Why "Just Be Creative" Doesn't Work
I read a story recently about a woman who wanted to grow tomatoes like her neighbor.
She had the same type of garden. She planted tomatoes. She watered them and waited. Just like she'd watched her neighbor do for years.
Her neighbor kept bringing over these huge, gorgeous tomatoes. The kind you slice thick for sandwiches. The kind that make you wonder why you ever bought one from a grocery store.
So she waited for hers.
They didn't come.
Some of her tomatoes were small. Some didn't grow at all. She'd done everything the same. What was she missing?
The Thing She Didn't Know
She finally asked her neighbor. Walked over and admitted she'd been trying to copy her success and failing.
The neighbor started showing her what was actually happening. The first thing? The type of tomato matters. Not all tomatoes grow large and luscious. Some varieties are small by design. Some need more sun, different soil, specific spacing.
There were rules. A whole discipline underneath what looked like simple gardening.
The neighbor wasn't just planting and waiting. She was applying years of learned principles. She knew why things worked, not just what to do.
Why Does This Sound So Familiar?
I keep thinking about this story.
How many times have I looked at someone else's creative success and thought I could just... do that? Write a novel. Start a business. Build a system. How hard could it be?
Then I plant my seeds and wait. And wonder why my tomatoes are small.
The Creativity Trap
Here's what I'm realizing.
We often think creativity is enough. That if we're creative, if we have good ideas, we can just make things and they'll turn out.
But every craft has a discipline. Every craft has rules.
Storytelling has structure. Business has principles. Even "simple" things like gardening have centuries of accumulated knowledge underneath them.
The neighbor's tomatoes weren't beautiful because she was more creative. They were beautiful because she understood the rules well enough to work with them.
What Are Rules Actually For?
I used to think rules were boxes. Constraints that limited what you could do.
But what if they're more like soil? The thing that lets creativity actually take root and grow?
A novelist who doesn't understand story structure isn't "free"—they're lost. A musician who doesn't know scales isn't "creative"—they're just making noise. A gardener who doesn't know tomato varieties isn't being bold—they're just hoping.
The rules aren't there to restrict you. They're there to help you produce something wonderful.
The Order Matters
Here's the part I keep getting wrong.
I want to apply creativity first. Jump in. Figure it out as I go. Let inspiration guide me.
But maybe the order is backwards.
Learn the rules first. Understand why things work. Then get creative within that structure.
The neighbor didn't start with creativity. She started with discipline. And now her tomatoes are the ones everyone wants.
Try This
Whatever you're trying to create right now—a book, a business, a system, a garden—ask yourself:
Do I actually know the rules of this craft? Not the surface actions. The underlying principles. The "why" behind the "what."
If not, that might be worth learning before you plant anything else.
What rules have you been skipping that might be worth going back to learn?