New Zealand Director Taika Waititi gave a short talk about creativity at TedxDoha. While his talk may seem like rambling, his insights into creativity are priceless – if you can find them. Creativity lies in the combination of seemingly unrelated, or never related before, subjects. It also lies in the absurd. The talk is about 18 minutes. Three highlights are below the video.

On Being Creative

“Being creative is about… having fun and looking at life through the lens of a child,” Waititi said at TEDxDoha. People said he needed to stick to one thing, but he didn’t believe that. “In this day and age… you need to have a wide range of tools… I found that film happened to be an amalgam of all the things I was interested in.”

Waititi has worked on paintings, in visual arts, as an actor and screenplay writer. He has also directed films including, “Thor: Ragnarok (affiliate link),” and the upcoming releases “JoJo Rabbit” and “Thor” Love and Thunder.”

On Failure

“Failure is a brilliant thing. It teaches you a lot of stuff, and you end up coming up with better ideas often when you fail at things,” said Waititi at TedxDoha.

On Success

“Success is not money… I think we’re here to communicate and share ideas… That is successful,” said Waititi. “The fact that we’re here, that we’re even on Earth in the first place, I think that’s success in itself.”