There’s a line from the Led Zeppelin song Over the Hills and Far Away that’s always hit me in the chest:
Many, many men can’t see the open road.” – Led Zeppelin in “Over the Hills”
To me, that’s the perfect analogy for creative vision. That open road is everything — the space, the freedom, the unknown path that only you can see.
But not everyone can see it. And the hard truth is: some people never will.
That lyric hits even harder when you remember Led Zeppelin themselves were dismissed early on. Critics didn’t get them. The press hated them. They were told they were too loud, too chaotic, too weird. But they saw the open road. They heard what others couldn’t and they followed their open road anyway.
That’s what real creativity demands. Not consensus. Not permission. Just belief.
I’ve experienced this firsthand across my own creative and entrepreneurial pursuits. Sometimes the vision is so clear it feels like divine download. Other times, it’s fragile and half-formed. And that’s exactly when you run into the people who can’t see the road — and they’ll try to tell you it’s not there.
That it doesn’t exist. That you’re lost.
They’ll question your path, your process, your passion. They’ll say things like, “That’ll never work,” or “Who do you think you are?” or my personal favorite” – “You always fail.”
Here’s the truth: they are not the problem — as long as you don’t let them drive.
Some people just aren’t built to see the open road. And that’s okay. But it means they’re not qualified to share in yours. If you let them too close to your creative process, they will distort and they may try to destroy it. Not because they’re evil (actually, sometimes there are) — but because they have lost their ability to imagine, to dream, to envision and to see open roads.
It’s all the same thing and you have to protect your vision.
THE CREATIVE FIRE IS PERSONAL
Rick Rubin says it clean and simple in The Creative Act:
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
That’s it. That’s the whole game.
My sister, for example, loves to garden. She’s not chasing trends or trying to impress anyone. She rearranges her space constantly — chaotic, gorgeous, alive. Flowers tangled with vegetables, wild colors next to empty space. It’s messy and it’s real.
That’s creativity. That’s the open road — a personal journey no one else has to understand.
Creativity doesn’t have to be marketable. It doesn’t even have to make sense. It just has to be yours.
And yet, if you share it with the wrong people — people who don’t understand how fragile and sacred that energy is — they can crush it before it even gets a chance to take root.
THE BOX
So what do you do with the people who just don’t get it?
Here’s what I’ve learned:
If you can remove them from your creative life, do it. That’s the cleanest route. But often, you can’t. Life is messy. People are entangled. They might be family, co-workers, business partners, even people you love.
- In that case, compartmentalize.
- Put them in a box.
- Don’t bring your creative ideas to them.
- Don’t try to explain your vision to someone who’s never left the parking lot.
- And don’t try to convert them — that will only deplete you.
Let them live their life. Let them occupy the space they occupy. But don’t invite them into the sacred inner room where your creative fire lives.
“You cannot, you cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.”
– Audre Lorde
Believe you have it.
Protect it.
Use it.
Because here’s another truth: if someone doesn’t believe they have their own fire, they may try to steal or ride yours. Not because they mean to, but because they’re starving for light and you’re the nearest flame.
This never ends well. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually — it drains you. It leaves you burnt out, resentful, disconnected from the thing that gives you life.
So: box them in. Don’t engage creatively with them. Let them be who they are while you keep rolling open road.
WHEN YOU’RE BLOCKED
And when you get stuck — when the road disappears, when doubt creeps in, when your own fire starts to flicker — get out of the noise.
Go back to where the signal is clear.
Drive.
Take the dead-straight road through your Paradise or Madison River Valley. Let the mountains roll past you at 100mph.
Let the landscape strip you down. Let the wildness remind you what you’re made of.
The wilderness doesn’t ask you to explain your vision. It just is. Creation without apology.
That’s what you’re a part of.
Go to the wilderness.
Go to God.
Go to Spirit.
Go back to creation.
Because the open road is always there. Even if the people around you can’t see it.
