creative maverick

I’ve been quiet here on Creative Maverick as I’ve been very busy elsewhere with a new blog on a similar topic.
My book Screw Work Let’s Play: How to do what you love and get paid for it is published by Prentice Hall in 9 weeks’ time. And in preparation I am blogging every day on how [...]

Why don’t people change? Why do we struggle on with the same old problems, wanting to be happier, more successful, to have better relationships, but not getting very far?
To explain why I think this is, I need to talk about Bono, lead singer of U2.
A lot of people find Bono annoying, particularly in Britain where [...]

For a lot of us, particularly creative people, conventional goal setting and planning techniques just don’t work.
So how do we engineer a great year for ourselves without all that SMART goal crap? One doing the whole variety of stuff we enjoy while making a good living at the same time?
I gave a talk at January Scanners Night on [...]

I first met novelist Matt Whyman when he gave a talk at London Writers’ Club on what he calls Sustainable Writing. He very kindly agreed to write this guest blog post on the topic.
Sustainable Writing
When it comes to filling in forms, I never enter ‘novelist’ under my profession. Nor do I say that’s what I [...]

I started this blog exactly one year ago and billed it as a one year experiment in creative living - an experiment to do what I love doing most, worry a little less about where it might lead, and see if I can end up getting “paid to play”.
Did it work?
Well in April of this [...]

I hope you have a good break coming up over the next few days. If you’re currently assessing what to do with your work next year, here’s a little something to ponder while you’re off…
Try this trick of asking yourself a question and then forgetting about it while you’re off work. Your subconscious will continue [...]

Ever thought about writing a self-help book yourself? If so, you’ll be interested in Suzy Greaves’ interview with me on my experience of writing my book (which I am due to finish for Pearson Education next week). Suzy is one of the UK’s best life coaches and the author or two of her own excellent [...]

Would you like to know where to focus your work so that you can get paid for doing what you love? The key is to find your “moment of magic”.
Think back to a recent time in your work that stands out as a great moment; one when you did something you know you are great [...]

Leslie Scott created one the world’s favourite games, Jenga. Recently, she kindly agreed to be interviewed for my forthcoming book “Screw Work, Let’s Play”.
Here, she explains how she turned her baby brother’s playing bricks into the world’s second biggest selling game (topped only by Monopoly). She also explains how she kept going through debt and [...]

Back in 2005, Alex Tew was a 21 year old student from Cricklade in Wiltshire and was about to begin a three-year Business Management course at the University of Nottingham. Alex was concerned that he would be left with a student loan that would take years to repay so he brainstormed ways to make some [...]