Meet David C. Baker

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David C. Baker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David C., thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I maintain a wholly separate work and personal life. I expect my work life to afford the money to invest in hobbies, and I expect to keep a fence around my time commitments at work so that they do not interfere. When there’s insufficient time or money to pursue my loves outside work, it pisses me off. And in choosing different forms of leisure, they must be totally consuming so that I do NOT think about work. The two that I’ve always done, since a little boy, are motorcycles and photography. I’ve ridden and taken pictures all over the world, and taught motorcycle racing for a time. The other things I enjoy are flying (airplanes and helicopters), woodworking, and long-distance shooting sports. Each of these is a deep hole, and when I’m exploring these things, I get totally lost. And because they are totally unrelated to my work, they give me some perspective and context.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
David C. Baker is an author, speaker, and advisor to entrepreneurial creatives worldwide. He has written 6 books, advised 1,000+ firms, and keynoted conferences in 30+ countries. His work has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, USA Today, BusinessWeek, CBS News, Newsweek, and Inc. Magazine. He lives in Nashville, TN. His two most recent books are at http://www.expertise.is and https://www.tradecraft.is His work has also been featured in the NY Times, where he was referred to as the expert’s expert. He co-hosts the most listened to podcast in the creative services field (2Bobs).

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The first is discipline. I’ve always felt like discipline overcomes most other deficiencies. If you make even a few things happen, and happen well, you can be forgiven for other faults (intelligence, judgment, etc.). I learned this from both of my parents.

The second is aptitude for risk, coupled with a bias toward action. I have learned that success comes from making a lot of decisions, even if a few of them are wrong. In the end, you’ll be far more effective if you just “do” things.

The third is curiosity. I can sit for hours in a waiting room or in traffic, just watching people. Or see if I can notice two dozen things about the entrance to a building or what things are featured in someone’s office or what a speech covers and doesn’t cover. Curiosity is an endless journey.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
This sounds trite, I know, but the Bible has been very impactful to me. I spent 5 years in grad school studying Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, and Spanish, and reading ancient texts in those languages made me feel like I was there. It helped me see that people, over the millenia, are large the same. There’s much we can learn from those texts and that form of history.

One of the most impactful statements that I keep coming back to is this phrase: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” What that means to me is that we must move forward even before we are certain about things. For example, it seems ludicrous to me that this world arose by some big cosmic accident. But it also seems ludicrous that God, if there even is one, would be largely silent in a traditional sense. This tension keeps me humble and hungry. There’s still a lot that I don’t know, but I can’t be paralyzed into inaction.

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