Jeremy Utley: Don't Let Traditional Thinking Hold You Back

Jeremy Utley’s journey to authorship began when he discovered something that was equally rigorous but much more enjoyable than finance consulting. The Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters Co-Author and Adjunct Professor at the renowned Stanford d.school shares how he learned to stop chasing “being the best” and instead pursue his passions. Growing up, Jeremy dabbled in various activities: soccer, acting, music, books, and poetry. Despite what we’d consider more creative pursuits, the traditional notion that work was not created for fun that placed him on a finance career track. Jeremy excelled at his classes, but found he disliked each one more than the next. Still, the idea of excellence–being the best versus doing what was best for him–stayed rooted in his system until a summer job in India. Time and again, he found himself enthralled with the problems the company’s designers were talking about. They pegged Jeremy as an MBA misfit stuck in the wrong career and introduced him to Stanford’s d.school, where creative thinking is unlocked to solve problems. Life is full of unexpected turns. Jeremy’s decision to listen to that little whisper, to explore the d.school, launched him down another path that revealed work can be fun. That epiphany gave Jeremy permission to explore what it means to be creative and ways to create a real-world impact. Tune in for a journey through how we can acknowledge our instincts and trust our creativity. We discuss how there’s no shortage of problems in the world today, but taking the time to explore all ideas could potentially unlock true innovation.