When my colleague sent me this picture last week while he was shopping for Christmas lights, it immediately became my #1 favorite thing of 2016. In part because it made me laugh, and in part because it is such a rich example of what happens when design goes awry.

Money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy you a bump of dopamine. When you buy something you want, your brain produces some pleasurable neurochemicals that actually give you a momentary high.

Recently we ordered three hot chocolates for our three children in one of those places where the barista makes fancy designs in the foam. One of them came out with its milky heart a tad less symmetrical than the others and was delivered by chance into the hands of the youngest child. Shocked and enraged at the injustice, he screamed his head off and drama ensued. Sound familiar?

Maybe it's no coincidence that I am ruminating on ‘soul’ precisely at a time when I am, as I've been telling everyone who will listen, “doing some soul searching.”

Artists created the beautiful fabrics and patterns that were stock in trade for this 19th century Swiss textile producer, but none of it would have happened without the diligent, I daresay loving, work of the bookkeeper - an elegant portrait of the organized mind.

Building iteration into your process is essential for tapping into true creativity – driving innovation, collaboration and meaningful change.

Creativity is the ultimate freedom. But creating something where nothing was before requires a stable base to launch from - a well-developed skill set, a consistent voice, a reliable schedule, a proven market context, a community of supporters.

Lately "design thinking" has become a buzzword, but good designers and thinkers (aka strategists) have been practicing the principals for years.

I have been lucky enough to visit both Sweden and Japan within a span of a few months, two cultures known for unique, high-quality design.

Question everything.

For years Lucian Freud (see: Madness) maintained a conspicuous privacy, fueling the rumors about women and gambling and models, which in the end really had little or nothing to do with his work.

Part of my job is to think up new things. New strategies, new products, new names, new identities.

Barack Obama’s got it. Ronald Reagan had it and so did JFK. George W. Bush, not so much.

Quality. Commitment. Madness and charisma. Reinvention. Mystery.

What’s the old joke about cockroaches and Cher?

Steven Tyler went to high school with my mother. (Literally – they went to the the same high school, at the same time.)

While commitment surely is critical to building something lasting, we should not underestimate the importance of the particular brand of madness that is creative genius. 

If we further explore the artists’ approach, we find other attributes that serve in the quest for longevity. One of these, without a doubt, is commitment.

The diamond people take it to a whole other place, but there really is something to this notion of Fewer Better Things.

A diamond is forever. So in our search for the secret elixir of longevity (think Built To Last, not Fountain of Youth), we may as well start there.