Learning the rules of the game

The first business school programme of its kind for artists, it’s always oversubscribed because it answers a very pressing need. More of us want to escape the confines of corporate soulsuck, but watched friends step out into the freedom of freelancing or creative entrepreneurship and fall down a chasm, eventually claw their way back to the numbing safety of a grey job, worse off than when they left. The unexpected truth of their fall, is that despite having worked for a big business, they may know nothing about running their own. 

For artists ..and recently-escaped company execs too

This holds true not just for creatives. Many are they who come swaggering into a startup with their big swinging CVs and crashland their jetsized egos on the undulating ground of entrepreurship. Business in the buffered realms of a big company and running your own, share enough genetic markers on paper to be alike; but in the realworld, it’s like you and a sightless sea-urchin.
 
To my utter despair I’ve also watched as people of genius hand the business-end over to experts (read: recently escaped swaggering execs) so that they don’t have to be muddied by marketing, sales, admin and money. Which seems perfectly logical, but almost always ends in tears. We need to be involved in our enterprise on all levels (or at least understand how to check the reports) if it’s to be a success. It’s essential to bring in specialists to do things like our taxes, but to hand over the engine to someone else to remote control isn’t amongst the finest strategic move ascribed in biographies of the greats. But despite eons of creative geniuses handing down their stories, we still fall into the same sticky tarpit generation after generation.
 
Business can be terrifying, disheartening, overwhelming as a solo venture. But to do it with the fundamentals in place when it all starts shaking, the right people on speed-dial and having built-in back-up plans are all best practises that winning creative entrepreneurs have learned. 

Who’s this program a best-fit for?

Business Acumen for Artists goes a long way to getting those elementals in place for:

• those planning an escape
• those bravely out there plying their creative trade but frustrated that they’re not doing as well as they should.
• ..and also as a refresher masterclass for those already successful artists wanting to get a better idea of what opportunities they could be grabbing to strengthen their marketing [Dave Duarte will be leading 2 sessions on marketing with todays new tools! if nothing else, this is makes it worth it] or stretch into a global market [should you go PayPal? use an agent?].

MONEY, PLACE, TIME and WHAT TO DO NEXT

• It’s R 4995 for the 13 week programme, including personal mentorship (priceless)
• You also need to be geographically right for this one: you need to be in Cape Town from the 30th Aug – 29th Nov 2010 (Monday eves from 6pm til 9pm – built in for those still with dayjob).
• It’s held at UCT Graduate School of Business (right by the V&A Waterfront) with plenty of safe parking
• The group can only work if the numbers are kept tight [which means that you will be held accountable for your development and working through your OWN business outcome to share at the final wrap celebration]. It’s for the quick and decisive. If you KNOW you need it, grab the opportunity.

If this sounds just right for you, or someone you know who’s a perfect match (and you’re in South Africa) text ART & your email address to 31497 or book online: www.gsb.uct.ac.za/artists. If you prefer human contact give Mario a buzz on 021 406.1268 or mail him: mario.pearce@gsb.uct.ac.za to find out more or grab your place on the journey.

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Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

Genius I look for isn’t solely squeezed into human form, it’s in the forces of nature, technology, culture. Whatever is driving evolution – for good or bad – where there is an epiphany and a marked change in direction. [It happens more often than most of us suspect].
 
Research and reporting back forms part of my day job, but in the course of my explorations I come across extraordinary people doing crazycool things out where there is no precedent. These bits of reconnaissance aren’t that useful for business – which rarely thrives on investing in true innovation but is better suited to adaptive imitation.
But leaders and curious individuals benefit heartily from tales and tools from the edge; of brave inventions, explorers, creators and heroes that drive social contagion. It inspires courage and craziness needed to keep their own genius aglow (genius is fragile). These geniuses, their dazzling discoveries, astonishing creations and epic adventures are not the stuff of commercial transaction perhaps. But they are no less valuable to us as a species.
 
Sharing and debating the freshest phenomena from science, social psychology, behavioural economics, globalization, culture particularly through the digital filter isn’t part of the day job, but a delight of my secret life. And one that I can happily indulge in on the blog and realworld learning events.
 
Yes I do look for human genius too. And help get returns on their intellectual capital where appropriate. I am not a talent agent though. However I do have a trusted group of people who can help you get work that better rewards your brilliance or helps you realise ways to do solo work on your own terms as a specialist. Because interesting people tend to hang out with other interesting people (genius begets genius so the company we keep matters!), if you know someone whose work (day job or secret tinkering has the capacity to reshape the world or us as a species by way of applied genius) please let me know.

HAPPINESS IS ..

We expect the superb quality writing, of course this is no repurposed regurgitated press-release mill, by default. Okay, the ad model is a touch of genius (simplicity against the usual enmeshed complexities of CPM, impressions and arcane billing structures of online ad placements) but for me, the cool things aren’t as apparent.
 
It’s in funny things, like discovering there’s a reader’s covenant..

Give us a tiny slice of your time and we’ll give you the world. We’ll also throw in a whole lot of fun, just to sweeten the deal. In the background, there’s a whole lot more to it, of course, but that’s all just detail. The Daily Maverick exists to provide you with the news, analysis, insight and opinion that you need. Whether you’re required to make big decisions or just want to hold your own over lunchtime conversation, we’ll provide the tools.

Here’s another promise: we won’t ever waste your time. We don’t let algorithms decide what is important and what is not. Our journalists and editors are humans, and some of the best and most experienced ones around at that. They’ve spent decades refining the craft and we think they’re pretty good at it.

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We’ll do all of that for you, and we’ll do it with the greatest of integrity. Nobody will ever pay for our opinions, no matter the size of the chequebook. We will never sell your private information, or let somebody else dictate our agenda, or conspire behind your back.

Honestly, for most of my life I couldn’t have cared less about news. It all seemed a never-ending churn of tragedies from places you’ll never see in your lifetime about people whose fates you can’t change. Awfully good for curbing those irritating bouts of cheeriness when all seems well with the world. But the one thing that teaching globalization has taught me in return, is that no matter how far-flung, we’re all interconnected, life doesn’t happen in isolation anymore. The other, is that we CAN actually alter the fate of others on the other side of the world. One person, with the right knowledge can make the world of difference.
 
I, like so many of us who trade in knowledge, am compelled to ingest the news now, and would prefer not being swallowed by the depressing, drowning depths of data. The Daily Maverick promises FUN (no less!), an enjoyment in the news, for which I may be one of its toughest customers. It’s only the beta beginnings, but given the quality of minds gathering to make it so, they may well live up to that reader’s covenant. 

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win – Mohammed Ali

May the muses and the might of money be with you this round >>
 
 
* As it happened, just such an embodiment has meant that I am biased. As consort to the editor I may see through a brightened filter, but being lucky enough to have a ringside seat to the blood, sweat, tears – and resiliant rise again, I have respect for this uncrushable team beyond any loyalty. I dare you to go see if I’m wrong and The Daily Maverick doesn’t feel like the kitten’s whiskers ..and crisp apple strudel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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PS. For a little more insight on the indomitable team’s once and future visions, this meaty interview (The Media Online) lays bare what many oldskool Maverick readers have been burning to ask.
PPS. Simon Dingle weighs in on the revolutionary nature of TDM, as the return of quality, who’da thunk.

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26 Mentors have stepped up to contribute to this special programme, and I’ll introduce them as the as the journey progresses, because they deserve to be recognised. Each chosen for their particular approach to bridging business and creativity.

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For the reason that I don’t think too many of us get the opportunity to create a mentorship program¹, I’ll share some of my thoughts, maybe it’ll spark interest about creating one for your organisation/class/local good cause/ ..or yourself.

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8 Ideas on Modern Mentorship:

As a mentor:

1. You don’t have all the answers. There was a time when it was feasible that we could predict (with fair accuracy) how the world will operate in the years to come. That time is not now. Share skills, show the hidden paths you’ve discovered – but know that we aren’t in the certainty of our parent’s world. Our job is to inspire greatness.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity -General Patton

2. Stories are the best way to learn from someone else’s experience. It’s a quirk of the human brain – music and stories have the sticky stuff. We remember and pass on case-studies, parables, gossip, jingles. Embed big lessons (softly) in captivating true tales of luck, calamity, humour ..and let it unpack later as an aha! Be a great storyteller (the once and future king of all leadership skills)
3. Monoculture is bad, and not just in agriculture. Leave the cloning to the gene-splicing engineers, mentorship is not about sculpting someone into your likeness. Our job is to spot what makes our charge special, draw out what was dumbed down to ‘fit in’. Genius is rarely safe and orderly.

As a mentee (horrible word, but it gets the consensual nod over apprentice):

1. ASK. Most of us far too polite to ask for anything that may inconvenience anyone else (PLEASE do yourself a favour and refresh yourself on Stanley Milgram’s subway experiment). Oh yes, also grab a copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational², and read the chapter on social norms vs market norms. It WILL do your head in about what we assume about money and work.
2. That said, the kryptonite to a mentoring relationship is.. asking too much. Take a quick peek at Tim Ferriss’ post on getting this contact right. Entitlement is creepy. Demanding meetings to discuss the Next Big Thing ( still in idea.ware format and prefaced with the ubiquitous NDA), the assault of thick book manuscripts, lifeless CV’s and half.baked business plans to be analysed is something many people in high-profile positions get pelted with daily – witness any Branson gig! Stand out, offer something that would be of value to your would.be mentor (not the great opportunity to buy in now!)
3. You’re never too old or too successful to get a mentor. Brain plasticity³ is an invitation to free.choice learning. Go borrow someone else’s brilliance >>

I think you should profit from the mistakes of others. You don’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Lowell Ferguson

As a mentorship curator:

1. This isn’t your average mentorsheep program, so I needed to hunt for mentors who can look around the corner, not just behind them to point paths to success. Many high profile mentors who have forged their success in the world as it was. Globalization, the web, mobile, resource-strain – have rapidly forced us into new work for a new kind of world.. and so we need new kinds of guides.
2. Use fresh tools. It wouldn’t be much of a pioneering program if we didn’t experiment with the different channels that make up our blended.reality⁴. Challenge the idea that mentorship should be bound to 1 hour coffee meetings. The web is teeming with wonderful tools to enhance communication and inspire creativity (struck with tech.terror? ..hunt a mentor to help you learn, of course).

1. Yes, I have been watching Star Wars again in celebration of some of the most famed sequences of masters and apprentices (or padawan). We have very few powerful formal institutions or guilds left that require the mentor/apprentice model that demands that we face a great trial (no, end of year exams don’t qualify) to prove our mastery before entering our profession ..and maybe we’re collectively paying the price for that (but mercifully, I’ll save that discussion for another day!)
2. there’s an audio extract at the bottom of this page link if you’re living 3 weeks from a bookstore
3. your brain isn’t just doomed to entropy with the best wasted on your youth – IF you exercise it. Challenging learning = new neural connections, fresh brain cells and a cranked up IQ whatever your age
4. Our digital home base will be a custom social network from which we’ll begin the journey tomorrow night.. I’ll report back on what works

Innovation is one of those spaces that has to bridge both. This often elusive strategic advantage that could catapult you into uncontested territory (with the benefits of time, little competition, easy PR and high desirability in the marketplace) is often seen as the “soft stuff” best left to the creatives/scientists/inventors to envision. Mistakenly.

Never more so has there been such an urgent need for clarity on how to initiate, manage & implement innovation with accelerated competition and tightening resources on a crowded planet.
Companies that realise that the birthing of innovation is induced through rigorous process rather than entrusting it to luck or epiphanies of genius; those who specialise in it, like Google, BMW, 3M, GE, NASA offer insight on how to apply this in our own lives, businesses and careers.

I’m going to be writing 2 posts on innovation from our lecture series to de-fuzz the fluffy concepts around this word so treasured by management consultants. Essentially just as a memory recall for the students, so forgive me if they seem a little disjointed. (though as always you’re welcome to comment and nudge me if something needs more clarity or really connects with you & you want more info)

For me, there were a couple of insights from Dave’s introductory lecture that help discern practical innovation from the trance-inducing concept of innovation bandied about in boardrooms. Something that transforms the way we work, think, connect, play vs. more marketing vapourware.

THE BUSINESS OF INNOVATION

Innovation is NOT invention, nor is it improvement, inspiration or incremental change. Innovation is an idea that when applied has the ability to transform the society, market or holding pattern wherein it is let loose. It is not always positive, but always brings change.
It is a transformative solution to a known problem.

DEVELOPING THE INNOVATION DISCIPLINE

The crucial factor that strips out dumb luck/strokes of genius is to embody Edison’s model: Experiment with relentless determination to crash through a known problem. Successful business incubators like Idealab or pan-industry giants like Virgin or Google embrace the fact that not every dazzling idea will turn into a profitable endeavour, but fast implementation and reality testing are the only way to know without over-capitalising.

Whiteboards line the corridors at the Googleplex, collaboration is fostered actively online, with social spaces and 11 gourmet cafes to gather the multidisciplinary geniuses in realworld, structured brainstorming sessions, and curators of innovation process like Marissa Mayer, the Director of Web Products guide the distillation of bright ideas and get the best into production, fast. Ideas don’t get suffocated by entrenched bureaucratic layers and committees that tame scary ideas to what is guaranteed safe for shareholders before they see the light of day. So there have been lots of failures, but ultimately when the big ones hit they are worth multiple smaller crashes.

[Just in case anyone in the class felt I was being prescriptive and will say here too: This is certainly NOT for everyone, and I'm not pushing this as the only valid path for successful enterprise. It's primarily for those who need to get a tangible grip on how to lead an innovative process, those who want to understand what is called for to gain strategic advantage in an accelerated, progressively complex world. Imitation is as valid a business model, and by far less demanding on your sanity!]

RELEASE EARLY, RELEASE OFTEN

This is Dave’s repeated rallying cry. Get it out there, even if it isn’t perfect yet. In the software development world this is expressed as being in “beta” release. It requires risk, releasing a version that will be built mid-flight, with the help of lead users finding the quirks & bugs for you if you’re lucky.
Few innovations are guaranteed success first round. But the only way to know for sure is to reality test your idea/concept/product in the market and get feedback. Very few of us will take this brave move with ease, because we instinctively veer from potential failure.

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE

Like safely watching someone absurdly wonderful/sexy/beautiful at a party and actually risking failure by asking them out; so it is with releasing into the market with a daring concept that could make us look foolish (the really good ones, the really innovative ones, always will by the way, or someone would’ve stepped in & done it already). The rewards could be utterly worth some minor terror. Unless you’re an omniscient being, slumming for some reason with us flawed humans, you simply CANNOT know all the reasons something will or won’t work. The more often we attempt, the less scared we are of trying again, the less personally we take the failures and the quicker we’ll be to spot other opportunities.The first rule for innovation (my opinion) is: Assume nothing. In both hunting your innovative idea and when the time comes to act on it.

Thanks Dave for the quote that encapsulates the real force of nature that innovators are:

“Ideas are a dime a dozen, people who put them into action priceless” – franchising pioneer Mary Kay Ash

Speaking of brilliant, the dazzling Jimmy Wales is back in South Africa for an unmissable event in Jo’burg on the 13th November. Proceeds go to the Wikipedia Academies starting to flourish and enrich South Africans learning & co.creating in their OWN languages (heaven knows we have a few here!).
People with this man’s visionary genius and determination are rare gems in a world collapsing in on itself under the weight of ignorance, fear and indifference.
Wikipedia is one of the most hopeful and practical projects to effect real change in the world right now. Treating the cause not just hacking impotently at the symptoms. Go find out why.

Pop onto the iCommons site & quickly grab a seat ..it’s worth getting the global perspective from someone who refreshingly isn’t just a consultant on innovation, but actually is a world.changing innovator (who knows it may even inspire some rocking revolutionary behaviour in you – we love that!)

the very old and very boring question is whether or not designers and their teachers have ended their distaste for commerce and business culture. I have nothing to say about this except that this debate about art and commerce is so last century. If you are even discussing the issue, you are way behind. If you haven’t fully integrated your design, engineering, business and marketing students and faculty into teams on a regular and systemic basis, you are behind.
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There are two great barriers to innovation and design in the world today. Ignorant CEOs and ignorant designers. Both groups are well-intentioned and well-dressed—in their own ways—but both can be pretty dangerous characters.

I read that and cheered because I popped up a quick blog: Business Acumen for Artists and some online PR in support of a superb course that bridges the divide. The program will be run by the GSB’s visionary Executive Education director, Elaine Rumboll and all proceeds of the 13 week course go to strengthening the Observatory Community Centre. We’ve reached the point where we can’t afford to be lopsided in using our brains. Operating from both hemispheres is imperative to future success. Dan Pink’s “Whole New Mind” is a worthwhile read if you haven’t picked it up yet. Business leaders need to be visionaries and creative problem-solvers, and artists to be balanced with practical administrative skills for success.

Dostoyevsky once said:

Beauty will save the World

Coming from a Russian, the guarantee is in that he wasn’t referring merely to eye-candy fluffy Paris Hilton-like phenomena! There is substance to style, striking the strategic path through form and function. Great design, real beauty, is often about discerning the simple at the heart of complexity. Simple, not barren.

Paradoxically the only way to a new and more elegant solution/evolution tends to be by way of apparent chaos. Play in Photoshop, grab a box of crayons & giant paper for strategy meetings, pop into an art gallery at lunch, get inspired by Flickr to take more interesting shots, sling a fresh theme on your blog if you have one. Enabling your design eye through practice, developing visual literacy, will open up a visionary capacity that will prove a very handy skill as times get increasingly chaotic and messy.

PS. I heartily recommend the Gaping Void primer on Creativity >> go NOW.

And NOW the Ritz! winning in style at the ICT Journalist of the Year awards last night:

(here in the company of the fine Groogle aka Gregor Rohrig� & Vince Maher >>)

Ms. Carly Ritz is a blazing talent & worth putting on your watchlist >> she has a certain success trajectory ahead of her not just by virtue of unmistakable talent;
but possibly more so because she is exceptional, hilarious, visionary and heroic at the core. (spot the fan)

She will change the world ..don’t say I didn’t warn you!

We all know by now the yummymummy Tertia has taken the award for Best South African Blog :) There is none more deserving than this brave, bright & beautiful blogger. Her blog is formidably successful; but the real prize is the hard-won success that spills over in all directions and powers up other’s courage to deal with life’s gritty and seriously crap bits with huge dollops of grace.

There’s a little more than the standard warm fuzzies in this story >> It’s been a wild ride for Tertia lately and instead of crashing, she chose to use the power of participation on her blog to change the fortunes of a family. She’s raised hopes and a house for Harrison in 12hours flat. Check it out, and see if you don’t get all inspired to craft a creative campaign to use YOUR powers for good!

Fortune favours the brave: her book So Close has also been shortlisted in the books-spawned-from-blogs Blooker Awards with the likes of Seth Godin’s “Small is the New Big” and powerblog Postsecret as running mates – and judges with the stature of Arianna Huffington. It’s no small honour.

Tertia’s blog and book have changed many lives in many different & unexpected ways.. it’s a Hero’s Journey in the classic sense and farking funny to boot. No infertility of talent in evidence. Good job T, we’re so proud of you.