WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NEXT?

With your experience, you probably have many more suggestions. Put them to use. But only if they

1. make working more fun, and
2. help people think better of themselves.

When you do these two things, you will be an ideaist, for even though you are not great enough or wise enough for people to surrender their destiny to, you will help them restore their belief in their own guidance.

To help you get started, let me tell you a story:

I used to work with an art director named Joe Forester. Every now and then Joe would step outside his office, cup his hands around his mouth, and shout down the hall at the top of his lungs — “NO SCHOOL TODAY! NO SCHOOL TODAY!

It always seemed to me that those words ought to be emblazoned on the banners of creative departments everywhere. There is something unrestrained and joyous and uplifting about them, something liberating, something that captures the essence of what kind of mind-set it takes to come up with ideas, every day.

For the creative mind-set is truly the mind-set of a child when the day is green and there is no school, and life is endless and everything is fresh and new, and nothing is impossible.

It also seems to me that NO SCHOOL TODAY gets to the heart of what this book is all about — that ideaists who shout “NO SCHOOL TODAY!” down the hallways, and companies that create a no-school-today atmosphere within the workplace, unleash the creativity of their workers.125

So next time things seem a little dull and slow around your workplace, step outside your office, cup your hands around your mouth, and shout down the hall at the top of your lungs — “NO SCHOOL TODAY! NO SCHOOL TODAY!”

You’ll be pleased, I think, with how it will brighten things up.