Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
John W. GardnerRead
The creative individual is particularly gifted in seeing the gap between what is and what could be.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative individuals have a unique ability to envision possibilities beyond the current reality.
In this quote, John W. Gardner emphasizes the gift of creativity, suggesting that creative individuals possess a remarkable insight that allows them to recognize the potential for improvement and innovation. They can see beyond the status quo, imagining new possibilities and solutions that may not yet exist, which is essential for progress and development in various aspects of life and society.
Themes
CreativityImaginationPotentialVisionInnovation
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about the importance of creativity in business.
More from John W. Gardner
All quotes →More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.
John W. GardnerRead
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.
John W. GardnerRead
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.
John W. GardnerRead
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
John W. GardnerRead
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
John W. GardnerRead
Similar quotes
The enemy of creativity... is fear. We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up.
Seth GodinRead
There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.
Steve JobsRead
Never say no to an idea - you never know how that idea will ignite another idea.
Stanley KubrickRead
I have a lot of confidence, but little Self-Esteem. This has given me a tremendous creative spark because it forced me to keep proving myself.
Neil DiamondRead
As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.
Jim HensonRead
Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.
Russell L. AckoffRead