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Paul opens with his core creative philosophy β that creativity is not a talent but a way of seeing β and traces it back to a childhood moment in Quebec City that sparked a lifelong sense of adventure.
Video coming soon
Paul Lavoie β founder of the legendary agency Taxi β opens this masterclass with the idea that changed everything for him: creativity isn't a talent you're born with. It's a way of seeing. In this video, Paul traces that philosophy back to a single childhood moment in Quebec City, and shows how that spark of wonder became the foundation for one of advertising's most celebrated careers.
Most people think creativity is something you either have or you don't β a personality trait, a gift, a mysterious force that visits certain lucky people. Paul rejects that entirely.
"Creativity is just seeing things others don't."
That's it. That's the whole philosophy. And the implication is enormous: if creativity is about seeing, then it can be practiced, developed, and taught. It's not about who you are β it's about how you look.
For Paul, that shift in seeing happens most naturally in a state of playfulness. When the rules feel suspended, when you're curious rather than cautious, that's when you start noticing what everyone else walks right past.
Paul grew up in Arvada, a small town in northern Quebec. When his family moved to Quebec City, a school trip to the city center changed him forever. He came home that night barely able to contain himself:
"Mom, you won't believe it. This is a town. It has a wall around it. There's a castle. There's a snowman, mom."
It sounds like a small thing. But for a young kid from a small town, it was a revelation β the sudden, electric awareness that there was something else out there. A bigger world. More to discover.
Paul calls that moment the anchor of his lifelong sense of adventure. And that's worth sitting with: one moment of genuine wonder, experienced at age four or five, became the emotional engine for an entire creative career.
One of the most powerful stories Paul shares comes from his art college days. A drawing teacher had students bring two apples. They drew the first one, then cut it apart, studied it, ate it. Then they drew the second apple.
The difference between the two drawings was night and day.
Why? Because by the time they drew the second apple, they had really looked at the first one.
Paul's neighbor in New York teaches drawing the same way. His students β bankers, dentists, truck drivers β arrive convinced they can't draw. By the end of the week, they can. His secret?
"I don't teach them to draw. I teach them to look."
This is the creative skill hiding in plain sight. Paying attention β genuinely, deeply paying attention β is itself a creative act.
Paul is clear-eyed about the business case for creativity. In an industry full of tools, data, and technology, creativity remains the most efficient way to add value to a client's business. It's not a nice-to-have. It's the currency.
That belief shaped everything about how he built Taxi β and it's a belief worth carrying into every brief, every campaign, every client conversation you have.
Up next: Paul takes us inside the founding of Taxi β why he started it during a recession, why doubt became the agency's soul, and what "four people in a taxi" really means.
Paul means that creativity isn't about having a special gift β it's about training yourself to look more carefully, more curiously, and more openly at the world. The ideas are already there; the creative person is simply the one who notices them.
Playfulness is the state in which rules feel optional and possibilities feel unlimited. Paul finds that his best creative thinking happens when he's in a playful mindset β not when he's under pressure to produce.