Laura Jordan Bambach - Creative Superpowers: Equip Yourself for the Age of Creativity

Praise for Creative Superpowers

A book that made my brain fizz makes idea creation seem achievable for all of us.

Bruce Daisley, VP EMEA, Twitter

We tend to think of creativity as an innate trait, a quality imbued by nature, beyond our control. In reality, creativity is a learned skill a set of processes and habits we can cultivate, rehearse and improve at. Think of it like language: our brains are hardwired for it, but it takes years of practice and immersion before it flows seamlessly through us. This book is your primer for that language, a workbook full of lessons in creativity. And whether youve been speaking it your whole life or youre just wading in, the lessons are invaluable.

Damian Kulash, Jr., OK Go

A must a rare gem that sparks ideas long after you have finished the final chapter. A book we all need.

Helen Calcraft, Founding Partner, Lucky Generals

Were living in a crazy world. The best way to survive is to try some crazy things. This book is the best framework I have read to do that.

James Cooper, Head of Creative, betaworks

An inspiring mix of stories from myriad beautiful minds and places. The charmingly simple construct and super practical guides will get you ready for the future in no time. The robots wont know whats hit them.

James Sowden,
Managing Partner & Head of Strategy, BBH Singapore

Inspiring everyone who wants to get ahead in the Age of Creativity should read this book.

Jamie Coomber, Marketing Director, Sonos

Eminently readable and realistically optimistic it spills over with useful insights, tools and examples to help change mindsets at all levels. It provokes and enlightens in equal measure a great personal roadmap to use for any metaphorical journey of learning.

Jonny Hewlett, CEO, Diesel Europe

There is much to like about this book. Much to make of it. Much to learn from it. Much to steal from it. Ultimately, its magic.

Patrick Collister, Founder, Creative Matters

Takes the scariness out of creativity and explains in a simple and clear way the fundamentals of creativity, better tools and new ways to get there. A fun read.

Susan Hoffman, Co Chief Creative Officer, Wieden+Kennedy

This book illustrates the critical importance of creativity and the value it brings to humanity both locally and globally creativity lies in everything, its all about the perspective and being open to learning and just by reading this book, we learn there is no such word as cant.

Juliette Larthe, Partner & Executive Producer, PRETTYBIRD

A must-read. This wonderful book gives you access to and makes you feel part of a world of powerful creativity and leaves you fi zzing with ideas and thoughts.

Lisa Thomas, Chief Brand
Officer, Virgin Enterprises

Creativity is what has made us the dominant species on this planet. For those already working creatively, this books is a support system; for those yet to understand the importance of creativity, its a wake-up call.

Fernanda Romano, Founder Strategy
and Creative Partner, Malagueta Group

This book enlightens everyone on the superpowers they may not know they have, and lets them know how great they can be when they unlock them.

Shannie Mears, Chief Talent Officer, The Elephant Room

Guaranteed to fire your imagination succinct, direct and extremely engaging. If you want to be relevant in the future, you cant afford not to read this.

Timothy Walker, Chief Executive and Artistic Director,
London Philharmonic Orchestra

A delightful compendium of wonderful, useful and progressive thoughts and ideas An easily digestible, compelling and fresh take on how to approach change and achieve it.

Tom Goodwin, EVP, Head of Innovation, Zenith USA

You need to read this book. Its seriously smart. A roadmap into the wonderful unknown; a bible for the enlightened; a cheat sheet for those of us who frequently get stuck. Go for a walk. Sit down. Run. Learn, unlearn and relearn. Make Hack. Steal. Teach will become your mantras. You will not fear the future or that blank sheet of paper. You will laugh more, sleep better and dream big. This book has powers all of its own.

Vicky Maguire & Caroline Pay, Co CCOs, Grey London

A wonderful assortment of views from around the world on the power of creativity and its ability to fuel our future. This thought-provoking collection of essays provides an essential handbook for leaders, creators and dreamers alike.

Nishma Robb, Ads Marketing Director, Google UK

To Dan, Lisa, Sair and Tina.

And to Jon Daniel, our creative Supa Hero. Rest in peace.

Dear Reader,

The book you are holding came about in a rather different way to most others. It was funded directly by readers through a new website: Unbound. Unbound is the creation of three writers. We started the company because we believed there had to be a better deal for both writers and readers. On the Unbound website, authors share the ideas for the books they want to write directly with readers. If enough of you support the book by pledging for it in advance, we produce a beautifully bound special subscribers edition and distribute a regular edition and ebook wherever books are sold, in shops and online.

This new way of publishing is actually a very old idea (Samuel Johnson funded his dictionary this way). Were just using the internet to build each writer a network of patrons. At the back of this book, youll find the names of all the people who made it happen.

Publishing in this way means readers are no longer just passive consumers of the books they buy, and authors are free to write the books they really want. They get a much fairer return too half the profits their books generate, rather than a tiny percentage of the cover price.

If youre not yet a subscriber, we hope that youll want to join our publishing revolution and have your name listed in one of our books in the future. To get you started, here is a 5 discount on your first pledge. Just visit unbound.com , make your pledge and type super5 in the promo code box when you check out.

Thank you for your support,

Dan, Justin and John

Founders, Unbound

Introduction by Daniele Fiandaca,
Co-founder of Utopia & Creative Social

Sometimes it feels like every week theres a new emerging technology. Its hard to keep up. Are you feeling a little overwhelmed by all these changes? Is your business agile enough to compete against the new start-ups entering your industry every day? Are you finding it increasingly difficult to connect to your audiences, who constantly stampede from platform to platform? Are you finding it harder to recruit talent who are no longer interested in your business, but instead are magnetised towards businesses with a clear purpose? Are you constantly trying to work out whats next?

These might be some of the things that keep you awake at night. Or the big one: are you worried you might go to work one day to find youve become irrelevant?

Youve been replaced. By a robot.

If youve picked up this book, then chances are at least a few of these things are on your mind (unless, of course, you are Elon Musk, in which case youre too busy saving the planet to open this book). As technology continues to open up the world to even more possibilities, it is increasingly hard to keep up.

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The good news? Our brains are wired to rewire they can be moulded based on conditioning and behaviour. Its why the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls conversion from short-term to long-term memory and spatial navigation, is bigger for a London taxi driver than a London bus driver. While a bus driver drives the same route day after day, a taxi driver has to pull new routes from his or her long-term memory every day. It is this process of reconnecting that stroke victims go through during recovery.