Fast Company - June 2011

fear, fun,
and creative risk

The gee whiz diner is not, by all appearances, a hotbed of creativity. It is a standard New York City greasy spoon a few blocks from the Fast Company offices.

Yet it was there, over corned-beef hash and eggs, that we cooked up the idea for this issue’s cover gatefold of Conan O’Brien.

Creativity often arises in
unexpected places. NBC, certainly,
on our annual list of the 100 Most
Creative People in Business. As
senior writer Chuck Salter shows
on page 84, Conan’s creative
process is both high pressure and
messy. And that’s why it works.

has shown at Alcatel-Lucent, and at indie shops, as Laura Ching (No. 60) proves at Tiny Prints.

2. Creativity can solve problems that seem insurmountable. The hand-wringing over America’s embattled education system didn’t deter Sal Khan (No. 7) from creating an online video “academy” that has had 50 million views on You Tube alone. Giovanni Colella (No. 57) found a way around a barrier to affordable health care by building a portal that allows comparison-shopping for doctors. Google’s Sebastian Thrun (No. 5) is using robotics to envision a future of safer driving with cars that actually drive themselves.

3. There is a limitless supply of creativity. We set one rule when generating this list each year: No repeats from past years, no repeats of people previously profiled in Fast Company. Yet despite that, we discovered hundreds of inspiring candidates— from Reshma Shetty (No. 20), who is using synthetic biology to create fuel out of carbon dioxide, to Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu (No. 61), who is educating impoverished Nigerian farmers via radio broadcasts.

4. Creativity implies reinvention.

Conan isn’t the only honoree who has redefined himself. So have Arianna Huffington (No. 10); Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (No. 29); and Brazilian fashion designer Oskar Metsavaht (No. 73), who found inspiration for a new clothing line in the ashes of his burned-out Rio headquarters.

We hope you find inspiration in the pages that follow and in our digital editions, which offer more insight into these 100 individuals’ creative processes.

Conan O’Brien and Fast Company’s cover-shoot team, including creative director Florian Bachleda (with tablets) and photo director Leslie dela Vega (with monkey)