Your Creative Act

I’m in a founder book club that’s currently reading “The Creative Act: A Way of Being,” by Rick
Rubin. It’s definitely not what I expected from a music industry legend.

He produced hits for (get ready) Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Danzig, Metallica, Red
Hot Chili Peppers, the Strokes, Weezer, Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, Johnny Cash,
Shakira, Jay-Z... for starters.

A career like that is going to come with both adulation and criticism about his business and
creative practices, which I assumed would be the main themes. It turns out the book isn’t about business at all. It’s a meditation on Rubin’s underlying way of moving through the world as a creative, a guide for tuning in to what’s around us and within us.

For that reason, I think “The Creative Act” truly is a business book, specifically for
entrepreneurs. This line hit me hard:

“There’s a time for certain ideas to arrive, and they find a way to express themselves through
us.”

I can’t think of a better description of that urge to do something as wild and risky as starting a
business just based on the intangible feeling that the world needs something that doesn’t exist
yet — and you’re the one to deliver. It’s an urge you may recognize in all the entrepreneurs
we’re featuring this month. Every one of their journeys is, in one way or another, a creative act.