The Collective 2020 Graduation

July 30, 2020

Congratulations 2020 graduates of The Collective, our certificate program in creative leadership! A virtual ceremony was held to celebrate the cohort's completion of the program and everything they've accomplished during this trying time. We're so proud of all of you! The Collective is generously supported by Flinn Foundation, CORE and Wells Fargo. For more info about The Collective visit mesaartscenter.com/thecollective.

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this leg of the journey, and the beginning of the next chapter. 

And I know this is only our second cohort, and we would never pick a favorite  but you all will forever be the cohort that went through the Collective during what might be one of the craziest periods in our lifetime.  

You are the Rona cohort. 

The COVID-hort. 

The Global Pandemic, the world is on FIRE, everything we’ve ever thought was ‘Normal” is gone forever and ever COHORT

With all joking aside, the times that we are facing are scary, uncertain, and unstable but it is in times like these that the world desperately needs creativity and leadership.

It is in the moments of great despair where creativity is the catalyst to innovate new solutions.

It is in times like these where leadership faces its hardest challenges. 

It is in the darkest of days where most people want to crawl into a hole, in hope, that someone else will figure the way out. 

Courage is not that absence of fear, but instead looking fear into the face mask, and saying “I got this”!

But having it, doesn’t mean you have to have it all figured out. Creativity is making a mess, over and over again until that mess becomes “less messy”. 

Perfection should not be the goal. Progress is a continuum that can be passed on for future generations to pick up where you left off. 

The work you are doing now, are chapters in your legacy. 

So keep moving, keep making a mess. 

Stay curious. 

But most of all, give yourself some grace. 

There are many great and inspirational quotes about leadership and creativity

But we’ve struggled to find any quotes that talk about the dark side of creativity and leadership

The moments where you are paralized from the fear of failure

The imposter syndrome 

The mountain of a to do list and not knowing where to start. 

So here is our quote

“Being naked is uncomfortable until you realize we were all born naked” 

Clearly it's a metaphor

And clearly you will get it when you need to get.

The best we can all do, is not give up. 

Keep working towards building the solutions that the world so desperately needs.

If you get push back, or if you try and share your idea with someone and they “don’t get it” ior think you are weird or crazy,  that is a good sign. It means you are challenging the status quo. 

If you need to take a break, take one

But the only true failure is quitting. 

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