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  • Erik: How is your creative toolbox changing?

  • Simon: I'm adding to it. Right? I mean, you know, I don't think I've thrown anything away.

  • I may use some things less than I used to. But the more I learn and the more I get to

  • practice more importantly, the more tools I'm adding to that toolbox. What's also great

  • is some of the tools change size, in other words, there are some tools that I really

  • like and I'm really good with, and so I use those tools because they're very helpful to

  • me, and there are other tools that I've learned that I'm really no good with and so they're

  • there if I need them, you know, I've never understood the idea of working on your weaknesses,

  • you know, we're always told in our performance reviews, here are your weaknesses and these

  • are the things you need to work on to get to the next level, I've never understood that,

  • the whole idea is to work in our strengths, amplify our strengths, and we, you know, hire

  • our weaknesses orthis is the value of a team, right? What's the point of having a

  • team if you have to beif you have to improve on your weaknesses? The whole idea is we have

  • you on our team because you're really good at this. You know? And we found somebody else

  • who's really good at this, which you're really bad at. You guys are a team. This is the value

  • of a team. And so I think in our workplace, our companies do us a great disservice by

  • telling us that we have to fix our weaknesses or improve upon our weaknesses to get to the

  • next level, they should be encouraging us and giving the tool to amplify our strengths

  • to get to the next level, that's what they want us for, right? Otherwise, here are your

  • strengths and here are your weaknesses, now you're even. Wouldn't you wanna be this? You

  • need to be aware of your weaknesses but we need to amplify those strengths.

  • Erik: What are a couple of examples of like the creative tools that have brought that

  • out?

  • Simon: I'm a lover of creative people. And so any sort of expression of how you see the

  • world in a—with different terminology is fascinating to me. And so even though I myself

  • am a photographer so I have that visual aspect, I'm a huge fan of modern dance and spend a

  • lot of time sort of with dancers and in the dance world and have, you know, tried my hand

  • at choreography just to see, you know? I'm not good. But it—I like the idea of trying

  • it, you know? And so for me it's about perspective, which is when I—when you hang out with dancers

  • and you sort of learn to dance a little bit or you learn to choreograph a little bit,

  • or you learn to paint a little bit, you know? I'm not a painter but I painted a painting

  • recently, you know? If youit's like chaos theory. Everything's connected, right? It's

  • like we conveniently divide up our lives, like here's my personal life, here's my professional

  • life, I'm—here's my social life, I'm looking to find balance. It's just you. And all the

  • same things apply. And so if you're good here, you can apply what you learn here to there.

  • And so when you learn how things interconnect and people interconnect, and how human relationships

  • work, and presence, I mean you wanna learn about presence? Take a dance class. You learn

  • all about how to present yourself and be forwards. Take an acting class, learn how to, you know,

  • present your speech. People say, Simon, how did you learn this? It's like—I'm exposed

  • to all of this. So the tools I've learned have just mainly been different perspectives

  • on how other people use their creative talents to see the world in it. If I can get little

  • pieces of those, they help me in many, many different ways.

Erik: How is your creative toolbox changing?

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