Skip to main content

Book Review: Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley


If you asked me last year if I was a creative person, I probably would have said no.

 The last time I took an art class was probably in eighth grade, and the reason I didn't continue in high school was because I was not particularly good at any of the art projects in grade school. Even with my musical ability, I was still told that I was not a creative person. Merely, I was just good at replicating what I could hear from something else or from reading sheet music.

 I believed it. For years.


But deep down inside me, this never sat well with me. Whether it came to arranging furniture in our house or organization a PowerPoint presentation, I knew what did look right and what didn't look right. Only after embracing graphic design did I truly realize that there was a creative aspect within me.

 But not just within me. Within all of us.

 This book is just about that. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential within Us All teaches us that there is indeed a creative side to us all. I know I'm not alone in thinking that I am not a creative person. Does this mean we'll be able to paint the Mona Lisa? No, probably not. But it does mean that we can come up with creative solutions to unique problems.

 The authors of this book, Tom and David Kelley, do an excellent job at balancing philosophy and practicality. In the first part of the book, they share reasons why people think they are not creative and why this is merely a fallacy. They do well in illustrating this point by sharing specific stories of people they have interacted with in the past.

 Toward the latter part of the book, the Kelley brothers help put the rubber to the road by offering tips on how to exercise innovative creativity in very specific ways. They include instructions for exercise to help foster creativity amongst a team, how to empathize with end users, and more. These exercises alone make this book well worth reading.

 Regardless of whether or not you think you are a creative person, I would encourage you picking this up. This book very much feels like the book I would write if I were to describe my own journey from my pre-graphic design life to my post-graphic design life. Much like extroversion, we all have a creative nature within us. This book helps us to realize that to the benefit of our organizations and ourselves.

 Disclaimer: I purchased this book using personal funds and read it cover-to-cover prior to the publication of this review.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: "The Dip" by Seth Godin

If you think you've seen this book before, you're probably not mistaken. It's not a new book at all. It came out in 2007, and the first time I read this book was actually back in 2011. For personal reasons, I chose to pick it back up, and I'll talk about that in a separate post. Having been five years since my last read, I'm glad I dug this back up. It's a pretty teeny book, as you can see in the image below. A person can definitely breeze through the entire book in an hour or two. Anyway, this is a book review! How does this book hold up in the nine years since it's initial release? Let's get into it.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Christian Civil War of 2016

There's no doubt that the outcome of the recent election had arguably the most divisive outcome in American history. People have not been afraid to voice their anger and concerns about Trump's election on social media. From what I've seen, the most vocalization has come from the left, and I honestly haven't seen a lot of overt support from the right. (That's another topic altogether.) What has quietly gone unaddressed is another issue that has stemmed from the election: a Christian civil war. As somebody who cares for the church, this something I definitely think needs addressed sooner rather than later.
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Mindful of Invisible Scripts

Whether we like it or not, assumptions pretty much drive our lives. We learn to live not because we have analyzed a certain matter thoroughly. Rather, much of what we know today was ingrained in us in our adolescent development. Some of these are more obvious. Take going to college, for example. When I graduated from high school, something like 90% of my graduating class planned on pursuing some sort of college education. Even if my parents didn't encourage me to go to college (they did), it still seemed like the thing I needed to do. But some things aren't so obvious. There are subtle things people do and say that guide our choices in a way we are oblivious to.
Post a Comment
Read more

Being Transparent about LYEATT's Analytics

I'm going to break off from my usual explanation of whatever trending idea to be open with you all about some stuff. I chose Blogger as the platform for this blog because it's housed under Google, and I find Google to be a trustworthy company. What I did not realize is the extent to which Blogger provides analytics. Obviously, I can't see exactly who is reading this blog, but I can see a number of other things. I can see where traffic is coming from, whether from LinkedIn or Twitter. I can also see how many times people have viewed each post. And I can also tell you that I wrote my first zero-view post recently. Also, to date, there has never been a single comment on any post. I'm not going to share which post that is because viewership is not the purpose of this blog, nor am I looking for anybody to comment now. But I will say that it is a little disheartening. This would normally have been the point where I'd shut down the blog and labeled it a failure. Bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

You're Out of Excuses

The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is $50 and often goes on sale for cheaper than that. You can get free wifi almost anywhere, including most McDonald's locations. The best email platforms, Gmail and Yahoo, are free . Almost all social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are free . My blog is hosted on the Blogger platform, which is free to use. If you have a library card, you can probably checkout digital ebooks for free via Overdrive. Apps like WhatsApp allow you to make calls to people for free . Interacting with people on social forums like Reddit is free . The barriers to entry have been lowered significantly. You don't have an excuse why you're not making yourself better anymore.
Post a Comment
Read more