Tag Archives: art

Aug 21 2013
1 Comment
Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, success

Get The Picture?

The role of business school used to be to teach about scarcity, shelf space or lack thereof, FIFO, LIFO, and bottlenecks. If you understood these things, you understood business.

But there’s frustration in the biz department walls now. The markets are gaining taste, an eye, and appreciation for the arts. Now professors are having to leave the spelling bee traditions of memorization, test taking, and regurgitation and wrestle with beauty, design, art, meaning, and fulfillment.

Couple this with two or more decades of college graduates that learned what they supposedly needed to learn all to find that the knowledge got the job but didn’t unlock meaning they wanted out of life. The system, unfortunately, has made more noise than it has music. But that happens when structure becomes more important than improvisation doesn’t it?

Many are asking what’s next now that we’re on the other side of the industrial and education revolutions.

For one, I would say next isn’t coming – next is here.

And secondly, those that point us towards and experience, meaning, and fulfillment will be the leaders we look back on today with gratitude and the forefathers of whatever we end up calling “next”. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jul 23 2013
Leave a comment
Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership

Thoughts Walking Through An Art Museum

After walking through the works of Warhol, Picasso, Monet, and Renoire yesterday I came up with the Two Golden Rules of Art:

Enter. Participate.

That’s what it needs from us and, in return, will give us what we need from it.

You can’t sit this one out.

Tagged , , , ,
May 24 2013
Leave a comment
Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Let The Music Play, success

Please Don’t Stop The Music

There’s a rumor that some school districts are doing away with or consolidating their art and music classes at the elementary level.

I would assume this is probably to fit more standardized teaching and preparation for more standardized testing. Even though the tests the world procures for us outside of academic walls are anything but conventional.

There’s a big difference in asking “what’s the answer?” and “what do you see?”. The answer is memorized. What is seen is imagined. Art gives us that opportunity.

There’s a big difference in asking “what’s the answer?” and “what do you feel or hear?”. The answer is a formulaic. What is felt and heard taps into soul. Music gives us that opportunity to tap into such things.

Maybe school should ask more than it tells its students…the same goes for parents: children, leader: team members, etc.

Learning thy self just may be the highest form of education, and we have a problem when our children have missed the opportunity to discover their own unique and personal voice.

It never ends well when we let the music stop.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 18 2013
Leave a comment
Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Marketing, success

Below The Surface of the Colors We See

You’ve got them – I’ve got them – we’ve all got them.

Purple problems we’re sifting through, orange organizations we work in, and green goals we’re after.

But they’re not just colors are they? Something got them here to the color they actually are. Circumstance, belief, courage, fear, paranoia, joy, hope, purpose, harsh words, and encouraging words all mixed together to make the colors of your world. Blue and red made your purple. Yellow and red made your orange. Blue and yellow made your green. Oh, and blue and green and a little more blue after the initial mix made your turquoise.

May we be the leaders that gaze into Purple to see her red heart and blue soul.

May we be the leaders that take Orange and love him for his awkward yellow ways and red personality.

May we be the leaders that get under the skin of Green to find its blue ocean and yellow streams.

Don’t be fooled by the outer coat or the surface because it’s just an illusion of what has happened within and below it. There’s a world of mixing, matching, and harmony that occurred to make the color that you see before you.

If you hear anything today hear this…That thing you call Orange just may be waiving his red hands at you. Look deeply. Listen closely.

It is below that surface that the beauty of most things come to life and if you want to be a leader you must fall in love with snorkeling.

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 12 2013
4 Comments
Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Let The Music Play, Marketing, success

Crayon Thieves

“Get a job.” That’s the mantra that upper level education has seared into our minds. And yet, today, it’s been harder than ever to find “that” job that you listened, studied, memorized, and tested four plus years for.

Perhaps this whole job pursuit is overrated? For instance, I know numerous people much smarter and better educated than I ever will be that are in the “perfect” job they prepared for. All to find that “perfect” place to be empty of experience, fulfillment, and meaning.

Rather, what if the pursuit was a search for a medium, a platform, a canvas, or a stage for you to express yourself and expose the world to what you feel, hear, and see that the rest of us don’t see but need to see?

You see, they took our Crayons from us when we got to junior high and we’ve been lost without them ever since. In the blink of an eye, our education experience went from being look what I painted, colored, or made to look who’s on the A team, look who’s pretty, or look who’s cool. One day we’re all in the talent show, the next day we’re lucky to be in the crowd watching the talent show.

If LTMPblog has any hope or purpose at all, may it be that it helps to spur you or any reader to find that something or some place that the world sees in black in white, but you see in color. If so, I believe you will have found your job. But please, at the proverbial cocktail parties don’t just tell people what you “do”. Instead, enlighten them to that which you expose. Entrepreneurs, artists, leaders, and world-changers are those that expose us to the colors unseen.

Your Box of Crayons > Your Diploma

Tagged , , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →