Let’s be frank here: there are already dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people doing things the way they’ve always been done. A perfectly good living can be squeezed out of doing things the way they’ve always been done, and honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, you have to learn how to do things that way, because you cannot break the rules until you’re learned and mastered them; it’s the only way to know where the rules can, and need to be, broken.
Katie points out that Picasso didn’t start out as a cubist. He started out as a conventional painter and illustrator. It was only after he had mastered the classical style that he needed to go further, to explore new ways of seeing things and doing things. He knew the rules, he knew how to do things the way they’d always been done, and then, he knew he had to move outside that box.
As a creative person, if you stay in the box and do the same-old, same-old, it really isn’t very creative. Look at the people who have “revolutionized” anything. Picasso. Jack Kirby. Julia Child. Steve Jobs. Pick any creative field, and you can come up with a list of names of people who created innovation by breaking the rules. That’s pretty much what innovation is, right? Breaking the rules successfully.
So whatever your creative direction is, find at least one rule and master it. Then figure out how to fold, spindle, and mutilate it.
I want to hear about how you’ve broken the rules, and the results and epiphanies you’ve found as a result. Tell us about them in the comments below.
