Fitting In Isn't Exactly Innovation and It's Not Exactly Marketing Either

Verbatim from my essay submission to the 100 Bloggers book. This piece directly references three phases of the Dwelve creative process (includes an incubation in the Grand Canyon.) BTW, the referenced book proposal class seems like eons ago, but actually was only last summer. I'll refer to this piece again.

The Art of Validation

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Polonius' advice to his son Laertes in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare

How long does a bold idea remain a whimsical spark before it is blessed and permitted to take shape in the world?

I return from a multi-day Grand Canyon backpacking trip over New Years Day 2003 admonishing myself for never cracking open my journal. There really was no time in between the extra night spent sleeping on the boulders on the trail ledge, another spent laughing uncontrollably at Deni's storytelling theatrics. Then there was the evening we tested out the backpacking oven by way of chocolate cake. Or the solo dawn hike down to the very bottom standing at the edge of the Colorado River. Dark descends early in the box canyons. We often finished hikes in the shadows. I learned to recognize the subtle shape and feel of trampled grass and navigate the thin trail in the evening air. We'd sometimes stop to lay down with our backs pressed against the ground and the stars piercing the black sky enroute.

I expected I'd have time for deep reflection and journaling. It never happened.

What I hadn't expected was the ease that ideas just flooded over me over the next two weeks upon my return. That five-day trip into the belly of the canyon had purged a lot of clutter and chatter.

One of ideas that poured forth was a book. I resurrected the post-Canyon scrawlings more than a year later and embarked on the book proposal process in a small group class. Researching the target market and books in the same genre, I was aware this book would be a stretch for a business book title - but that was the audience I wanted to reach.

The marketing section was solid; I couldn't say the same for the rest of the proposal. For a book purportedly about creativity and innovation, the writing was washed out. I knew it wasn't clicking as I wrote it.

One afternoon writing a sample query letter for class, I was jolted. Yes it is atypical to be staring blankly at my laptop in a San Anselmo coffee shop reading a literary agency's website while tears roll down my face.

In many ways we were drugged when we were young. We were brought up to need people. For what? For acceptance, approval, appreciation, applause... - Anthony De Mello, from Awareness

I was writing a business book that fit the business book mold.

Divergence is the key theme driving Darwinian evolution in both life and the marketplace, says The Origin of Brands. Divergence. Hmmm, not exactly the approval and acceptance we’ve been trained for.

I had studied the market all right. I had studied how to fit into it. Fitting in is not market validation. You need to nestle snugly into the hearts and minds of the customers but not necessarily the existing status quo marketplace.

In the process of fitting in, I had buried my authentic voice - the voice that struck a deeper chord with the target readers. It had long dried up and scattered like scraggly tumbleweed across the salt flats out near the Utah-Nevada border.

The Sagalyn Agency forthcoming books list didn't give me permission, but I sorely needed reminding. I cried because their website re-minded me...

Daniel Pink
A WHOLE NEW MIND
The Right Brain Revolution

B. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore
AUTHENTICITY

Robert Wright
THE EVOLUTION OF GOD

...of how I'd been absolutely on target. I veered off because it looked like (scary, bold) uncharted territory…and I didn’t dare be first. How often do we not dare preempt the competition?

Stand out or seek approval.

I read the query letter I hastily composed to the group that evening. I knew the glazed over eyes weren't simply the result of a long workday. One does not recover one's voice instantaneously - it needs to be coaxed, welcomed back. The clever analogies to quantum mechanics didn’t budge the group. Only a single paragraph registered any pulse:

Timing is everything. One minute the CTO at a venture-backed start-up and the next unemployed and divorced, the author started what was intended to be a three-month ‘clarity quest’. Over 24 months later, the extraordinary unstructured sabbatical in the spirit of Henry David Thoreau, Buckminster Fuller and Isaac Newton unintentionally resulted in uncovering practices and steps to consistently tap into a deep reservoir of inspiration.

Exactly what I had feared. People were hungry for human story and weary of abstract theory, intellectualizing and parading of expertise.

I sought the group's counsel. Shouldn’t it be a no-brainer for the bookstore clerk to neatly categorize and shelf the book? After my short tirade, Mark, the retired lawyer co-authoring a true crime novel with a prisoner at San Quentin, interrupts me. "Whoa, back up a minute...did you hear what you said?"

"Uh, what do you mean?"

""Business books aren't supposed to speak to the person.” That's what you said."

He paused: "But this one does."

In the supposed-to space, we miss the deep-seated desire that's been squashed and nearly forgotten - both in your (personal, and corporate) self and in your customer. Being in tune with others begins with being in sync with your self.

We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. – Anthony De Mello

Ah, it's tempting to relax in the concrete, stable supposed-to. If you are doing anything unique you won't fit in. Fitting in isn’t exactly innovation and it's not exactly marketing either.

You must have the conviction required to create the ground under your own feet rather than seeking to find a ready-made foundation you can hop to. Be careful where you seek permission or validation.

If your boss wants focus groups to prove that a new product is guaranteed to be a success, don't bother. If the focus group likes it, they're probably wrong. ... You don't need a book about creativity and brain-storming or team-building. You've already got a hundred (or a thousand) ideas your group doesn't have the guts to launch. – Seth Godin, from The Purple Cow

So if the bookstore clerk is perplexed whether your book is ‘supposed to’ fit in business or self-help or philosophy or...the bestseller section, bravo.

Marketer and writer Evelyn Rodriguez’s eclectic weblog is geared for those who creatively dwelve (simultaneously deep delving and grounded dwelling) at the edge of life and business. Visit Crossroads Dispatches at http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com.

Comments

[Jay Sennett]

Hi Evelyn,

I'm curious about your thoughts regarding creatively dwelving for those people who live on the edge all the time. Check out my blog (http://jaysennett.typepad.com) or my website (www.jaysennett.com).

As a transsexual man, authenticity can be a very hard sell for people whose own fear clouds their better selves.

As a technological innovator (the medical modalities I have used to become who I am are a consequence of science and technology!) and edge creator, I must always remind myself about what is mine and what is others.

You phrased it, "being in tune with others beings with being in sync with yourself." True. Challenging when being in tune means receiving much fearful noise.

Thank you for your blogs.
Jay

[Kamal]

Although it's good to know the market for your book before you start, sometimes, that knowledge only holds you back.

Writing a book is a long journey. Often, a lonely one. Always better to undertake if we believe in it, if the story keeps us awake at night, raring to burst out. Like Don Juan (from Castenada's books) said: follow the path which has heart.

Let your heart dictate the book you'll write, not the market.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Jay - I think I know what you mean. But dwelving can be an inner process of pushing OUR limits (not necessarily other people's buttons!). Sometimes you reach a fork in the road and the way forward is unclear. At these crossroads, we need to retreat into the small still center of our being and allow ourselves to be guided.

On the external front, I've found it useful rather than worry about what frightens, threatens others about our authenticity is to turn it around (since we can't control others nor live THEIR lives). Since we are most like to “project” onto others aspects of ourselves that are long buried (psychologists call this our shadow), the absolute best practice that’s helped me the most was developing the ability to watch my thoughts and feelings much as a meteorologist watches the changing weather patterns go by – without judgment. That includes the particular tricky practice of observing your judgment – of yourself and others - without judgment. (We can never practice enough radical self-acceptance.) Simply note how other people push your “buttons” and your strong likes (guru and goddess-worship, pedestal-plopping, admiration, adulation, awe) and dislikes (annoyance, contempt, disgust, dismissal). Notice comparisons you make between yourself and others. Notice any feelings of expectations and needs you have of others and strong attachments to outcome dependent on them. So every person I encounter becomes a mirror showing me my own blind spots (the shadow lurking below) and thus my teacher. The goal of this practice is that you may be a clear and spotless mirror so your true self shines forth.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Kamal - I wrote this piece last year and dressed it up for the essay submission. Something I need to re-read often. I think if one follows their heart (and businesses their collective heart) it often leads down a path that resonates univerally. The authentically inspired is compelling - much more so than the maybe-this-is-what-"they"-want contortions and scripts of a chameleon.

"Don't tell me what I want to hear," I tell my friends, "tell me your truth."