A lot of people think I’m creative. I am creative. But, you should all know that I can’t do it alone.

I am a collaborative creator.

Start with one idea. Put it up on the board and then… throw ideas at it and see what sticks.

I know that there are people out there who are hands down, on their own, creating amazing new ideas, inventions and gadgets that help us, entertain us and make the world a better place.

The vast majority of creators have help. They have a team of people who work for them, or with them. (I prefer working WITH people rather than having them work for you. After all, they are helping you and they are working for themselves and their future or their family.)

So, I think about the brand taglines and slogans that I have created for my clients. Somewhere in that process of creativity, they may have said one or two or even three words that got me to that great little statement. The one where they go “ooooh, that is it. That is us!” I couldn’t have done it without them, they couldn’t have done it without me (or someone like me, I prefer to think me. After all, I do have some level of ego.)

Then, I think of Art. Friday night I painted an inspired painting based on Klimt’s The Tree of Life. We started with a painting that the studio owner painted. (Her studio concept is based on another company who has an art studio/BYOB wine night out… see how it starts?) My version is my own, but I didn’t think up the idea of painting Eve and Adam in front of a tree that depicts life as a never ending attempt to reach the sky, the sun and the stars. (That’s just part of what I think that painting shows!)

The list goes on, businesses inspire other businesses, phones inspire new phones with more features, books and movies inspire other books and movies (or is it books that inspire movies?)

It is still creative. But it is collaborative. What will you create today? How will you collaborate to make something new, different, yet profoundly similar? What (or who) will inspire you?

Will you listen? Will you share your idea or hide behind it? Come out, reach for the sky, the sun and the stars. There is nothing limiting you today. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop. Go. Create.

Go.