Lucy Johnston on success (LJ): I think the motives for success are different for different people, but I suppose from my perspective, I’d say that success is the result of achieving a goal that you’ve set yourself: a goal to in some way changed the world, in a little way that makes it better.
I guess my definition would also involve the need to be challenging yourself in some way. I think success means little if you don’t challenge yourself. Achieving a goal where you have to challenge yourself and work pretty hard along the way to reach it. I suppose for some people there’s also an element of recognition; the motives for success, as I said, are different for different people. In my case my motive is really to make a difference.
HK: That’s a very interesting point. You said achieving your goal is important, but how about process to achieve the goal?
LJ: Yes, absolutely, the process is important; it’s not just about the result. The process that you go through to get to that end result, is actually where you make or don’t make success.
You set yourself a goal, then having to work through how you get to that goal; that’s where you make success. It’s about the work that you do, the challenge that you have to go through in order to reach the goal.
HK: I got it. Let’s talk about your professional engagements. On your website, it says that you are creating a new style of journal and publishing. Can I ask first what it is the new style of publishing or journal?
LJ: It’s still a work in progress really, but the idea is that for my sector I don’t think there needs to be a difference between the people creating the ideas and setting up the discussions, and the people who consume that content.
I actually think, particularly in my industry, there isn’t so much of a place now for traditional journalism – as in journalists sitting in a room writing about the content being created by another part of the industry. That of course still works to a certain extent in parts of the industry, but in terms of the new style of journal, my concept is that the people, the visionaries, who are creating a content around us that builds our society, those people should also be involved in defining and creating the documentation of that segment, of the new ways of thinking.
HK: I realized that you are really focussing on the collaboration with other industries, can you tell me how you connect one industry to another?
LJ: Yes, that’s right. I’m predominantly focussed on what we all call the creative industries, but that in itself is actually rather complicated, because the definition of creative industry is much broader than it’s currently defined. So yes, I suppose the challenge that I’ve set myself, the place where I want to make a different, is breathing a little bit of creative thinking into organizations and brands and businesses that haven’t approached their business models from a creative thinking point.
What I try to do is to curate scenarios and discussions, even editorial content, that juxtaposes different industries side by side. Because I think generally businesses only look to their competition to benchmark themselves in terms of how successful they are, and there’s only a certain amount of innovation that you’re ever going to stimulate if you only benchmark yourself against your industry.
I predominantly work with consumer brands – but also starting to work with the public sector – and it’s a very simple concept. I’m just trying to breathe a breath of fresh thinking into the way that brands and businesses look at themselves and the way they think about what business they’re in.
I think a rather interesting challenge to set one of my clients is for them to start by defining actually what business they’re in. And quite often, if you think about it from a different angle, they’re not in the business they thought they were, and that in itself refreshes the way they do business. So it’s a very simple concept: just bringing creative thinking into businesses in an unusual way. I’ll always put together an unusual combination of people around a table.
I call them the Unusual Suspects, which always makes people smile, which helps; smiling is part of it. So yes, I aim to bring together the unusual suspects, and you just never know where a new idea or a new spark is going to come from that innovates business, or innovates a campaign or a project, whatever.
HK: Talking about your personal creativity, where do you get your creativity from?
LJ: I’m always trying to track this back. I’ve come a rather roundabout route myself. I’ve worked client side and agency side before. I’ve been a magazine editor. I trained as an architect originally – always thought I wanted to leave my mark on the world in terms of a physical structure [laughs], but I’ve now realized that maybe my calling is to leave my mark on the world by making a difference in a more subtle way, so I don’t need to leave a physical mark. I think it’s more just changing the way we think about something.
I’ve spent about ten years sampling different angles of the creative industry, and through doing that I’ve travelled the world a lot, and I’ve met a lot of brilliant, inspiring people and I’ve just sort of studied different areas of the creative industry until I found a niche that I can build on and contribute… I think it’s very important to contribute; perhaps that’s part of success.
Yes, I think success also needs to be authentic and it needs to contribute something to the bigger picture for me to feel it’s a success basically. I’m at that stage where I’m trying to build something that contributes to the wider, creative industries.
I don’t really like the phrase creative industry, because it’s so huge, but that’s another challenge I’ve set myself: to come up with a new phrase to take the place of creative industry. When I think of it, I’ll let you know!
HK: [Laugh] You’re working internationally, but talking about just Britain, is there a particular type of creativity or innovation in the UK? Because many people think of the UK as a conservative country. What do you think about it?
LJ: That’s very interesting actually. I have come across certain people and opinions that look at the UK and think it’s quite conservative, but I have also come across areas of the global industry that do also look to the UK as a hub of creative talent, for certain disciplines. There’s a very interesting underground movement in the UK – an entrepreneurial creative movement – which I’m tracking very closely and I’m in the process of setting up a platform to showcase this kind of entrepreneurial, young spirit that’s coming through.
I think you’re absolutely right, the UK possibly peaked on the world stage, as it were, in terms of its creative profile. But I do think there’s a resurgence happening here, and there’s a new wave of experimental work coming through, more in line with a way that the UK was during the 60s and 70s, for example: real innovation and entrepreneurialism in the creative industry. So yes, I think it’s coming around again and Britain really is absolutely a wealth of world-class creative talent.
The entrepreneurial technology industry in the UK, for example is a very interesting one to watch. And fashion: there is a lot of very interesting entrepreneurial fashion, creative, and we’ve always been renowned for graphic design, product design and some architecture of course. I also think that a skill such as food science should now also be included as a creative category.
So yes, the talent is absolutely there. I think the problem is that creative talent here is not promoted well enough; that’s the problem, and that’s why there’s this perception of the UK as being quite conservative. Which I guess is where I’ve set myself a challenge, you see, which is where my project comes about.
HK: Great. Our time moves on, so this is the final question. Talking again about success, what is your advice to achieve success, in a general sense?
LJ: What would be my advice to whom?
HK: To all the people in this world.
LJ: I think you have to have a passion for something. Whether or not you actually know exactly what your goal should be, I think that comes second. You have to first work out what it is that gets you excited what it is that gets you passionate; and what kind of goal would you be happy to work at as hard as it takes to reach basically; that’s very important.
Then you have to be open-minded, so you really do have to take opportunities that come along and just be prepared to give it a go and see what happens. I think even if it doesn’t seem to be going your way for a little while then I think it’s very important to stick with it.
Keep a lookout for doors opening and new opportunities and it could be the most unexpected opportunity; it could come from anywhere. Any idea could spark from anywhere, so just yes, keep your mind open.
Lucy Johnston is the founder of The Neon Birdcage.
Haegwan Kim is a writer who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1989 and grew up near Tokyo where went to a Korean school for 12 years.
