Lorne Michaels on if we’re in the right room

People filed back into the room. It was March 2012, and everyone sat back down and opened their minds up, ready to sponge up everything the next speaker tried to say. He looked like Jack Nicholson. He wore a black sweater and jeans. He nudged his glasses back up and the lights dimmed. Everything he said struck a chord. It had been a rough couple of months, and hearing sound advice from a complete stranger (at that point) was what I needed to hear. Eric Baker is a designer, but he didn't really give me or anyone that much design advice. That’s not why he was there. He came so he could light a fire under everyone’s ass, and have them flip their thinking completely. He curated the entire list of speakers who spoke at Creative Summit, and each one, like him, were humble and brutally honest. He said a lot of great things, and he also quoted Lorne Michaels, of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock fame. That quote stuck with me, so I went home, and looked up the podcast episode that it originated from. Here’s that episode, an episode of Michaels being interviewed by Alec Baldwin on WNYC’s Here’s the Thing.

If you look around the room and you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room.