It's always uplifting when we find that we are not alone. If you have been a reader of the posts in this blog you'll know that the question of original thought is one that often occupies my mind. In re-reading John C Bogle's wonderful book "Enough" just now I encountered the following passage "When I first expressed skepticism about our information age more than a decade ago, I naively believed that it was an original thought. But there is nothing new under the sun, and I was delighted to learn recently that T.S.Eliot had expressed the same ideas - much more poetically of course - in The Rock (1934)…" Apart from bringing it's wisdom into my life, this message is helpful when we think about creativity.

So often over the years I have heard friends and colleagues say "I'm not a creative person". Who is, if we accept that it has all been done before our go around? We burden ourselves with expectation of original and sometimes artistic expression when we think about the part we can play in bringing creativity to our business. It is not so. What is original is the way we apply the wisdom and knowledge that is available to us. Some of the most wonderfully creative moments come when a person is channeling another - their way of behaving, their process models, their fables: it is an original because it is a first for us. That piece of creativity will also be nuanced with the uniqueness of our being.

Enjoy tapping into the wisdom of all that has gone before. It is a great source of creativity.