Everything in modern society is the result of a collection of decisions made by someone. Why shouldn’t that someone be you?

Noticing that something is broken is an essential prerequisite for coming up with a creative solution to fix.

Their ultimate “strokes of genius” don’t come about because they succeed more often than other people – they just do more, period.

Cool technology alone is not enough. If it were, we’d all be riding Segways and playing with robotic dogs.

Design thinking is a way of finding human needs and creating new solutions using the tools and mindsets of design practitioners.

In our experience, one of the scariest snakes in the room is the fear of failure, which manifests itself in such ways as fear of being judged, fear of getting started, fear of the unknown. And while much has been said about fear of failure, it still is the single biggest obstacle people face to creative success.

I’m quite comfortable with making the odd mistake, if it comes in the pursuit of new opportunities and new ideas” Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand CEO.

No matter how high you rise in your career, no matter how much expertise you gain, you still need to keep your knowledge and your insights refreshed. Otherwise, you may develop a false confidence in what you already “know” that might lead you to the wrong decision.

But to act, most of us must first overcome the fears that have blocked our creativity in the past.

Empathy means challenging your preconceived ideas and setting aside your sense of what your think is true in order to learn what actually is true.