Gregg Fraley

Frankie Boyle’s autobiography, My Sxxx Life So Far is not for everyone.  It’s filled with obscenities for one, and his relentlessly irreverent view on nearly everything is sometimes too much to bear.  On the other hand, I have to say, I loved it, because this is a guy who somehow never learned to pull his creative punches.  This is absolutely 100% authentic, honest, creative, interesting, and funny.  Inspiring for me, and I suspect many innovators would find this book a breath of fresh, albeit blue, air. Frankie Boyle is probably best known as a panelist on the UK comedy show “Mock the Week”. The show is improvised outrageousness and Frankie is clearly the most spontaneous and out-of-the-comedy-box person on it.

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I read novels for pleasure. I read business books for content.  It’s not quite that simple however. The truth is, given the full-of-bs, hyped-up, buzzword-ridden, and generally weak content many business books are filled with — I probably learn more from novels. The wisdom of the ages is found in stories. Innovators seeking a shift in perspective they can apply to business challenges would do well to read a well crafted story.  Stories also do something to infuse a bit of energy into a bored spirit, and serve as “incubation food” when you are flummoxed by a business problem. Insights tend to pop up for me when reading something completely different than the task at hand. A good example of

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I do a few book reviews here. Mostly, books about innovation, creativity, or entrepreneurship.  A press release landed on my desk yesterday related to a new book titled “Swimming From Under My Father” by Michael O’Keefe. Michael O’Keefe is an actor.  And bad news/good news, is probably best known for playing the role of Danny Noonan in Caddyshack (and well done, I’ve always had a perverse love for that film). He’s done other interesting roles in various TV shows and films, including Michael Clayton with George Clooney and The Great Santini with Robert Duvall. For more about Michael’s career, and interesting life, click through to Wikipedia. So, I’d heard about his new book on Facebook before seeing the press release

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Cirque du Soleil has always been an innovative organization, after all, they completely redefined what a “circus” could be. With their tribute to The Beatles, they’ve broken new ground. “Love” is a tour de force, a magnificent entertainment experience, a highly creative, and yes, innovative show.  It’s hard to come up with the perfect word to describe it — extravaganza doesn’t do it justice — it’s a mind-bending, visual, musical, acrobatic, and artistic smorgasbord. The music of The Beatles is a very good place to start when creating a multi-media experience.  According to the website George Martin, The Beatles original producer, was involved in creating a new, clean mix of sound from the original Abbey Road master tapes. The sound

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Time has been kind to Mick Hucknall.  He must be approaching 50 years old and yet his voice is still as vibrant and rich as it was when he burst on the scene 30 years ago. I saw him perform with the latest incarnation of SImply Red last night at Sandown Park race track in south London.  It was a blistering set of R&B with Mick going 100% in front of a tight six piece band.  The 15,000-ish crowd sang along with almost every song. His face has a few more lines, but otherwise he’s given up nothing to his age — or fame. Surely, that takes work! Given the recent demise of Michael Jackson to remind us of the

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There is an awful lot of sanctimonious crap that gets handed down with regard to creativity. The “truth” of what matters with regard to creativity (and personal innovation) is much harder to arrive at because, really, self-expression is very different for all of us.  Real wisdom about creativity, the truth so to speak, is hard to come by.  After all this is a world that sells millions of copies of The Secret, which says wishing and believing is all it takes to achieve your dreams. I believe it takes wishing and believing, but it also takes structure, hard work, and good choices to leverage one’s creativity.  Everyone is creative, but not everyone knows how to be creative. I just finished

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The final show for Britain’s Got Talent was this evening — the voting has just started. While watching, it occurred to me that there is nothing new at all about the concept of the show.  There have been talent shows since time immemorial. Why is this talent show so compelling?  Why has it captured the attention of this entire island nation? The short answer is they’ve done it better. This is not earth-shattering innovation.  This is good old fashioned, do it better innovation. Innovation does not always mean something completely new and different. Sometimes a “better” implementation of an old idea can make all the difference between a yawn and something that is inspiring. Disruptive innovation is marvelous, and, incremental

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I’ve been reading, or I should say digesting, Guy Kawasaki‘s new book, Reality Check, the Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.  I’d suggest a deep red wine while reading, something to complement a meaty book, perhaps a Cotes du Rhone. It’s a book destined to become a classic vintage, a book about being an entrepreneur, written by an entrepreneur, for entrepreneurs. Its content is the nitty-gritty detail of what it takes to make a start up happen and work.  It’s practical, it’s concise, it covers a lot of bases, and yeah, it’s irreverent.  I think irreverent is true, but more accurately, the advice it gives is often not the classic BS (“Bull Shitake”, Guy’s term) you might

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This post is part of the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour, my Innovise Guy pardner Doug Stevenson is also reviewing the book on The Innovise Guys Blog (the post-tour tour). I do a bit of reading. I try to have one business book and one fictional book going at all times.  This last month my pair has been The Innovator’s Guide to Growth and Salmon Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. It has proved to be a month of intense learning about innovation — and India! The Innovator’s Guide to Growth, which I am reviewing here, I predict, will become as important a book in the business world as Rushdie’s Booker Prize winning novel is in fiction. Quite simply, IG2G is the new bible for

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If you want to read a wonderfully tasty, short, and elegant piece of creative fiction, go immediately to Amazon and order Stewart O’Nan’s “Last Night at the Lobster.” About every five years or so I read something so well done, so heart felt, that I can’t put it down. This is it, I only wish it had gone on another 100 pages, it totals about 145. Sometimes the best things are fundamental, and this book proves it. A simple premise — a restaurant manager walks through his last day at the Red Lobster, a place he manages with passion and grace. Corporate is closing him down and the book is infused with melancholy, and yet, it’s hopeful as well. The

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