Creativity Is The Most Valued Entrepreneurial Skill

THE GROOVE

Welcome to the 79th issue of The Groove.

If you are new to The Groove, read our intro here. If you want to read past issues, you can do so here.

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Thank you again for all the enormous support on my book launch! It’s now out in the world and excellent reviews are pouring in!

By the way, Bookshop, which is an online platform that directly benefits independent bookstores, is offering 10% off my book with the code CREATIVITYRULES. This link has the code already applied.

Consider buying my book from them as indie bookstores need our support to keep print books alive.

One topic that impacts you (and all of us) is the fact that in the past two years there have been 10 million filings for new businesses in the United States. This is an unprecedented number never seen before, and it is super promising for the future because small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy.

Do you know, however, what is the most crucial skill for any business to thrive? It is creativity.

Creativity is your unique ability to come up with ideas of value that can be materialized and that are relevant for today. The word “relevant” is very important, it means that people have to want what you are offering right in this world and in this moment.

This is intertwined with entrepreneurship because it helps you devise unique and interesting services, processes, and products that people want.

We all want these 10 million new businesses to succeed, yet according to statistics published in 2019 by the Small Business Administration, about 20% of business startups fail in the first year. About half succumb to business failure within five years. By year ten, only about 33% survive.

Two of the main reasons why this happens is because business owners lack creativity in their products or services. They are just copying what already exists without differentiating themselves. The second reason is that they are so rigid in their thinking that they are unwilling to pivot when the circumstances demand, which is also a creative ability.

From the way you position yourself to the way you market your services, your art or your products, these are all skills that fall under the umbrella of creativity.

And if you work in a company that you love, become an intrapreneur, be a self-starter, and bring your best ideas forward for the benefit of all.

Creativity gives you an edge over the competition when you create new ways of doing something or a product that is better than what already exists.

This is what Steve Jobs did with Apple. He wasn’t a coder, an engineer, or a product designer. He was a guy with a vision and boundless creativity who relentlessly pursued his ideas and didn’t let anyone tell him that what he was envisioning wasn’t possible.

With your creativity in business or in art you can disrupt the status quo. Allow yourself to follow a path of immense discoveries.

Always be experimenting. Don’t take things at face value.

Creativity ignores “usual” or “normal” and pushes you to think outside of the box.

Traditional points of view, “best practices” -- all of that has been said and done and should be discarded in favor of new and versatile options. Embrace the phrase “expect the unexpected.”

When I opened my company in 2009, there was nobody blogging about artists’ studio visits or demystifying access to the art world in plain terms.

There was nobody talking about art in a way that made sense for uninitiated collectors, or in the context of people’s homes and surroundings. I was the first to do that and besides having a blog that was really ugly, I contributed my articles to Forbes, HuffPost, Elle and Goop, just to mention a handful.

My philosophy was noticed by people who were watching these posts (only Facebook and Twitter existed back then) and reading my articles. Many of those people later became my clients and we have formed incredible personal and professional relationships.

To find a niche, look outside the mainstream, look at the intersections of industries or at activities that are happening in the peripheries.

Like hip-hop once was a small movement happening in houses and block parties in the Bronx in the 1970s.

Or like in 1978 in Austin, Texas, when John Mackey and Renee Lawson (a college dropout and his girlfriend) opened a small natural foods store called SaferWay at a time when the organic movement wasn’t even understood – two years later that small store became a supermarket that was rebaptized as Whole Foods.

I have always stood by the idea that successful artists are just like entrepreneurs. They start with a blank canvas and create something amazing from scratch, and they run nimble operations where the profits are high and the operations costs are low.

When Picasso died in 1973, he left a fortune valued in $500 million – that is $2.9 billion today. And for the most part, Picasso worked alone. And no, he didn’t come from a rich family. His mom was a housewife and his dad a schoolteacher who moved from one city to the next trying to get a job that allowed him to pay his bills.

If you happen to be an artist and don’t think of yourself as an entrepreneur, think again.

Artists can turn their ideas into gold.

There’s work, there’s hustle, there’s marketing, but really, this is the profession that allows for creations that aren’t bound by the rules of reality.

People are willing to pay for what has come out of your heart and hands and brings your own point of view to the world. That is pure creative entrepreneurship.

• ONLINE: TONIGHT, March 22 at 7 pm EST with Books & Books, the celebrated and super special bookstore that has several locations all over Florida. I will be joined by my dear friend Carlos Betancourt, a multidisciplinary artist who has lived in Miami most of his life and has been instrumental in shaping the art scene of that city for many decades. His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Met in New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Bass and the PAMM in Miami Florida and many more. You can join us free from anywhere in the world. Register here.

• IN-PERSON: Wednesday, March 30th at 11:00 am I will be in Charlotte, North Carolina signing books and hanging out with the Southern folks at SoCo Gallery. Make sure to get your book here.

Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.

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