What does it mean to be creative? Creativity is the ability to use your active imagination and envision an ideal outcome within your mind’s eye and (for those of us who are skilled enough) bring that ideal outcome to life.

The problem with creativity is that everyone is creative. And, because of this, most people who are so self-centred around their own self-identified narrative, thinking that they are the best, are often not open to the ideas of others—resulting a highly myopic view for an idealized potential reality.

Now, you actually may be that highly creative individual who is worthy of believing in such grandeur; Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, for example. However, the problem arises when someone who is unskilled, or not as creative with their problem solving, offers their ideas without the proper rational or logic behind them.

Working in the creative field for the past 11 years, I’ve run into many situations resulting in this kind of clash of ideas. Granted, if the one paying you is the one providing the suggestions; well, “get money, get paid!” and accept whatever suggestions your hire wants to put on the table.

Though, when working on your own creative endeavours (or something you truly believe in), my one and only piece of advice to you would be this: only ask the opinion of those that you respect creatively.

Time and time again, when asking the wrong person (or too many people, for that matter), you’ll be faced with either having to make an adjustment that you normally wouldn’t have in order to not hurt their feelings, or just leave them resenting you for potentially thinking that their ideas were bad in the first place.

Creativity is a sour treat. It’s great when it’s going good, but it can quickly turn sour with too many cooks in the kitchen.

So, before asking someone else for their opinion, consider these simple ‘asks’ first:

✓ Do you respect this person’s previous work?
✓ What have they accomplished that would warrant any creative input?
✓ Am I open-minded enough to listen to them on this project?
✓ Are they a #styleICON like Jaden Smith*?

If you answered “No” to any of the above questions, then I’d probably re-think asking this person for their input in the first place. It will save you a lot of time, a lot of hurt feelings, and a lot of micro-adjustments that you will inevitably have to make in order to instil some sense of “compromise” within the team.

-happy creating.