Strategic Design | marketing & branding thoughts by Nick Rice

Dynamic marketing, branding & design strategies that span the gap between business & creative.


Two things that kill creativity

From Seth Godin...

The first is fear.

  • The fear that you'll have to implement whatever you dream up.
  • The fear that you will fail.
  • The fear that you will do something stupid and be ridiculed by your peers for decades.
  • The fear that you'll get fired.
  • The fear that there will be an unanticipated backlash associated with your idea.
  • The fear of change.
  • The fear of missing out on the thing you won't be able to do if you do this.

The second is a lack of imagination.

I believe that every single person I've met in this profession is capable of astounding creativity. That you, and everyone else for that matter, is able to dream up something radical and viral and yes, remarkable. So why doesn't it happen more often? Sure, fear is a big part, but it's also a lack of imagination.

Basically, most people don't believe something better can occur. They believe that the status quo is also the best they can do. So they don't look. They don't push. They don't ask, "what else?" and "what now?" They settle.

Fear is an emotion and it's impossible to counter an emotion with logic. So you need to mount emotional arguments for why your fear of the new is the thing you truly need to fear.

As for the second issue, just knowing it exists ought to be enough. Once you realize you're settling, it may just be enough to get you wondering... wondering whether maybe, just maybe, something better is behind curtain number 2.

technorati tags > marketing, strategy, creativity, fear, imagination

Quick update

I wanted to let you guys know that our son came through his heart surgery great yesterday. I'm keeping another blog for updates on him. You can find out more at: riceplayground.com

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. He'll need a few more to come through the recovery process. It's going to take a while. But once he's well, there should be no side effects or long term issues.

Blogging on hold...

We've had good news and bad news in the family. First off, my wife and I welcomed a new baby boy into the family on Oct. 10. The bad news is that he was born with a heart defect and is waiting for surgery to repair it. It's a very fixable condition with little to no side effects after he makes it through the surgery.

For those of you that are medically-inclined, he has Transposition of the Great Arteries - not a walk in the park but a common heart condition. We are at the Cincinnati Childrens Hospital and are very impressed with the staff here. They are wonderful and are some of the best in this business.

So please keep him (and us) in your thoughts and prayers for the next few weeks.



We just want to get our little guy home safe and sound.



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