How I Am Creative | Raindance Film Festival

Good morning everyone.

When I was invited to speak today, I was asked a deceptively simple question:

“How are you creative?”

The longer I thought about it, the more I realised I’d been asking the wrong question for most of my life.

People often think creativity is something you have.
I think creativity is something you do.
It isn’t a personality trait. It isn’t talent. It isn’t inspiration.

It’s a habit.
And habits can be learned.

I wasn’t born into a creative environment. I grew up in a conservative Mennonite community in rural Canada where movies were forbidden. We didn’t have television. We didn’t go to cinemas. Storytelling happened around the dinner table, in church, through music and through work.

Ironically, that limitation became my greatest creative advantage.

Because when you don’t have entertainment handed to you, you have to invent your own.

I learned early that imagination begins where certainty ends.

That lesson has stayed with me for more than seventy years.

I’ve started companies, launched film festivals, published books, taught thousands of filmmakers and watched technologies come and go. Every few years someone announces that creativity is dead.

First television. Then video. Then the internet. Then smartphones.
Now AI.

They’re all wrong.

Technology changes. Creativity doesn’t.

Because creativity has never been about the tools.
It’s about the person using them.

People often ask me where ideas come from.
I honestly don’t know.
But I do know how to make them arrive.

I’ve learned there are seven habits that keep me creative.

The first is curiosity.

Children ask hundreds of questions every day.
Adults stop asking because they’re afraid of looking foolish.

The moment you think you know everything is the moment creativity leaves the room.

• I collect questions.
• I read outside my field.
• I talk to taxi drivers, students, street sweepers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs.

Every conversation contains an idea if you’re listening carefully enough.

The second habit is showing up.

Inspiration is unreliable.
Routine isn’t.

People imagine writers waiting for lightning to strike.

Most professionals simply sit down and begin.

• Some days are brilliant.
• Some days are awful.
• But the work gets done.

Creativity rewards consistency far more than genius.

The third habit is making connections.

Nothing is completely original.
Every new idea is an unexpected connection between two old ideas.

That’s why filmmakers can learn from

• Blues musicians.
• Entrepreneurs can learn from painters.
• Architects can learn from chefs.

The wider your influences, the more original your work becomes.

Steve Jobs famously said creativity is just connecting things.
I think he was right.

The fourth habit is embracing failure.

Raindance has discovered many successful filmmakers over the past three decades. What people don’t see are the thousands of films that didn’t quite work.
Mine included.

Failure isn’t the opposite of creativity.
Failure is creativity’s tuition fee.

Every mistake tells you something the successful version never could.

The fifth habit is building communities.

The myth of the lone genius is exactly that: a myth.
Every breakthrough I’ve ever had came through conversations.

Creative people need other creative people.
Not because they have the answers.
Because they ask better questions.

Communities create collisions.
And collisions create ideas.

The sixth habit is protecting attention.

We live in an economy where every company wants your attention.

• Notifications.
• Algorithms.
• Infinite scrolling.

Your attention has become someone else’s business model.

If creativity requires deep thought, then protecting your attention isn’t selfish.
It’s essential.

Sometimes the most creative thing you can do is switch everything off.

• Go for a walk.
• Read a book.
• Sit in silence.

The seventh habit is finishing.

Ideas are cheap. Execution is rare.

Everyone has

• A screenplay in their drawer.
• A business idea on a napkin.
• A novel they’ll write one day.

The world doesn’t change because of unfinished ideas.
It changes because somebody finishes.

Creativity isn’t measured by how many ideas you have.
It’s measured by how many you bring into the world.

After thirty years running the Raindance Film Festival, I’ve noticed something interesting.

• The filmmakers who succeed aren’t necessarily the most talented.
• They’re the ones who keep making films.
• The entrepreneurs who succeed aren’t always the smartest.

They’re the ones who keep building.

The artists who endure aren’t the ones waiting for permission.
They’re the ones who create anyway.

Which brings me back to the original question.

How am I creative?

I’m creative because I choose to be.

Every day.

• Not because I wake up inspired.
• But because I stay curious.
• I show up.
• I connect ideas.
• I fail.
• I build communities.
• I protect my attention.

And, most importantly…

I finish.

I’d like to leave you with one final thought.

The future doesn’t belong to people with the best ideas.
It belongs to the people willing to act on imperfect ones.

In a world where artificial intelligence can generate almost anything, the truly human skill is no longer creating content.

It’s choosing what is worth creating.

Your taste. Your judgment. Your courage. Your humanity.

No machine can live your life.

No algorithm can tell your story.
No one else has your experiences, your failures, your perspective or your voice.

That’s your competitive advantage.

So don’t wait for permission.
Don’t wait until you’re ready.
Don’t wait until someone tells you you’re creative.

Create first.

The confidence comes afterwards.

Thank you.