BUOYANT

A guide offers creative inspiration for entrepreneurs.

In a book that is as much a memoir as an instructional manual, entrepreneur/coach deVille recounts her own personal and professional growth and development while delivering a message centered on “reclaiming and reconnecting with inspiration and your innate creativity.” Leveraging nautical imagery, deVille employs language that is often poetic, if a bit flowery: “Embrace the ebbs and flows…take the energy of the sea into your cells…transfer its power into your marrow.” Still, the evocative, stylistic passages demonstrate her unbridled passion for the subject matter. Writing from a very personal perspective, deVille reveals some of her own uncertainties and vulnerabilities throughout the account, weaving her insights and observations together with coaching counsel. Included are anecdotes about coaching clients who overcame various challenges, citations from other authorities, and salient quotations. Since her reawakening involved embracing creativity, the author stresses the importance of journaling as a means of expression. She strongly urges readers to complete the creative exercises in the book (“Commit to spending a minimum of twenty-five minutes a day, five days a week”). Busy entrepreneurs may be tempted to scoff at the inventive nature of the work involved; for example, in numerous exercises, deVille suggests reserving time to sketch, draw, and paint. In other exercises, she encourages writing poetry and journaling about challenging things, such as life’s obstacles and transformational moments. Clearly, these are not meant to be simple, quickly executed exercises—they require creative effort, deep thought, and introspection. That is the point of being “Buoyant…how we feel when we at last get to the gut of who we truly are.” Along the way, the author offers motivational coaching. She proposes “the 5 Ms,” a foundational plan for inspiration (“Meditation, Morning Pages, Movement, Moments of Inspired Learning, and Making Something”); suggests developing a personal inventory of “creativity tools”; and discusses a common weakness of overachievers (“The Tyranny of Perfectionism”). DeVille’s storytelling skill, her enthusiasm for unbridled innovation, and her fervent belief that everyone can achieve creative freedom combine to make for an engrossing self-improvement book.

A stimulating motivational manual, if creatively intense at times.