What creators possess and the business world needs (not “creativity”)

When you’re motivated by creativity and the desire to produce great work, if you’re lucky, others might describe you using generous words like thoughtful, innovator, visionary, or artist.

But what about stubborn?

It’s true. You should take that as a compliment.

Creative individuals simply expect better of their work, their company, and their industry. And that starting block for one’s career is where more individuals need to take their marks.

I like to use the phrase “craft-driven” to describe people who care so deeply about their creativity that the process is more important than the outcome. (Of course, they usually see better outcomes as a result, since they produce a better version of the thing that triggers those outcomes.) But I’d just as soon swap in “stubborn” for “craft-driven” and still say it with the same amount of admiration.

Creators are often stubborn about the ideas, processes, environments, and above all else, craftsmanship behind their work. While someone who doesn’t think about writing, design, audio, video, photography, code (etc.) all day might dismiss this as some kind of brooding, idealistic babble, it’s precisely that willingness to be stubborn about creativity and quality that makes craft-driven individuals so vital to companies everywhere.

So, yes, most companies will hire us because of our ability to produce the work, but along with that output comes some beautiful stubbornness — a refusal to settle, in a world full of average.

Be the kind of person who expects better. The world needs it more than ever.

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