Creativity

To be creative is to be like Edouard Manet, the French Impressionist of the late 19th Century. His was a style that was innovative, bold, transparent and visionary. He “broke new ground in representation and technique” and was both focused and flexible.

As a small business owner, these are qualities that will serve you well. Your first task is to figure out what your customers want then you’ve got to experiment, look to emerging trends as a guide, be willing to change to capitalize on the trends, and steadily build momentum towards making your vision manifest.

Being creative means using a certain calculus and “visionary leadership” to form strategy and to execute strategy using cutting edge methodologies rather than using a sort of haphazard approach, doing things willy nilly with no rhyme or reason just because it is the status quo. Creativity, therefore is not a euphemism for a lack of discipline. Nor is it an excuse for a totally laissez faire attitude. It is really a "juxtaposition of innovation and imitation." It is where “scandal meets triumph.” It is art.

So get that adrenaline pumping, be true to your values, mission and goals. Creativity, as Manet came to realize, is about purity, a willingness to boldly act on ideas and vision in such a way as to challenge pre-conceived ideas, and the old way of doing things, and to do so with a healthy degree of transparency. It is about risk, daring to “look for the grand light and grand shadow.”