We know there are 5 basic things we need in order to stay alive: oxygen, water, food, shelter, and sleep. But, in contemporary (first world) society, so much of what we do and make and seek is about more than mere survival. And of course it is, we have luxuries. Like faucets that designate hot and cold water, and then actually deliver it, swiftly and without hesitation. But the loci I want to circle towards right now are the 5 Reasons Why Creativity, Collaboration, and CAConrad Are Essential To Survival—as inter-special communities and mouth-breathing mammals and flourishing ecosystems and byzantine waterways, macro- and microcosmically speaking.

So, to begin before beginning... First, it's ALL collaboration. Every bit of it. From writing creative content for radical businesses to trading stocks in a confetti of noise on Wall Street to designing topnotch websites for fledgling startups. We might like to think, even convince ourselves, that some of these endeavors are scalable by single individuals. Like most things, on the surface this single-handed scaling most certainly seems probable. But no—nope. This, indefinitely, is not the case. I can see the bubbles bursting as I type (pop). For starters (in a long lineup of reasons why pretty much everything is a collaboration), there's lineage. And that right there—our ancestral lines of art and literature and fashion and music and business—is illustration enough for why our endeavors are never simply our endeavors. They're always a confluence. Always.

And so, the 5 reasons why creativity, collaboration, and CAConrad are essential to the survival (of anything, especially your business)...

1. The more we succumb to collaboration—and realize that it's happening around us and was happening before us and will continue to happen long after us (and that it's also the reason for us)—the closer we get to entering a paradigm shift (fingers crossed) towards abundance, and thus the further we move from our current and frenzied state of scarcity. Scarcity breeds cut-throat. We don't wan't cut-throat.

For instance, we've started this radical new creative copywriting agency, wherein one of the main objectives is to help transform the WWW into a space filled with quality content. Of course we've got goals, but we're not out to squash other creators of great content. Nope. We want more compelling content and stunning taglines and engaging narratives to continue to emerge from the woodwork. Did I emphasize that enough? I hope so, because this is important. Words and how we use them are important. We know there are stellar people and businesses with something to say, and we want to help them say it. And we can't do all of this alone, which is a good thing, because believe it or not collaboration is fun. It also produces some pretty amazing results. Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing and scarcity mindset (well, fingers crossed, again and at least). As poet Arielle Greenberg proclaims: Rejoice, and be glad the work that each of us do is just one moving part in the giant cycle of art-making to which there is no beginning and no end. 

Which brings me to...   

2. Poet-activist CAConrad, who puts it best when he says: It is our duty as poets and others who have not lost our jagged, creative edges to FILL the gap, and RESIST the urge to subdue our spirits and lose ourselves in the hypnotic beep of machines...With our poems and creative core, we must RETURN THIS WORLD to seismic levels of wildness.

And then follows up with: Everything around us has a creative viability with the potential to spur new modes of thought and imaginative output. The most vital ingredient to bringing sustainable, humane changes to our world is creativity. This can be enacted on a daily basis.

Thank you, CA.

3. Ahhh, the perfect segue. Without further ado, here's why CAConrad is essential to your business's (and our) survival: his Right to Manifest Manifesto. Go ahead, give it a read. I promise you'll be changed and/or invigorated and/or breathe a little more deeply. 

4. Here's one you might want to hear: creativity is IMPORTANT for business! And that's exactly what this sweet LinkedIn article expounds upon. Here's a snippet: Over the last decades, innovation and creativity have become critical skills for achieving success in developed economies. The need for creative problem solving has arisen as more and more management problems require creative insights in order to find suitable solutions. 

And, last (on this abbreviated list) but not least...

5. Creativity can erupt from and through failure, or at least become a means of navigating the fail. But how does failure potentially come to yield a higher chance for survival? 

When we fail, we're presented with the quandary (along with a few other things) of figuring out a different way. Enter failure's not-so-secret lover: creativity. Jaunting back to this very blog post's second paragraph, we find these three sentences: Like most things, on the surface it most certainly seems probable. But no—nope. This, indefinitely, is not the case. There, I was referencing people and the fallacy of single-handed creation, production, innovation, sheer awesomeness, etc. This same fallacy applies to being really good at something (yes, of course there's natural talent). How easy is it to look at someone who has mastered, say, the art of SEO content writing or sock knitting or badminton, and entirely gloss over the fact that it absolutely took nothing less than countless failures and endless collaboration to get there? To get to that unflawed point.  But no—nope. Behind most every pinnacle is an entire sea of glowing missteps and botches. How gorgeous, but still, the how? 

One of THE single greatest things that creativity (and failure) and collaboration and, arguably, CAConrad ASKS us to do, is to be open to the idea of trying things differently every time. To let the experience be different every time. How else might we, might ANYTHING (including all kinds of businesses) ever have a chance at surviving?

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In full collaborative force, I leave you with one last CA sentiment: We are artists and WE ARE USEFUL.