The quote at the top of this chapter is taken from what may be the greatest piece of inspirational writing I have ever read.¹⁴

There are certain things that are meant to separate us human beings from the animals. Some of them are not very attractive – the fact that we’re capable of genocide, for instance – mass killing of our own species. But that’s not really what I’m thinking about here. Rather, it’s the more positive things.

More specifically, I’m pretty sure that one thing that separates us from animals is our need to be creative. Now let’s be clear here – I’m talking about creative in the widest possible sense of the word. It may well be that you are the greatest artist since Rembrandt’s wife asked Rembrandt, ‘Who’s going to pay for the dog?’¹ And if you are – congratulations on having been born with such a prodigious talent. I hope you use it wisely and make the world a happier and more beautiful place.

Most of us are less blessed but all of us are given talents and all of us have a need to create. Whether that’s pulling off an incredible save in Thursday night’s five-a-side or clocking under three and a half hours in a marathon or cooking a gorgeous meal or painting or writing or playing music or creating a company out of nothing² or building an organic garden from a patch of builder’s rubble out the back. Whatever.

When you start work you want to do a good job. You want to be part of the team. Presumably something about the culture of the organization attracted you there in the first place. You want to fit in.

The trouble is that sometimes we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to fit in. And that often involves giving up things that are important to us – family, hobbies, ‘a life’ – so that we can work.

The simple message of this chapter is to warn you against that.

I don’t need to tell you how important it is for you to spend time with the man/woman you love, to watch your kids grow up, to be part of your loved ones’ lives.

But I think I do need to tell you about creativity. In short – you need to do something creative in your life and not let anything take that away from you – not job, not family, not anything. Being creative is our highest form of self-actualization, our highest need, our greatest calling.

More than perhaps anything else, this is something I wish I had known when I started working.

Yes, you’re going to have to earn a living, pay the mortgage and all that stuff. But don’t let that be all that you do. Don’t just do that, get something to eat and then crash in front of the telly for the rest of the night. Create something. A book, a painting, a meal, a (more) beautiful body, music, a comedy routine, a role in a play, a movie, the perfect game of whatever sport you play or do, a loaf of bread, a cake, a dance, clothes . . . something.

If you don’t have this in your life, there will be something missing. You will wake up each day and something won’t feel quite right. There will be some hunger you’re not satisfying, some pull that you’re not responding to, some emptiness that you feel is there.

If you don’t have something creative in your life right now, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be feeling what I’m describing. Your life will be incomplete in some unarticulated way.

And if you’d been wondering what that funny restlessness was that you were feeling, then that’s what it is.

So you know what to do.

Satisfy the hunger. Go with the pull. Fill that void.

Your life will be the richer for it.

And, of course, far greater minds than mine have said the same thing. One is the late, great Kurt Vonnegut. It’s never too early to learn this lesson about creativity and Vonnegut was teaching it to high school kids.

In 2006, the year before he died, a group of students at Xavier High School in New York, wrote to their favourite authors as part of an assignment, asking them to come and visit their school.

Vonnegut was the only one to respond, and while he said he would not be able to make it in person, he did send the following letter.