Earlier this week, one of my readers, Meshack Vallesillas, sent me a link to an article he posted on his own blog. It took my breath away.
Writing about his own struggles to be creative, Meshack said, "(I finally) understood that anything you might consider ‘art’ is made up of two parts; creativity and craft. The craft is the artistic skill to make the art, while creativity is the spark of life or the ingenuity behind it."
He continued, "That also made me understand that when someone says they aren’t creative, they are mistaking creativity for craft."
Craft is how to do stuff. It is the byproduct of working hour after hour, week after week, year after year. Craft is something you acquire by learning a skill.
If you want to develop your craft, put in your time.
Creativity is the way in which we use our craft.
As Meshack observes, "The need to be creative is part of being human. It’s a need we all have and a need that must be fulfilled for us to find engagement in our work, in our relationships, in our lives."
If you think you aren't creative, you probably just don't have the craft yet.
For decades, my perception was that I lacked any artistic creativity whatsoever: I can't paint, and can barely draw. Then the world changed. It's now easy, inexpensive or even free to access art that other people created. (I bought the right to two separate images at the Noun Project, then combined them above to make my point. My total expense was $3.98.)
Thanks to Creative Commons, we even have a mechanism through which artists can give people they don't know permission to use and even adapt their artworks.
Over the past year, I've created seven presentations that were #1 for the week on Slideshare. In part, I did this by using other people's art in creative ways.
This experience has taught me that huge portions of the human race have untapped creativity. Combine them with people who possess craft, and then watch amazing innovations emerge. By the same token, if you take people who possess great craft and combine them with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, the same wonderful results will emerge.
Andy Warhol was a famous artist, but by most accounts Andy basically operated a factory in which other artists created "his" art; Andy was the idea guy. He mixed his creativity with other people's craft.
The smartest thing for companies to do is to combine creativity from one person or group with craft from another.
The smartest thing for you to do is to find the other side of your equation.
Here's Meshack's original piece, Changing This One Thought Could Lead You to a Better Life.
Bruce Kasanoff (Kasanoff.com) is a ghostwriter for entrepreneurs, executives and social innovators.
