I was recently asked to contribute to an article on “failing successfully.” “I know you’ve been very successful and obviously have a great deal of experience,” the writer told me. Experience in failing? Is that what she meant? I didn’t ask, because the truth is failure is a part of what I do, and that...
Author: Teresa Funke
Can the Arts Better Lives and Give Hope?
I asked my friend, Rose Moon, why she thought artists were important. “Artists are the storytellers of each generation,” she said. If it weren’t for Rose, the at-risk teens she works with at HalfMoon Arts in Fort Collins, Colorado might never have a voice. In providing art instruction and a safe haven, she is also...
Is This a Good Title?
When it comes to creativity, why do some things come so easily and others seem so very hard? Why do certain great ideas seem to pop out of nowhere, while others take months to form? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a scientific formula we could apply to ideation: get 8.4 hours of sleep,...
Blessings for a Workaholic
When we were newly married, my husband took a job at a Fortune 500 company and stepped quickly onto the fast track. I made him promise he’d never let his work interfere with our homelife, that he’d never become a workaholic. And he hasn’t. Ironically, I’m the one who now fits that description. Lately I...
What’s the View from Your Ladder?
The other day, I was listening to an interview with an established speaker who started out, as we all do, as an unknown. One day, through a bizarre twist of fate, a major company asked to partner with him, launching his career. We’ve all heard dozens of stories like his about artists or entrepreneurs who...
Ideas Are for the Taking
Three years I’ve been waiting . . . waiting to have the right vehicles and platforms in place to launch my Great Idea Giveaway, a new video project in which I will be sharing my best ideas for writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and community catalysts. The videos live on my You Tube Channel, where people can...
You’re Only a Starving Artist if You Choose to Be
I often find myself reassuring friends whose children want to go into the arts that their kids will not starve, nor will they ask for support for the rest of their lives. I know dozens of artists – writers, singers, filmmakers, visual artists, actors – and none of them are starving. Few of them ask...
Technology Snafus of a Cosmic Nature
My friend would tell me that I should have known better than to launch my brand new blog while Mercury is in retrograde. During that time, according to her, plans can go awry and technology can fail, as it did for me. Less than a day after launching the blog, my website’s server crashed. My...
Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life
Few things excite us more than a great idea, especially when it’s one of our own. Watch a person’s body language, listen to the passion in their voice, watch the light fill their eyes when they say those magic words, “I have an idea,” or “Listen to this” or “You know what we need to...