Where to get creative ideas

It may sound kind of clichè, but a lot of the things I come up with are from stories about my dad's life. He tells the most interesting stories I have ever heard. I remember in high school people would come over even if I wasn't home just to listen to my dad talk.

He is from a small town called North Jutson, Indiana, but he didn't live there forever. When he was like 16 or 17 he moved out to California to "just do something exciting." He always talks abotu being homeless and living in a church for a while but doing crazy things all night and day, but the real creativity happened when we was in his mid to late 20's. Having an interest in the music business he wanted to being signing bands as their manger and doing road tours. Not having the financial backing for this he new to get talent he'd have to be creative. So he went out and got business cards made with his cell phone number and an address that did not exist (this is the days before map quest). The address was an office building complex next to a bar called The Brown Derby, so since he did not own an office, when people called he said "oh it's hard to find just meet me at the Derby." I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever heard. This is actually how I came to get my last name. My father was born Tom Smith, but he thought that was too boring. He had gotten a job with a real record company (Square Deal Records) and they advised him to change his name. Well that ngiht the DJ he was listening to on the radio was "Dan the man Steele." My dad liked the way it rang and changed his name to Tom Steele. So yes, technically my name should be Savannah Nicole Smith. And I've heard the pun about Anna Nicole Smith, thanks. It is stories like these that really inspired me to want to be creative. My dad always just flew by the cusp and he makes decisions about 15 minutes after hes started doing something. This can be a bit dangerous when he is doing stuff like...painting the grage neon orange but as far as his professional life went it was amazing. He always taught me that people know nothing about you, except what you tell them. His clients never had any idea that he didnt even have a real office and that he would go on tour with them because he had not much else going on. So even if you find yourself completely down and out on your luck, remember people don't have to know it. You don't really have to lie either, simply act the way you want to be perceived and people will follow along. another story was a friend of his, Terry Giles, was a lawyer and when he first started out he wanted to look prestigious and have a large library in his office. He didn't yet have the money for the tons of law books he wanted so he got cardboard and pictures and set them up in his bookshelves (far away from any clients reach) and gave off that appearance.

We may be new students just starting out in the field, but with jsut a little creativity and imagination I'd bet each and every one of us could make someone believe we'd been doing it for 10 years....you jsut have to put your mind to it.