(Inspired by Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc.)

The myth is that creativity dies when people run out of ideas. That’s bullshit. Creativity dies when people are too afraid to share the ideas they already have.

Ed Catmull built Pixar on one principle: protect creativity at all costs. Not the product, not the shiny outcome, but the fragile spark that shows up in a room full of anxious people. He knew the real enemy wasn’t bad ideas, it was fear.

Fear keeps you quiet when you know an idea sucks. Fear makes you polish something safe instead of risking something original. Fear lets bureaucracy and ego strangle what could have been brilliant before it even breathes.

Here’s what Pixar understood: failure is oxygen for creativity. You need to screw up, miss, break, and get it wrong if you want to get it right. Failure is fuel. Fear is poison.

Think about your own work. How many ideas have died in your head because you worried about looking stupid, or because you knew your boss wouldn’t get it? How much of your creativity has been wasted because the room was designed to protect egos instead of ideas?

That’s why I make Relentless Creativity. To cut through the bullshit. To expose the silent killers that choke out imagination in our culture: validation addiction, disconnection, exploitation. These are not abstract sins, they are daily toxins. And unless you name them and fight them, they win.

So here’s the truth. If you want creativity to survive, stop protecting products and start protecting people. Give them the space to be raw, honest, messy, wrong, and fearless. That’s where the magic happens.

Everything else is noise.

My Relentless Creativity takeaway:
Fear is the real enemy of creativity. Failure is a tool, fear is a cage. Protect your people, not your ego, and watch what happens.