…2…3…4

Having said that, I hope Bradshaw is recovering from his recent heart attack and will be back at some point.

I think genius, whatever we call it, can rub off, but in this way: as inspiration for those who allow it as well as those who respond to it positively. People in all walks of life either play up to or down to the level of competition/talent around them. Creatively, physically, etc.

Someone better than you is either going to make you step up your game, or make you realize you should try a new line of work. Either way, that realization has to come from you, not the person or their work that you admire.

Like any great player, someone like MJ inspires guys to play better. Would any real player on his team ever want to feel like he wasn’t giving his all or face the wrath? Say what you will about his attitude, that competivie tide raises all boats, no? And it also can be a curse. As a coach, like all great players, you don’t do as well. You expect players to be as good as you were, and that’s unrealistic, because well, they’re not.

The ones who want to do better may subconciously allow themselves to want to improve, to be better. Isn’t that what we did when we learned a lot from a certain teacher, CD, etc. who we still remember to this day? Add the right spark and off we go.

Others could care less. And we’ve all been surrounded by more than a few of those. For them, status quo is good enough, and arguably, the mentor’s efforts wasted on them. But those people can still have a negative effect. Getting back to sports, TO in the locker room comes to mind. GREAT athlete. Team cancer though. McNabb lets TO get out of hand. MJ controls Rodman. Coincidence or greatness taking over.

Didn’t mean to sound like I was being critical of creative directors. But many of them struggle with transitioning from doing the work to inspiring, supporting and selling it. Wasn’t Hal Riney, for example, notorious for forcing his ideas on the staff? Granted, if you’ve got the juice he had in his prime, it’s hard to argue against being a dictator.

As discussed in earlier posts, we’re in a business where, like it or not, much of our work is based on purely subjective opinion. Most creative directors have learned to force their will — or they’ve been forced to adopt an aggressive sales style, especially in committee-centric environments.

Hopefully, influencees will be able to let the creative genius “rub off” on them. Or if they’re savvy, they’ll probably “scrape and peel off” the genius on their own.

How does all this relates to “creative genius rubbing off?”

I bet some influencees learn better from nice people and others gain more from being around jerks.

If I’m going to go to school on someone, call me a weenie with a little self respect, but I think I’ll take the nice guys.

Luke Sullivan said something in “Hey Whipple … ” about attempting to surround your self with people who produce work you admire and who you look up to as people. So, some of that magic can, I believe, rub off, but it’s a rare thing and when one does come across such a situation, the best advice I can think of is to bind the essence of that person to your soul with hoops of steel.

HighJive, somehow, no matter what anyone says, someone is going to get bent out of shape about a comment, somewhere. I wouldn’t concern yourself with offending this fan or that fan: just speak your mind, which is something I know you do anyway, and it’s something I truly respect you for.

But the thing is, creative brilliance rubbing off or not, it’s always obvious when someone who is a true star is a class act because they’re nice to people who aspire to be as good as they are.

Two examples in the music industry I’ve heard of are David Bowie, who is the only rock star in all the many hundreds of people Tony Parsons, former editor or ARENA magazine, ever interviewed who helped Parsons on with his overcoat at the end of a five hour interview.

The other person is Eric Clapton, who, apparently, is always friendly when an aspiring guitar player asks for advice.

In the world of advertising, I know from personal experience how kind two people have been in particular. I won’t name them, but for each of them to even give me the time of day, the words “thank you” are not enough.

As to whether creative brilliance will rub off from them and transfer itself to me? Well, that’s the burning question. The only answer I can think of is this: I hope so, I really do.

At the same time, I do believe that people can develop their creativity and significantly improve their skills. Edward de Bono is a big proponent of thinking about thinking. He realizes thinking is like any other skill, and it can be developed through conditioning and exercise.

Its title is ”Think and Grow Rich!” (subtitled) “The Original Version, Restored and Revised.” I am the editor/annotator of this new 412-page edition, which is really an “homage” to Dr. Hill. (For several years I was the editor-in-chief of “Think & Grow Rich Newsletter.”)

What I have done is this: to restore Dr. Hill’s book to its original manuscript content (it was first published in 1937, but was abridged in 1960), annotate it with more than 50 pages of endnotes (most of the persons and events he discusses are generally unknown to readers today), index it thoroughly, add an appendix with a wealth of additional information about Dr. Hill and his work, and revise the book in ways to help remove certain “impediments” to reading the book today (language that today would be considered obsolete, sexist or racist). None of these things had previously been done with TGR.

If you would like to learn a little more about this project, a quick visit to www.tgr-restored-revised.com will give you some details. To see the relevant Amazon.com page, go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Original-Restored/dp/1593302002/sr=1-1/qid=1168725123/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2728041-8133266?ie=UTF8&s=books ..

The book is available on all the Amazon websites and most other online sellers, can be ordered by any bookstore, and will start appearing in bookstores very shortly.

Our edition of TGR! is superior in every way to other versions on the market. It is a trade paperback, not a pocket-size mass market paperback. It is 412 pages versus 256+ (depending on the edition). It is not an abridged edition, as is virtually every other edition on the market. It looks better, feels better, reads better than any other version. It is fast becoming the “version of choice” among Napoleon Hill devotees and other students of success and high achievement. It should be read by every salesperson and entrepreneur.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely yours,

Ross Cornwell, Editor