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Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others
Most of us think that outstanding success derives only from groundbreaking innovation. But we're wrong. In fact, many of the most successful business ideas of our time have come about when someone has borrowed and adapted an idea from somewhere else.In Borrowing Brilliance , David Kord Murray explains exactly how you can do the same. He demonstrates conclusively that new business ideas are simply combinations of existing ideas, and then sets out to show how you can solve current problems and create new opportunities by learning where to look for ideas and answers. In the process, he takes you through a simple six-step programme that will help you not only create the right mindset to innovate, but test the ideas you come up with, and implement them successfully. His reassuring message throughout is that since brilliance can be borrowed, it lies within the reach of us all.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
39 people are currently reading
817 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 21, 2019
A nice book describing the creative process as an enlightened copying process. The book struck me as very real. The author wrote this in a very conversational way, which I found in turns engaging and off-putting. There are quite a few good examples included, though many are familiar to people that have read popular business books and magazines. There were times when the facts as presented didn’t quite seem true. Good for putting the reader in the mindset of being creative and using a creative process that includes starting from existing material from others.
May 5, 2018
Finally! A useful book on the elusive topic of creativity with thoughts shared one can actually use. In addition, the author's personal stories of successes and failures in business and personal life are very enlightening and at times amusing. Whether a reader struggles with creativity or is a highly creative person, everyone can take useful ideas out of this read and apply them to their craft. A core topic Mr. Murray talks about is how taking ideas from others within your industry or closely related area is perceived as thievery aka plagiarism while taking ideas from more unrelated industries is called creative genius. This fact in and of itself is nonsensical and comical as the action is the exact same thing. The other core message relates to something also Albert Einstein has talked about when he said that creativity is essentially 'combinatory play'. Something new always has to come from something else. So, in essence, most if not all 'new' ideas are really just new combinations of already existing ones. The author puts some method to the madness by providing a step by step process for finding and then (re)combining materials to help the reader produce a problem-solving idea.
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February 2, 2014The first book I have read about creativity that wasn't total crap.
Let's face it, creativity is a hard thing to write about. Most books are either so general that you don't know how to apply them, or they are full of the same trite instructions (like not being judgmental when brainstorming) which, even if they are good advice, are unlikely to actually lead to creative breakthroughs.
This book is from someone who has really thought deeply about creativity, and has applied his insights in building a concrete system which will lead you off the beaten path.
The best of the book is in the first half when the author talks about problem definition and borrowing solutions. The second half of the book veers closer to the usual fare (i.e. listen to your subconscious) but this book is still a great read and a real set of instructions for being creative. His approach is not easy, and takes a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it.
Let's face it, creativity is a hard thing to write about. Most books are either so general that you don't know how to apply them, or they are full of the same trite instructions (like not being judgmental when brainstorming) which, even if they are good advice, are unlikely to actually lead to creative breakthroughs.
This book is from someone who has really thought deeply about creativity, and has applied his insights in building a concrete system which will lead you off the beaten path.
The best of the book is in the first half when the author talks about problem definition and borrowing solutions. The second half of the book veers closer to the usual fare (i.e. listen to your subconscious) but this book is still a great read and a real set of instructions for being creative. His approach is not easy, and takes a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it.
March 11, 2011
Had a love/hate relationship with this one. If you can get over the guy's ego and constant self-aggrandizement, mingled with attempts at mitigating arrogance through the occasional self deprecating admission, I really liked and buy into the premise.
February 21, 2010
solid book on thinking about thinking and creativity
defends plagiarism that results in improvements to the original idea
defends plagiarism that results in improvements to the original idea
July 10, 2019
Is it OK to take someone else’s idea and use it to solve your own problem? David Kord Murray says it’s not only OK, he says it’s critical to any achievement. The main point of his book is that it is quite natural to borrow inspiration from others. As a matter of fact, if you look closely, you can see that borrowing happens all the time.
If you think Murray is nothing but someone who’s just skilled at copy-and-paste type jobs, think again. He’s quite accomplished in his own right. He:
Built a company that became worth $50M
Worked on some early engineering specifications for the International Space Station
Spearheaded Intuit’s first TV and Internet marketing campaigns
Launched an internet startup that H&R Block bought.
One great innovator Murray cites is Isaac Newton, who said, “if I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Another scientist he draws from is Einstein, who said, “the secret to good creativity is hiding your sources.” This kind of borrowing is so common in science, people like James Burke have made a career of tracing the Connections. George Lucas, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino are the best examples of directors whose movies borrow from other people’s movies.
Solution Depends on How the Problem is Framed
He stresses how the way we solve a problem has a lot to do with how we frame the problem. he gave the example of automotive engineers tasked with developing a solution to the problem of lost keys. The engineer who frames the problem narrowly will think of ways to put a fob on a key ring that chirps when needed, using solutions that weigh down the keys or make them obtrusive so they’re not lost. All of these, of course, are solutions that presume that a physical key needs to go in a physical door lock on the car. The engineer who frames the problem as securing a vehicle while allowing its owner to get in, will ask why keys are needed at all. This engineer is able to come up with a keyless entry locks that rely only on the owner remembering a code. This is truly an innovative solution, yet it’s easy to come up with this solution once you frame the problem properly.
The central thrust of the book is his six step process for how you can come up with creative solutions, by borrowing from the creativity of others. Here is a quick summary of his six steps for borrowing brilliance:
1 Defining – How you define a problem will determine how you solve it.
2 Borrowing – Look close, then far away from your field to see how others solve similar problems
3 Combining – Connect borrowed ideas in different ways to see how they can fit your situation.
4 Incubating – Give your ‘gut’ time to think about creative ways to use the solution.
5 Judging – Turn a spotlight on the idea, looking positively at it as well as negative criticism.
6 Redo – Go through this process over again to germinate or further refine an idea.
An Ironically Original Book
The main distinction this book makes is between borrowing and outright plagiarism. You don’t have to feel guilty for gleaning ideas and perspectives from other places. Murray reinforced my belief that there are many ways that disciplines are connected to each other. I refer you to the novelist Tom Robbins, who’s quoted as saying,”Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them.”
Murray’s own up and down in the business world are woven into the book. In between his business successes, he dealt with alcoholism, divorce as well as the ego-bruising experience of pushing a company into bankruptcy. This injects some humanity and realism, as personal crises predicated some of Murray’s best ‘borrowings’ – necessity is the mother of invention.
What did this book do for me? It cemented my belief that ideas cross-pollinate. That has long been my justification for trying to be as well-rounded as possible, since the thinking that I do in one area can my thinking in all other areas of my life.
If you think Murray is nothing but someone who’s just skilled at copy-and-paste type jobs, think again. He’s quite accomplished in his own right. He:
Built a company that became worth $50M
Worked on some early engineering specifications for the International Space Station
Spearheaded Intuit’s first TV and Internet marketing campaigns
Launched an internet startup that H&R Block bought.
One great innovator Murray cites is Isaac Newton, who said, “if I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Another scientist he draws from is Einstein, who said, “the secret to good creativity is hiding your sources.” This kind of borrowing is so common in science, people like James Burke have made a career of tracing the Connections. George Lucas, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino are the best examples of directors whose movies borrow from other people’s movies.
Solution Depends on How the Problem is Framed
He stresses how the way we solve a problem has a lot to do with how we frame the problem. he gave the example of automotive engineers tasked with developing a solution to the problem of lost keys. The engineer who frames the problem narrowly will think of ways to put a fob on a key ring that chirps when needed, using solutions that weigh down the keys or make them obtrusive so they’re not lost. All of these, of course, are solutions that presume that a physical key needs to go in a physical door lock on the car. The engineer who frames the problem as securing a vehicle while allowing its owner to get in, will ask why keys are needed at all. This engineer is able to come up with a keyless entry locks that rely only on the owner remembering a code. This is truly an innovative solution, yet it’s easy to come up with this solution once you frame the problem properly.
The central thrust of the book is his six step process for how you can come up with creative solutions, by borrowing from the creativity of others. Here is a quick summary of his six steps for borrowing brilliance:
1 Defining – How you define a problem will determine how you solve it.
2 Borrowing – Look close, then far away from your field to see how others solve similar problems
3 Combining – Connect borrowed ideas in different ways to see how they can fit your situation.
4 Incubating – Give your ‘gut’ time to think about creative ways to use the solution.
5 Judging – Turn a spotlight on the idea, looking positively at it as well as negative criticism.
6 Redo – Go through this process over again to germinate or further refine an idea.
An Ironically Original Book
The main distinction this book makes is between borrowing and outright plagiarism. You don’t have to feel guilty for gleaning ideas and perspectives from other places. Murray reinforced my belief that there are many ways that disciplines are connected to each other. I refer you to the novelist Tom Robbins, who’s quoted as saying,”Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them.”
Murray’s own up and down in the business world are woven into the book. In between his business successes, he dealt with alcoholism, divorce as well as the ego-bruising experience of pushing a company into bankruptcy. This injects some humanity and realism, as personal crises predicated some of Murray’s best ‘borrowings’ – necessity is the mother of invention.
What did this book do for me? It cemented my belief that ideas cross-pollinate. That has long been my justification for trying to be as well-rounded as possible, since the thinking that I do in one area can my thinking in all other areas of my life.
June 1, 2025
I mean we can simply this book as GIGO - GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT.
But the author provides a framework of explicitly triggering CREATIVITY - for the non CREATIVE PEOPLE LIKE ME.
For most of the people creativity does not happen implicitly, NEVER COMPETE WITH GENIUS, is something that i have realized too early in my life.
I kind of arrived at this technique on my own, quite early.
The six step process is quite simple.
Defining: Clearly state the problem you are trying to solve.
Borrowing: Look for solutions to similar problems in other industries, competitors, or even nature.
Combining: Connect and mix borrowed ideas to create new combinations.
Incubating: Allow the combined ideas to "incubate" in your mind, giving them time to develop and refine into a solution.
Judging: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the resulting solution.
Enhancing: Eliminate weaknesses and amplify the strengths of the solution.
I think I actually follow this innovation framework while writing new articles or writing code or designing or developing new products.
But putting an explicit framework around it helps, but the author failed to mention a very very very important thing.
This kind of approach to innovation takes a very very very long time.
This explicit innovation requires often decades of hard work. Implicit creativity i.e. genius creativity where in the mind takes care of all these complicated activities without even our consciuos being aware of it is more powerful and more original and super fast.
A bird does not use a framework to fly, it just flies, like the creative geniuses, but an aeronautical engineer must work his entire life and understand all the frameworks to actually build a flying machine and then fly.
This in essense is what this book is about.
But at this point, it is quite obvious to me, so did not really feel like a great revelation. It is common sense at this point.
But the author provides a framework of explicitly triggering CREATIVITY - for the non CREATIVE PEOPLE LIKE ME.
For most of the people creativity does not happen implicitly, NEVER COMPETE WITH GENIUS, is something that i have realized too early in my life.
I kind of arrived at this technique on my own, quite early.
The six step process is quite simple.
Defining: Clearly state the problem you are trying to solve.
Borrowing: Look for solutions to similar problems in other industries, competitors, or even nature.
Combining: Connect and mix borrowed ideas to create new combinations.
Incubating: Allow the combined ideas to "incubate" in your mind, giving them time to develop and refine into a solution.
Judging: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the resulting solution.
Enhancing: Eliminate weaknesses and amplify the strengths of the solution.
I think I actually follow this innovation framework while writing new articles or writing code or designing or developing new products.
But putting an explicit framework around it helps, but the author failed to mention a very very very important thing.
This kind of approach to innovation takes a very very very long time.
This explicit innovation requires often decades of hard work. Implicit creativity i.e. genius creativity where in the mind takes care of all these complicated activities without even our consciuos being aware of it is more powerful and more original and super fast.
A bird does not use a framework to fly, it just flies, like the creative geniuses, but an aeronautical engineer must work his entire life and understand all the frameworks to actually build a flying machine and then fly.
This in essense is what this book is about.
But at this point, it is quite obvious to me, so did not really feel like a great revelation. It is common sense at this point.
January 28, 2018
Valuable read. For the overall process I liked the Creative Thinker's toolkit better for a more structured approach and is much more research based but this was a great read immediately following that and delved much deeper into the concept of borrowing brilliance, a ticklish issue that he handled, well, brilliantly. I also thought the bits on clarifying the process and the other stuff if the first half was really good. Second half had valuable pieces in it as well but not quite as involving as the first.
February 22, 2022
💡 Borrowing Brilliance, 6/20, 3:40 hours, 5 pages of notes
An amazing book on idea generation with references to many classic thinkers such as Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein, Voltaire, etc. and how they describe their ideas in different ways as stolen. The book codifies the creative process in contrast to our modern ideas that creativity is ingrained and original. Define your problem, look at what others have done, borrow, combine, judge, and enhance their ideas!
An amazing book on idea generation with references to many classic thinkers such as Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein, Voltaire, etc. and how they describe their ideas in different ways as stolen. The book codifies the creative process in contrast to our modern ideas that creativity is ingrained and original. Define your problem, look at what others have done, borrow, combine, judge, and enhance their ideas!
August 22, 2018
If you steal from one author it's plagiarism, if you steal from many, it's research. #WilsonMizner
Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal #TSEliot
#Einstein The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution.
Einstein said, the secret to creativity is to hide your sources.
Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal #TSEliot
#Einstein The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution.
Einstein said, the secret to creativity is to hide your sources.
December 8, 2018
An impactful book elaborating on six sequential steps that enable you to structure a creative and innovative solution through the use of ‘borrowed brilliance’. With examples drawn on from history it becomes evident that success doesn’t only originate from pure innovation but can be the fusion of two contradicting ideas. Overall a great read that is enlightening and highly motivating.
November 11, 2019
A bit polarising - terrific descriptions of geniuses throughout history but then David continuously gives relatively mundane examples of why he is comparable to the likes of Einstein, Darwin and Newton.
Still, lots to love in this book especially for one who has a mild amount of skepticism for the 'keep the judgement at the door' approach with a lot of innovation.
Still, lots to love in this book especially for one who has a mild amount of skepticism for the 'keep the judgement at the door' approach with a lot of innovation.
December 25, 2025
Borrowing Brilliance is a reminder that great ideas don’t appear out of nowhere, but actually they’re built by remixing what already exists.
Murray lays out a simple process that makes creativity feel practical instead of mystical.
Quick read, useful mindset.
Murray lays out a simple process that makes creativity feel practical instead of mystical.
Quick read, useful mindset.
June 26, 2017
Great book on creativity
December 26, 2017
Good for selective reading. Can skip reading thru the elaborate explanations and go to next idea.
April 13, 2020
David is brilliant. Read this book once, and have never forgotten the lessons taught. Read this book!
November 24, 2021
This is a great book to read when you are struggling with creativity or if you should pull the trigger on a new idea. It isn’t just about borrowing brilliance it is also about overcoming failure.
Realizing there are few new great ideas is key. Everything takes from another in some way. So using the model outlined to take a good idea to a great one is going to pay off in spades!
Highly recommend this book, you will enjoy the ideas, stories and lessons learned.
Six steps to creativity:
Define
Borrowing
Combining
Incubate
Judging
Enhancing
This is just a peak, you have to read to truly understand how you use them.
Realizing there are few new great ideas is key. Everything takes from another in some way. So using the model outlined to take a good idea to a great one is going to pay off in spades!
Highly recommend this book, you will enjoy the ideas, stories and lessons learned.
Six steps to creativity:
Define
Borrowing
Combining
Incubate
Judging
Enhancing
This is just a peak, you have to read to truly understand how you use them.
March 3, 2017
Nice structure on an inherently messy and seemingly unstructured thing called "creativity". Made me think about times that I've been successful and unsuccessful at finding creative solutions - and why. Also has a nice recommended reading list at the end.
Tough to read cover to cover, though. Most of his examples are from Google, Apple or Star Wars. It gets tiresome reading about what a creative genius Steve Jobs is. Second, there will be a few things that he argues that you either already agree with or already do. (ie. It's good to have someone serve as a 'devil's advocate' when judging an idea.) Unfortunately, he'll go on for several pages trying to convince you that he's right. I did a lot of skipping ahead.
Tough to read cover to cover, though. Most of his examples are from Google, Apple or Star Wars. It gets tiresome reading about what a creative genius Steve Jobs is. Second, there will be a few things that he argues that you either already agree with or already do. (ie. It's good to have someone serve as a 'devil's advocate' when judging an idea.) Unfortunately, he'll go on for several pages trying to convince you that he's right. I did a lot of skipping ahead.
November 19, 2015
Captivating narration and the author really gets the message across, perhaps too much so, as at some points the main message (ideas are born from other ideas) grows somewhat repetitive. I liked how the book interweaves author's personal story into this book, but I wish he devoted more to specific examples of how ideas were born, perhaps from his personal business experience and not so much to step by step instruction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2019
-One of the most impactful books I've ever read. A must read for any entrepreneur and individual developing products.
-Murray teaches an easy to understand framework for being highly creative. A concept many people view as more of an "art" than a science.
-If you are a fan of companies like Ideo, this is the book that breaks down how they think in a much more practical manner.
-Murray teaches an easy to understand framework for being highly creative. A concept many people view as more of an "art" than a science.
-If you are a fan of companies like Ideo, this is the book that breaks down how they think in a much more practical manner.
Read
April 4, 2016This is a great book on Innovation and creativity. It offers sequential steps to creativity.It is also an entertaining book with examples as to how others have done it. You willll want too read it and go back and take notes. This is a must have for creativity and one you will find useful if you want to create and innovate.
June 2, 2016
Um problema é a fundação para uma idéia criativa. Deve-se gastar tempo na determinação do problema.
Como encontrar? Atribuição de tarefas e observação que é o ato de estudar o surgimento e a destruição de padrões.
Quais os problemas que criou resolvendo este?
Estudo de concorrente de maior sucesso e depois faça o oposto
Como encontrar? Atribuição de tarefas e observação que é o ato de estudar o surgimento e a destruição de padrões.
Quais os problemas que criou resolvendo este?
Estudo de concorrente de maior sucesso e depois faça o oposto
January 9, 2015
Borrow from a competitor and you're a pirate, borrow from someone of a different market but similar industry and your innovative and borrow from somewhere or someone unrelated and you're a creative genius! Also, good ideas on the brainstorming process
November 28, 2009
Book had some excellent concrete steps for non-creatives to take to get in the creative groove. Got a little weary of the evolution metaphor, but other than that, the book was a decent read
September 4, 2010
What I learnt from tis book is that there are no original ideas. All ideas are based on ideas that already exist. A well thought out book.Really enjoyed reading it.
August 10, 2011
simple, ok, not earth shattering yet but a good guide to creative principles.
wish-list
July 6, 2011recommended read by hbr.org
July 29, 2011
Interesting read - applies a principle I learned in the arts to business - great artists steal. :)
April 16, 2013
Am learning how to be successful by looking at others' blue prints. Worth every seconds of your day to read this book till the end.
July 20, 2015
Love it. Sets a framework for creativity.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews