Invest significantly in providing inspiring resources to receive inspiring returns

In the spring of 1818, the English piano makers Broadwood and Sons gifted and sent Beethoven a new grand piano. It had a bigger and stronger tone than previous models and an increased range of notes.

Delivering the piano to Beethoven was expensive, time consuming and arduous. It had to be shipped to Trieste and then carried by mules to Vienna over uneven, energy sapping dirt tracks that traversed jagged, inhospitable mountain passes.

All the effort was worthwhile.

Beethoven took to his new piano immediately, and it inspired him to create one of his greatest piano sonatas: No. 29 in B flat Major, Opus 106 "Hammerklavier".

The message here is simple: if you invest significantly in providing people with inspiring resources, you can receive very inspiring returns.

Cherish magically imaginative mistakes

On first seeing and hearing an orchestra, a child perceived the conductor's baton as a magic wand: a wand that could conjure music from nowhere.

When he realised he was wrong, the child was hugely disappointed.

When the child grew up, however, he found a handheld tool that could conjure music from nowhere: a pen.

The child's name was Moisey Weinberg, and he grew up to become a composer.

Children are open to the wonder of magic, and they make magically imaginative mistakes when trying to understand the world's sounds and sights.

Thankfully, the young Weinberg cherished his childhood memory. He did not dismiss it as naïve, wrong and useless. As a result, a wand conjuring-up music became a catalyst igniting Weinberg's musical creativity.

Moisey Weinberg's magically imaginative mistake struck a chord that reverberated deep within his mind throughout his life, calling him towards the task of composing: of conjuring music from nowhere.

Do not carelessly dismiss naïve and childlike thoughts. Allow them to reverberate in your mind. Recognise that they may be magically imaginative mistakes: mistakes that can give you unique insights; mistakes that can motivate you to achieve new, innovative and worthwhile things.

Recognise that they may be mistakes you should cherish.