“The Key - Quick Conversations on Creativity” Adam Leigh (Author & Partner at HBAL Exec Search)

🖋️ “There are no original ideas. There is only the ability to make something look different, sound different, be different, by the originality you bring to bear.” 🖋️

Adam Leigh, Partner in HBAL Executive Search, former agency founder, and author of:

📗 The Curious Rise of Alex Lazarus

📘 Chicken Wars

📙 The Pod Couple

I loved doing this one because Adam Leigh and I go back a long way.

⏳ We worked together at EURO RSCG about 20 years ago, so this was part "Quick Conversation 🎤 ", part very enjoyable catch-up.

Adam Leigh has had a fascinating career:

📌 30 years total in advertising

📌 20 years in multinationals

📌 10 years running his own agency

📌 11 years in executive search

📌 And now, 3 novels written, with a 4th on the way!!

So when I asked him “What is The Key 🔑 to Great Creativity?”, his answer came from both agency life and the experience of actually being an author and writing books.

A few things really stood out:

1️⃣ Originality is in the expression

💬 “That which was oft thought but ne’er so well expressed.”

Adam quoting Alexander Pope (English poet 1688-1744), that great creativity is not always about completely new ideas.

2️⃣ Creativity takes determination

💬 “You have to be unrelentingly determined to try and create whatever it is you started to build.”

3️⃣ Start small and keep going

💬 “I would basically congratulate myself every time I wrote 500 words.”

4️⃣ Editing is where things get better

💬 “You have got to sense your dissatisfaction and be willing to follow through and say, ‘You know what? I can do this better.’”

5️⃣ Ambition is not always about status

💬 “It is sometimes just about being a bit restless and wanting to do something different.”

🔥 I really liked this point.

Adam Leigh reframed ambition away from ego, job titles or climbing over people.

- Sometimes ambition is simply creative restlessness.

- The desire to make something.

- To see if you can do it.

- To see if people enjoy it.

And, in Adam’s case, to write rom-coms about kosher butchers, vegan café owners and podcasting exes!

Thank you Adam Leigh.

🙏 Really great to reconnect and brilliant to hear your wonderfully informed take on creativity.