An interesting analogy on creativity and ideas

From Milton Mastrocessario, VP Creative Director at McCann Erickson in São Paulo, Brazil.

He wrote:

Always when this season come to town I remember part of “Zorba the Greek”,

written by Kazantzakis, (bellow the part I’m talking about) just to remember that this cocoon could be a big idea.

“I remember one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the back of a

tree just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing

to come out. I waited awhile, but it was too long appearing and I was

impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as

quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes,

faster than life. The case opened; the butterfly started slowly

crawling out, and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its

wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried

with its whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it, I tried

to help it with my breath, in vain.

It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of the wings

should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late. My

breath had forced the butterfly to appear all crumpled, before its time.

It struggled desperately and, a few seconds later, died in the palm of

my hand.

That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight I have on my

conscience. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the

great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be

impatient, but we should confidently obey the external rhythm.

I sat on a rock to absorb this New Years’s thought. Ah, if only that little butterfly

could always flutter before me to show me the way.”

Ideas need time. Yet when we talk about compensation for agencies, everything is time based. That is why we need a new way of investing in ideas, not just paying for ideas.