"We can always find creative ways to do things"
About this Quote
In the mouth of a sports agent-turned-business rainmaker like Leigh Steinberg, “We can always find creative ways to do things” reads less like a poster on a dorm wall and more like a philosophy of leverage. The line isn’t praising creativity as art; it’s treating creativity as a tool for navigating constraints: salary caps, contract language, brand optics, league politics, deadlines, egos. “Always” is the tell. It’s not a dreamy promise; it’s a posture of confidence meant to calm clients and unsettle opponents. If the system says no, the operator says: watch me reframe the question.
The subtext is a quiet endorsement of workaround culture. In high-stakes industries, “creative” can mean ingenious problem-solving, but it can also mean exploiting loopholes, redefining incentives, and making reality conform to a narrative that sells. Steinberg’s world runs on story as much as on numbers: you’re not just negotiating terms, you’re negotiating perception. Creativity becomes the ability to redraw the map so a compromise looks like a win, or to invent a third option when two sides are stuck posturing.
Context matters because the quote carries the optimism of entrepreneurial America, where bureaucracy is the villain and ingenuity is the hero. It flatters the listener into believing barriers are merely unexamined assumptions. At the same time, it hints at the moral ambiguity of “creative solutions”: the same ingenuity that builds opportunity can also justify bending rules until they squeal. That tension is precisely why the line works. It’s a pep talk and a wink, a promise of possibility with an implicit question: creative for whom, and at what cost?
The subtext is a quiet endorsement of workaround culture. In high-stakes industries, “creative” can mean ingenious problem-solving, but it can also mean exploiting loopholes, redefining incentives, and making reality conform to a narrative that sells. Steinberg’s world runs on story as much as on numbers: you’re not just negotiating terms, you’re negotiating perception. Creativity becomes the ability to redraw the map so a compromise looks like a win, or to invent a third option when two sides are stuck posturing.
Context matters because the quote carries the optimism of entrepreneurial America, where bureaucracy is the villain and ingenuity is the hero. It flatters the listener into believing barriers are merely unexamined assumptions. At the same time, it hints at the moral ambiguity of “creative solutions”: the same ingenuity that builds opportunity can also justify bending rules until they squeal. That tension is precisely why the line works. It’s a pep talk and a wink, a promise of possibility with an implicit question: creative for whom, and at what cost?
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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