Are we done grieving...time to be more creative

On May 29, 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.
Fifty-six years later America's struggle to climb out of the economic downturn makes Mount Everest look like a mound of dirt. But let's not focus on the negatives. There is nothing I could write here about the economy, about the debate on government intervention, about lost jobs, or pay cuts that you haven't already read or heard somewhere else.
My focus this past month was on reading. I wanted to be inspired by stories of people accomplishing things rather than reading about how we have less money and how we can't do as much. I had two favorites this past month. The book Do Less, Achieve More by Ching-Ning Chu and the June 2009 issue of Fast Company Magazine.
My article in this newsletter is a synopsis of Chu's book, I hope you find it valuable even if it's just a mild reminder of all the things we should be doing anyway. From Fast Company, here are a few brief descriptions of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People:

#1 - Jonanthan Ive, Senior VP of Industrial Design at Apple (of course). Ive defined his overarching design principles as "simplicity, accesability, honesty, and enjoyment."
#14 - J.J. Abrams, Founder, Bad Robot Productions. Director of Lost, Alias, and Star Trek. Need we say more.
#43 - Neri Oxman, Presidential Fellow, MIT Media Lab - She is into biomimicry. She is not trying to make a copy of a natural form she is trying to mimic the process nature uses to create something. "We're playing God a little bit," Oxman says.
#47 - A.R. Rahman, Composer - he has reshaped Indian pop music by adding influences from jazz, reggae, and Western classical music. "Jai Ho" (Slumdog Millionaire) was downloaded 100,000 times on iTunes.

You can read more detail about these and the other 96 most creative people at Fast Company's Site.

Sincerely,
Farida Hasanali