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© 2014 Joe Anderson, All rights reserved — © 2014 Joe Anderson, All rights reserved

Chapter 4

TAKING THE GRAND LEAP

(HURDLING THE OBSTACLES TO CREATIVITY)

A.C. Markkula had a nice life. As marketing manager for Intel Corporation - the well known semi-conductor manufacturer - he had an interesting job, a cushy salary, and the recognition of his peers at conferences and conventions. Then one day in 1977 he opened his door and there stood Steve, a scruffy looking flake, who'd dropped out of college, flirted with "fruitarianism" and Hare Krishna, and spent a year in India contemplating his navel and the ultimate verities. Now Steve was storming back into reality with the claim that he'd discovered a bona fide wizard, plus a secret of the universe. He'd sold his VW bus for $1,300 and set up a venture to spread a special form of information across the globe and, said Steve, he'd chosen Markkula to be his special agent. All Markkula had to do was quit his job, hand over a quarter of a million dollars, and get to work. And though Markkula wouldn't get paid, he'd have the right to be an equal partner in the venture. Sounds like a great opportunity, huh?

Taking the Grand Leap

Well Markkula took it - that grand leap of faith that carried him beyond the boundaries of vocation, family and logic. That's how he hooked up with Steven Jobs and met the world's bonafide wizard, Stephen Wozniak. Markkula had just joined Apple, which still operated out of Wozniak's garage. He changed all that rather quickly. His first target was the capital market. He got a paltry line of credit from Bank of America to gain credibility and then raised $3 million from Venrock Associates (the Rockefeller family) and John Rock, a leading venture capitalist. With that money in hand, Markkula got down to business.

Up until 1977, the major market for personal computers had been hobbyists who derived more pleasure from assembling high-tech kits than using the end result for anything specific. Markkula decided to ignore those folks and charged after the plethora of small businesses who couldn't afford IBM's mainframe computers. He got a booth at a business trade show and spent 84% of the previous year's gross sales on advertising. Things took off and sales jumped to $774,000.

In 1978, Apple got IT&T to serve as it's international distributor. It also expanded into the home market, but with a twist - the computer would be sold as a serious tool for budgeting, tax preparation and the like, not as a platform for video games. Dick Cavett, the cerebral TV personality, became the pitchman and Apple sold America on the PC as a user-friendly home necessity. In the process, Markkula found that TV advertising was also a marvelous way to tap the small business market. So the Cavett ads killed two birds with one stone and sales jumped 915%, to $15 million.

In 1979 Markkula simply did not have the money for the rapid expansion that was needed. Thirty other companies had entered the PC market and IBM was making noises about throwing its gargantuan resources into the fray. Markkula figured that Apple had 18 months to establish itself as a major player or financial ruin lay ahead. He had things to do, and no time to handle the sales function. So he contracted the services of 5 independent distributors and got out of the business of selling direct to his retail customers. It worked. Sales jumped 510%, to $70 million, and Apple took over as the undisputed market leader.

Then in 1980, Markkula reversed field. He dumped the independent distributors after less than a year and set up his own network of distribution centers. The independents had served their purpose and Markkula wanted the control, the profits and the dedication that come from a company-owned network. Sales hit $200 million, and Apple decided to go public. It's phenomenal sales figures "mysteriously" leaked out in the first week of December and on December 12 it floated $97 million in stock which was inhaled by the market. As an equal partner, Markkula had become a multimillionaire, in less than 4 short years.1

The Roadblocks

Boy! Talk about a nice example of everything we've discussed so far. The Apple story is it.

It's got the PC itself, which was a synthesis of existing technology, and Wozniak's version, which was a modification.
It's got grand leaps of faith all over the place, especially by Jobs and Markkula.
It's got brilliant insights on market opportunities, bold open field running through the distribution system, and shrewd manipulation of investors.
And it's got wealth and glory at the end of the rainbow.

This is what creativity looks like. But where did Markkula get all that creativity? From the same place that you can get yours. It's hiding right behind the obstacles you've been nurturing so carefully. Think about your own life. Are you as creative as you'd like to be? Are you as creative as you could be? Why not? In general, the list of reasons is fairly short. Creativity gets lost in the shuffle because people:

really don't know what it is;
don't want to be creative;
don't know how to get there; or
aren't allowed to be creative.

DON'T KNOW IT - One of the reasons why people have difficulty finding their way to creativity is because they don't know "where" it is. They don't know what it feels like when they get there. No one labels it for them so they can pass right through it without knowing, and consequently, they don't know how to return to it either.

When my daughter Amy was 8, we took her snow skiing for the first time. She had a horrendous time. The speed upset her, the lack of full control frightened her, and falling down made her frustrated. Then Mom did something crucial. She said "Amy, this is fun. The speed is fun. The wobbling is fun. Even the falling is fun. This, Amy, is what fun feels like." I realized what catharsis looks like as I watched her face. "Ohhhh," came the response. And the tears gave way to that grin of derring-do that frightens parents. Someone labeled the experience for her. Now she can find fun anytime she wants. This book is an attempt to do the same thing for creativity. That way, when it nibbles at your toes, you'll recognize it and pitch your tent. Amy now finds her joy by swimming with sharks; literally. She’s a scuba diver. So now Susie sits around whimpering.

DON'T WANT IT - Alexis de Tocqueville, writing back in 1802, unwittingly put his finger on the American dilemma with creativity. He called it the tyranny of the majority, and noted that Americans suffer from it more than any other nation. We don't like oddity. We snub those who've got it, and we fear contracting it ourselves. So we buy our clothes, cars, houses and appliances according to prevailing fashion. Ditto for thoughts and behaviors. Political Correctness currently dominates the stage. Smoking is out. Recycling is in. Individualism is out. Multiculturalism is in. And woe to the person who goes against the norms. We like our clothes a little spiffier, our cars a little shinier, our houses a little cleaner, and our politics a little more insightful than our neighbors. But that's about it - not different, just a tad better. We'd like to be at the top of the heap, not separate from the heap. We want to peek over the wall of rationality, but most of us fear actually being on the other side of it. More than anything else, we want to be like others. And down in our guts we know that creativity sets us apart. Too far apart. Creativity is frightening.

This book is a courage pill.

We'll try to make peace with creativity

and take comfort in oddity.

DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET THERE - I sat in the office of a major telecommunications firm and counseled an executive we'll call "Axel". He was enraged. He'd spent several million dollars revamping the organization. He'd sent every vice president and product manager to a 2 week seminar on managing innovation. He even attended the seminar himself, and read every self-help book he could find. But nothing, absolutely nothing, happened. "I couldn't get a new idea out of a paper bag if the directions were printed on the bottom", he stormed. "I know the seven steps, the six rules and the four @#$%^! pillars. But when I sit down to think - nothing."

Axel is a classic case. A little rich in vocabulary, but classic none-the-less. Here was a man who knew what creativity was and could do. He was also a man who was clearly committed to doing it on a grand scale. But he couldn't even pull it off in his own life, because he didn't know how to get there. He wanted to push a button, just like on a phone or computer. Push a button, get an idea. Simple, clean and quick. Consequently, he got suckered by every step, rule and pillar peddler that came by. They were selling him what he wanted to hear, not what he desperately needed to hear, which was the truth. I gave it to him, and now I will share it with you.

You can't get there by pushing a button. You can't get there by memorizing a rule or a step, or by climbing a pillar, no matter how pretty the view. There's only one way to get there. It's on the other side of the wall, and it doesn't much matter how you get over. Forget the formulas. Creativity is not a nice progression of logical steps. It is a mushy process. And you get there more by feel than by conscious deliberate actions.

Axel swore at me when I told him all this. But he was just desperate enough to let me stay. And just desperate enough to wade through the material that ended up in this book. "Well ..." you ask. "Did it work?" Let me put it this way, old "Axel" became one of the movers and shakers of the industry and ended up with his picture on the cover of Business Week. @#$^%! yes, it works.

AREN'T ALLOWED IT - When my son, David, was 4 he knew how to solve a problem. Every dirty sock in his clothes hamper housed a stash of crackers and cookies for midnight snacks. That's a pretty impressive level of creativity, because it requires synthesis. So how did we reward that insight? We righteously squashed it.

In our defense, the thought of athlete's lip was a consideration. But in all honesty, we were mostly driven by that parental disease, the desire for control. We determine snack time and content, not the kid. After 13 days in the coal bin on bread and water he stopped stashing the loot. Now he sits up straight, takes his snacks in the kitchen, and we expect to be very proud of his work as an IRS auditor. However, he does have an unsettling twitch.

Creativity is always a pain in the neck to someone, because there are a lot of earlier coal-bin inhabitants who have risen to positions of power. Consequently, most people's creativity is squashed, and squashed hard, by the powers that be. Organizations - as diverse as the family unit, Proctor and Gamble and the government - all thrive on order and control. Creativity threatens that order on any issue, whether it's snack time or budgetary policy. Consequently, organizations tend to repress creativity, even if they've made a conscious commitment to nurture it. Hopefully, you'll break that cycle once you control the coal bin.

The Myths of Creativity

Just for the sake of argument, let's say you've just had a conversion experience. You really want to know creativity, you want to want it, and you want to allow it in yourself. Are you home yet? Nope. Those were simply functional barriers: ignorance, desire and freedom. They're relatively easy to deal with. But once you cross those, you've still got a passel of obstacles left which are a lot more insidious to deal with - because they hide among the mythology of life. They're the things that cause those nagging doubts; the kind that lead you to say, "I can't do it because ..... ". And more often than not, the "because" we generate is a bunch of poppycock that we've been sucked into believing. Well its time to grasp the poppy by its privates and give it a heave. Let's look at, and deal with some of the myths about creativity.

MYTH # 1 - THE MISSING ORGAN - Many people seem to think that creativity is like a mystic organ, say an extra pancreas or enlarged hypothalamus gland, that only a few people possess. In all honesty, they may be correct when it comes to certain forms of invention. However, that is only a fraction of the Great ISM of creativity, and the rest of the model is not dependent on mysticism or revelation. As we saw earlier, if you ever hid food in your bedroom you've got the creative seed to do the other 93% of creativity.

MYTH # 2 - THE NEED FOR GENIUS - Many people also believe that creativity is the result of the amount of intelligence that one possesses. Clinical and field studies, however, fail to support this hypothesis. Verifiable geniuses (as measured by IQ tests and similar instruments) tend to do very well for themselves vocationally, but they usually do so as corporate vice presidents shuffling paper. They haven't made much of a dent in terms of making creative contributions to the world.2 A solid "C" student with curiosity and determination usually makes a bigger impact on the world. Thomas Edison's teachers thought he was retarded and he was squeezed out of school in the 6th grade. Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss, didn't do well in art class. In fact, his professor liked his work best when it was turned upside down. And the Chicago Tribune rejected Walt Disney as an editorial cartoonist – because he lacked a nasty edge.

The key is not how much intelligence or talent you have,

but the type of intelligence or talent you have,

and

your willingness to use them.

Steven Jobs was a back alley hustler with street smarts, not an intellectual. His "genius" was the ability to dream dreams then connive and cajole others into cooperation. Wozniak was his first victim. Once he was under wing, Jobs had something to sell. He waved Wozniak's genius like a flag and convinced lawyers and ad agencies to work for nothing more than the promise of future payments, and Markkula to risk everything he had. Jobs therefore earned his title as the father of Apple, despite the fact that he was neither a technical nor marketing wizard. He was just a jack-of-all-trades, with a whole lot of chutzpa.

MYTH # 3 - THE SOLITARY MAGICIAN - Another myth is that the creative person exists in a vacuum, locked in his garage with God as the only source of inspiration. It makes a great movie script, but usually misses the mark in terms of reality.

Take a look at electricity. The Chinese discovered magnetism while Europeans were still eating with their hands. Frenchmen came up with the first spark maker and discovered alternating current. Ben Franklin generated a good deal of the observations that moved electricity from theory to application. Englishmen invented the first electromagnet, generator and motor. And an academic at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was blissfully inventing capacitors, alternators, generators and filters for his own entertainment while Edison was desperately searching for light. So when Thomas Edison sat “alone” in his workshop and "invented" the light bulb, he was hardly alone. Every one of those other folks was crammed into the shadows. They represented the 99% perspiration Edison advocated ... knowing the trail of research. In fact, Edison had made regular visits to Prof. Henry Rowland, that American academic puttering away at Rensselaer.3

Creativity exists in a fourth dimension,

crossing over the normal boundaries

of turf, time and vocation.

In fact, it is such a universalistic and international effort that it leads to some pretty odd historical footnotes; such as when the British government guaranteed Ben Franklin safe passage to discuss his electrical theories at the Royal Academy of Science in London at the height of the Revolutionary War. And this despite the fact that Franklin had been Jefferson's ghost writer on the treasonous Declaration of Independence that started the rebellion, and was the publicly acknowledged glue that held the Continental Congress together. The moral here is this:

Creativity thrives on interaction,

not seclusion.

It is a vacuum cleaner, and unless you mingle in the dust bowl of humanity, you'll have nothing to suck. So at a minimum, go talk to someone. And use any instrument, gimmick or event to get outside your shell.

MYTH #4 - CREATIVITY AND NOBILITY - Since we tend to envision the creative person locked in his garage with God, we tend to see creativity as the progeny of a sacred union. Sometimes it may be exactly that, but usually not. In fact, there are numerous indications that creativity is the product of someone you'd like to throw in jail.

In 1860 a group of investors paid young Johnnie Rockefeller to make a field investigation of the commercial viability of petroleum. He thought it was a sure fire winner. So he lied through his teeth. He told the investors it was a loser, put every penny of his own funds into petroleum, and aced them out of the market. Then he went on to invent most of the competitive practices that are now illegal. Before he was a philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller was a hustler. But he was also marvelously creative, and the industry still bears his mark in terms of production, distillation and distribution.
In 1790 Samuel Slater stole the trade secrets of mass production in England and sold himself to the highest bidder in America; boldly violating every aspect of international and British patent and copyright law. As a result, he put America on the map as an industrial nation by opening America's first large scale cotton mill, which triggered the eventual collapse of England's textile industry. But Sam redeemed himself. He and his wife were the originators of Sunday School in America. Don't you love it? But wait, it gets better. At the same time he was violating the British, he was the leading advocate of, and lobbyist for, the legislation that established America's own patent and copyright laws.4 Ain't irony grand?

Creativity isn't very pristine. In fact, it sometimes emanates from the dark side of our personality. That's unsettling if you see business as a quaint tea party. It's intuitively obvious if you recognize it as trench warfare. So with a nod to Freud, the first place you may want to check for ideas is your Id. The second place you'll want to check is the Id of thy neighbor. At its worst, creativity involves outright theft on a grand scale. At its best, it is a form of unconscious plagiarism.

If God accompanies us to the garage, he usually sits there and tells us what our neighbors are doing. So don't be timid about where you look or what you use. Any idea is fair game as a starting point. Even if its protected, it can inspire a useful offshoot. Apple didn't really "create" anything; but it was brilliant at synthesis and modification. So here's a second moral for this chapter. We've become more concerned about secular righteousness than about how well we are doing our job. Each of us has a bit of the rogue in us, and it's about time we got in touch with it. That's tough to do in a day and age dominated by political correctness and the pressures to obey Big Mom (You remember her. She used to be called Big Brother). To pull it off we've got to confront the whole trap of proper thought and behavior head on.

There is a food chain, and man is on top. The rest of creation is there to be used for man's benefit, not the other way around. We forget that the One who created them, provided a very specific pecking order, "Let us make man in our own image, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ... subdue it: and have dominion ..." [Genesis 1: 26-28]. We are hamstringing creativity in medicine, food production and other fields by misinterpreting the existence of a face as proof of equality.
True environmentalism means wise exploitation, not protecting earth's virginity. The instruction manual on planet earth reads, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth ..." [Genesis 1:28]. It does not say "don't touch the goods". But while the arch-conservatives are screaming "don't touch the fetus, even to save a life", the arch-liberals are screaming, "don't touch a tree, even to build a home". In their own way, each is trying to slam the brakes on the progress that comes from creativity. Both sides need to get real.
Conformity usually gets in the way of function. If someone needs to smoke to work, buy them the cigarettes, get them a fancy ashtray and beg them to make a cloud. And if he can only work at 3:00 am, take him to breakfast at 2:00 am. Imposed conformity is pushing our best talent out the door, and some of them are Samuel Slater's grandchildren. You better watch your fanny.

MYTH # 5 - THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIDE - Many firms don't use the new ideas and technologies that lay close at hand because of something called the "NIH syndrome" (not invented here). This seems to be equal parts pompous disdain, proprietary fastidiousness, and uncertainty about how to exploit new knowledge. Bell & Howell was once a major name in every upscale home. It's 8 mm movie cameras were the bane and blessing of every family gathering and the chronicler of American family history. By 1972 more than 1 million cameras were being sold each year, but by 1981, sales had plummeted by almost 90% and Bell & Howell became a nostalgic name used in Trivial Pursuit. The simplicity of video swept the marketplace while Bell & Howell ignored the new idea. Now the marketplace ignores Bell & Howell.5 Pride goeth before a fall.

MYTH # 6 - RISK FREE CREATIVITY - That's a cow pie. Creativity, remember, entails stepping out beyond the boundaries; vaulting the wall of rationality and running out into the unknown. That action has loads of stimulus and exhilaration. But there's one thing it doesn't have - safety.

There are few friends, supporters or advocates. Most people feel more comfortable within the wall and will not venture out to join you; especially if you venture very far outside the wall. In fact, if you get out there far enough, some people may take pot shots at you in an attempt to force you back inside the wall. As Everett Dirkson, the old US Senator, used to say, "You know you're out front when everyone else is kicking you in the ass".
There are no benchmarks, because you've left them all behind. That's not too bad if you stay close enough to keep sight of them. But if you go way out in the meadow, you never really know how you're doing or what you should do next. In many respects you become a rank amateur because, anytime you start something new, you're pretty much in the dark. So ...
You might fail. Walt Disney's first gold mine was Waldo the Duck, long before Mickey was even a glimmer in his eye. But a crooked distributor stole the rights to Waldo and Disney went into bankruptcy. Harlan Sanders blew up a whole lot of pressure cookers before he perfected Kentucky Fried Chicken. So what?
There's no place to hide. When you vault the wall and stand in the meadow, you stick out like a sore thumb. If you're lucky you might get the credit for a success. But I can guarantee you one thing - if you're way out in the meadow, you'll certainly get every bit of the blame if you fail. That's a whole lot of risk piled on one person. That's why most people choose not to be creative. Instead, they try to look creative. They run around inside the wall of rationality looking for morsels. Or they plaster themselves against the inside of the wall, hoping that something in the crevices will have been missed by previous searchers. Some even perch atop the wall and occasionally stick a toe over the parapet.

But none of these efforts goes beyond incrementalism. They'll change the shape of the marshmallow in your instant hot chocolate, but they'll never bring out a beverage that makes you smarter, healthier or prettier. That kind of breakthrough comes from someone who's a little "weird" because they're willing to take the risk.

Let's not be too harsh on the incrementalists though. Fancier marshmallows, new colors, minutely improved detergents and all the other products of portfolio management, copy cat practices and product extensions are actually quite useful. They are all good solid innovations and they make life a little easier and more interesting. There's a lot to be said for that. It's just that the world needs more than that if it is to truly prosper. And so does the firm that's looking for a competitive edge. So in the long run, who prospers? The courageous hero or the safe and sure home body? The hero. That's why we invented the name.

Courage is the key that unlocks creativity.

What it feels like to jump

How will I know when I'm creative? What does it feel like? Go ask Amy – my daughter who jumped from skiing to scuba.

Creativity is intellectual speed.
It's mental wobbling.
It's the lack of full control.
And it's falling. A lot. And running short of air.

It's the kind of experience that can frighten you unless someone says "This, my friend, is what creativity feels like. And it's ok."

There's a physical rhythm to creativity, as though you're moving to an unheard bit of song. In fact, sometimes you literally move back and forth in your chair, up and down on your toes, or with a new bounce to your walk.

And there's a strange optical focus that sets in. Sometimes that means tunnel vision - the only thing you see is the square foot of space in front of your nose - but you see it with incredible visual clarity. At other times is means the faraway gaze. When I composed the first draft of this book, my eyes glazed over and I was distantly aware of absolutely everything in my environment: the bookshelf behind me as well as the words that were appearing on the screen in front of me. It was like a child's absorption in a great adventure book. I was vaguely aware of the words, but mostly I was conjuring the images. Sometimes you go to a different place entirely. Space ceases to exist.

Creativity also feels like the best shrink in the world. Optimism sets in ... even when there's no clear and apparent reason for it. Energy sets in ... even when you've exceeded the recommended daily adult dosage of effort. Passion returns. It swells the breast with meaning and purpose. It intensifies the emotions and wakes up the senses. You literally consume sensations; sometimes savoring them, sometimes simply gulping them, but always on a search for more.

That's what creativity feels like. Once you experience it, you might just flush your Valium and Prozac down the drain.

Don’t tell Anyone ...
I'll share a little secret with you that makes all of this a whole lot less scary. It really doesn't take much creativity to do something new enough to have a major impact. That means you don't have to get real weird, you don't have to go way out into the meadow, and you don't have to suffer major traumas, just to get a good idea. In fact, a lot of breakthroughs sit right at the exterior base of the wall, and all you have to do is lower yourself over the edge. Consequently, it's possible to sneak over the wall, grab a brainstorm, and get back home; all before anyone notices.

The hard part's working up the courage to go over the wall at all. After that it's actually pretty easy. In fact, once you get used to being creative it gets pretty easy to go way out in the meadow. Yes, there is a cost to that adventure, but it's manageable. And when you play out there, you have the chance to change the course of history.

A Final Salvo
So here's the final shot for this chapter. Learn to know creativity. Not just what it looks like, but also what it feels like. Once you've done that it'll be like a drug that draws you back to itself. Learn to want creativity. Lip service is cheap, and meaningless. Want it with your soul, not your mouth. Finally, learn to allow creativity in yourself. There will always be coal bins. So invent the flashlight, then show no fear.

END NOTES

The opening scenario, and subsequent information on Apple comes from Robert F. Hartley, Marketing Successes, (New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1985) pp. 200-213
Lewis Terman, father of the American IQ test, discovered this rather enlightening factoid in a 60 year study of 1,528 measurable geniuses. Cited by Leslie Dorman in "Original Spin", Psychology Today, August 1989, pp.47-52
The historical information on electricity comes from The People's Chronology, James Trager, ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979). In addition to being an entertaining ammunition dump for Trivial Pursuit, it is a fascinating guide to the progression of knowledge. You'd be well served to buy a recent edition.
The People's Chronology, James Trager, ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979), again. I told you it was good.
Ann Hughey, "Sales of Home Movie Equipment Falling as Firms Abandon Market, Video Grows", Wall Street Journal, March 17, 1982, p. 25