Scott Belsky (Portfolio Hardcover, April 2010)
Gen Y-er Stephanie Lerner, our summer 2010 intern and member of UPenn’s Class of 2011, sat down for a conversation with Gen X’s Scott Belsky, CEO and founder of Behance and author of Making Ideas Happen.
What inspired you to write Making Ideas Happen? A great sense of frustration that most ideas never see the light of day. The likelihood of an idea actually transpiring has nothing to do with how great it is; it’s because of a series of other forces. So the frustration for me was, gosh, there are so many great ideas out there and people need to become better leaders of their ideas and actually give these ideas a chance to happen. So it was that frustration that most ideas never happen that triggered the interest and then a lot of the research that made me fully convinced that there are other forces at play when ideas actually happen besides the creative side.
Who is the target audience for the book? Any individual or team, regardless of industry, that is trying to develop ideas to solve problems. And back to my earlier point, individuals and teams that have that frustration about making their ideas happen.
What is an instance in which you couldn’t make an idea happen that you really thought was going to work out? I would say that I don’t pursue ideas I know I can’t execute. That’s where I think people get distracted and get off course. So there isn’t one particular idea that I can think of that I tried to pursue and couldn’t because often times I decide that it’s not the right time. I want to be productive with my energy. Therefore, I try to attack ideas that I’m in the unique position of being able to execute. And that’s how we’ve worked as a team at Behance.
What was the most difficult part about writing the book? Having the daily responsibilities of running a company. Every day in an entrepreneurial environment is a challenging day–like a firehouse, there are so many things going on at once—so it’s impossible to write during the day. I had to save windows of time every night, or go to a café late at night, spend weekends writing, all difficult because it was a grueling schedule to keep.
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp? That we all have the ability to develop the capacity to make ideas happen. I don’t know where ideas come from and I don’t know if creativity is nature versus nurture. What I do know is if you have ideas you can build the capacity to execute them. It’s something that is readily available to all of us. It’s not easy, but it’s there and that I’m sure of.
What book are you reading now? I’m reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
How do you think the next generation will approach making ideas happen versus past/current generations? I think that people will start pursuing their ideas earlier. In past generations, you’ve had to work your way up the ladder before you can make your own ideas happen. With the powers of technology and online communities and the fact that the next generation is most familiar with the newest technology, people will be able to spread their ideas more quickly and perhaps be entrepreneurial at a younger age.
Interview has been condensed and edited.