Fast Company magazine’s cover story this month is “How to Lead a Creative Life,” which includes a “Complete Guide to Making Your Inner Genius Your Greatest On-the-Job Asset.”

The article features über Hollywood movie director Martin Scorsese as possessing the “vision thing” needed to achieve the “trifecta of a fulfilling, creative life: enough money to do only what truly interests him, enough freedom to attack those projects in a way that is satisfying, and enough appreciation from his peers to tame the neurotic beast of self-doubt.”

Scorsese provides important advice to those in business who are trying to achieve the creative life: respect the past, trust your confidants…but not too much, play the corporate game, defy them when you must, find another outlet – or eight, and give back and learn.

All successful creative artists need others who serve to inspire them, and Scorsese lists six other filmmakers “whose bold risks changed cinema” — Orson Welles, Roberto Rossellini, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, John Cassavetes, and Robert Altman.

Who inspires you to be more creative? What helps you tap into your inner genius? Let New Lantern help you lead a more creative life that’s worthy of box-office hit.

Nike CEO, Mark Parker, is featured in Fast Company’s September edition cover story, “The World’s Most Creative CEO.” It chronicles Parker’s internal rise to Nike’s chief executive and his recipe for success by using “elite athletes, artists, and his own shoe designs to drive a $34 billion business.”

Parker is not a household name outside of Nike and the sports industry, compared to co-founder and chairman, Phil Knight. Knight was CEO for almost 40 years until he stepped down in 2004, when he brought in an outsider from S.C. Johnson, William Perez, to replace him. Perez lasted only 18 months before hanging up his cleats, saying that the culture at Nike was too difficult. That’s when Nike turned to Parker, a long-time Nike executive and über footwear designer.

Parker came to Nike in 1979 as a product designer and footwear tester. It wasn’t long before executives realized his talent in creating some of the most memorable and profitable Nike shoe products in the company’s history. His creations have adorned some of the globe’s most celebrated athletes, including John McEnroe, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant – a veritable “cobbler to the gods” as described by Fast Company.

An avid marathoner himself, Mark Parker knows a thing or two about athletes and footwear. Most important, he brings a creative mind to the CEO role, which he continues to nurture every day. According to the article, he “regularly hosts dinners for about 25 artist friends to just talk and kick around ideas.”

It’s no surprise that Parker stays laser-focused on Nike’s design and R&D work. He frequents the company’s secretive “Innovation Kitchen” sessions, an internal think tank of sorts, “where athletic ambition, art, and a bit of mad science are cooked into the stuff that made Nike the dominate player in sports shoes and apparel.”

Parker also spends a lot of time and attention on sustainability and cutting product waste. And, Parker recently outlined some pretty big goals of increasing sales by 40 percent by 2015. He’ll have his work cut out for him, but stretch goals and competing hard are nothing new for a company which aligns itself with world class athletes and sports.

If you want a little insight into what makes this successful corporate executive tick, take a look at his choice for the new company mission statement nine years ago: “To bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world.”

Since becoming CEO, Parker has also developed nine “maxims” that he wants to serve as guiding principles at Nike. His favorite is No. 6, “Be a sponge. Curiosity is life. Assumption is death.” Parker says that was one his grandmother taught him.

Parker’s approach demonstrates that curiosity and a hearty appetite for creativity are a powerful combo for Nike — and for any other company seeking to compete and win.

Last year, I flew through Memphis, Tennessee and found myself with some time to kill one hot August afternoon. So I drove about 10 miles to visit the city’s historical Memorial Park Cemetery on Poplar Avenue. No, I was not going there to pay my respects to a deceased relative or friend. Instead, I wanted to pay my respects to one of the most gifted faux bois (false wood) artists of the Western Hemisphere, Dionicio Rodriguez.

Rodriquez was born in Toluca, Mexico in 1891. He is known for perfecting a process in which he carved reinforced concrete to look like wood and rocks. Rodriquez developed his unique skills at a young age working in a Mexican foundry and for an Italian artist, who produced imitation rocks. He later worked with Mexican architects and engineers to reproduce ruins of ancient buildings, including a major project for the presidential residence in Mexico City.

Dionicio Rodriquez came to the U.S. in the 1920s, and proceeded to travel extensively throughout the country working on commission to sculpt concrete into compelling footbridges, benches, and other shapes to simulate wooden tree limbs.

His works spanned 30 years and are on display today in numerous cities across the U.S., including San Antonio, Memphis, Little Rock, Chattanooga, New York, and Ann Arbor. Many pieces are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including his works on the grounds of the Memphis Memorial Park Cemetery.

Rodriquez did not speak English and he never married. He died in 1955 in San Antonio, and left no immediate survivors. What he did leave behind, however, was a rich legacy of beautiful and unique art.

His works have been catalogued in the 2008 book by Patsy Pittman Light, “Capturing Nature, The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriquez.” According to Amazon.com, “Light spent a decade documenting the trabajo rustico (“rustic work”) of Rodriquez.”

I marvel at the patience and dedication to one’s craft that produces results at the level and scale of this artisan. It frankly inspires me, and should inspire others, who seek to distinguish themselves from their peers and competitors.

Muchas gracias Señor Rodriquez for coming to this country to share your talents in so many concrete ways — for both the living and the departed.

The toll will be particularly difficult on the surviving children of Haiti. As UNICEF Executive Director, Ann Veneman, noted earlier this week, many Haitian children have become separated from their families and caregivers, and face ”increased risks of malnutrition and disease, trafficking, sexual exploitation and serious emotional trauma.”

Yesterday, UNICEF reported that some young people in Haiti are using art to help cope with the devastation and trauma. Artists like 18-year old Bruno Rene are working with paint and papier-mâché to help express their feelings. Bruno and his classmates have been spending their days at the Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti to paint what they are seeing around them. “By night, they return to their displaced families.”

Organizers of the Haitian art program “hope the art activities will help students process some of the trauma they have experienced.” UNICEF has found that “these activities can provide a critically important support structure for children and young people in the wake of a disaster, when much of the world they knew before has been shattered.”

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti, and particularly its children. I applaud organizations like UNICEF, which seeks to ease the suffering of children in 190 countries. And, I applaud its use of art as a creative healing agent.

There are many worthy organizations to which you or your company can give to help Haiti in its unprecedented hour of need. One important way you can help is by giving to UNICEF.

I know Ann Veneman personally and her commitment to UNICEF, and its commitment to children. Click here to learn more and to donate.

As business executives across the globe seek to chart an improved course in the wake of this past year’s economic meltdown, I call your attention to a new book on leadership that may serve as a helpful guidepost — Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

Love Leadership is written by John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, America’s first nonprofit social investment banking organization. The book debuted at #8 on the “CEO Reads Top 10 Best Seller List,” and has been featured in Business Week and the Washington Post.

At the age of 26 in 1992, Bryant started Operation HOPE in Los Angeles in response to the LA riots based on the premise that his community needed a “hand-up not a hand-out.” Operation HOPE seeks to “eradicate poverty in our lifetime” through financial literacy education of inner-city and under-served children and adults.

Bryant himself grew up in Compton and South Central Los Angeles, CA and was homeless for six months at the age of 18. It is this humble background that Bryant has drawn upon to make him one of the most charismatic and successful philanthropic-business leaders of our time.

Bryant has advised the last three Presidents on the importance of financial literacy as one of the most effective tools to address poverty. Bryant is a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum, where he spoke at WEF’s closing session in Davos, Switzerland in February 2009. Operation HOPE’s major partners include a Who’s Who of global corporations, such as: Wells Fargo, Toyota, Microsoft, E-Trade, ING, and Citigroup.

David Gergen, former senior White House advisor to four Presidents and now Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, describes Bryant this way: “I have watched John Hope Bryant dazzle audiences from Harvard to the World Economic Forum. Now he pours his compassion and charisma into the pages of this book, delivering a powerful message about rediscovering our humanity.”

According to Don McGrath, Chairman of Bancwest Corporation: “In this book, he (Bryant) gives us a recipe for personal success driven by a simple notion: treating others with respect and dignity creates true long-term success. This message and his strategies for living it couldn’t be more timely as we address the failures of leadership that created today’s financial crisis.”

In Love Leadership, Bryant lays out his “Five Laws of Love-Based Leadership” — Loss Creates Leaders, Fear Fails, Love Makes Money, Vulnerability is Power, and Giving is Getting. As he puts it, “Leaders give, followers take. Giving inspires loyalty, attracts good people, confers peace of mind, and lies at the core of true wealth.”

Business leaders who understand and deploy these principles are most likely to succeed. Leadership based on fear is a short-term tactic that produces unreliable results, and can serve to damage the organization over time. Conversely, employees who are appreciated and respected will perform at a higher level under all conditions over the near- and long-terms.

Leaders who embrace the principles of caring and respect, will indeed love the results.

John Hope Bryant

Fumiko Toda

Growing up in rural Japan, Fumiko Toda spent many summer days visiting a nearby pond to study the insects, leaves, and stones that lined its banks. She later went on to attend the Kyoto University of Art and Design, and after graduation Fumiko moved to New York City in 2001 to continue to pursue her passion as an artist.

From 2001 to 2007, Fumiko studied art at the National Academy of Design in Manhattan. The Academy (now known as the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts) was founded in 1825 to promote American art through exhibitions and education. Today, it houses one of the largest public collections of 19th and 20th century American art in the United States.

Since coming to America, Fumiko, 28, has won numerous awards and grants for her work, which has been showcased in more than two dozen exhibitions in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Japan and Thailand. She admits that she is “obsessively fascinated with color, texture, textile design, and form, although most of the images and inspiration I find for art, are drawn from my childhood background.”

The Safe-T-Gallery in Brooklyn will be the site of Fumiko’s first major solo exhibition in New York, which will be open to the public from April 23 to May 30. Her show is aptly named “Recent Insects.”

What can a company and its employees learn from a young and promising artist? Success is not a static destination; it requires continuous, thought-provoking training and rigorous practice of one’s craft. Find what inspires you and leverage that inspiration in your work. And, if you’re seeking to create “buzz” with your next product or service, you might try looking at obvious things in a new and less obvious way.

Last month, Christie’s held the “Sale of the Century” auction in Paris of the art and furniture owned by world-renowned fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died in June 2008 at the age of 71. Christie’s spent $1.2 million to host the auction at the famed Grand Palais near the Champs-Elysees, which drew over 30,000 visitors to the preview exhibition. The auction itself spread over three days and raised a record-breaking $484 million — even in the face of the global economic crisis. Saint Laurent’s lifelong partner, Pierre Berge, said that most of the profits from the auction would be donated to HIV/AIDS research.

The overwhelming interest in last month’s auction underscores the impact of Saint Laurent in the art and design world over the last five decades. Born in Algeria in 1936, Saint Laurent maintained a home in Morocco. At his request, Saint Laurent’s ashes were scattered near his Marrakech villa in the Majorelle botantical garden, which he frequently visited to find influence. His influence also came from the streets of major international cities. For example, he was known for “bringing the Parisian beatnik style to couture runways and adapting peacoats he found in Army-Navy stores in New York” into fashionable women’s jackets, according to the New York Times.

Corporate executives and managers could learn from the man who built the House of YSL. To succeed in business, you must change as rapidly as the markets and interests of customers change. Today’s haute couture can be tomorrow’s bargain-bin special. Same goes with your products and services, and how you do business.

Seek inspiration in both likely and unlikely places. Embrace the principle that the look and feel of a product is as important as its function. Leverage the latest Web 2.0 tools that your customers and clients are using. And those who are fortunate enough to have laurels, shouldn’t rest on them, not if your business is interested in being around tomorrow.