Just last week, the scientific community announced that the heroic computations of French, German, and Hungarian physicists have proven something to be true that has been considered to be an educated guess for over a hundred years.

In other words, something that was once a maybe has now become a certainty, according to the most advanced thinkers and supercomputers in the world.

What is it? Well…it’s Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. You probably know it better as the expression E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). How did they prove it? Well…in order to see the big picture, we gotta think small for a minute.

The smallest units of matter (or mass) we can see using today’s technology are called quarks. Held together by gluons, quarks make up 5% of an atom’s mass. Gluons, on the other hand, have zero mass. Yet, they hold quarks together. Leaving the source of 95% of an atom’s mass unidentified. That is, until you take into account the movement of the interaction between the quarks and gluons. Then, the math works out. In other words, the missing 95% of the weight of atoms is in the dance between the quarks and gluons. Mass is energy. Energy is mass.

Where there’s mass, there are molecules made of atoms made of quarks and gluons. And where there are quarks and gluons, there is energy. And that energy makes up 95% of the weight of an atom, making an atom’s mass almost all energy. Thus, it is a fundamental law of the physical universe that EVERYTHING from the pen on your desk to the sun in the sky is 95% energy; and something weightless is actually holding it all together. Seems impossible, but it’s not. It’s real.

The physical universe shows us time and time again that things we never thought possible are, in fact, possible. A hundred years ago, it took a patent clerk with a vivid imagination to get us one step closer to understanding our physical reality. Today, his notions have been corroborated. And, as a result, the door to innovating how we will power our existence in the future has been opened wider than ever.

Einstein’s simple idea gave us a new way to think about reality. Its simplicity kept us interested long enough to corroborate it. Meanwhile, the idea made more things possible than even he could ever have imagined.

An idea may sound far-fetched, and may be difficult to prove. But the journey to the proof is often where the most important work gets done.

When you hear a big new idea, do you think about why it won’t work? Or do you think about how it could?

I don’t know about you Champ, but I am especially proud and excited about what was presented in this morning’s alignment meeting.

Here are five reasons why:

We believe everyone is uniquely creative.

We work at a place where bad ideas are better than no ideas at all. Because they lead to good ones. And, everyone can play, regardless of their level of expertise in generating ideas. Rather, everyone is required to play. This speaks to the virtues of fairness and people working together as one.

We actively support personal growth

We work at a place where everyone is constantly reaching for new heights and is in search of their higher self. This is the ultimate challenge of mankind. Stands to reason it should be one of our core values. That is, if we truly desire to make the world a better place.

We provide creativity with provable benefits

We work at a place where human creativity is heralded as our most precious and valuable resource and it is our job to use it to benefit each other, those we serve and who they in turn serve as well. The notion here is to create win, win, win situations, believing that if we do right by everyone, always, the money will follow.

We love what we do, or we don’t do it at all

We work at a place that understands the value of fulfillment in choosing a career and is open to new ideas about how we can be a place where people want to come to work every day because there’s nowhere else on earth they’d rather be. And more importantly, we are empowered to help create such an environment.

If we’re not changing, we’re dying

We work at a place that embraces change and advocates the mentality that change is something that you can watch happen or make happen. We choose to be the ones who make it happen.
This is what our core values mean to me.

What do they mean to you?

“Creativity is not about super long hours and burn out. Creativity is about energy and perspective.”

- Tim McMullen / redpepper

Many people feel creativity comes naturally and cannot be forced.  Well, I disagree. You have to feed and protect your creativity.  Fill your brain with perspective and clear your schedule from distractions  – and follow these few guidelines and see what comes of it. (more…)

When you think of a three-ring circus, what comes to mind? Elephants? Acrobats? Tigers? Lion tamers? Monkeys? Trapeze artists? Clowns? The smell of cotton candy swirled with a barnyard bouquet mixed with music and lights, sprinkled with death-defying feats and wrapped in three rings?

Ah, the circus. Nothing puts you in touch with your inner child quite like the circus. Yet, for all the circus has to offer, what would it be without the ringmaster?

The ringmaster is the most important and most visible performer in the three-ring circus. He introduces each act and guides the audience through the experience.

In the early days of the circus, before modern technology and lighting, it was the ringmaster’s job to direct people’s attention to each new performer. And, given that most performances were accompanied by a cacophony of brass instruments, it was essential that the ringmaster have a booming voice that could cut through the noise and excitement to announce the act.

Another function of the ringmaster was to maintain a smooth flow and fill in when the next performer wasn’t quite ready for an entrance.

Yet another ringmaster role was to set the audience’s expectations, declaring acts to be the “biggest,” “most amazing,” “dangerous” and “spectacular.” Then, the performers must substantiate his claims.

Advertising should always be thought of as the ringmaster of the marketing equation. Its job is to entertain and inform—to cut through the clutter and direct the attention of its audience to that which delivers some kind of benefit. And, fill in the gaps between brand experiences. The rest is up to marketing.

Which means that you can pretty much say whatever you want in your advertising, as long as it tells the truth about what comes next in the marketing equation. Because truth is what people choose to believe. Which is exactly what a ringmaster is there to foster: belief that you’re having a good time.

The circus is a spectacle, indeed, and good advertising can be, too – however, just being a spectacle doesn’t make for good advertising. Because a ringmaster, no matter how good he is, can never carry a show on his own.

In effect, the ringmaster’s job isn’t just to make promises. It’s to make sure the audience leaves happy and smiling. Even if that means doing a little tap dance to kill time every once in a while.

Hey Champ! For those that say we are a “cult”, I say we have Mojo – and they are just jealous.

I had the pleasure of listening to Bo BurlingHam speak today. He is an Editor at Large for Inc. Magazine. He has been with the magazine for over 20 years and the magazine and his stories have done a great job innovating with the times.

He recently wrote a book called Small Giants, Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of big.
He really hit a chord with me on one statement he said. He described entrepreneurs in this way: “they have the soul of an artist – but their creative expression happens to be business.” If you think about it, that is me. I wish I was artistically talented…but have to constantly seek other ways to express my creativity.

His book is a study of companies that choose to be great instead of big – and he identified some commonalities in each of these Small Giants.

1. The leaders of the organization know WHO they are, WHAT they want to be and WHY they are doing what they do.
2. The companies are ROOTED in the communities in which they do business.
3. They cultivate close and personal relationships with customers and vendors.
4. Employees come 1st, customers come 2nd.
5. The leaders are in LOVE with what their company does.
6. They protect their gross margin.
7. Refusal to let go of that what gives your company mojo.

He talked about how great companies have charisma. Vendors want to work with them, people want to work at them, and customers want to hire them. This is what he called mojo.

redpepper has charisma because we nurture our mojo. Thank you for including me.

Enjoy the journey,

Tim

A supposedly wise man once said, “Good Design is Good Business.” These five words have become a common mantra for designers, disputing the idea that design is only about ‘aesthetics’ and ‘styling’.

But what’s wrong with ‘styling’ anyway? If styling were such an easy thing to do, why are so many things around us so ugly?

Designers seek to belittle mere ‘styling’ in pursuit of validation that design is a critical, strategic component in successful business.

Paul Rand, the father of American graphic design, complains that most businesspeople, “see the designer as a set of hands–a supplier–not as a strategic part of business.”

Should they be blamed? Design is not a literal and commonly comprehensible subject. And it is because of this widespread misunderstanding, that design remains a detail that can turn an mp3 player into an iPod.

For some reason I found myself wondering how I have ended up so blessed.  And my very next thought was this.

“Find the possible in everything.”
- is it ok to quote myself?

So I opened my computer and started typing.  You may find no value in these random thoughts, but for some reason they just came out.  When problem solving, spend a few minutes doing the following steps.

1.    Decide what would be considered a successful solution and write it down.

2.    Brainstorm all the possible solutions in tangible form.

3.    Consider the repercussions of each possible solution.

4.    Then seek out a different perspective.

5.    Then make a choice and stay confident in the follow through of whatever you decide.

Try to leave everything just a tad better then you found it.

We can all be great problem solvers,

Denny Nash

It was Noah’s fifth birthday. And, like any other year, his mother had planned another lavish party to celebrate his existence, replete with an abundance of gifts that were sure to bring joy to a youngster’s life. Plastic toys, video games, gadgets, and rubber things were among the main ingredients of the gift load that would befall young Noah on this glorious commemorative event.

The time came to open presents and Noah ripped open one gift after another, quickly tossing each gift aside to get to the next. Soon, there was festive wrapping paper everywhere accompanied by ribbons, bows, stuffed animals, shiny robots, balls, fire trucks, plastic hammers, hats, clothes, you name it. If a five-year-old might appreciate it, and it was on the list of the hottest toys to buy a five-year-old that year, it was there.

But the item that captured Noah’s imagination more than any other that day wasn’t a state-of-the-art gadget designed especially to stimulate a five-year-old’s mind. Nor was it an award-winning video game created just for tots. Not a furry playmate, or a shiny thing, or a squeaky thing, or a musical thing. No….

It was a box. A plain old, simple, cardboard box that one of the toys was wrapped in. Noah ignored everything else for the better part of the day and played with the box while all the flashy toys languished on the sidelines.

Noah’s story is something to bear in mind when thinking about creating and delivering marketing messages.

In a time when technology enables us to create glitzy, flashy things designed to capture the attention of the consumer, is it possible that we get too caught up in all of it and forget that often it’s the simple things that are the most appealing part of a brand’s experience? Like a handshake, a smile, an unexpected gesture, a little something extra with no strings attached. Real, human interaction that doesn’t rely on modern technology to make a big impact.

These days, people are the most pervasive and powerful advertising medium there is, making a product’s or brand’s experience an advertisement in and of itself.

Next time you are thinking about how to structure an advertising message, think about what you want someone to take away from it. Think about whether it even has to be an “ad” at all. Perhaps an investment of time, energy, and resources can be made to simplify things a bit, for both you and your customers. Get back to roots, as it were.

Because if a five-year-old finds joy in the simple things, it’s safe to say that over-stimulated consumers just might appreciate a little simplicity themselves.

Professional football teams put more man hours in preparation for two regular season games than most companies put into creating and executing a clear marketing plan in an entire year.
And they never skip step 4.

Any business book in America will tell you to be successful, you must:
1.    Create a plan
2.    Create alignment around that plan
3.    Assign accountability and measurements within the plan
4.    And finally – objectively judge yourselves against the plan on a regular basis

The same holds true for marketing plans, yet most companies AND most “marketing firms” fall critically short when it comes to step 4.  I feel that is true for one basic reason – it is hard to do and we all get busy.

The best things in life are the hardest to come by.  If you want to achieve great things – build your day around tackling the difficult, but most rewarding, behaviors.

How often do you check yourself against your plan?

Really, I want to know,
Denny Nash

The old saying goes, “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.” This little piece of conventional wisdom may ring true in many situations. However, academic research suggests that when it comes to tapping into the creative abilities of individuals, it is possible to make a turnip bleed.

These days, innovation (creativity’s first cousin) is the life-blood of many organizations . For the more “creative” an organization’s people are, the more likely it is to churn out revenue-generating ideas. And, in order to foster an environment where creativity thrives and benefits others – both inside and outside of the organization – it is important to embrace the notions that a) every individual is uniquely creative, and b) those who are creative are that way because they simply choose to be.

According to Robert Sternberg, American psychologist and psychometrician, creative individuals are creative as a result of a set of attitudes. He also argues that those who may not be considered creative can adopt these attitudes, merely by making 10 decisions that will invariably lead to heightened creativity. These 10 decisions (paraphrased) are:

• Attempt to see problems differently than others and redefine them
• Learn to analyze and criticize your own ideas
• Don’t assume your ideas will sell themselves
• Know as much as possible, but be careful not to know too much
• Face opposition, since truly creative ideas are always likely to be opposed
• Take risks, and don’t be tempted to offer standard, safe solutions
• Be willing to grow and not rest on one good idea
• Believe in yourself, because sometimes no one else will
• Learn to tolerate ambiguity, because new ideas are not always crystalline
• Find out what you love to do, and do it

Transforming a work environment into an idea-producing machine can be done. But not without risks. For fostering creativity is synonymous with granting people intellectual independence. Further, the willingness to be unconventional can become deliberate defiance, and reasonable risk-taking can become an irrational disregard for consequences. Thus, when adopting the 10 choices that lead to higher levels of creativity, it is important to frame them within an established and agreed upon set of boundaries and guidelines that are understood and appreciated by everyone.

It is, in fact, possible to squeeze blood from a turnip. That is, if you don’t assume that the turnip is bloodless to begin with. For where there is blood, there is bleeding. And where there are people with ideas (good or bad), there is creativity. You just have to know how to let it out.  

Source: The Definition and Measurement of Creativity: What Do We Know? Cambridge University Press: EL-MURAD & WEST (2004)