The Principles of Excellence -- King Solomon's Masterclass in Creativity

PART 3 -- BASIC BARRIERS TO EXCELLENCE

Having earlier identified basic attitudes and illusions that prevent many people even getting started on their creative quest, Solomon now describes four common barriers that can seriously constrain our achievement once we have set out in pursuit of the excellence that is readily attainable. The first two have to do with time, and the second two with attitudes of mind.

In a lifetime’s experience training engineers, designers, and managers to express their personal creative potential, consultant Edward Matchett found that human weakness is a major barrier to excellence -- factors such as enslavement to conditioning and habit, thinking and illusions. "It is always the persons own fault, never someone else’s" he says, "that this enslavement is allowed to continue. And yet the enslavement is so strong, so pervasive and pernicious that it is not easy to be rid of it."

Contents	PART 3 -- BASIC BARRIERS TO EXCELLENCE Having earlier identified basic attitudes and illusions that prevent many people even getting started on their creative quest, Solomon now describes four common barriers that can seriously constrain our achievement once we have set out in pursuit of the excellence that is readily attainable. The first two have to do with time, and the second two with attitudes of mind. In a lifetime’s experience training engineers, designers, and managers to express their personal creative potential, consultant Edward Matchett found that human weakness is a major barrier to excellence -- factors such as enslavement to conditioning and habit, thinking and illusions. "It is always the persons own fault, never someone else’s" he says, "that this enslavement is allowed to continue. And yet the enslavement is so strong, so pervasive and pernicious that it is not easy to be rid of it."
	LESSON 11 -- CATCH YOUR FOXES Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom Song of Solomon 2:15
	Here is one of the most odd and apparently irrelevant verses of the whole "Song", yet it teaches a very important principle of excellence. As we have seen, creative work is typified by the growth and reproduction of plants, such as vines, and it seems significant that reference books tell us that foxes in Palestine would play havoc with vines and could ruin a valuable harvest by devouring the bunches of blossom and immature young grapes. The little foxes evidently typify the destruction of creative potential, as pictured by the profusion of blossom in a vineyard. And the fact that the foxes are small or young may also be intended to reinforce the fact that it is creative work in its infancy that is being destroyed. Don't Settle for Mediocrity The foxes that raid the vineyard are happy to devour the immature grapes. The sour taste of the unripe fruit is quite acceptable to their un-discerning palate, and they do not realize what marvelous potential they are destroying. They probably typify, among other things, the work habits and careless attitudes of a person who is satisfied with mediocrity rather than excellence, who does not push for the perfection that is possible, and is perhaps simply too impatient to let the creative process run its course. Let the Creative Fruit Mature In a garden, no matter how well the ground has been cultivated, fertilized and watered and weeded, all will be ruined if we impatiently pick the tiny, immature produce. This one little principle, although obvious in the gardening setting, is extremely important and easy to ignore in creative work. Just as an apple tree produces hard green and sour apples which then gradually ripen, turn red and grow sweet, so our creative work must be given time to mature and be magically transformed in the same fashion Take Pains for Perfection Genius has been defined as an infinite capacity for taking pains, and Samuel Smiles, in his Victorian classic “Self Help”, says: "Michelangelo was one day explaining to a visitor at his studio what he had been doing to a statue since his previous visit. ‘I have retouched this part — polished that — softened this feature — brought out that muscle — given some expression to this lip, and more energy to that limb.’ ‘But these are trifles,’ remarked the visitor. ‘It may be so,’ replied the sculptor, but recollect that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.’ " Let It Grow In a radio interview, John Cleese described how he and Connie Boothe devoted six whole weeks to the writing of each single episode of the classic "Fawlty Towers" TV series. For the first three weeks they simply told and retold the story line to each other over and over again, endlessly — letting it slowly grow and develop in new and unexpected directions. Only then did they start to write it down and compose the dialogue. Best-selling author Jeffery Archer explained, also in a radio interview, that he typically produces seventeen drafts of a novel before he feels it is polished enough for publication. Robert Louis Stevenson, likewise, exercised the patience required for perfection, causing biographer Frank McLynn to comment: "Despite his brilliance at first drafts, he forced himself to redraft and rewrite. His credo was: ‘Perfect sentences have often been written; perfect paragraphs at times — but never a perfect page . . . There is but one art, to omit! O if I knew how to omit, I would ask no other knowledge. A man who knows how to omit could make an Iliad of a daily paper.’ Foxes in Hollywood? These principles of apply in all creative areas, and the immensely successful American actor Will Smith said in a newspaper interview that he seeks perfection in every detail of his work: "I make it a point that I just can't leave until the day's work is completed to the best of my ability. I can't sleep if something didn't go well. I'm hours and hours running it through my mind. I just can't let things go . . . I just can't stop with things I'm working on . . . I'll work within an inch of my life to be successful." Puttying for Perfection The world’s greatest poems, songs and music were often shaped and reworked, again and again and again, in the pursuit of perfection. Beethoven and Mozart had to rework their compositions, sometimes in their heads and sometimes on paper. William Blake and John Keats did intensive editing, or "puttying", on their poems, changing the wording and even splitting and/or re-sequencing verses in order to get things just right. In “Life With Picasso”, Francoise Gilot says: "Matisse told us that sometimes in the evening he used to wipe out with cotton and turpentine whatever he had done during the day if it didn’t please him completely. He would start the same painting again next morning from scratch, always with a spontaneous approach. He did that because, he said, ‘When I have a feeling for something, my feeling does not change. That feeling is at the centre of my conception of the painting and I try all possible expressions of it until I find one that satisfies me completely.’ " Never ignore the gentle nagging feeling that comes from your creative mind telling you that a work is not quite finished. Keep asking your what more there is to do, to add, to delete, to correct, to improve, to rearrange, to simplify — then listen patiently for answers. Catch Your Little Foxes The destructive power of the little foxes, as with many wild creatures, is belied by their attractive cuddly appearance. Could your foxes be pleasant diversions that keep creeping in, causing you to neglect projects, robbing them of the time and attention they require? Time Bandits Notice also that the foxes apparently slip into the vineyard from outside, suggesting that they may also be intrusions that rob you of your time and again cause you to neglect opportunities for creative action, as typified by the marvelous potential of the vine blossoms awaiting pollination. Notice that the foxes, plural, are apparently not too hard to catch, suggesting that they represent factors over which we can exercise control.