The Dr. Seuss Method
In 1960 two men had a $50 bet.
One of the men was Theodore Geisel a.k.a Dr. Seuss. The other was Bennet Cerf, the co-founder of Random House publishers.
The bet was Geisel couldn’t write a successful book in 50 unique words or less. The result was “Green Eggs and Ham”
This proved to Geisel’s most popular book.
This wasn’t the first writing challenge presented to Geisel.
Geisel worked in advertising. The American school system at that time had books that were not captivating children’s imagination and encouraging them to read beyond what they were forced to do.
William Spaulding, director of Houghton Mifflin’s educational division, challenged Geisel to “write a story that first-graders can’t put down.”
The creative challenge?
Spaulding demanded that the book would be limited to 225 distinct words from a list of 348 words that were selected from a standard first grader’s vocabulary list.
Geisel failed the challenge. He used 236 unique words. “The cat in the hat” was published in 1957 and quickly sold a million copies.
Geisel quit advertising and became a full time children’s author.
Fun fact: The original story was about a Queen cat but “queen” wasn’t on the approved word list. However, “hat” was and it rhymed with “cat”, so Geisel wrote that book instead.
The Cat Queen doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?
Tip # 1 — Increase your creativity by reducing your options.
The Equal Odds Rule
In the late 70’s, Keith Simonton a Harvard educated psychologist developed a theory.
He called it the equal odds rule.
“The Equal Odds Rule says that the average publication of any particular scientist does not have any statistically different chance of having more of an impact than any other scientist’s average publication.”
In other words, you can’t predict your own success. Scientists, artists, producers, content creators are equally likely to create a flop as they are to create content that resonates.
All we can do is keep showing up. Time after time. It’s a numbers game. Even for history's greatest ever icons. Some material resonated, most didn’t.
Knowing this sets realistic expectations.
Tip # 2 — if you stay on the pitch long enough you will eventually score a goal — Darcus Beese OBE, former President of Island Records
Quality vs quantity
Throughout my career, I have seen creative rebels and entrepreneurs struggling with ideas and concepts.
Why? Because they have egos. Egos with unrealistic expectations.
We all do. To come up with our best stuff we have to drop our egos.
When we create with ego we’re:
- Trying too hard to create something great.
- Get halfway through an idea or a concept and bin it.
- Start but never finish projects. Rinse and Repeat.
Why? Cos we’re focusing on quality.
And that’s all wrong. It’s creating quantity that produces quality.
Creativity is like an outdoor tap. You’ve got run it and get out of the murky water and silt that’s been sitting in the pipes before you get the pure, glistening, water.
To create something that makes an impact we need empathy and not ego.
Tip # 3 - Create quantity to produce quality.
Cosmic Joke
We have everything we need inside us. This includes creative genius. But we care what others think.
Humans rarely reach anywhere near their potential. We get in our own way. We’re scared to take risks.
Fears, insecurities, and overthinking throttle our potential. We create bland work. We stay in our lanes. We limit our opportunities.
If you can stop caring what people think you will create your best work.
Tip # 4 — the only opinions you should listen to are those of your customers. Ignore the rest —even your own.
Processes vs Results
John Grisham has sold over 300 million books. His books have been made into movies starring Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, and Matthew McConaughy.
John was a lawyer. He had two kids and his own busy law practice. Time was an issue.
My goal, when I started the book, was just to finish it. ‘Cause I’m always starting a new project and never finish….I worked on it for three years
John Grisham
His process? He wrote at least one page a day, every day.
His first novel only sold 5,000 copies. His second novel, The Firm, sold 7 million. Tom Cruise played the lead role in the movie.
When Jerry Seinfeld was an up-and-coming comedian he wanted to master the art of writing jokes. So he wrote a new joke every day.
He bought a calendar, a red pen and put a cross against it every day he wrote a new joke.
His process? Never break the chain. It took Jerry years to master the art.
But it worked…it always does.
Tip #5 —Focus all your effort on the process and the results will take care of themselves.
Pressure
Humans don’t perform well under prolonged pressure.
When we’re over-stressed our heartbeat increases and becomes irregular and when it reaches circa 115 bpm, our brains start to shut down.
Stress kills your creativity and decision-making.
If you’re super stressed, do square breathing exercises aka, box breathing
Elite armed force calls them breakpoints.
This will regulate your heartbeat and you will leave fear mode and be able to perform at your best again.
Tip # 6 — learn square breathing to perform at your best under pressure
Confidence is the biggest predictor of performance
Multiple studies over decades have proven the best way to increase performance in any field is to increase confidence.
Self-talk is one of the most influential agents for honing self-confidence. Extensive research in sports psychology has proven that an athlete’s inner dialogue was the main influencer in performance levels.
This is also true in creativity.
Mental skills coaches teach elite athletes thought swapping. We can only have one thought at any given time.
Recognise the negativity. Thought stop by using a mental image of a stop sign or a hand. And replace with prearranged performance statement.
A performance statement is a pre-organised performance statement
Before Roger Federer became the world’s number 1 tennis player he repeatedly told himself to “stay focused on the present” this stopped him from beating himself up about mistakes and performing poorly.
Andy Murray failed to win any grand slams as he couldn’t control his temper. He repeatedly calmed himself down in between shots, won Wimbledon and became the World No. 1.
Control your negative self-talk and you will become a much better creative entrepreneur. This takes a lot of practice.
Tip # 7 — master your self talk and you will master your performance
And finally…the more successful you become the more imposter syndrome you will experience
According to his interview with NPR, Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather was asked to adapt his books to film.
He found it an unsettling experience as he didn’t know what he was doing.
He had never written a screenplay before.
Nonetheless, he completed the project. Everyone seemed happy. Especially after the film won two Oscars.
Mario still felt insecure. Wanting to improve his skills he bought a book on screenwriting. The lesson on chapter 1?
“Study Godfather”
The only rule in creativity is there are no rules in creativity.
Strict guidelines and parameters are best left to accountants and lawyers.
Tip # 8 — Everyone gets imposter syndrome. If you’re not experiencing it you’re probably in your comfort zone.
Nothing, ever, worthwhile was created in a comfort zone.
P.S Everything is saturated
Rip up the rule book.
Get out of your lane, take fucking risks.
Make a racket in your saturated market.
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