11 Common Characteristics of Successful Creatives
I’m just reading Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi’s (pronounced Chick-sent-mi-hi) thoughts on being creative. His paper Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Inventions (free to download as a word document), is the culmination of 30 years of research into creativity. His work dispels several myths about being creative and highlights the following common features:-
Successful creatives…
- …are largely happy with their lives and their creative output – not tortured souls
- …are abundant in their curiosity and drive
- …take their intuition seriously – looking for patterns or connections where others see confusion
- …are sometimes seen as arrogant but really they are so excited about their work they want to focus on it
- …gravitate to centres where their interests can be met, where they can hang out with like-minded people and their work appreciated
- …find beautiful or inspiring environments better for being creative rather than attending a creativity seminar
- …were often not very successful at school
- …largely had little contact with their father, but often had a very involved loving mother who expected a lot from them
- …fall mostly into two camps: a) poor or disadvantaged but pushed themselves beyond their initial start in life OR b)grew up in a family of …intellectuals, researchers, professionals, writers, musicians etc. Only 10% were from the middle class
- …are both humble and proud which a selfless devotion to their domain of expertise
- …don’t have the same personality – although most creatives are thought to have a complex personality
What do you think? Does this ring true for you? Any surprises?
