Creativity Quote by Richard Thompson

In a culture that sells personality by the pallet, Richard Thompson’s line lands like a quiet refusal to be productized. “The best thing you’ve got going for you is individuality” isn’t a self-esteem poster; it’s a survival tip from a working musician who’s watched waves of trends swallow careers whole. Thompson came up in the British folk-rock world where authenticity is both badge and battleground, and he’s spent decades resisting easy branding: too sharp to be retro cosplay, too rooted to chase whatever’s streaming-friendly this week.

The sentence is slyly pragmatic. “Best thing…going for you” sounds like a manager’s assessment, not a guru’s blessing. That phrasing admits the harsh arithmetic of the arts: you will be compared, commodified, and ranked. In that marketplace, individuality isn’t a noble ideal; it’s your only durable differentiator. Not “talent,” not “hustle,” not even “originality” in the grand, mythic sense - but the stubborn, specific set of choices only you would make: your phrasing, your odd influences, your refusal to sand off the edges.

There’s subtext here for anyone living online, too. Platforms reward legibility: the quickly explained aesthetic, the easily summarized identity. Thompson’s point needles that pressure. Individuality is harder to monetize, harder to market, and harder to maintain, which is precisely why it’s valuable. The line carries a musician’s warning: if you don’t protect your particularity, someone else will gladly replace it with a version that performs better.