Searching for Inspiration: Leadership Summit 2011 – Part 8

Here is a question that I think plagues us creatives…those times when we feel we lack creativity and passion. Enjoy the eighth question in this series from the Clemson’s Leadership Summit 2011.

Do you recall a time when you lacked creativity and passion, but needed it to be successful? What was your emotional response to the situation? What lessons did you learn from it? Do think those lessons are still relevant for today’s leaders?

Everyday I battle the ability to deliver creatively! I get paid to be creative and to be passionate in the way I deliver this creativity. Creativity strikes when I do not expect. I cannot force it to come to fruition…it is like an old, dependable friend who chooses to visit when you least expect it.

Some of my greatest ideas have come to fruition in the middle of the night. I have won all my awards from 3am inspiration. I remember working in Phoenix, producing a story of a lady who broke out of South Phoenix and welfare, working to get her life back on track. We had been following her story for months…tracking her progress from the rundown apartment with a littered front yard…to a new home and new job. I just could not figure out how to put it all together. To write the words, to weave the interviews, to expose the moments in time that bring an audience to the edge of their seats. I lived an hour away from the office and at 3am…I sat up in my bed, jumped in the car, raced to the station, and edited the story. This was when Avid and FCP were not available on cute little MacBookPros. We had large computer systems to edit.

We have to be willing to listen to our hearts and when inspiration comes to visit, just like that old friend, we have to be willing to capture that moment in time and exercise that creative passion.

Here is this story below that I was referring, big thanks to my partner Laurie Raymond from KPHO-TV for her great reporting!