5 Lessons In Creativity

5 LESSONS IN CREATIVITY - FROM PAUL SIMON'S AMAZING MUSICAL JOURNEY

I confess I'm a huge fan. So I devoured Malcolm Gladwell's new audiobook which is essentially conversations with Paul Simon about his amazing musical journey, which is now in it's 7th decade. The audio book is packed with words and music, and a great listen. But along the way it really shines a light on his creativity. So I'm taking the liberty of sharing my 5 key lessons on creativity from this book and from my admiration of Paul Simon's music and career. These lessons of creativity are particularly interesting because they are counter intuitive to everything we practice in our work. What can we learn from these for business creativity?

In 1984 Paul Simon, while recovering from a broken relationship and a failed album, starts recording with African musicians with no real idea of what he's going to get out of it. 2 years later, he releases Graceland, by far his greatest album and for many, one of the best albums of all time. Lesson 1: it's okay to start a creative project without necessarily having great clarity about the end product or objective.

Paul Simon's music ranges across?50 years. From Wednesday Morning 3 AM with Art Gurfunkel in 1964, to Stranger to Stranger, in 2016 (not counting the earlier hits as Tom & Jerry). He's an outlier because very few people are consistently successful over such a long period. There are people who think his most recent work is among his best. Just listen to the song 'Afterlife', or 'You're The One'. And one of his most enduring habits is that he has never stopped experimenting and rarely given in the lure of simply repeating a successful formula. Lesson 2: there is no end to creative exploration. It can happen from when you're 14, and up to when you're 80.

When writing the song Graceland, he found himself unable to get past the phrase 'I'm going to Graceland' though it had nothing to do with the rest of the album which was largely about Africa, its people, and stories. He had just used it as a filler for the song, intending to replace them. Yet the words wouldn't leave him. So he went to Graceland and the lyrics of the song were inspired by his journey to Graceland and the idea of Graceland transcended the physical location in the song. Lesson 3: trust your method, whatever it is, and it's okay to follow your instincts even when you can't see the logic in them.

He starts with folk-rock and ends up creating with indie-folk, according to some music writers. Along the way, he writes musicals, cross-genre productions with African, South American, French and Indian musicians, and instruments. He never claims to be a folk singer and insists he's just copying others, but he writes The Boxer, one of the great folk songs. Lesson 4: there's no need to categorise yourself. It's cool (and fun) to wander across genres, categories, and domains, as long as you pay your dues.

At the core, Paul Simon has always been a brilliant musician and a songwriter, who seems to love nothing more than discussing the minutiae of chords and words. He introspects, and remembers, and is always deeply committed to his craft. Lesson 5: creativity is best used when you can shape it on the anvil of your core skill, whatever it is. You need to master your craft to effectively channel creative work.?

The Gladwell/ Paul Simon Audiobook is here