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Travis Shelton Travis Shelton

Rick Rubin on Creativity

“The goal of making art is not to show you just what everybody else sees. It’s to see what’s possible. And what’s possible is radical. It’s like we’ve built a very small world for ourselves with our reason…..We’ve learned what’s possible and what’s impossible. And if we accept what’s possible and what’s impossible, we can’t go beyond. If the Wright brothers accepted it was impossible for man to fly, we still wouldn’t be flying. All of the great revolutions that have happened, have happened because someone believed in something that everyone thought was impossible.”

“The goal of making art is not to show you just what everybody else sees. It’s to see what’s possible. And what’s possible is radical. It’s like we’ve built a very small world for ourselves with our reason…..We’ve learned what’s possible and what’s impossible. And if we accept what’s possible and what’s impossible, we can’t go beyond. If the Wright brothers accepted it was impossible for man to fly, we still wouldn’t be flying. All of the great revolutions that have happened, have happened because someone believed in something that everyone thought was impossible.”

I’m not a fan of interview-style podcasts, but in a rare move, I took some time yesterday to listen to a conversation between two of my favorite people, author and thought leader, Malcolm Gladwell, and legendary music producer, Rick Rubin. The entire conversation was centered around the idea of finding creativity. Not creativity in the sense of creating an amazing song or a literal piece of art, but rather the creativity we each have in us. I never used to think of myself as creative……the opposite, to be honest. However, over time I’ve realized creativity is one of my strengths and passions. It just looks different than the creativity brought forth by some of my friends’ more traditionally creative endeavors.

The above quote was from Rick Rubin, speaking of the importance of unlocking creativity in each of our journeys. This is the quote that locked me into the episode. It affirmed so much of what I think and how I think, but it set the tone for what would be a goldmine of a conversation to come. The world needs our creativity and will most certainly be a better place if we can muster the courage to share it with others.

If you can find 68 minutes of time in your day, whether you’re running errands, going on a run, road-tripping to see family, or mowing the lawn, I highly recommend you give this one a listen (Apple / Spotify). I could type for hours about some of these ideas, but my words would be doing their words a disservice. I’ll let them speak for themselves!

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