CREATIVITY, INC. — I finished reading this book last week. 
It will be a Classic. It is the story of Pixar.
The subtitle is “Overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration.” That is a mouthful.
The book is Ed Catmull‘s story. Catmull co-founded Pixar with John Lasseter. Add in 26 years with Steve Jobs and how Pixar grew from a small money-losing segment of George Lucas’ empire to taking over Disney Animation is a true fairly tale.
The writer is Amy Wallace. She did a great job. Wallace has written for over 20 major magazines. She recently did a piece in NY Times Magazine on Baz Luhrmann That was an insight into brilliance too.
This is a business management book. It is about how to manage a successful company but still retain the creative spark. How do you become corporate and bottom-line driven. but also remain fresh, new and relevant?
The book will appeal to so many segments:
- Pixar
- Animation
- Disney
- Steve Jobs
- Tech
- Business
- Leadership
- Movies
- Zen
- Toy Story
- Transitions
- Growth
I have been tweeting as I have been reading. I probably sent 40 tweets over the past few weeks. I don’t have a lot of followers (<1,000), but I still like tweeting and feel it effective. What has been so cool is the co-author, @msamywallace has been kind enough to re-tweet me on numerous occasions. Thank you Amy.
The front of the book has a letter from editor Andy Ward. His email was on the page so i figured I would ping him and mention how much I enjoyed the book and especially the afterword. The afterword is 18-pages about Steve Jobs (The Steve We Knew). It is a great counter-balance to Isaacson’s authorized biography. I loved Isaacson, but would very much like to see more about Jobs from Catmull’s perspective. Andy mentioned there was more… Hopefully they will release (short ebook?). There is also a very helpful appendix titled Starting Points. It has 33 comments and thoughts for “managing a creative culture.”
Who published the book? From the title page:
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC,
a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
That is a mouthful.
I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.
Goes on sale 4.18.14
