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Sample

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Contents

                  VISION-BASED LEADERSHIP

1   I had an idea the other day …
2   Bumping into the wall 

                  WHO DOES THIS STUFF?

3   The Players
4   Coming to grips with the wall
5   Protecting the wall 

                  SO, WHAT’S A VISION LOOK LIKE?

6   New ideas
7   Luther’s new ideas
8   Franklin’s new ideas
9   Smith’s new ideas
10 Einstein’s new ideas

                 WHAT TRIGGERS THAT STUFF?

11 External common ground
12 Internal common ground
13 Common human touch
14 Common values
15 Ego, faith and risk

                  FLYING AT 30,000 FEET

16 Doing creativity in the clouds
17 Wall vaulting
18 The “S” word
19 The last blast

1

I HAD AN IDEA THE OTHER DAY …

“I had an idea …”  That’s how it starts.  A single voice.  A moment in time.  Often, very soft - like a whispered spring breeze.  And gone just as easily.  But in that moment rests the tipping point of history.  It is the origin of change.  It is also the seed of leadership being planted.

Let’s take a look at that, shall we?

Organizations live and die by their leaders. Good ones preside over growth, prosperity and victory.  Bad ones drive them into the trash heap of history.  And it doesn’t matter whether the organization is a church, an army or Proctor and Gamble; leadership is the key to communal welfare.  That’s why we pay leaders the big bucks.  It’s also why we spend billions trying to discover, create, train and mold victorious, prosperous leaders. 

·      We devour books on how to act as a leader. 
·      We offer graduate degrees in how to function as a leader,
·      and endless seminars on what to do as a leader,
·    and when to do it, and to whom. 

The result is a complex and convoluted network of processes, structures and steps; as though a secret algorithm or button can trigger the next Churchill or Einstein --- all based on what a leader does.  But, contrary to this mountain of social convention and popular belief, let me suggest that …

Leadership is NOT just what you do.
Instead, it is in large measure,what you are.

You have to BE a leader, not just act like one.
You have to BE the power source for the entire organization:

·   Be the guide and mapper of direction
·   Be the engine of urgency,
·   Be the voice of inspiration,
·   Be the task master and pay master
·   and be the community cheerleader.

But none of those matter unless you are first and foremost the dreamer of dreams, possessor of “the idea”.  A leader, it turns out, is first and foremost a visionary.  He has to know where B is.

Finding B

Leadership is conceptually a very simple thing - it is the ability to get a group to move from point A to point B.  The problem is that most organizations do not know where the heck B is - because the leader doesn’t know.  They don’t have vision - the ability to see clearly where the firm needs to be, and what it will take to get there. They lack the idea.

So instead, they focus on a number - the surest sign of a leadership vacuum. 

“Ok boys! Let’s storm the ramparts!  Get that 7% increase in sales!  No vacations ‘til we do.  No more lollygagging!  It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.  By god, we’ll do it!  Because when we do, well then hurrah and hallelujah! - we’ll get to chase 8% next year. Won’t that be grand?”

Chasing 7%, or 8% - or any number for that fact - is not an idea.  It is a substitute for an idea.  I can’t think of anything else to get my folks to work together, so I’ll make up a number to chase.  It’s better than nothing.  But frankly, it amounts to chasing your tail.  About the only thing that happens then, is the organization gets better and better at spinning its wheels. As Volkswagen discovered in September of 2015, chasing a number can lead you to some really dumb strategic decisions - like outright cheating as a corporate policy. 

But it is focused.  And orderly.  And aligned.  And predictable.  And efficient (oh Lord, does it get efficient).  And it’s driven by that old adage -- “If you can’t measure it (put a number to it) you can’t manage it.  That’s true.  BUT - the firm’s just not going anywhere.  It’s chasing its own tail for god’s sake!  Who gives a damn how fast it’s going? 

Let me suggest a New Adage: if you can measure it, you can’t possibly lead it.  You see, there’s an intriguing difference between managing and leading.  It’s time to learn the latter.

Before we go any further, though, take a look in the psychic mirror.  Is your organization chasing ideas, or numbers?  Would you and the world be better served if you put a bit more emphasis on the ideas?  That’s what Vision-Based Leadership is all about: getting - and fighting for - a new idea.   

B = The Idea

Simply put, an idea is the comprehension of something that could exist.

·   If that thing is a tangible object or procedure we call it a concrete idea. 
·   If it is a value, belief, concept or opinion we call it an abstract idea.
·  And if it is a progression of acts that will lead to the realization of that
    concrete or abstract idea, we call it a plan.

All well and good, but where does a leader get one of these ideas?  Ah … now this gets us into the realm of tweed jackets, wine, cheese, and philosophy.  It’s the Nature versus Nurture debate.

·   Some folks see man as a clean slate. Born with nothing.  No values, no sense of right or wrong. No ability to reason.  Nothing, Nada. Zip. So our ideas, and our ability to reason comes from Nurture - the people that surround us, and all the facts, passions and social conventions they pour into us.
·   Other folks see man as arriving with a full kit: basic reasoning skills, a sense of right and wrong, the works. These innate abilities(instincts) are a gift of Nature.  All we lack are specific facts. 

Both parties to the argument, however, agree that individuals are rounded out by our contextual experience, our personal environment.  That environment gives each of us a unique set of problems to solve and opportunities to exploit.  And that invites us to produce a new idea for dealing with our world.  But, to produce that idea we’ve got to unleash our imagination.

Imagination

… is a marvel of fantasy, fact and reason.  It is the process of forming a new idea that is not solely a reconstruction or extension of what has been experienced by the senses.  And this freedom from the senses means that imagination is unfettered by objective restraints.  Do you want a man who is

·   capable of leaping over tall buildings in a single bound?
·   More powerful than a locomotive?  
·  Faster that a speeding bullet? 

No problem.  Just unleash your imagination, and slap an “S” on his chest.  Nothing is impossible in the imagination, which is why Einstein said, "Imagination ... is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world."

And all of this - Leadership. Vision, Ideas, Imagination - comes back to the concept of Creativity; the production of something original.

Vision-based Leadership cannot
be separated from Creativity

·      Without creativity you don’t get the idea. 
·      Without the idea you don’t have the vision. 
·    Without the vision you don’t get B, because no one
      has the foggiest notion of where B is, or how to get there. 

And if no one knows where B is, there can’t - by definition - be a leader.  All you have is a herd of sheep milling around with no place to go.

Here’s the so what

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with B - because of the amount of change that is swirling around us.  You see, humanity imposes a self-limiting governor on its own creativity.  That’s because of the unconscious benefit/cost analysis humans perform relative to creativity and the rate of change in the environment. 

 If you have an absolutely static environment (rate of change = 0), the brain just doesn’t kick into gear.  There are no new opportunities (no benefits) and no new problems (costs) - so there is no incentive to think and we roll over for yet another intellectual nap.

But the environment does periodically change (rate of change = moderate) - via floods, famines, earthquakes, the accidental discovery of honey or fire - and when that happens the benefit/cost phenomena kicks into gear and humans get amazingly creative.

However, all that human activity creates a rapid rate of change, in and of itself.  And that drives the benefit/cost ratio to zero because no matter how good your ideas are, they’re obsolete by the time you implement them.  So why try?  Once again, there is no incentive and humanity rolls over for yet another intellectual nap.

That’s why technological and social changes occur in bunches.  Somebody invents a steam engine, and we suddenly get real busy addressing the world’s opportunities and problems. But those ideas, themselves, become part of the environment and that environment starts to change at an increasingly rapid rate - because of our ideas.  And as that happens we actually start generating fewer ideas, due to the benefit/cost phenomena.  And the rate of change calms back down. Then somebody invents a car, or a phone or an internet and BAM! all sorts of other ideas start popping; and the cycle repeats itself.

And right now we’re living through one of those periods when the rate of change is over the moon.  It’s so hard to keep up that the natural inclination is to watch more reruns, play more computer games and take more naps.  So now, more than ever, vision-based leadership needs our conscious focus and stimulus … not because humanity is dim or lazy, but because it has been so damn bright and busy.

Here’s a 2nd so what - every new idea hits a wall. 

Ask any U.S. president.  They can’t turn on the lights at the White House without rabid attacks from the opposing party.  And it gets worse if the president actually tries to do something meaningful.

Ask Jimmy Carter about switching America to the metric system, or Bush #2 about changing the way Medicare covers medications --- or Obama about improving the health of 40 million poor folks, so they can show up for minimum wage jobs each day, and thereby earn profits for the very people who were fighting against Obamacare. 

Now, if the Commander in Chief of the World’s most powerful nation takes it on the chin from his own people when he pursues an idea - which history will eventually tell us was a good one - then what do you expect?  You’re just an average Joe: an entrepreneur, or a cog in someone else’s corporate machinery; a spouse, parent, child or orphan.  And it doesn’t matter whether you occupy the C suite (CEO, CFO, CIO etc.) or some middle management job, you still have to pop out of bed and haul yourself into work with a can-do attitude because … well, by god … you are a leader.

Well take heart. You’re not really the target.  The idea is.  Any new idea causes change, and change always triggers resistance. So sticking to your guns is a big part of being a leader.  That’s where moral fiber, persistence, and a strong left hook come into play.  Walk softly, but carry a big stick.  Teddy Roosevelt said that.  He was a visionary leader.  Look in the mirror.  Where’s your stick?  I’m thinkin’ you’re gonna need one.

OK - Let’s summarize

Vision-based leadership is crucial to success in any endeavor, but it is among the first things to go when life gets complex.  The solution is to consciously focus on two things:

1.  Creativity - coming up with the new idea, and
2.  Power - pursuing that idea in spite of resistance

Those two things are the focus of this book, especially the latter.  We’re going to immerse ourselves in the battle to bring ideas to fruition.

But first, let’s get a few things straight 

Albert Einstein never needed a book like this.  Neither did Michelangelo nor da Vinci nor Steve Jobs for that matter.  I’d also suggest that Steven Spielberg doesn’t need it either.  Because those folks are what I’d call “pure Creatives” – one-man idea factories.  They’re born with it.  And it is utterly impossible to educate or train someone to be a pure Creative.  You either got it or you ain’t.

But here’s the good news - the rest of us can learn how to do a pretty fair imitation.  And that’s where a book like this comes in.

In truth, I think Spielberg would skim this book, then say - “Ah .. yeh.  No, this book is nice.  I can see where it would be helpful, yeh … like the section on …” - not because it actually helped him, but because he wants to help those who lack the natural instinct.  In contrast, I think Edison would have taken notes - because Edison wasn’t actually creative.  He was simply the only man in history more innovative than George Washington Carver.  This is a punchy way of introducing the fact that there are only two routes to having an idea:  creativity, or innovation.  We’ll talk about both.

The truth about creativity

We’ve gotten a little sloppy with the English language.  We’ve let similar words parade around as synonyms in disguise, which confuses us anytime someone goes back to using them as distinct concepts.  Do you want to eliminate the plague; maybe save 100 million lives in your lifetime?  All you have to do is remember three simple things:

1.   Water runs downhill
2.   Hot’s on the left
3.   Payday is Friday

Congratulations.  You just created modern plumbing; disease got neutralized and pumped far away.  The most creative ideas and solutions in life tend to be so commonsensical and straight forward that we almost fail to see them as creative.

The truth about innovation

NASA spent millions trying to invent ink pens that work in zero gravity.  Meanwhile, Comrade Vladmir issued pencils to the Russian Cosmonauts.  That was very innovative.  So was Edison’s incandescent light bulb.  But neither one of them was creative.  You can bet your bottom dollar that we’re gonna talk more about that later in the book.

Notice something about both of them, though.

The outcome - of both creativity and innovation - is usually something of pristine simplicity.  But the process of getting there --- now that is often a different story.  And that’s the story we’ll be learning, from now until page whatever it is.  (I haven’t finished the book yet.  I simply don’t know.)  You see, I’m convinced that this effort is a process, not an event.  And that takes time.  It also takes rules, otherwise it’s just a random process - and that’s neither creative nor innovative.  It’s just dumb luck.  So here are some rules to keep us looking in the same direction. 

RULE 1 - Life is not a game. 

The story we’re going to learn starts with an ultimate verity – Life is Not a Game.  In fact, it’s dead-damn serious.  We die in the end, you know.  And we only get to do it once.  So I want to get it right, because I want my life to count for something:  That’s why I want this book to change your life.  I think our actions should matter.  Consequently, I don’t have much patience with “gamers” who are looking for a gimmick that outsmarts the system and puts them on Easy Street.  Those folks are using my air, and I don’t like that.

RULE 2 - Life is complex

I know it’s comforting to think otherwise, but there really isn’t one single over-riding secret to life.  Nor are there 3 simple rules, 4 cornerstones, or 7 magic habits that guarantee success.  Obedience to the 10 commandments doesn’t even guarantee you a free ticket to heaven – all the Bible promises is that obedience may lengthen your days upon the earth.  There aren’t even 12 steps that can assure us of sobriety.  Life just isn’t that simple.

Remember that even the one who originated the Ten Commandments had to send in his own son to straighten things out.  And that didn’t work out so well either, did it?  It turns out that the “simple” approaches to living your life or managing people don’t work consistently, because people are complex.  We get tired, we lose focus, we suffer hormone cycles, we get headaches, we let up, we forget, we change our minds.  So Life gets complex.  It wears many shades of grey, not a simple black and white dichotomy.  I am therefore tempted to suggest that you discard any book with a number in its title.

RULE 3 - Life is travel

Let’s get back to a point I made earlier, all we’re doing is trying to get from point A to point B.  It’s based on common sense.  But … how do I get Beethoven’s 5th symphony from Berlin to Orlando, and preserve it (written in 1808) so that it’s still fresh in 2018?  I could use a bucket.  But if I picked it up in 1808 I’d be dead by 2018 --- besides, the bucket leaks.  So I have to make a special “sound bucket” – I’ll call it a phonograph.  It gets me from point A to point B. 

Of course, some gaps between A and B are bigger than others.  What if point A were the precise place and moment of the Big Bang, and point B is right where you’re sitting, right now?  How do I get one particle of matter from point A to point B when we know that space is perpetually curving and re-curving, at fluctuating speeds?  I just have to make a special bucket – say the General Theory of Relativity that explains the complete space-time continuum.  Point A to point B.  That’s all we’re doing.  And more than anything else, the solutions rely on common sense.

RULE 4 - Creativity is Dangerous

Most people get a kick out of innovation – but they really don’t like creativity, regardless of the lip service they give it.  That’s because they care more about predictability and efficiency, and creativity is the enemy of both those two things.  So it is seen as a danger to the organization.

·   Creativity moves ahead in fits and starts & sometimes just simply wastes time and money.
·   It is NOT a team sport.
·  It is NOT a clear and obvious linear function.
·  It is NOT predictable, AND worst of all,
·  It creates change, and nobody likes that (they really don’t).

RULE 5 – Kiss safety goodbye

Now things get scary.  The ultimate irony is that creativity is most dangerous to the person who is being creative.  Having that bright new idea can be the end of your career, or your life, depending on where you live and what the idea is. 

Many people will dislike you when you’re being creative, because you’re the source of chaos in their lives --- and maybe even an inferiority complex to boot.  As a result, they will attack and belittle you.  They will marginalize and ignore you, minimize and dismiss you.  They will brand you as a loose cannon, and quarantine you on the periphery as dangerous to corporate or family health.  They’ll accuse you of just looking for attention, and at the extreme they may take away your reputation, your job or your life.  Son of a bitch!

Position does not protect you.  Even the Chairman of General Motors can, and has been, summarily canned because of his ideas.  The same is true all up and down the corporate ladder.  So don’t hide behind the fact that you may only be a middle manager.  It doesn’t get any easier in the corporate boardroom. 

Imagine, if you will, how flabbergasted Jesus must have felt. 

He was the son of God, which I would argue, is a step above Chairman of General Motors.  He made a good-will tour and shared a message that was a radical departure from the contemporary theology of rules, vendetta and judgment.  Instead he offered the following good news:

·   God doesn’t belong to any one tribe, city or nation
·   God loves you and wants you to make it
·   All you have to do is say thanks
·   That’s it.  Welcome home.

So they executed him – for instigating chaos and corrupting the morals of the community.  You’ll notice that the Greeks condemned Socrates for the exact same reason.  Hmmm.  There seems to be a universal truth in operation here: the world tends to devour change agents.

So why in the world would
anyone want to be creative?

Because there simply isn’t a better feeling in the world than the incredible buzz that comes from having a new idea. It is as close to divinity as it’s possible for a human to get.  And we can do it everyday.  It is, quite simply, the world’s greatest drug.  In addition, having an idea gets us out of the traffic jam of life.  We mill around point A wondering what to do until (bam!) it hits us.  “I know! Let’s invent someplace to go.  Let’s call in point B.”  Voila! A third reason to be creative involves wealth and glory.  I’d like both, but I’d settle for either one.  Creativity opens the door.

On top of all that - creativity keeps the attic lit.  It stimulates the mind, and invites the soul and the heart to join in. 

I’m having one of those magic moments as I sit here writing this, in a place you’ll never visit, at a time that will never return.  Then – poof.  It’s gone. But still I wear a little smile because I know that you are now sharing that moment in your own frame of time and place and I have achieved some level of immortality because you may have just picked this out of a dust bin in another century, on another planet.  (I’d like to think they took this book with them.  You know, the colonists.) 

In short, people pursue creativity
to make a mark, to leave a legacy.

And the leader, manager or firm that understands and protects Creatives, multiplies their impact on the world.  And that clearly gives you the upper hand in life. I’d like you to have that hand.

And I want it to be a learned hand.  There’s a lot of religion, governance, economics and science in this book.  There’s also a fair amount of sociology, psychology, sex and relationships.  And cartoons as well.  It is a veritable stew of Western culture.  I did that intentionally - for a very personal reason.  Too many organizations - especially in politics and religion - are run by leaders who brag about what they don’t know, and I think it’s time for that to end. 

I actually believe you’re a better leader when you know history, theology, economics and the lot. Because, knowledge is power.  Knowledge shows you the weak points and strengths, hopes and dreams, pasts and futures of the world you face - and its inhabitants.  And the lack of that knowledge puts a blindfold on you while you dance through the machete factory.

If you’re culturally illiterate,
you’re not just limited - you’re dangerous.

œ

2

BUMPING INTO THE WALL

(THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INNOVATION & CREATIVITY)

The Swiss mastered time keeping centuries ago, with a mechanical approach based on gear wheels and mainsprings.  They also built a wall around their minds by specializing in the mechanical approach and ignoring all others.

On the up side, that wall focused their attention on the minute details of craftsmanship and gave them an expertise that led to marvelous innovations.  They perfected the use of resilient, light weight metals.  They excelled in artistic design.  And they continuously developed ever more efficient production techniques.  As a result, the Swiss controlled 68% of the world's watch market by 1968, and 80% of world profits.

However, the wall also caused them to ignore a monumental discovery made by one of their own researchers in 1967.  He had developed a watch that was based on a completely new idea -- that time could be traced electrically rather than mechanically.  The result was the digital quartz watch.  It was cheaper to make, more accurate and far more durable than mechanical watches.  But the idea lay so far outside the existing wall that the Swiss manufacturers didn't even bother to patent it.  However, they did take a sample digital watch to the 1968 trade show as a crowd pleasing gimmick.

This is what a fatal error looks like.  It's usually very small; in this case about 30 square inches of display space.  Seiko and Texas Instruments saw the new watch, grabbed the unprotected idea and the rest, as they say, is history.  Ten years later the Swiss served only 10% of the watch market and their mechanical time-keeping industry had collapsed. 

What Does This Tell Us?

The best thing about other people's mistakes is that we feel no pain.  The second best thing is that we can learn something from them, if we pay attention.  What does the Swiss debacle teach us?

1.  This business about the wall is important.  It affects the welfare of individuals, groups and nations.  You can't walk away from something like that.  If you don't master it, it will master you.

2. Organizations don't have ideas.  People do - individuals like you and me.  Consequently, this book is going to focus on the individual.  It doesn't say much about the organization at all.  That's a topic for another book.

3. The difference between fantasy and creativity is action.  If you don't do anything about it, even the best idea is no more than a pipe dream.  It'll just fade away into nothingness, like the smoke rings that waft skyward. 

The Wall of Rationality

Most of us live within a "wall of rationality", which is a marvelous invention of civilization, made from the traditional wisdom concerning what the world is like and how we ought to approach it.

This makes for an orderly, predictable world.  Very cozy.  Very safe.  The problem is --- the really good ideas live out beyond the wall, in the endless meadow of the mind; where revelation and wonder roam free and unfettered.  Creativity is the act of severing the tether and vaulting over the wall; jumping beyond the constraints imposed by the laws of nature, work rules, competitive pressures or technological ignorance.  It assumes that the old way is wrong, or at least incomplete, and leaps out into the meadow where the wild things grow.

Problems with the Wall

Life within the wall is safe and secure.  In addition to being one of the wall's positive points, that is also one of its negative attributes.  It lulls us into lethargy.  Why would anyone want to escape from comfort?

And therein lies the difficulty.  One way or another, most of us develop a liking for the current wall, which creates problems for society ... because we develop a stake in squelching creativity. The projectile-hurling first grader might just become NASA's leading scientist if we give him a star for marksmanship instead of 10 minutes in the corner.  Who knows, maybe he's Orville Wright discovering the laws of aerodynamics, or Einstein having an original thought, or simply Tom Paine striking a reasoned blow for independence.  Or ... maybe he's just a jerk.  The problem is that we're so concerned with the sanctity of the wall, that we never bother to find out.  Instead, we tend to carpet bomb the outliers.

As a result, the Wall of Rationality becomes an enormous obstacle to creativity.  It patterns our behavior to such a degree that after spending years acting within the boundaries, we forget what it feels like to even think outside of them.  When we try to be creative, the best we usually do is bump along the inside of the wall looking for a cute idea that hasn't already been used.  The problem is that there aren't many of those critters left.  Everyone else has been grazing in the same corral for generations. 

·   This is a problem in business, manufacturing, automotive mechanics, and the like, since it passes the lead to our competitors.

·   But it is a downright tragedy in constructing the basic tenants of the world.  At that point, the Wall becomes the enemy of mankind, even though mankind huddles within its seemingly safe confines. 

The wall is the last refuge
of a failing entity.

I have a confession to make. 

This book sat half written in a file cabinet for 15 years because I couldn’t answer one simple question ---- why did I say Einstein was creative, but Edison wasn’t?  You and I both know that Edison was creative too.  But he just didn’t fit the definition I’d come up with -  and I didn’t know what to do about that.  So I set the whole thing aside for 15 years.  Then I finally figured out why they were both creative.  They’d both been playing outside the wall of rationality.  It’s just that they had been dealing with different walls, in different locales:

·   Einstein on the mountain top, with abstract ideas
·   Edison in the trenches, with concrete ideas. 

This one simple observation opened my eyes, and everything which follows is a result of this one little epiphany.  Here’s my brain teaser for you ----- once you step beyond the wall, where do you want to go?

·   How do you want to use this tool called creativity?
·   Do you want to exploit the current system in which you find yourself? 
      Or do you want to change it?
·   What drives you: the quest for wealth and glory, or the welfare of mankind?
·   Are you looking for one good idea, or a whole new way to think?
·   Do you need things to be concrete, or are you happy as a clam with mushy thought?
·   What counts as long term for you: a month or a century?
·   Is there such a thing as ultimate truth?
·   Would you know it if you saw it?

Your answers to these kinds of questions will tell you where to go once you step outside the wall.  And for the sake of simplicity, let’s consider just two options:

1. you can work on the mountain top, or
2. you can work in the trenches.

Life on the Mountain Top is pretty heady stuff.  You dine with Copernicus, Marx and Gandhi.  You debate with Galileo, Cicero and Franklin.  Thomas Jefferson stops by for cocktails with Mozart and his friends, Henry Ford and Michelangelo. And you, personally, spend your life looking for that next big thing that alters the course of human history … from the top down.  You know … the nature of man, time, gravity, hope, truth, justice and the American Way.

Life in the trenches   is a different story.  Youdedicate yourself to ideas that’ll grab an extra 6% of market share, decrease turnover, or raise the test scores of your 8th grade class 9 points.  And in the process you’ll bump into things like the auto, the TV and the i-phone, things that change the way we live --- from the bottom up.

The bulk of life is lived in the trenches, not on the mountain top.  But if some of us weren’t up there taking on the big issues, the rest of us would soon run out of new things to do down here in the trenches.  And when that happens, society implodes.  Education stagnates, then ceases altogether, because – frankly – what’s the point?  Then the economy falters.  But the ensuing mass unemployment is dwarfed by the fact that our military hasn’t come up with a new weapon in 200 years so we’re left fighting a short final battle with some nation (or planet) who kept growing and changing --- because they had the good sense to encourage some of their people to live on the mountain top, with their heads in the clouds – chasing the ultimate verities of life. 

This book is dedicated to
creativity on the mountain top.
Without it, we fail as a society.

But, let’s take a closer look at that.  On the mountain top, the idea is the thing.  Without it nothing moves.  After it arrives, nothing is ever the same.  Without the idea of an airplane, nobody has the foggiest notion of whether to use wings, whirly tops or just light a candle under the damn thing. 

 Managers tend to underestimate the value of the idea.  They want to rush immediately from the drawing board to the trenches; application is the end all and be-all for them.  Academics, on the other hand, tend to avoid the trenches.  They simply want to bathe in the idea itself and use it to generate other ideas.

 There’s actually merit on both sides of the argument, but truth and beauty obviously exist somewhere in between.  Since it’s your turn to rule the world, you need to figure out exactly where.   I can’t tell you that.  Well, actually, I could.  (Actually - I will.  I champion the mountain top). But don’t blindly accept my word as an edict from God, because that would condemn you to obsolescence.  What works for me and my generation, won’t work for you and yours.  So here’s what I’m going to do – I’m going to spend my time teaching you about the nature of ideas and the struggle to have them.  By the time I’m done, you’ll have the smell of them in your head. And by that point, you’ll be able to set your own balance point between ideas and applications, between action and reflection, between courage and contemplation.

·      So here we are – focusing on ideas.
·      We might as well address the hardest point first.
·      You can’t just snap your fingers and conjure an idea.
·      Creativity doesn’t work that way.
·      I am convinced that is because of the wall.

Revisiting the Wall

You cannot talk about creativity without confronting the wall.  Like Moby Dick in the morning mist, the wall sits on the horizon like a silent, beckoning leviathan - calling men to their fate (perhaps, doom).  It is no small thing.  It is not a little waist-high lattice fence surrounding your garden.  When we speak of the wall relative to creativity, we are talking about something that dwarfs the Great Wall of China, and you don’t have a ladder.  Perhaps the Walls of Mordor capture it better.  The wall is more than simply an obstacle to vision, movement and progress.  It is the thing that defines vision, movement and progress.  It makes us small.   And to the Creative, that is the death of hope.  Ask any prisoner the central feature of his incarceration  – the answer rings back --------“the wall”.

When you realize that, you realize what the Creative is doing.  He is waging a lifelong war against that damned monstrosity.  It is an intimate battle.  The wall has personality and moral value in the eyes of the Creative.  It is a thing in and of itself – an adversary with whom to wrestle.

But realize this – the Creative is not a rebel.  In fact he is the most conservative of all God’s children.  Because he knows that the world is driven by structure and pure, unimpeded logic, and he has dedicated his life to discovering that true and complete structure and the logic and rationality that comprises it. 

 In short, every Creative is searching for the “true” Wall of Rationality.  The good one.  God’s wall.  He just knows that the current one isn’t it. 

That is why a new idea,
all by itself, is sacred. 

By its mere existence it proves
that ultimate truth lies somewhere
outside the current wall

So he has to get beyond the current wall, often by harming it.  He sometimes does this with a heavy heart, but do it he must.  He’ll tear it down, blow a hole in it; install a gate, build a ramp; whatever it takes.  But one way or another, he’ll get beyond the current wall – the current structure that explains the world.  That makes him look like a rebel – but realize that he travels in disguise.  The Creative is actually the conservator of the future.   And once he discovers that new wall, he will fall victim to the trap, and he will seek to protect his wall against every challenge from the next generation of Creatives.   Today’s adventurer is tomorrow’s jailer.  And so it goes.

How did this book get written?

I’ve already told you that my basic tenant is that individuals have ideas, not groups, collectives, corporations or governments. Individuals.  Consequently, it seemed that biography might be the best way to learn about creativity on the mountain top.  Pick those who’d breathed that rarefied air.  Study their lives and see what we can learn.  So I studied 33 “big picture” heroes (Aristotle, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Napoleon, etc).  It could have been 64 or 129, but I stopped at 33 because I was already seeing patterns repeated over and over again, and I’ve got other things going on in my life.  So I invoked the rule of “good enough” and called a halt to the research. 

·   Is it complete?  No.  It doesn’t pretend to be. 
·   Is it biased?  Yep.  I’m American and worked within my cultural bias. 
·   Did I do scientific sampling?  No again.  It was purely and simply a convenience sample. 

 So is the work invalid?  Not on your life.  No work is ever complete.  No work is ever without bias.  I’m just telling you these things so you’ll have your eyes open and your minds forewarned when you read the book. 

 And one last tidbit --- I picked four of the people to represent the whole pack.  Reporting on all 33 would have required too much information.  Way too much (I stopped counting at 5,671 pages).  You have things to do. So four measly lives will mold how you think, and therefore determine the development of creativity in the 21st century.  I like the simplicity of that.

I’m asking you to change the world, though, so credibility is key.  Some of that comes from the research itself.  Some of it comes from the inherent logic and contextual consistency of the writing.  And the acid test is this --- does it ring true with what you observe in your own life?   

A final source of credibility is the author’s life, because that is the major source of his perspective and interpretations.  So let me lay it out for you.  I’m a straight white male with a PhD from Northwestern and ten years experience running an organization.  I’ve been on the faculties of some of the leading business schools in America, and I’ve spent the last 20 years as consigliere to America’s owners.  It has been my privilege to serve as father confessor, comforter, drill sergeant, strategist, consultant, advisor and confidant to the owners, CEOs and top executives of 60 businesses doing billions of dollars per year, with hundreds of employees and truck loads of challenges.  I’ve been around the block. 

 Let’s jump in, shall we?

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