I wrote a column for The Business of Home this week on plagiarism and how to deal with it. To summarize, I said that there is mostly no point in screaming that it is yours but rather a quiet confidence in knowing what you have (and have not) done as an artist. The response I have gotten from the column validates the idea that there are more than a few who would take short cuts to find their way to success that they themselves have not built. Others will simply want to say they are the original so as to demonstrate their own prowess. Either way it is about being derivative or accusing someone of being derivative for your own aggrandizement.
David Tutera’s thought in the book, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story Of The View, that Melania and, specifically, Preston Bailey copied Star Jones’ 2004 wedding to Al Reynoldsfor her wedding to Donald Trump in 2005 is an example of accusing someone of being derivative for your own aggrandizement. I was President of Preston’s company in 2005 and had an upfront view to the whole undertaking of Donald and Melania’s wedding.
Preston is one of the most creative event designers to have ever lived – his six books on the subjectspeak to this truth. Preston imagines a world very very few of us could even contemplate, let alone bring to life. In the time I worked for Preston (2003-2009) as I am sure it is now, most of his inspiration came and comes from nature, fine art, theater, food and travel. He largely never looked at other designer’s work as reference to his design process, especially when it came to creating his vision for any event, Melania and Donald’s wedding very much included. What David accuses Preston of doing is factually inaccurate. Wildly so. Makes for great copy though, which is, of course, the point. Such are the times.
There truly is nothing original in this world. However, originality defined as being pristine and heretofore unheard of is a fools errand as value based solely in the uniqueness of a thought is one in a billion, if that. No, value is in the ability to define the thought with a unique, ethereal and deeply personal take on it, to reshape an idea as you would have it be seen and THAT is what becomes original. Now, stealing another’s idea blindly and then calling it your own is not what I am talking about, that is plagiarism and theft and no creative business owner should ever go there. What I am talking about is standing on the shoulders of giants so that you become ever able to see and relate to us a new vision. The world is forever changed when we share the vision since it presumes there will be another to follow as we reach ever higher. Moore’s Law.
The insidiousness of plagiarism or similarly accusing someone like Preston of being derivative is to call into question the absolute value of the creative universe as if it is, in itself, limited. We all lose when that happens. Instead, we have to be better at acknowledging what folly drives those who would be derivative (i.e., plagiarize) or accuse someone of being derivative when they are not (i.e., David). The answer is in the fragility of the human condition and our incessant need to be someplace we are not. Every step of the path has to be walked. You may not skip ahead because you pretend to be someone who walked before you, nor is your path easier or superior because you seek to diminish another’s in service to your ego.
The point of creative business is transformation. Give yourself permission to go as you would go and refuse to be a bastardization of what has come before. You will only diminish yourself and the energy coming before. Yes, sometimes first wins, but Father Time is undefeated. Better will carry the day. Always. Shame on plagiarists and David, not so much for stealing what is not theirs, but for besmirching what has come before. Cynicism is the death of creativity and we all need to do better at being intolerant to those that would feed it. As Seth Godin said today, we make things better by making better thingsand we are permitted to make better things when the truly original idea (i.e., the idea generated honestly and intentionally by an artist) is rewarded because of the idea’s relationship to those you, the artist, seek to move. The rest is just noise.
