My Creative Autobiography

This is an assignment from the book The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. It’s meant as a creative exercise, and I found it interest to write down the answers on the blog. It a questionnaire, 33 questions total.

What is the first creative moment you remember? Playing with lego as a small child. I liked building toys and create my own toys to play with.

Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it? No, I had some imaginary friends during my entire childhood, as far as I can remember. I had very different interests compared to other children, so I was mostly on my own.

What is the best idea you’ve ever had? Combining a lot of what I learned about social skills and handling people with an introductory course in a mathematical concept called game theory. I’ve found out that in all social relationships, there must be an equal payoff to all parties involved. I realized that all people are inherently selfish, but with cooperating with eachother eventually bring the highest payoff in the long-term.

What made it great in your mind? With these ideas and concepts I set the foundation for striving for harmony and win-win relationships. I must admit that at times, I am not always that cooperative, as it is sometimes neccesary to be a bit selfish. It’s healthy.

What is the dumbest idea? That just reading books on management could turn me into a good manager.

What made it stupid? I wanted to be instantly gratified. I thought there was a shortcut to learning the whole package, instead of actually doing and gaining experience. I wanted to learn the tricks without knowing the trade.

Can you connect the dots what led you to this idea? When I was in my teens and interested in girls and seduction, the only winning strategy that existed in my mind was to become a high-status player or cad. As selfish as it might seem, that strategy seems to work, albeit one must keep long-term benefits in mind. In that regard, being a generally good guy, with a sharp edge that makes girls swoon, interested in building good relationships, instead of pursuing casual sex, is also a good strategy. It’s just a less sexy route to take, but one must learn to live with that. In your later years, you will have more to offer to women than a traditional bad boy.

What is your creative ambition? To have genuine connections to valuable people and become of value to them, as well.

What are the obstacles to this ambition? By focussing on the wrong things, or by having a too narrowed focus by ‘specializing’ on just one thing.

What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition? Build up a large network of valuable people around me, and learn multi-disciplinary interests to relate to a lot of them. Be a jack-of-all-trades that can offer value to a multitude of people.

How do you begin your day? Taking a half hour to get out of bed. This is something to work on. After that I step under the shower, get dressed and go to school, skipping breakfast. This it something I should work on too.

What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat? I collect tasks and todo’s in an inbox, either a physical inbox or a electronic one. I have a block of post-its next to my bed, to write down the things that bother me, so I can get them out of my head. I smoke some cigarettes before going to bed. I bring books to read in the train to read, or listen to audiobooks on my mp3-player.

Describe your first creative act. When I was 17, I had my first salesjob. As I didn’t have any sales skills, nor had any experience handling challenging conversations, I started to buy books on a whole range of books to improve my knowledge of social interactions, ranging from human relations, leadership, military and political strategy and psychology. Without realizing, it became the start of a continuous road to self-improvement.

Describe your second creative act. In my last year of my retail study, I had the assignment of writing a businessplan for a retail store. I came up with the idea of writing a businessplan for an online e-commerce store, as a modern alternative. When thinking of new ideas for the webstore, the problems I encountered had to do with theory and research not being available or up to date. I developed my own methods for doing market research and learned some innovative ways of doing competitor analysis, which were also helpful during my new study.

Compare them. Both of them are about developing new mental models to make daily life easier. The former being a bit more practical, and the latter of a more analytical nature.

What are your attitudes toward: money, power, praise, rivals, work, play?

• Money? Something to play with.
• Power? A means to an end, albeit under stress, I can obsess over it, use it wrong and it make it depress me.
• Praise? What I give to others, but not to myself. Something I should work on.
• Rivals? Keep an eye on them, but don’t obsess on keeping up with them. The rat-race isn’t worth the stress and moral/emotional bankruptcy it leads to.
• Work? A place where you can fully express your potential, taking in account you plan your career well.
• Play? Getting out of your head, being in a full state of joy and flow. Like picking up girls, drinking and playing computergames.

Which artists do you admire most? David Ogilvy on advertising, Wayne Elise on seduction, Robert Greene on power and Niccolo Machiavelli on politics.

Why are they your role models? They are not just interested in their primary field or business. They have developed a wide view of how the world works, which makes them better in their profession then a narrow-minded specialist. They have have powerful ideas which they teach to others.

What do you and your role models have in common? They have a broad range of interests and they have a very sober, clear way of thinking and present ideas in a way that gets the message across, no fluff involved.

Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you? Jordy van Houdt. He is more sober, smart, and yet very humble, which is an exceptional combination of qualities in one person. He is someone who just ‘gets’ everything I talk about, whether it’s about the girls we meet to the formation of our new government. He is sophisticated, yet casual. Geeky, yet fashionable. Intellectually stimulating, yet childishly funny. The only thing I don’t like about him is that he’s a guy.

Who is your muse? Napoleon Bonaparte

Define muse. Someone who has mastered the skills I want to improve as well, to achieve greatness.

When confronted with superior intelligence or talent how do you respond? I look at it objectively and wonder what the story behind this person is. Talent isn’t born, it’s made. And I want to know how.

When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indifference in others, how do you respond?

• Stupidity: Like how you’d deal with a child.
• Hostility: Emotionally distant, cool.
• Intransigence: Surrender and deflect.
• Laziness: See hosility.
• Indifference: Fight fire with fire.

When faced with impending succes or the threat of failure, how do you respond? My emotions might take over. First, I regain control of myself. Then I think of all the people I admire, and think to myself, “What would they do?”

When you work, do you love the process or the result? I usually love imagining how the result would look like. From there is where it all starts; making plans, goals, talking to people, creating value. I hate doing things if they don’t add up to a worthy goal. Sometimes you can love doing things, but they don’t add up to something useful. Why continue?

At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?Everytime I learn something new, of course. If your mind cannot be stretched to the point of fascination, what challenges are there to be met? Challenge only comes from those things that we are not able to grasp, so we can learn to build our skills and character to a point where we can.

What is your ideal creative activity? Selling the ideas and concepts I’ve invented. I’m a master of the sales pitch, but only my own inventions are worthy of passionate rhetoric.

What is your greatest fear? Losing the ones you dear the most. They are your base.

What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening? It starts with your belief. Those who have no control of mind, have no control of their fate. A bad day starts in the morning.

Which of your answers would you most likely to change? Eleven. I said that beginning my day should start with a good morning habit. It’s something that I should work on, which might guarantee further succes

What is your idea of mastery? Teaching to others and have passionate, credible experience to have authority to teach your ideas.

What is your greatest dream? Have a nice bed and breakfast in France with, and run it with a wonderful wife. It’s the point where I can say to myself: “Enough is enough. I want to quit the rat-race and rest.”

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