I was watching a special on Edward Albee, the relatively famous still-living playwright who, among other things, brought us Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? It was some type of Tony presentation in Washington, D.C., on his life and achievements. President and Mrs. Clinton were there. Al and Tipper Gore were there. Countless dignitaries from D.C. rubbed shoulders with famous celebs from Hollywood.
None of that is all that important, except that it provided the back-drop for a presentation on Albee’s life and work as a very serious playwright and creative force in theater.
Amidst all of the hoopla, one thing struck me as being interesting. Albee was exceptionally supportive of the avant-garde works of new and aspiring playwrights worldwide. He nurtured them and he supported them. He healed their wounds and suffered their humiliations. And he took joy from their creative expansions.
It occurred to me that that general theme—supporting others navigating a similar craft—is reflected in not just Albee, but countless other artistic and creative luminaries throughout history. The more successful they were, the more they struggled. The more noteworthy they became. And the more they were prepared to help and guide aspiring creative artists.
I wondered what it was about art which was so very different from business.
In business, unlike in art, the objective seems not to be to assist others, nurture them, trust in them, and provoke their highest genius. The objective appears to be to win and winning, all too often, at the expense of others. In business, unlike in art, the general feeling appears to be that if one wins, the other must lose—a general sense that if my company is to be successful, the company providing a similar service must be beaten to a pulp.
To say I’ve never operated that way in business is to state the obvious and doesn’t really get us very far. Of course, I have never done that, and of course, there is no question that I have left countless millions of dollars on the table because of it. But that’s not really the question. The question—
Why is it that business cannot emulate art in one’s respect for authentic creation?
When I pose that question, I mean those words precisely. Business is artistic. It is creative. It does manifest something that was only really a thought before that. Any yet, business does not operate as a creative manifestation. It operates as if one wins and the other must lose. Buy into that, and there is never a possibility you will germinate the artistic seed of creative action.
As I have watched so many people simply co-opt my products, programs, concepts, and ideas, to the point where they duplicated what I had done years ago with no consideration for the fact that I long ago moved past it, I wonder where their sense of creation is in the process of producing—manifesting—what their thoughts are or their vision for the future of their product or service.
After all, that’s the essence of the creative impulse: to manifest in physical reality a vision for what something can look like in the future. Whether it’s a da Vinci painting, a Michelangelo sculpture, a Thomas Mann novel, or a Bronson business, it’s all the same—trying to manifest something that does not yet exist—the very essence of the creative impulse.
That process is internal. da Vinci, not van Gogh, painted the Last Supper.
Michelangelo, not Walpole, handcrafted the David. Thomas Mann, not Sidney Sheldon, wrote Buddenbrooks. And Bronson, not Steve Jobs, built Virgin Airlines.
When we are manifesting into physical reality the vision we so clearly see in our heads, we are involved in the creative instinct—the creative impulse. And that creative process does not come from looking to the left or the right; it comes from within. When we see others do things differently, regardless of the field in which they operate, the message we learn is not that we are inferior or superior or that they’ll “beat us.” The message is that there is wonderful value here for us to learn as we sit in respected admiration for the creator.
There may be those who knocked off the da Vincis, the Michelangelos, the Manns, the Bronsons, but there is no respect for them, there is no admiration for them, because they are just simply dilettantes, rip-offs, knock-offs.
Those we respect are those creators among us who, in each instance in their actions, continue to push the custom forward, take several small steps and an occasional big step to rework, rethink, and reformulate, what life can actually appear to be.
And for those, we should admire their work at every level. Help those around us who are pushing forward, assist those who have come before us and pave the way for those who will come after. The value for us becomes the value for all.
When we view business as an opportunity for the planting of a creative seed, we have the opportunity to look around to see, appreciate and admire the work of those who are doing similar work. When we view it as an “I win—you lose,” we destroy the opportunity to creative value in our work and, in the process, kill the creative spirit.
Original writing date: October 1997