YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Jean Cocteau

For today's Daily Insight, let's turn to jack of all trades (as in: filmmaker, poet, playwright and novelist), Jean Cocteau:

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like--then cultivate it.  That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. 

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Anonymous

No, we don't know who originally mouthed today's dead-on Daily Insight. What we do know is that for anyone out there brave enough to start their own business, this one's for you:

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: William Butler Yeats

Not surprisingly, famed playwrights always seem to have important things to tell us. Today we heed the words of yet another; Mr. William Butler Yeats (or "W.B." for those that were tight with him):

Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Jim Rohn

Sure, he can technically be filed under 'Motivational Speaker'--but Jim Rohn is arguably one of the most frequently consulted sources for young entrepreneurs.

And it so happens he occasionally speaks our language:

Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Vidal Sassoon

That's right, we're instructing you to revolve your day (and ideally, your life) around a quote from hair care titan, Vidal Sassoon. Why? Because it's funny, clever and 100% true. (For those that didn't know, Mr. Sassoon came from extremely impoverished beginnings--you might say he didn't exactly let that stop him.):

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Seth Godin

We had a feeling when we first started giving you Your Daily Insight that we'd be revisiting the mind of marketing master Seth Godin.

Looks like we know ourselves too well.  All you creators and innovators out there, permanently store this one in the front of your brain:

Here's the truth you have to wrestle with: The reason that art—writing, engaging, leading, all of it—is valuable is precisely why I can't tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. 

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Margaret Wheatley

Some may know Margaret Wheatley from her best-selling books on everything from chaos theory to effective leadership.

Either way, start your week off with one of her many insights and then apply it to your daily life (though if you've got an old-fashioned thinker of a boss, careful when sharing this with them):

The things we fear most in organizations—fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances—are the primary sources of creativity.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Albert Einstein

Truthfully, we've considered just devoting the entire Daily Insight feature to Mr. Theory of Relativity, so don't be surprised if he pops up on the weekly.

Let's wrap up the week with one from the king himself, Albert Einstein:

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Helmut Jahn

Today, we get schooled by someone who's work you've probably stood inside; world-renowned architect Helmut Jahn:

Creativity has more to do with the elimination of the inessential than with inventing something new.

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Tom Robbins

This morning, we took every one of author Tom Robbins' most incendiary (and essential) insights, wrote them down on little pieces of paper, crumpled 'em up and threw them in one of those Powerball machines.

Out came this:

Have you risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous about risking one's life. So you lose it, you go to your hero's heaven and everything is milk and honey 'til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That's not courage. Real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's clichés.