Ever wondered what makes some people and companies stand out in the crowd? It's often that magic ingredient we call creativity.

I've noticed people often tend to use words like "creativity," "innovation," and "ideas" as if they're all the same thing. Creativity is our ability to think up new and relevant stuff, Ideas are the specific thoughts that pop up from our creative thinking and Innovation is the tangible application of creative ideas that creates value. As Theodore Levitt cleverly put it, "Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things."

Let's explore some insights that might just change how you think about creativity and success.

Expert
Insights into
successful
Creativity

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."
- Albert Einstein

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
- Scott Adams

"Creativity without strategy is called 'art.' Creativity with strategy is called 'advertising.'"
- Jef I. Richards, advertising professor

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
- Maya Angelou

"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
- Pablo Picasso

"Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way."
- Tom Freston

"Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits."
- Twyla Tharp

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
- Sylvia Plath

"Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous."
- Bill Moyers

"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating."
- John Cleese

"In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."
- David Ogilvy

"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected."
- William Plomer

"There's no good idea that cannot be improved on."
- Michael Eisner

"The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued."
- Ken Robinson

"Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye."
- Dorothy Parker

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
- Edwin Land

"Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people."
- Leo Burnett

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found."
- James Russell Lowell

"The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible."
- David Ogilvy

"Creativity is like washing a pig. It's messy. It has no rules. No clear beginning, middle or end. It's kind of a pain in the ass, and when you're done, you're not sure if the pig is really clean or even why you were washing a pig in the first place."
- Luke Sullivan, advertising creative director

“You must make the product interesting, not just make the ad different. And that’s what too many of the copywriters in the U.S. today don’t yet understand.”
- Rosser Reeves

“The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail.”
- Bill Bernabach