Books that inspired me to become the creative person I’m today
Today, I feel creatively confident. And, that has obviously added to my overall confidence. But, it didn’t happen overnight. Over the years I’ve put many efforts to bring this creativity factor into my life. What helped me the most in becoming creative are books. And, I’ve compiled a list of books that proved helpful in making me a creative person.
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As said by William Plomer — ‘Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.’ So, let’s see what these books are about and how you can make the best out of them -
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die — Chip Heath
If you want to know whether your idea is sticky or not, stick to this book. It will tell you how feasible your idea is. In the world of startups it’s crucial to know this. A sticky idea is easy to understand and remember, and brings some positive change.
As per the book, some of the success principles of an idea are simplicity, unexpectedness and concreteness. What is meant by unexpectedness and concreteness is that the idea should attract people’s attention and occupy their minds. Also, there should be emotions and stories to support it.
We want people to pay heed to our idea and that happens only when it has these essential principles to support it. The book is worth reading for anyone looking forward to new startup and even the ones who aren’t.
Making Ideas Happen — Scott Belsky
The book asks you to act; act on your idea. According to the author, an idea doesn’t help, but its execution does. So, in place of just feeling good about your idea make it a point to pay heed to its implementation. Ideas without execution just float in the mind. According to the book, one needs to be focused and work consistently in order to put an idea into effect.
The author emphasizes on three ways of making an idea happen. According to him, one should have a broader community, bring changes in his/her organizational habits and work on developing his/her leadership qualities to bring an idea into action.
The Little Spark — 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity — Carrie Bloomston
This book will ignite the lost spark of creativity in you. It’ll inspire you! There are a lot of ways mentioned in the book that will help you become more creative. Go through each idea and exercise option that Carrie has written in this book.
There are 30 ‘sparks’ of creativity explained by her. If you really want the book to help you bring some creativity in your life read the exercises carefully and practice them on regular basis.
The Elements of Style — Strunk and White
Do you use unnecessary words, sentences or wrong punctuation while writing something? If yes, this book will prove to be a good guide for you. It’s a great read for writers as it advises on writing concisely and clearly.
You need to mug up a lot of writing rules in order to come up with a great article. Strunk and White guide you on the same. You may or may not find it to be the master style guide, but it’s definitely a good book that has information on grammar and the rules a writer needs to be aware of.
The Art of Being Unmistakable — Srinivas Rao
We all make mistakes, after all ‘to err is human’. But, still it would be great if we find a way to make fewer blunders. In the book, there are real life examples of success and failure, both. The author advices you to be true to yourself and do what you want. I found author’s personal stories quite interesting and motivating. He makes you think what you are and what you’re looking for.
Creative confidence — Tom Kelley and David Kelley
The beginning of this book is enough to make you read it further. According to the authors, all of us have creativity and one just needs to unleash it if he/she hasn’t found it in him/her yet. As you read the book you find ways to identify the creativity in you, improve it and make use of it.
Overall, the book is a good read with interesting examples. It helps unleash the potential you’re unaware of or don’t bring out due to other reasons.
All in all, the books I’ve mentioned in this article will certainly bring positive change into your life. All you need to do is to understand them and implement their lessons in your life.
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About Author:
Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub - a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and a contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Originally published at Medium.