“After the Ellison interview
I spoke to Dr. Enrique Mallen,
director of the On-line Picasso Project
at Sam Houston State University.
Specifically, I wanted to know
why Steve Jobs was fond of
one of Picasso’s most famous quotes:
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
According to Mallen,
“to copy” is to do something
exactly like somebody else.
A good painter can copy,
but that’s not innovation.
“Stealing is when you take something
and change it so much,
the innovation is so disguised,
so changed,
that it looks like it belongs to you.
Stealing is taking something
and making it yours.”
Picasso and Jobs ‘stole’ ideas in a good way,
building on earlier and outside experiences
to create radical innovations.
Picasso’s famous 1907 painting,
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
(The Young Ladies of Avignon)
and Steve Jobs’ Macintosh
are both examples of ‘stealing’ ideas
to create something entirely new.”
I saw this type of innovation
in all of the industries
I worked in
from real estate to soft drinks to romance novels.
Consider stealing ideas
from other industries,
from competitors
and combine these ideas
to innovate.