As creative people, validation is important to us. We want our work to be noticed and recognized. When someone hires us, commissions or buys our work, or chooses to publish us, we feel we've gotten the stamp of approval from "them." And certainly, for most of us, our creativity is, at least in part, about connecting with others, not just creating in a vacuum.

One of the greatest deterrents to creativity is the inner voice that constantly whispers in our ear that we're not good enough, that nobody will approve of what we're doing, and that they don't really like us anyway.

It has become clear to us that much of our genius is squashed at an early age. School curriculums are standardized in the interest of conformity and control and rarely address diverse talents and learning styles. If you perform outside the expected norms, there is no context for your creativity, and it will often be suppressed as an undesirable deviation, rather than encouraged as unique and noteworthy.