By David Kord Murray
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Published September 3, 2009 (Hardcover) Gotham
The guy’s a rocket scientist — for real! So we might as well pay attention to what he has to say. Plus, he’s got the wounds to show for the knowledge he shares in Borrowing Brilliance — made $50-million, lost it all, went bankrupt, then built it back.
And, building is the metaphor he uses in his book, and in his interview with me today on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan.
David is a storyteller, and he delivers, as he rolls out the six steps. His subtitle tells it all: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others. The first is defining the problem. You’re suddenly jobless. Why? Ask yourself. Is it your industry? Your skill set? The problem guides you to the next step, which is borrowing. I know. No way do you want to be a plagiarist or a thief. Me neither. But, David quotes Albert Einstein defining the secret of creativity as knowing how to hide your sources. He’s got lots of Einstein stories to tell. Also, you can borrow from multiple sources, or borrow from outside your discipline — ways to be creative, rather than a thief.
The third step, is to combine what you’ve learned. Michael Jackson, he tells us in the show, integrates style from Elvis, Fred Astaire, James Brown and a few others to become a startling, and magnetic, original. The last three steps involve using your intuition, being rough on yourself in terms of what stays and what goes, and reviewing steps one through five to refine and enhance your creativity.
For me, it was the stories that won me over — about the Google Guys, George Lucas, Bill Gates — and others. Tons of stories — some, oddly, repeated nearly verbatim several times in the book. Yeah, really odd to see that happen. It didn’t wreck the strong storytelling flow of the book, but it did make me stop and wonder.
David gives us permission to be wildly creative. Borrowing ideas from wherever we can. Remember, many sources! He says the creative process “is not as magical as it appears.” Whether you’re an artist, an educator, a businessperson, you can be creative. Grab a metaphor and glide!
