Few years ago, I attended a classical music concert at Amsterdam’s renowned Concertgebouw. The performance was unique, featuring an orchestra from Boston composed entirely of young musicians, the youngest being 13 and the oldest only 21. They exuded a genuine, fresh, and even naive aura, yet their performance was marked by serious attention, experience, and dedication beyond their years. With straight backs like the strings they played, steadfast eyes on their beloved conductor, and immense attention to the creative process, this group produced music with an exceptionally pure and honest sound.
Their conductor, the famous Benjamin Zander, once said, “It’s not about wealth and fame and power, it’s about how many shiny eyes I have around me.” And shiny eyes there were! The passion they played with directly penetrated the hearts (and ears, and eyes!) of each and everyone in the music hall. The joy of playing and the honour they felt towards the audience was contagiously inspiring.
A Performance to Remember
Such performance deserved the warmest praise. So, as soon as the last note had departed the room, we all rose up immediately to a wild applause. The emotion that was evoked resulted in streams of tears on the cheeks of these young performers – at least a third of them cried in front of us and we cried with them. A truly powerful experience!
Reflecting on Our Creative Passion
A strong thought immediately emerged—when was the last time I immersed myself in my creative work with such passion, dedication, and honesty? When did you? We are often busy producing work for a purpose: selling ideas, promoting ourselves, or seeking rewards and recognition. Often, we forget to simply enjoy the process and dive passionately into creativity.
Do you remember your first creative idea presented to your Creative Director with trembling hands and a blank mind from a sleepless night and too much coffee? Or the piece of music you played for a small, yet intimately connected crowd? Or the script you wrote for a short movie that still lies in your drawer, waiting to be rediscovered?
The Value of Passion in Creativity
Maybe those ‘naïve’ works weren’t perfect. Maybe since then you’ve gained more skills, more knowledge to produce work technically better. But how much more meaning it brought into your life in that moment compared to how and what you create today, even though, you might have even received some precious reward for it. Passion is the most precious reward we can receive, felt by both the performer and the audience. It fuels pure engagement in the creative process. Without it, we lose our creative drive.
Rekindling Your Creative Fire
There is a way to feel that uncomplicated passion again, as if we were playing for the first time in Zander’s orchestra. The way to do it is by daring to dream, by being honest with ourselves, and as often as possible, we should check those shiny eyes – first in the mirror and then in others.
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