“I am addicted to those moments of high-energy and intensity, that moment when the spark comes, when an idea hits” says Kurt. And why? It’s “the franticness of it,” he explains. “Some runners do it to get to that place, but I do it intellectually.”
It’s not enough for Kurt to be making innovations and changes himself in his career. He’s trying to inspire everyone he collaborates with to bring that same level of enthusiasm and ingenuity that are characteristic of his nature.
The space for ideas to grow
In the team room that Kurt designed, for instance, he covered all four walls with whiteboards “so I can write on every square inch.” And why is that important? Because visualizing a challenge helps him start to understand relationships.
“This room is the inside of my brain,” he jokes.
“The essence of design is taking a problem or an issue or a challenge, deconstructing it, looking for interrelationships, and then putting it back together in a new context, a new framing,” he explains.
The moment Kurt figures it all out – when the spark of inspiration hits – is “the height of ecstasy,” he says.
Making a bang professionally
Kurt is a great example of how the entrepreneurial mind uses the same playful, risk-taking, dopaminergic systems as the artist does. He may not be chasing that sound anymore, but he’s still chasing that feeling in his current career.
For instance, Afro-Cuban drumming is a challenging endeavor. It asks a musician to hold two time-signatures in their heads at the same moment, simultaneously subdividing 12 beats into 4 sets of 3s, and 3 sets of 4s, or what they call going against the rhythm. And as Kurt tells it, he could capably handle the challenge.
And after all this time, Kurt is still going against the rhythm, but in the best way possible. He still holds just as many wild ideas in his head as he goes against the grain. Even outside of his whiteboard room, he’s doing everything he can to be surrounded by ideas, and that includes encouraging everyone around him to be just as creative as he is – provided they can keep up.
How does Kurt get his career high? Here’s his top 5 tips for success:
