As a society, we love setting up false dichotomies. Because really, what’s easier to deal with (and write off) more quickly than good vs. bad, black vs. white, science vs. religion, bacon vs. the vegans? These never serve us well in the end, though, because it turns out everything is murkier and more mixed up than all of that.

Case in point: going corporate or going creative. As if, when you go into business, you turn in your creative card at the security counter. As if, creative are unfit for (and unwelcome in) the corporate world. Really, the opposite is true. Artists in all realms and genres, to be sustainable, need to be their own advocates and entrepreneurs (or have deep-pocketed patrons); and businesses sink without nimble and creative thought informing their decision-making.

Forward-thinkers in the corporate world know this. It hasn’t hurt that half of the big-time tech companies were started by kids, as a wild hare, in their garages. That narrative is compelling and catching. (A few examples here of articles and/or TED talks)

David Whyte takes this whole thing a bit further and says that feeding our creative souls in the work world isn’t just good business, it’s good for our souls – and the souls of our companies. He brings poetry – and poetic ideas – into the corporate space in order to illuminate what really matters.

At this time when there’s an almost hero-worship around hamster-wheel business, what a thought, to re-imagine what we’re doing within ourselves and within the world, and to marry the two. What a thought.

To learn more about or to purchase David’s amazing book, The Heart Aroused, check out his site .