Creative Authority

By Peter Lloyd

Where do creative people get off telling other people what they want? What about a creative genius like Steve Jobs, who famously told Business Week, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” If that’s true, it means a small group of inventors and innovators lead us. And not just to the products we use, because some of those products revolutionize the way we live.

Other great creative thinkers, writers, philosophers, and social movement leaders change the way we live as well as the direction of civilization. Who or what gives creative people this authority? A handful of them, like Joan of Arc and Martin Luther, claim divine authority. Many more, like Johannes Gutenberg and Charles Darwin, whether they mean to lead us anywhere or not, end up doing so as the result of their pure passion for discovery and invention.

So even great makers of change who claim no authority exercise it. We affirm their authority by following, by taking the trail they blaze, by singing their praises and making them legend. But that brings us back to the question, where does their authority come from?

I found a blog named Creative Authority run, it seems, by a young woman named Jody in Manitoba, Canada. She makes cards. From the look of them and by the fact that she displays them, I’ll venture to say she has a following. Does that make her a creative authority? I think so. And my decision is reinforced by these words from one of her posts.

Last night....while trying to stay up late for my midnight shift coming up....I made something for me. I know eventually I will give it away with a gift for someone, but for now - it’s for me. I enjoyed using my own creativity for this one...I’m happy with how it turned out....and it makes me want to create more!

Within this unguarded and unpretentious entry, I find almost all the aspects of creativity I’ve ever written about. It reminds me that creativity, its motive force, and the experience are universal. And that the aspect of life that takes us forward, makes the world better, and improves our lives—the drive to create—is the authority.

See also:

“Creative Authority” and Why It Shouldn’t Exist What Spinks Thinks, by David Spinks

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

Right Brain Workouts Explained

Next Workout »