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Ever notice how a really great idea ignites
more great ideas? How a great idea fires people up? When John F. Kennedy promised that
America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, the idea literally took off.
When Martin Luther King Jr. painted a picture of his dream, he refocused and redirected
the civil rights movement.
Both of these ideas
had been around forever. The promise and the picture ignited the passions of millions of
people. These three elements--passion, picture, and promise--combust and make creative
fire just like heat, fuel, and oxygen make physical fire.
Every idea begins with a spark of
inspiration. That spark is always created by the friction of a desire rubbing up against a
barrier. We come equipped with a load of desires. When our desires are easily satisfied,
they burn themselves out. There's no longer a need for passion. So we move up our
hierarchy of needs to until we find another barrier. That's just the way we are. Pretty
soon, we're headed for the moon.
We can sit for hours, fascinated with the
warmth, glow, and dance of a fire. Just as we can satisfy ourselves reading biographies of
great explorers, inventors, and conquerers. Or watching the exploits of passionate people
on TV and in the movies. Or following them in the news.
These pictures of great lives and harrowing
adventures stoke the fires of our passions. Some of us take our passions one step further.
Like the greats, we make a promise. We commit to following our passion where it leads.
Once we make our picture public, we are seldom alone. Our creative fire attracts the
creative fire of other people focused on the same or a similar picture.
How can you keep your creative fire hot without
getting burned? If you're too worried about that, you've probably not going to make much
creative fire. |