High-wire artist Philippe Petit, who four decades ago performed illegally between the World Trade Center towers, explains how his personal brand of outlaw creativity can be harnessed to inspire and solve problems.

Philippe Petit: I didn’t go to school much. I was thrown out of different schools and my university is the street. I am a thief of knowledge and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me. When you read actually my testimony about creativity, which is very personal; it’s not using the Beatles and Einstein as an example, but the author, you immediately relate because my out-of-the-beaten path, although unusual, can relate to everybody. I think in that sense people will immediately pick up things and make them theirs, you know. It will help them either open doors, either actually go through a problem that they couldn’t resolve.