Creative Visionary Survey Results

January 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The results are in!

A few weeks ago I posted a survey about Visionaries and received wonderful feedback. There were 299 responses.

Here’s the note I sent out with the survey: “If you consider yourself a creative visionary, a leader, a world-transformer, or even someone with a passion for making the world a better place, I’d love to have your input.”

1. What type of visionary are you?
Over 60% of you see yourselves as “Creative Visionaries” followed closely by over 57% who see yourselves as “Spiritual Visionaries.” Since I sent my survey to my list of “highly sensitive souls,” I’m not entirely surprised by the spiritual focus.

Granted that I’ve been focusing on “creative visionaries,” I’m sure my results are skewed in that direction, but nonetheless, I’m interested in this response. :)

(Note: Click on the graphics for a larger view.)

2. Which of these characteristics best describe you?
Then, I asked you to respond with the characteristics you feel best describe you as a visionary, and heard that most of you think of yourselves as “Creative, Outside-The-Box Thinkers” (over 58%), followed closely by “Big Picture Thinkers” (54%), “Transformers of Old Outdated Systems & Paradigms / Challengers of the Status Quo” (52%), and “Thought-Leaders/Forward Thinkers” (51%).

Lots of thinking going on here, which is particularly interesting in the context of the next question.

3. Which of these challenges have you struggled with?
Clearly the biggest issue was “Struggling With My Own Inner Critic” — over 70% of you selected that choice.

“Feeling Isolated and Alone” and “Not Having a Peer Group” were also top choices, as well as “Having Too Many Ideas and Not Knowing Where to Start” and “Not Having a Clear Vision But Knowing I’m Meant to Be Doing Something Big.”

My sense is that much of the struggle with the inner critic and the many ideas have to do with getting stuck in our own thinking, not keeping our energy moving, and not being disciplined about choosing ideas to bring to fruition.

Other comments on this question included

  • “Not having good energy boundaries”
  • “Fear of jealousy”
  • “Needing a kick in the butt”
  • “The idea that creative work, such as writing poetry, is selfish. Also, nobody likes a showoff.”
  • “Impatience and disbelief that others could not see what I could see”
  • “Not being taken seriously, ‘heard'”
  • “I find myself staying weighted down with ‘I don’t have the right to be heard and noticed'”
  • “Doing what I want vs should causes mental anguish”
  • “Organizing life to write and making it a priority”

Thank you very much for your participation.

Your comments are welcome — what intrigues YOU about this? What do YOU notice?

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Amazing, Innovative Art

September 9, 2009 By 2 Comments

Just saw this on Twitter via @Kaypearl from @bitrebels.

The detail is amazing, and I love all the “round pegs” and “rebel” references. Click the links below the image to see the full image and to click through to the artist’s gallery.

Wow.

Steven_Paul_Jobs_by_dylanroscover

Steven Paul Jobs by ~dylanroscover on deviantART

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What Inspires Me About Creative Visionaries

September 5, 2009 By 3 Comments

Part of what inspired me to explore this new project was this article about Brad Bird at Pixar. I loved the “lessons,” including:
(Note, these are renumbered from the original article because there were actually 10, not 9, as indicated in the text)

  1. Herd Your Black Sheep: “Give us the black sheep. I want artists who are frustrated. I want the ones who have another way of doing things that nobody’s listening to. Give us all the guys who are probably headed out the door.”
  2. Perfect is the Enemy of Innovation: “…there are some [scenes] that only need to be good enough to not break the spell.”
  3. Look for Intensity: “Involved people make for better innovation”
  4. Innovation Doesn’t happen in a Vacuum: “…if we can interconnect all our strengths, we are collectively the greatest animator on earth.”
  5. High Morale Makes Creativity Cheap: “…the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie’s budget—but never shows up in a budget—is morale.”
  6. Don’t Try To “Protect your success:” “The first step in achieving the impossible is believing that the impossible can be achieved…”
  7. Steve Jobs Says ‘Interaction = Innovation:’ “People are allowed to create whatever front to their office they want…. if you have a loose, free kind of atmosphere, it helps creativity.”
  8. Encourage Inter-disciplinary Learning: “…encourages people to learn outside of their areas, which makes them more complete [and more creative].”
  9. Get Rid of Weak Links: “Passive-aggressive people—people who don’t show their colors in the group but then get behind the scenes and peck away—are poisonous.”
  10. Making $$ Can’t Be Your Focus: “Walt Disney’s mantra was, ‘I don’t make movies to make money—I make money to make movies.’”

What I love about these thoughts is the outside-the-box thinking that focuses on creativity, results, risk, and morale, simultaneously. As someone who is accustomed to coaching clients who “don’t fit in,” I love seeing such powerful results coming from NOT fitting in and not valuing fitting in. It’s so refreshing.

It’s my sense that we all have a lot to learn from these creative visionary types who see things differently, are willing to say so, and are willing to match their money and their efforts with their beliefs.

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