Sean McDermott Quotes

It's always the organizations that are resource constrained that come up with the good ideas to win.

I always make sure I hire people smarter than me.

Whether that's in communications or marketing or strategy, you need people to come in with a fresh perspective.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

I pride myself on being able to create mismatches. That's what I've done my whole life.

We hire people who are smarter than us.

Good problem-seekers are in higher demand than good problem-solvers.

I often try to think about, What sounds like a bad idea, but if you find the right plan of attack, it's actually a really good idea? I spend a lot of time really trying to systematically tackle problems from different angles.

I actually work better within restrictions. When you leave everything wide open, things tend to get a little convoluted. So when you give me those restrictions and I start to use my brain creatively to work around those, that's when things get interesting.

The path to success isn't through my lizard brain, it's through high quality collaboration and making good stuff and understanding difficult situations fully enough to come up with good (or even great) solutions quickly.

Artists and scientists both think outside the box. They've got to come with genius experiments or ideas to expose the most interesting phenomena.

My imagination ran 24/7, and to me, every problem was a challenge to solve and new product to create. It wasn't until I started teaching that I realized that not everyone's head worked the same way.

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I often see people who I think could be really successful in business but they just don't realise they have the skills and they don't believe in themselves.

I just like having creative solutions to tricky situations.

After spending time around Donald Trump I find myself inspired by his vision, thought process, keen insight, and overall discipline. He's a brilliant thinker who tends to walk several steps ahead of the masses. I want to share his wisdom with the world in my own way.

At 'Vogue,' I was responsible for a lot of production work, and production work is highly detailed, and you have to be very resourceful to fit a square peg into a round hole. I learned to push the envelope when it comes to asking questions or making requests.

I left the Army in 2000 and went into industry before I started appearing on TV in 2003. My best job there was on a series called 'Crafty Tricks Of War' for the BBC. I loved that because it celebrated how clever and inventive people are and the ingenuity that goes into solving problems.

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

There are many really stupid ideas that wind up being brilliant, if you can implement them.

Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem.

Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention.

Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.

Intelligent people need a fool to lead them. When the team's all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way. His way of thinking is different. It's easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives.

Confidence in the human capacity for problem solving, for invention, for innovation.