Two words most commonly associated with ideas are “good,” and “new.” I’ve often encouraged folks to forget “good.” Here’s the case for forgetting, “new,” too.

From Steve Jobs to Taylor Swift to Seth Godin, there’s remarkable consistency among “the greats”: having bad ideas is a necessary precondition to having good ones.

Steve Jobs said, “Theres a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That's crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.”

Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs — and what propelled their project forward — have made me wonder whether the sterile calculus of today’s valuation-obsessed start-up culture has its priorities out of whack.

What’s routine to accomplished “creatives” like Steve Jobs and Lecrae isn’t even on the radar for many innovators-in-training. Learning to get inspired is one of the fundamental instincts we have to develop.

It is profoundly uncomfortable to choose to work differently. But sometimes, the best way forward is to allow yourself to retreat. Work different.

Frustrated by bad design, Steve Jobs left his desk. He didn’t do it absent-mindedly; he did it deliberately: looking for something that would unlock the riddle.

Volume and velocity are essential to breaking through. How do you increase both? Steve Jobs advocated an unexpected tactic…

Contrarians are valuable. Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos both used this government-developed toolkit for identifying strategic vulnerabilities and unlocking growth.

Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” But to connect, you’ve got to disconnect, too. A growing body of research demonstrates the benefits of literally “looking at nothing.”

The fundamental responsibility of the innovator is to forge new connections. But how does one do that? Here are a few starting suggestions.

Rick Rubin is one of the most successful music producers of all time, in any genre. His has more in common with technology innovators like Steve Jobs than some fans might suspect.

Very few modern leaders have given ideas — or the creative process that conceives them — the kind of respect that Steve Jobs did. Sir Jony Ive vividly describes that care.

“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind… In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them…” —Steve Jobs

Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs both illustrate that the sterile calculus of today’s valuation-obsessed start-up culture doesn’t put nearly enough premium on a particularly elusive ingredient: love.

Frustrated by what he considered to be inadequate design, Steve Jobs left his desk. He didn’t do it absent-mindedly, but deliberately, looking for something that would unlock the riddle.

What do you do when you realize the sheer volume of ideas required for a breakthrough? Steve Jobs advocated one unexpected tactic…

Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos both employed a government-developed mindset and toolkit for identifying strategic organizational vulnerabilities and unlocking growth opportunities.

Steve Jobs said, “Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them.”

While creativity is certainly a function of connecting inputs, it’s also a function of cultivating enough disconnection to be able to synthesize those inputs. A growing body of research demonstrates the benefits of “looking at nothing.”