture the creative force that lives inside you, your art and your creative business or dismiss it as irrelevant?
If I told you to take your computer on a walk with you in the rain, most of you would think I am crazy. Literally, you would be risking a valuable asset to your business. Yet, when I tell you to shut off everything while you are away so that you can give yourself over to the experience, I get the equally crazy response. No, the world (or your creative business) will not fall apart while you are gone (and you have much much bigger issues if it will). Simple, what is the value of the idea you will discover while you are truly open to inspiration? Without question, this value is far greater than the “problem” you will solve while you foreclosing the opportunity for an open experience.
How about the employee who is killing it? The one who is hungry for everything? Do you start with making her better at what she is nailing or shoring up her weaknesses? Do you nurture brilliance or overvalue competency? What is more valuable to your business? A no brainer for sure but most of you will do the exact opposite and seek competency over brilliance.
Here is the thing: you cannot see the air you breathe but need it to live. You will certainly value it if it were not there but take it for granted otherwise; so too with the creative force that exists in you and your creative business.
I hear it all the time, “I wish I had time to just [fill in the blank — paint, cook, sculpt, read, write, create].” Underneath the thought though is the idea that clients, employees and colleagues alike will appreciate the devotion to the business, the sacrifices made and the commitment to the project. This post is not about self-help and self-love, it is about good business. If your promise to a client is to use your creative gifts to transform their lives then forsaking or assuming that gift is the definition of insanity. You are asking to be paid for what you are actively diminishing in the name of the rational. Yeah, no. If walking around the park for an hour every day generates fresh ideas, your clients need to pay for the walk. Take it where it needs to go: not paying for you to take a walk hurts them and your chance of being ever more remarkable. Same goes for not having your team work diligently on team-building and communicating ever more effectively. Are you requiring them to take an improv class to become active listeners? Did not think so.
If you are willing to suspend disbelief and acknowledge that the amorphous is nonetheless tangible, you will live in the notion that it is to be valued, nurtured and leveraged more than any other asset in your creative business. The depth of your creative force is by definition limited when you ignore it and limitless if you simply acknowledge its intrinsic nature that grows exponentially with the effort to live there and insist everyone around you — clients, employees, colleagues alike — live there too.
