Prepare like crazy so you can wing it
Conan O'Brien wrote a Guide to Creativity for Fast Company magazine this month. One of his piece of advice caught my eyes: Prepare like crazy so you can wing it. Here is what he said about that:
"My formula has always been I'm big on preparing. Prepare like crazy. But then just as you're heading out, half an hour beforehand, forget all of it. It's there. It's in your reptile brain. Go out but feel loose enough to grab opportunities as they come up. Don't just stick to the plan if you see an opportunity. Now sometimes you go out there and the energy is such that you just stick to the plan and you do fine. But when you get out there and the energy is particularly good, I'm the first one to throw out things left and right and just go for it. The show is always best when it's just play. When you're playing, there's a tension, yin-yang tension between think beforehand and then just get out there, between preparation and improvisation. And that's been a lot of my career, finding the balance between those two".
It is a very true statement. When you are prepared, you can handle anything that comes at you and most importantly, you can see opportunities no one else sees. Why? Because you are relaxed and confident on your abilities and thus, constantly alert to the world around you. The others are focused on keeping it together and can't see past those blinders. Your confidence is the reason why you are comfortable "throwing out things left and right" and keep only the best ones or, even better creating new ones. The unprepared will keep everything because: a. they don't know what works and what doesn't; b. they are too afraid of not having enough; and c. because they can't create new "things".
Winging it out of preparation will never feel fake. Are you prepared well enough to wing it in a moment's notice?
Posted by Terra3.0 at 5/26/2011 2:01 AM 
Categories: How To, Execution, Creativity
Tags: creativity prepareness
Categories: How To, Execution, Creativity
Tags: creativity prepareness
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