Creative Destruction.

When market forces upend the traditional order, economists call it "creative destruction."

In the simplest terms, destruction proceeds creation.  New replaces old.

As marketers, we instinctly understand this theory.  Though it's tempting to hide, it's actually a time to act.

Courage, not cowardice.  That's what ushers in creativity.

Shake It Outta My Sleeve.

That's what legnedary architect Frank Lloyd Wright said when his design came easily.

I had that experience today.  And it was glorious.

I doon't usually write in the early morning, but today, up hours before I normally rise, I just sat down.  And got to it.

Fueled by several cups of Earl Grey tea, I buzzed through several pages of web content that had been stalled.

Sometimes shaking it out of your sleeve might be a matter of shaking up your routine.

Get 'er Started.

A fantastic resource to fund and follow your creativity:  http://www.kickstarter.com/

The Fertile Void.

Suzanne Braun Levine writes in Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood about the fertile void, a bewildering but necessary hiatus.

It's a place of change where women feel stuck.

The typical reaction for Type As is to do more. Women end up spinning their wheels. When, of course, the cure for "stuck" is "still."  Saying no and letting go.

Businesses have fertile voids, too.

I know because I am working with a client who is constantly aflutter with the buzz of recreation. She is pushing quickly for a logo, a tagline, web content, seminars, flyers.

She wants to communicate--now.

Yet I have counseled her to to slow down.  To observe. To dream.  To be patient. To listen.

She's smart and spiritual, so she gets it.

The words can wait a couple of weeks until the message is clearer.  And she is more settled.

The fertile void doesn't last.  But it must be acknowledged and honored, both personally and professionally.

Indeed, the Sum is Greater Than Its Parts.

It's slim in size and each story is a sliver: two pages or less. But the impact is mighty. 

Truly, the Sum is greater than its parts.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by neurologist David Eagleman, is so clever, so thought-provoking, so audacious, I wanted more. 

In some tales of life after death, God is a She.  In others, you get to be all ages simultaneously. In the aftterlife, he imagines we are all part of a cast, be in Congress, a play or a company.

And then there are the Death Switches that use passwords to help us communicate from beyond the grave.

Far from grim, often witty, this is a wonderfully imagined collection of wistful tales at the intersection of death, hope, love and technology.

http://www.amazon.com/Sum-Forty-Tales-Afterlives-Vintage/dp/0307389936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315503725&sr=8-1