Book Review. "Creative Confidence" by Tom and David Kelley

"He moved into the world of design and found that it was much more interesting to paint outside the contours."

A book that you can reread a million times and discover something new. A table book for PR specialists, copywriters, marketers, people of any creative professions, as well as for everyone who wants to make creativity a part of their life and get pleasure from it.

The main postulate of the book is that creativity needs to be developed, nurtured, and improved; all people are creative by their nature, it's just that many people have many fears and stereotypes that do not allow them to "go beyond the boundaries and contours". The book helps you see the world from a different angle and change your outlook.

Tom and David Kelly give examples of how people in completely non-creative professions were able to bring creativity to their professional activities and many practical tips from their own experience. The brothers tell you how to turn on design thinking, start seeing things you haven't seen before, connect to the source of creativity, and press the IMAGINATION button. They compare creativity to muscles. For the muscles to be strong, they need to be pumped, and the same with creativity - to get a result, creativity needs to be pumped and built up.

The Creative Confidence Manifesto by Tom and David Kelly:

• The key to growth is innovation. Human orientation thinking is the way to innovation.

• The mathematics of innovation: if you want more success, you will have to prepare for more failures.

• The main competence of any employee is creativity.

• Creative energy is one of the most valuable resources.

• Design thinking is a way of noticing human needs and developing new solutions through design practices and tools.

• Leave a mark on the universe. You can achieve the most audacious goal when you have the courage and persist.

• When people overcome the fear that blocks their creative abilities, an endless variety of possibilities opens up before them. They are no longer paralyzed by the thought of defeat. And they perceive any experience as an opportunity to learn something new.

• One way to enable creativity is to avoid comparisons. If you're worried about conforming or trying to match the success of others, you won't have the courage to take risks and try to blaze a new trail.

• Creativity does not primarily require a rare talent or skill - it rests on your belief in what can be realized with the help of talents or skills that you already have.

• Cultivate the willingness to seize and capture the moment when enlightenment occurs. Real breakthroughs only happen when you go out into the world and make an empathetic connection with those whose lives you want to change for the better.

• Creativity must be constantly nurtured. You can start by consciously increasing the number of sources of inspiration in your daily life.

• Don't plan - act. The first step to creativity is most often the rejection of the role of a passive observer and the transition from thoughts to action. When you want to do something cool, you have to start doing at least something. Perfectionism and procrastination prevent us from taking action. You don't need to wait for a “bundle of money” and a “train of time” to get started.

• It is difficult to become the best immediately, so you need to prepare for constant and rapid improvement.

• Gain experience and self-employment.

• Listen to your passion.

The transition from a blank sheet (ZERO) to a meaningful idea:

• Choose creativity. Just decide to create in one day - the recipe is simple. And simple things are sometimes very difficult to implement.

• Think like a traveler. Just look at things from a traveler's point of view and of course travel because travel expands the mind.

• Turn on relaxed mindfulness. This can be achieved thanks to walks in the fresh air alone with you.

• Empathize with the end user. In this case, Kelly refers to the ability to see the world through the eyes of another person and understand why people act this way and not otherwise.

• Conduct field observations before launching a new idea.

• Constantly ask "Why?".

• Rephrase the question. Sometimes the first step to a brilliant answer is a reformulated question.

• Create your creative network. It is very necessary - there is no way to go without this point.

September 11, 2022