Description

In the new bible of business innovation, renowned creativity expert David Kord Murray reveals the key to the creative process: borrowing. There is no such thing as a truly original idea. Great thinkers throughout history have understood this and used it to their advantage. Bill Gates "borrowed brilliance" to create Microsoft, Steve Jobs "borrowed" to create the Mac, and long before that Sir Isaac Newton used similar thinking techniques to arrive at his theory of gravity. Borrowing Brilliance is challenges our notions of intellectual property and authorship, explores the evolution of a creative idea, and takes us step-by-step through Murray's own unique thought process, which combines analytical and non-traditional thinking techniques. Murray's six step "borrowing" process is one that anyone can master to build business innovation.

Murray combines practical lessons with stories from his own career, as well as the careers of brilliant borrowers past and present. Most people believe creativity is a gift, that it can't be taught, that it's innate in your thinking process and either you have it or you don't. But Murray lifts the veil off the creative process, bringing it from the shadows of the subconscious mind into the conscious world. Creativity is not the result of divine intervention; it is something that can be learned and it is easily within reach.

About the Author

David Kord Murray began his career as an aerospace engineer working on the conceptual development team for the International Space Station. He has also been an entrepreneur, inventor, and Fortune 500 Executive. He was the Head of Innovation for the software company Intuit and held similar positions at other Fortune 500 companies.

Praise for Borrowing Brilliance…

"A wonderfully enjoyable tour of the creative process. Murray's lively description of how he used these tools to create his own products is a major plus. People will be stealing from this work for years to come!"
-Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head and The Creative Whack Pack

"We met in strange places: Carlsbad, Lake Tahoe, Milwaukee, Kansas City. And so I spent my years with David Murray, just as zany, articulate, well-read, and completely unpredictable as is his book. Ah, the book: Dave Murray in person is just like his book, only more so. "Break the rules," he said. We broke them. "I'm thinking of writing a book about this," he said." I encouraged him. And here it is, how to be brilliant and innovative. New ideas are always amalgamations of old ones. Borrowed. Murray makes it seem simple, but don't be deceived. Everything he says is true."
--Don Norman, author of Emotional Design

"Everything a business book should be. A great concept brilliantly expressed in an interesting and well-written book."
-Al Ries, author of War in the Boardroom and Positioning

"Borrowing Brilliance is truly creative brilliance! It is simple, easy to read...it's magical. David Murray shared his life's personal stories juxtaposed with his six simple steps to business innovation. His book brings to life these steps through building on the ideas of others. You can borrow and use his six steps and explode with fresh new ideas the day after finishing Borrowing Brilliance."
-Jack Mitchell, CEO Mitchell's / Richard's / Marsh's and Author of Hug Your Customers and Hug Your People