About Quantity Breeding Quality

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it’s the only one we have."
            Emile Auguste Chartier (pseudonym: Alain), 1868-1951

A Question of Balance

Several months ago, my son's pitching coach assigned him an interesting daily drill. He was instructed to roll up a thick towel, and then balance on it with ball of one foot, while lifting the other bent leg up perpendicular to the body. You know, that classic Karate Kid position. This is intended to help him learn balance, and build leg strength, in order to stabilize his motion while winding up and throwing the ball. I tried it and failed. Tried and failed again. Tried and failed again.

Without balance, a pitcher's throw will go wide, high, low, outside -- anywhere but over the plate. Just the slightest change of angle while throwing, due to loss of balance, creates an unacceptable outcome.

Can you see where this little metaphorical analogy is going? I've always felt balance was crucial to the life of a creative person, as well. That is, if you want to stay fresh and keep the "idea bank" in your brain filled with new experiences and learning from which to draw, balance is key. But it's tough to do that when you regularly work nights and weekends. I know from experience.

To that end, a recent discussion I had with my daughter who works at Crispin in Boulder, was quite relevant. She said her boss call the interactive creative group together and said he would prefer that they didn't work weekends and late nights to the extent they had been because it didn't necessarily make them more productive. She was thrilled with the news because she felt she (and others) would be fresher, more alert and more capable of producing quality work. They would have time to re-charge their batteries, in other words. She's willing to work hard, as most sharp creatives are, but relentlessly long hours can be quite detrimental.

Balance is beautiful. Asian philosophy has promoted the concept for centuries.

I believe top-notch work can be done by working hard, and focusing with laser-like intensity, during an 8-10 hour day...and then enjoying an evening and weekend improving talents, learning, serving good causes, and, most importantly, enjoying your family. In short, that towel drill definitely applies to life.

Where Ideas Come From

KEY FACT: You can't extract something from your head that's not already in there. That is a particularly important point for those of us involved with conjuring up ideas. Therefore, as one of my early mentors proposed:

Think of your mind as a computer. It's being fed information constantly. Don't put the intake button in neutral and most importantly, DON'T EVER PUSH THE OFF BUTTON.

Peace, be still.

I believe inspiration comes in peaceful settings.

Words such as quiet, secluded, still, and peaceable have always been, in my experience, associated with clear thinking and imaginative writing. Little wonder, writers in ceiling-less, wall-deprived office scenarios wear headphones and earplugs. I visited CPB in Boulder last week and while walking through the hallways at 9 PM noticed so many of the creative staffers hunched over monitors with headphones on. Noise blocking out noise. It's too bad offices -- even small ones -- with doors can't be provided to everyone, but that's not the trend these days.

I recognize all writers may not feel the same way. And I realize that walls and doors cost money. I tried to deal with an open-office setting while working for Cole & Weber, and even earplugs didn't always create sufficient quietude. When they did, I couldn't hear my phone ring. Not good. I feel badly for our writers at Richter7 who face the same predicament. When offices were originally assigned, I should have been more wise -- even if the offices they should have received weren't as "cool."

The world grows increasingly noisy. I fear the trend won't abate. As I understand it, the first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of enemy communication channels. Call it "black noise."

In today's world of communication overload, there always seems to be a TV on in the background -- sometimes the foreground. The radio, or an iPod, constantly blares. As anyone with a teenager will admit, Guitar Hero is not an eardrum's best friend. My son is savoring, at high volume, a YouTube video on a nearby computer as I write this -- or try to write this. I'm just not tough enough to mentally focus when there's non-stop noise all around. And I'll bet I'm not unique.

For me, and many others, solitude and quiet are particularly conducive to idea generation, inspiration and creativity. Since the ad business is built on those precepts, it seems rather critical to orchestrate moments and physical environments that are noise-free. Op-ed over and out.