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There was a brilliant television advertisement produced in the nineties by Apple Computers. Its aim was to sell computers as a tool to help us ‘think different’. The advert comprised sixty seconds of black and white film featuring twenty or so people it said were rebels and misfits. People who think differently. People it called The Crazy Ones. They included Einstein, Gandhi, Richard Branson, Picasso and John Lennon.
I love this advert because in just one minute it captures the essence of creating change. If you think different, then you are most certainly a crazy one. Whether right or wrong, by definition you’re crazy and, at least at the start, all alone.
As you start to think of change, to leave the known and explore the unknown it can feel quite frightening. It’s impossible to know whether you’re craziness is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, only the future knows.
At moments when I feel a little crazy, it’s a great comfort to find you’re not totally alone; to find, like Robinson Crusoe, that there are other footprints on the path.
I’ve grown to love these footprints, left in the form of quotations, by artists, scientists, humanitarians, businessmen and others all describing the same journey and the same search.
A new series of books under the title ‘Essence of ...” are being prepared. Each book features over 250 carefully chosen quotations supported by over 150 specially prepared drawings, each intended to underline the power of the quotations.
The series is launched with ‘Essence of Da Vinci’ in which quotations are clustered around the seven aspects of Leonardo Da Vinci’s amazing creative thinking style.
In the second of the series ‘Essence of Excellence’ an inspiring collection of quotations and drawings illuminate every aspect of change.
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