NPR interviewed Wilbur Ross this morning, in which he revealed that he had tried to be a creative writer in his student days. I found really interesting his answer to the question of what he had found useful from his creative writing training, however short-lived that was, to his work today as he takes over and revived failed companies. His answer was not ideation or any such thing, but “analytical skills” (!) When you have 1000 words to write a piece in, he said, you have to “organize your thought processes, organize your questions, and think through what your observations were.” He went on to say how these abilities are useful in any kind of activity that calls for analytical abilities, and especially in his work in the private equity space.

I won’t belabor how this fits the ISmarts-framework…..