POWERFUL WAYS TO OVERCOME CREATIVE BLOCK

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
- Maya Angelou

It’s 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night. You’ve been digging away for the past six hours and this might be your best work yet. You’re so close to breaking through -- then you hit a wall.

There’s not a single drop of creative juice left in your brain.

Does this sound like something you've experienced? If so, don’t worry. You’re not alone.

Whether we’re designing, writing or brainstorming the next big idea, we’ve all experienced creative block. The predicament of the creative process is something all of us face, yet few take the necessary actions to overcome it.

Keeping our creative juices flowing isn’t about picking the perfect color on Photoshop or writing the wittiest line for your article. It’s an essential component to innovation -- professionally and personally.

Throughout our lives, we have been told to “think outside of the box.” But thinking outside of the box implies that our inner creativity doesn’t exist within us already. Finding inspiration isn’t about stepping outside of our box, it’s about stretching our limits.

At Sketchfab, we’re always itching to find new and unique ways to stay ahead of the creative curve. We’ve dug deep on how the most creative minds around the world keep their creative juices flowing.

Here are powerful ways you can begin to keep your creative juices flowing:

Stop, Drop & Roll: No, there’s no fire. Except the one we’re burning inside our head. What we mean is: Stop what you’re doing, Drop your pen, and Roll out of the building.

HISTORY'S INVENTIVE MINDS SAY YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ORIGINAL TO BE CREATIVE

Entrepreneurs have a tough job.

They are responsible for leading and inspiring diverse teams of all sizes while carrying the pressures of the business on her or his shoulders. All the while, they are often looked upon to be the creative mind of the organization, spewing out remarkable and amazingly unique ideas like an open faucet.

Being creative, however, gets more difficult if you allow yourself to fall into the paradigm that creativity is linked to originality, especially since originality is completely subjective and will always be relative to the experiences of others.

Creative minds throughout history have long embraced the idea that to be creative, you need not necessarily be original, nor should you concern yourself with the opinions of others. Consider these insights of some of the greatest creative minds throughout history.

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation”. -- Voltaire

The common misconception is that to be creative, you need to be churning out one-of-a-kind ideas. Often, the best new ideas are just better iterations on older ones.

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way”. -- Edward de Bono

Creativity also comes from looking at existing challenges from alternative angles.

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected”. -- William Plomer

Other times, an idea blossoms from tapping into and pulling together many different and relatively unrelated ideas.

“Making the simple complicated is easy. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”. -- Charles Mingus

Sometimes, simply improving on an existing idea, making it easier to use or understand, will result in an amazing new innovation in and of itself.

“Creativity comes from the conflict of ideas”. -- Donatella Versace

Getting out of your comfort zone, where most individuals like to operate, will provide you with a completely different perspective and will most likely spark creativity.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”. -- Steve Jobs

The simple truth is that creativity is like a muscle: the more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Regardless of how original or creative your ideas are, you should be engaging in the act of creating, over and over again.

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recordings of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience”. -- Henry David Thoreau

Remember that you can and should find inspiration even when you are not operating in your creative routine, as long as you are willing and ready to allow yourself to react to it.

“My work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance.” -- Calvin ofCalvin and Hobbes

It is just fact that great creativity, regardless of how original it might be, will often be misunderstood at first. The level of misunderstanding is often directly proportional to the uniqueness of an idea.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” -- Henry Ford

If your creativity routine leads you to ideas that may be perceived as unoriginal or outlandish, do not give up on them quickly. You may be on to something that is just too complex for others to comprehend. Learn how to communicate your idea effectively so others will understand and rally behind it. 

Creative originality is also highly subjective to the people you are sharing it with. You cannot allow yourself to get distracted with the opinions of others, as great creativity is rarely inspired by the masses. 

Before you get down on yourself for failing to come up with the next remarkable idea, just remember that the simple act of creating is remarkable.

So what are you waiting for?

What are some of your favorite quotes about originality? Please share with others below.

HOW CREATIVE GENIUSES COME UP WITH GREAT IDEAS

In 2002, Markus Zusak sat down to write a book.

He began by mapping out the beginning and the end of the story. Then, he started listing out chapter headings, pages of them. Some made it into the final story, many were cut.

When Zusak began to write out the story itself, he tried narrating it from the perspective of Death. It didn’t come out the way he wanted.

He re-wrote the book, this time through the main character’s eyes. Again, something was off.

He tried writing it from an outsider’s perspective. Still no good.

He tried present tense. He tried past tense. Nothing. The text didn’t flow.

He revised. He changed. He edited. By his own estimation, Zusak rewrote the first part of the book 150 to 200 times. In the end, he went back to his original choice and wrote it from the perspective of Death. This time—the 200th time—it felt right. When all was said and done it had taken Zusak three years to write his novel. He called it The Book Thief.

In an interview after his book was finally released, Zusak said, “In three years, I must have failed over a thousand times, but each failure brought me closer to what I needed to write, and for that, I’m grateful.” 

The book exploded in popularity. It stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for over 230 weeks. It sold 8 million copies. It was translated into 40 languages. A few years later, Hollywood came calling and turned The Book Thief into a major motion picture.

THE SIMPLE SECRET TO HAVING GOOD LUCK

We often think that blockbuster successes are luck. Maybe it’s easier to explain success that way—as a chance happening, a fortunate outlier. No doubt, there is always some element of luck involved in every success story.

But Markus Zusak is proof that if you revise your work 200 times—if you find 200 ways to reinvent yourself, to get better at your craft—then luck seems to have a way of finding you.

How do creative geniuses come ups with great ideas? They work and edit and rewrite and retry and pull out their genius through sheer force of will and perseverance. They earn the chance to be lucky because they keep showing up.

In her Dartmouth Commencement Address, Shonda Rimes shares a strategy that echoes Zusak’s approach…

Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change…

Ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer. Maybe you know exactly what it is you dream of being, or maybe you’re paralyzed because you have no idea what your passion is. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to know. You just have to keep moving forward. You just have to keep doing something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to trying something new. It doesn’t have to fit your vision of the perfect job or the perfect life. Perfect is boring and dreams are not real. Just … do.

So you think, “I wish I could travel.” Great. Sell your crappy car, buy a ticket to Bangkok, and go. Right now. I’m serious. You want to be a writer? A writer is someone who writes every day, so start writing.

HOW CREATIVITY WORKS

We all have some type of creative genius inside of us. The only way to release it is to work on it.

No single act will uncover more creative powers than forcing yourself to create consistently. For Markus Zusak that meant writing and re-writing 200 times. For you, it might mean singing a song over and over until it sounds right. Or programming a piece of software until all the bugs are out, taking portraits of your friends until the lighting is perfect, or caring for the customers you serve until you know them better than they know themselves. You can make any job a work of art if you put the right energy into it.

How do creative geniuses come up with great ideas? They work hard at it.

5 SECRETS FOR MAKING YOUR LOGO STAND OUT

Your logo is the face of your company. It will often be the first thing people see and the main thing they remember. If asked, most of us could name at least a few iconic logos, whether it be Coca-Cola's cursive script or the namesake bird of Penguin Books. And that's the whole point: You invest time in crafting the perfect logo so it will stick in people's minds.

"Other people have to be able to speak for your brand," says Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Simon & Schuster, 2013) and the James G. Campbell Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "You love your company, you think your company is great, but if you're not around, what are people going to be able to remember? And what are they going to tell others?"

The best logos have several things in common. Below are Berger's five keys to a successful logo.

1. Simplicity.

The first element of many killer logos is simplicity. "A good way to think about simplicity is how many moving pieces are there in the logo," Berger says. For instance, the old Apple logo was rainbow-colored, while the current one is rendered in solid black or simple grayscale. That newfound simplicity makes the logo easy to look at, which customers appreciate.

"The easier it is to process things, the more we like those things," Berger says. For that reason, most brands want to present a simple aesthetic that is easy for consumers to digest. Other major brands such as IKEA, IBM and Coca-Cola follow this rule. "It's hard to find iconic logos that have more than two or three colors," says Berger.

10 TIPS FOR UNLEASHING YOUR CREATIVITY AT WORK

Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful company today. For many companies, however, the pursuit of innovative ideas is missing a key element  (something typically not associated with business professionals): creativity. 

Nurturing your creative self is the only way to truly unlock your strategic mind and bring your business skills to bear in new, meaningful ways that can benefit your entire organization. Here are 10 tips to help you unlock your creativity at work:

1. Get visual. Regardless of your role, industry or responsibilities, visualizing data and ideas is an incredibly powerful tool to get your team thinking. Get off the phone, go in a room together (a virtual room will work, too) and use a whiteboard until your hand hurts.

2. Throw out the rule book. The next time you get your team together to brainstorm, create and enforce a “no holds barred” idea session. Nothing is off the table; nothing is outside the realm of possibility. Avoid words and phrases like “but,” “how would we” and “we can’t.” If necessary, designate someone to police those phrases and keep everyone honest.

3. Work backward. Figure the goal or ideal scenario 10 to 15 years down the road. Start there and work your way backward. Don’t worry about the “how.” Focus on the “what.” Your road map will literally unfold itself.

YOUNG MILLIONAIRE: MEET YAHOO'S TEEN SENSATION NICK D'ALOISIO

Brains. Power. Millions of dollars in the bank. Nick D’Aloisio has them all. Already. And he’s only 18.

You might have heard that D’Aloisio sold his viral Summly mobile news summarization app to Yahoo a year ago for a cool $30 million. He was just 17 at the time. The Australia-born British programmer wunderkind wrote the app in his parents’ bedroom at their London home when he was 15.

D’Aloisio is one of the youngest self-made millionaires ever. He is also the world’s youngest venture capital-backed entrepreneur, first raising $300,000 in seed funding in 2011 from Hong Kong billionaire Sir Li Ka-shing’s Horizon Ventures for Summly. Then he raised $1.23 million in 2012 from various A-List celebrity investors, including Yoko Ono, Rupert Murdoch, Stephen Fry and Ashton Kutcher.

Recently named “Innovator of the Year” by the Wall Street Journal, D’Aloisio is now a key full-time member of Yahoo’s mobile engineering team. He launched the tech giant’s sleek new Yahoo News Digest app, which Yahoo describes as an evolution of the work he did at Summly. Not bad for someone in his last year of high school.

We caught up with D’Aloisio to talk about his success, Yahoo, his favorite gadgets, and what it takes to get your big break as a young entrepreneur. 

Here's his interview with Entrepreneur.com

5 COMMON MISTAKES ENTREPRENEURS MAKE ON TWITTER

Twitter is one of the purest forms of true social media -- conversations and direct interactions in real time happening all day, every day, making it one of the most valuable brand channels for entrepreneurs. You can find out what people are saying in real time about you and can personally connect with an individual in a genuine way.

While you may be promoting yourself or business on Twitter, you may be making a handful of easily correctable mistakes that could be severely limiting your influence and reach on Twitter, as well as hurting your brand.

Here are the five most common Twitter errors and how to correct them.

FASCINATING: Google’s smart contact lenses for diabetics: Another step towards the Google-powered cyborg

Google X, the secretive research lab famed for its work on Glass and Google’s self-driving cars, has unveiled its next product: Smart contact lenses. The first smart contact lens, aimed at diabetics, takes a glucose level reading every second from the tears that wash over your eye when you blink, and transmits that data wirelessly to a nearby device. Google doesn’t say what device, but presumably a smartphone or Google Glass. Yes, if Google X has its way, we will soon all look like cyborgs, our bodies becoming interconnected networks of implants and augmentations.

Currently, if you have diabetes, you generally have to perform finger-stick blood tests throughout the day. At best this is inconvenient, at worst it’s disruptive and painful — but either way, if you want to safely manage your blood sugar levels, it must be done. Due to the inconvenience factor, though, many diabetics don’t test themselves as often as they should — which then leads to all sorts of nasty situations, such as passing out. There are other ways of reliably testing blood sugar levels, such as your tears — but, as you can imagine, collecting tears is no easier than pricking your finger. Unless you have a smart contact lens…

ANDROID 4.3 APPROVED FOR SONY Xperia M

We have some good news for the Sony Xperia M owners. Even though the company is going to launch the Xperia M2 very soon, Sony hasn't forgotten its predecessor.

Apparently Sony has been working on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean firmware update and it will soon begin rolling out. The first country to get it should be France as the SFR carrier has already approved the ROM recently.

Vodafone Australia has also shared it is testing the new firmware on its Xperia M version and if everything goes without hiccups, the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean for the Australian Xperia M should be out soon too.

So, Sony seems to be finished developing the update and hopefully it will reach all Xperia M units around the globe in the next couple of weeks. According to the SFR changelog the new update will bring your Xperia M Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, faster UI, updated multimedia apps (Walkman, Album, Movies), Xperia Themes and better bookmark management in Chrome.

There is no word if the Xperia M will be getting the KitKat treatment later this year as its Xperia M2 successor.

Thank you, AblaZe, for the tip!

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via

8 WAYS TO SPOT GREAT LEADERS

If you ever wonder why we’re in a crisis of leadership all you have to do is to watch and listen to those in positions of leadership. While there are clearly many aspects of leadership that must work together in harmony in order for leaders to be effective, everything breaks down when leaders don’t understand how to engage effectively.


Let’s start with what leadership is not: Leadership is not a monologue, a speech, a lecture or a filibuster. Leadership is not talking at or over people. Leadership is not sequestered, does not live in a bubble or operate in a vacuum. Leadership is not exclusive or arrogant. Leadership is not about the leader.

What we see all too often in today’s leaders are little more than egocentric talking heads. They are so enamored with seeing themselves on camera or listening to themselves talk they have forgotten it’s their job to solve problems not create or exacerbate them.

History’s best examples of leaders are of those leaders who were/are highly engaged, very inclusive, deeply caring, and highly empathetic. They don’t fear being proven wrong, but are deathly afraid about the thought of being wrong and not knowing it.

The best leaders are not interested in who is right, but what is right. They not only embrace dissenting opinions, but they seek them out at every opportunity. Real leaders are just as at ease when unlearning as they are when learning.  And perhaps most importantly, they never pass up an opportunity discuss, converse, dialog, or debate. They know that their leadership is only as good as their ability to engage, listen, discern, and to act.

Here’s the thing – what politics and business would like us to picture as the perfect image of a leader bears little resemblance to the genuine article.  Following are eight ways to spot real leadership:

Ever Wondered what makes a good logo?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD LOGO.

When designing a logo, you should have it in mind that a logo gives the outside world an instant visual impression of your brand. A logo speaks thousand words about your brand. To design a logo, have it in mind that a good logo should have the following features.

1.Uniqueness:Do not emulate the logo of other brands. A copied logo or a common one will make your business look cheap and unoriginal. It is far better to create your own logo for your brand otherwise people won’t take you serious. A unique logo will also tend to be one that stands the test of time

2.Easy to describe A good logo is always easy to describe. Keep your logo simple and do not let it have too many distracting elements. If your logo can’t be described, people won’t be able to remember it and that won’t be good for your business. Your logo should make a statement for your brand.

3.It must fit your needs:When designing your logo, think clearly about the effect you want it to achieve. Logos are the most important marketing pieces for a company because it must represent that company in many different contexts and still get the message across.

4.It must define your key characteristics:A logo needs to represent the company it serves. This means that the style must be easily identified with the industry/product/service and must give a clear picture of what is being marketed. A good logo should be able to reflect your core values and everything your company is about.A great logo must encompass the entire company too, not just one aspect of it.

5.It should suit your target audience:Consider your audience when choosing the style of your logo. For example if you want to run a baby store, you have to use a logo that has soft bright colours.

6.It must have meaningful colours: Different colours and different shades have different meanings and different effect on people because of colour association. The colour of your logo shouldn’t contradict the image your company is trying to project.

Remember that a good logo speaks a thousand words. Put all these in mind when you want to choose a logo for your brand.