Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own Path and Make Work That Matters

A vibrant, illustrated guide to blazing a unique and fulfilling creative path, from the Stanford d.school.

Humans have always been creative hustlers—problem solvers who seek to live beyond the limits suggested by society. Yet we live in a world where the place you were born, the amount of money you have, and the level of melanin in your skin indicate the precise path you are expected to follow. Too many of us silence our creativity and let our hustle calcify as we settle for the roles assigned to us.
 
Now Olatunde Sobomehin and sam seidel, co-teachers of the Creative Hustle course at Stanford University, help you identify and navigate your own creative path that leads from your gifts—your unique combination of skills—to your goals, where you make a living doing things that matter.
 
You'll learn about other creative hustlers, like Bryant Terry, who merged his passions for social justice and African American cuisine to become an award-winning eco-chef and cookbook author; Sian Heder, who used her desire to deeply understand herself and others to make award-winning films that add to the cultural conversation; and author/TV host Ayesha Curry, who aligns her professional and personal decisions with her core values.
 
Taking inspiration and lessons from these creative problem-solvers and using activities from the Creative Hustle course, you will begin to see and shape your own path—and follow it to the fulfillment of your goals.

sam seidel is the director of strategy and research at the Stanford d.school's K12 Lab and the author of Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education.

Olatunde Sobomehin is CEO/co-founder of StreetCode Academy, a nonprofit that offers free tech classes to communities of color. He has taught classes at the Stanford Haas Center and the d.school.
Together, sam and Olatunde embody creative hustle and share their wisdom as co-teachers of the Creative Hustle course at Stanford University.

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, was founded at Stanford University in 2005. Each year, students from all disciplines attend classes and programs to learn how the thinking behind design can enrich their own work and creativity.