It’s perhaps a gross understatement to assert that multihyphenate Lin-Manuel Miranda knows a thing or two about leadership. This is the man who got people on board with his crazy idea to create a hip-hop musical about lesser-known founding father Alexander Hamilton.
The risk paid off big-time, as Hamilton is both a commercial and innovative success, expanding storytelling in the process.
Miranda appeared last week at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York and was asked about his leadership style, how he keeps track of his ideas, and which ones he chooses to develop. Here are some of his most compelling insights:
Ideas love company
Inspiration can be found around us, but Miranda’s ideas lead to even more thoughts and directives. “I find more often than not that the right ideas don’t leave me alone. They come with friends,” he mused. “Hamilton is not one idea.”
It started that way but soon expanded. “Hamilton was a couple of insights when I was reading Ron Chernow’s book, but then in my research, learning all this and this and this and that contributes to the larger idea,” Miranda said.
The same principle can be applied to Miranda’s latest project, a musical adaptation of Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel The Warriors. He has long loved the book and the 1979 Walter Hill film it inspired.
“If it’s just one idea, it will probably die in the impulse phase. If the idea opens avenues and you see many more roads, that’s worth pursuing. It doesn’t leave you alone,” Miranda said.
Never go it alone
Warriors also presented the opportunity for Miranda to work with Eisa Davis. The two are cowriting the concept album together. Vocalists Marc Anthony, Luis Figueroa, Flaco Navaja, and Chris Rivers are hitting all the right notes.
Write it down—when you can
When inspiration hits Miranda, he jots it down. The biggest lie creators tell themselves is they will remember it.
“I have hundreds of little notepads everywhere, and it will be frustrating for future archivists because some of them have tons of stuff, and some of them have four notes,” he joked. “They just live in my car. I also use the Notes app on my phone.”
Inspiration isn’t always on a schedule. “I am like most people—the best idea comes when I’m in the shower or walking the dog or when I cannot write something down or driving,” he said. How inconvenient.
Create what you want to see in the world (when the time is right)
Miranda isn’t afraid to put ideas on the back burner until they are ready to be explored further. He was first presented with the idea of Warriors in 2009 but didn’t start working on it until 2017. He didn’t think it would work at first.
He also is a firm believer in “cultivating your own taste.” You should consume whatever product you are trying to create. He sees lots of theater. When you see an opening or absence in the market, that’s your in.
“You want to write the kind of things you would want to see,” he advised. “You want to make the thing that you think is missing or you haven’t seen out there in the world yet, and so it’s really about not turning your brain off when you . . . see something you don’t like.”
Never stop being curious
Don’t turn away from a product, book, or play that isn’t your cup of tea. Instead, get curious.
“When I see theater and I see something I don’t like, I don’t turn my brain off. I go, Why isn’t this working?” he explained. “In doing that and keeping your critical eye open at all times [you] are informing the kind of stuff you’re going to make because you’re going to think, Well, I’m not going to do that, but I would like to do something like this. All of it’s grist for the mill, and as long as you stay open to all of it and you figure out who you are amidst everything you’re consuming, you’re going to make stuff that really excites you.”