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Introduction Unit of One  Fast Co. Zines   Check out Fast Company co-founder Alan Webber's trailblazer page Read other interviews They Have a Better Idea ... Do You? Edited by Anna Muoio A blank sheet of paper can be liberating - and intimidating. Where do great new ideas come from? How can you and your company create more of them? We asked 14 creative people to answer those questions. Nike's Tinker Hatfield says creativity is one part inspiration and many parts collaboration. David Kelley, the world's most celebrated industrial designer, urges creative people to "fail faster so they can succeed sooner." Clar Evans, a 40-year veteran of Hallmark Cards, calls the creative process "civilized tenacity." Bill Flanagan, vice-president of programming for VH1, says the real test of creativity is whether you can rise to the challenge when you don't feel like it. So read these contributions and be more creative. Unless you have a better idea. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Professor of Human Development and Education, University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois miska@cicero.uchicago.edu Dr. Ashley Montagu once wrote that your goal in life should be to die young - as late as possible. The most creative people I know live by that maxim. They are as curious, engaged, and innocent as children. They keep asking questions, wrestling with interesting problems, looking at the world through an ever-changing lens. How do they maintain such fresh perspectives? By refusing to do anything they don't want to do. That doesn't mean they never do unpleasant tasks. But they manage to transform even those tasks into something that comes closer to their interests. "I have worked every minute of my life," creative people can say. "And I never did a lick of work in my life." Both statements are true. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's most recent book is Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (Harper Collins, 1996). Next Interview Copyright © 1999 Fast Company. All Rights Reserved.     Decision Making Your Boss Your Career New Ideas Is Bigger Better?

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