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Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Lessons From Young Lions About The Future Of Creativity
Kirsten Ludwig, Brand Builder, Advisor + Thought Leader | Founder at IN GOOD CO | Podcast Host GOOD THINKING + Lit From Within. I'd never been to Cannes Lions before, but when the invitation to judge the Young Lions competitions landed in my inbox, I said yes immediately. Not for the prestige or the networking, but because Young Lions is where the future lives. What I discovered over those few days wasn't just competition. It was a masterclass in why the next generation will succeed where many of us have failed: They haven't learned to second-guess their instincts yet. Your Setup Should Clear The Path For Creativity Here's what nobody tells you about Young Lions: It's organized chaos at its finest. There were clear briefs, real challenges and a team that radiates genuine excitement about what they're doing. There was no corporate theater and no sanitized exercises—just brilliant minds solving actual problems under impossible deadlines. Walking into that judging room, I was handed an iPad mini with all the work detailed, the judging system, the full day's schedule and a printed brief. It contained everything I needed. They were simple tools, but they felt sacred. It wasn't about fancy technology or overcomplicated systems. It was about using what you actually need and clearing the path so creativity could do what it does best: solve problems that matter. Different Viewpoints Lead To The Best Ideas Our panel was a collision of perspectives: South Africa, Germany, London, Qatar and me from the U.S. There were five different ways of seeing the world, and five different definitions of what makes an idea sing. The magic wasn't in our similarities—it was in how our differences made us better at recognizing brilliance. This is what we've forgotten in our industry: The best decisions happen when worldviews collide. When we stay in our familiar circles, we miss the ideas that could change everything. Believing In Your Ideas Is Contagious Then came the teams. English wasn't the first language for most of them, but here's what I learned: Great ideas transcend language barriers. You could see it in their eyes, feel it in their gestures and hear it in the way their voices lifted when they talked about their solutions. They weren't just giving presentations—they were making declarations. They were declaring that they refuse to accept the status quo and that they're going to solve problems we haven't even figured out how to articulate yet. Watching them present reminded me of something I'd forgotten: The electricity of believing completely in your idea is exactly what makes others believe in it too. The Best Ideas Are Bold And Passionate The real education happened between presentations. We had five judges with five perspectives, all pushing each other to see what we might have missed. There was no polite boardroom collaboration—just the messy, passionate kind that only happens when people genuinely care about getting it right. I realized something during those deliberations: We've become so risk-averse in our industry that we've forgotten what bold actually looks like. Those young creatives reminded me that the ideas worth defending are the ones that make you lean forward in your chair. Vulnerability Is Greater Than Polish The awards ceremony was pure electricity. When the winners were announced, the crowd erupted. But what got me wasn't just the celebration—it was the vulnerability. The tears were real. Joy, disappointment, relief, ambition—all of it mixed together in a cocktail of human emotion that no amount of professional polish could hide. This is what we've lost in our polished culture: the willingness to care so deeply about something that the outcome genuinely matters. To Grow, We Need To Have The Hard Conversations The day after the awards ceremony, most teams did something that floored me: They came back for feedback. They showed up to hear why they didn't win, what they could improve and how to get better next time. They chose learning over protecting their egos, and growth over stagnation. In that moment, I understood why this generation will succeed where many of us have struggled: They haven't learned to avoid the hard conversations yet. They're still hungry enough to ask the questions that sting. What All This Means For The Industry Our industry is at a crossroads. We're facing AI disruption, shifting consumer behaviors, economic uncertainty and questions about relevance that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. The typical response is to hunker down, play it safe and stick with what's worked before. But the future belongs to the bold—the people who trust their instincts instead of overthinking them and the ones who see uncertainty as an opportunity, not a threat. Young creatives aren't just bringing fresh ideas to our industry; they're bringing fresh conviction. They're willing to be wrong in the service of being remarkable. They understand that mediocrity is the real risk. The future of creativity is in brilliant hands, but only if we're smart enough to listen. The Young Lions aren't just tomorrow's creative leaders—they're today's fresh perspective on problems we've been solving the same way for too long. Their willingness to push boundaries reminded me why I fell in love with this industry in the first place. It reminded me of what it was like before the process became more important than the idea, before "best practices" became creative constraints and before we learned to fear the very audacity that makes our work matter. We've become so focused on minimizing creative risk that we've forgotten how to maximize creative reward. These young creatives reminded me that breakthrough ideas feel impossible right up until they become inevitable. A Commitment To Creative Fearlessness Let's all make a commitment to support this level of creative conviction wherever we find it. Let's advocate for the bold ideas in boardrooms where safe usually wins. Let's champion the creative courage of people who believe their impossible idea might just be possible. Because here's what those Young Lions taught me: They're not just the future of our industry—they're the reminder that our industry's future depends on people brave enough to share ideas worth sharing. The Bottom Line The Young Lions winners at Cannes didn't just earn awards. They proved that creative fearlessness isn't just refreshing—it's necessary. The only question is whether the rest of us are ready to match their conviction. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Forbes
25-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Your Best Career Moves Happen In The Discomfort Zone
Kirsten Ludwig, Brand Builder, Advisor + Thought Leader | Founder at IN GOOD CO | Podcast Host GOOD THINKING + Lit From Within. getty I got fired, went through a divorce and lived through a global pandemic that turned everyone's world upside down. If you'd told me 10 years ago that these would become some of the most important experiences of my career, I would have thought you were joking. But here's what I've learned: We've been sold a lie that success means eliminating discomfort from our lives. Every productivity hack, every life optimization strategy and every piece of career advice seems designed to help us avoid the hard stuff, the uncertain stuff and the things that make our stomachs flip. When I look back on everything I'm actually proud of—starting my own company, the brand campaigns that moved the needle and the personal growth that made me who I am—it all happened in the spaces that scared me most. The day I got fired started like any other. Then I had a routine meeting that slowly revealed itself as anything but. During the walk to my car afterward, I tried to process what had just happened to my carefully constructed career plan. The initial response was predictable: panic, shame and the voice insisting this meant I wasn't good enough. But after the shock wore off, something interesting happened: The discomfort of not knowing what came next forced me to confront what I actually wanted, not just what felt safe. The following months of uncertainty—pitching clients from my kitchen table and learning to trust my own judgment without a corporate safety net—revealed capabilities I didn't know I had. The discomfort of starting over became the foundation of everything that mattered afterward. The same pattern shows up in corporate environments: The brand strategies that move the needle aren't the ones that feel comfortable in the boardroom. They're the ones that make executives ask, "Are we sure about this?" I remember one campaign with two options: the safe choice that tested well, or the bold choice that made everyone nervous but felt true to what the brand could become. The safe choice would have been forgotten within a quarter. The bold choice changed how people thought about the entire category. This is the paradox of brand building: The moves that feel risky are often the only ones that create genuine differentiation. Safe brands don't get talked about. They don't move market share in meaningful ways. The brands we remember are built by people willing to be uncomfortable in service of something bigger than quarterly metrics. A Personal Reconstruction Project When the pandemic began in 2020, personal discomfort became unavoidable for most of us. For me, it was compounded by a divorce. Everything I thought was solid suddenly became uncertain. I was tempted to rush back to comfort, to re-create what was familiar. But something about the scale of the disruption made that impossible. There was no going back; I could only go through. So I made a different choice: to sit in the uncertainty longer than felt comfortable. To rebuild intentionally instead of reactively. The result wasn't just recovery—it was discovery. The discomfort of not knowing who I was becoming led to becoming someone I actually liked. The Pattern Behind Everything That Matters Once you start looking, you see it everywhere: All meaningful change requires a period of not knowing. The space between who you were and who you're becoming is inherently uncomfortable. But we've become so comfort-obsessed that we've lost our tolerance for the normal discomfort that comes with anything worthwhile. We interpret chest tightness and the urge to procrastinate as warning signs instead of growth signals. The most successful people haven't eliminated discomfort—they've learned to distinguish between productive discomfort and destructive discomfort. They lean into the uncertainty that comes with meaningful challenges while avoiding genuinely harmful stress. Why Comfort Is Actually The Riskier Choice Your comfort zone isn't protecting you from failure—it's protecting you from the person you could become. While you're avoiding discomfort, the world changes around you. Markets shift, technologies evolve and yesterday's valuable skills become today's table stakes. The real risk isn't taking chances—it's becoming irrelevant while waiting for certainty that never comes. Every day you choose comfort over growth is a day your competitors are choosing differently. The Practical Framework This isn't about chaos seeking. It's about developing intentional discomfort tolerance: • Notice your avoidance patterns. What conversations are you postponing? What projects feel too risky? Your avoidance often points toward your next growth opportunity. • Start small but consistently. Choose one uncomfortable thing per week—the email you're avoiding, the conversation that needs to happen or the creative risk you keep talking yourself out of. • Reframe the sensation. When you feel chest tightness or the urge to procrastinate, recognize it as your growth edge, not a warning sign. Your body is alerting you to significance, not danger. Your Move Look at your calendar this week. Look at your to-do list. How much of your professional life is designed to keep you comfortable? The career moves you'll be proudest of five years from now are probably the ones that feel slightly terrifying today. Your best work, your biggest impact and your most meaningful connections are all waiting for you on the other side of the thing that scares you most. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
