From the Inspirational Thought Unit
The French have an expression: "faire feu de tout bois" which translated means "to make fire out of any wood." This is the fundamental principle of my concept of filling your creative bank account.
Every experience you have whether directly (seeing the pyramids for example) or indirectly (watching a documentary about the pyramids) is creative fuel. But it doesn't need to be amazing experiences like traveling someplace exotic or seeing an inspiring movie or reading an incredible graphic novel to fuel your ideas. Creative capital can come from anywhere...even from the crappy day you might have had last week.
Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges says this about it:
"A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art."
Next time you're down, or in an unfair situation, or you keep screwing something up, take stock of it, audit it, and see where the gold of an idea is. Pair this with last week's inspirational thought: perhaps you now have the right story to help someone.
-Jake