Monday, July 4th, 2011...3:40 pm
Ideas About Ideas
If you have a good idea, share it. Connect with every smart person that you know and bounce it off of them. You will learn pretty quickly if your opportunity has real merit. You might even get some help, advice and inspiration from others.
Nothing gets me more than having someone tell me that his or her idea is top secret. Trust me Einstein, your idea has been thought up by others. You need to be figuring out why it hasn’t already been done before. If it’s SO obviously a sure fire home run than it would probably already be happening.
What are you going to do to make your idea a reality? How are you going to overcome the countless obstacles, missteps and new challenges to launch something of value? The English cartoonist Ashleigh Brilliant commented that “Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about”.
In thinking about new opportunities try to focus on creating a solution to a real problem. If you personally experience the problem – that’s even better. It will keep you motivated as the going gets tough.
It’s highly unlikely that someone will steal your idea and act on it. The mathematician and computer pioneer Howard Aiken said “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down peoples throats”. Even if they do, then hats off to them. They’ve done all the hard work. I’ll take that risk in order to get early feedback and support. If anyone shares an idea with me there’s a good chance I’ll happily spend 5-10 minutes of free flowing feedback right then and there. If it’s well thought out and you flash some passion I’ll want to further discuss the opportunity and see how I might be able to help.
People get caught up on the idea. They’ve had or are waiting for an epiphany of brilliance. But the true beauty is in the execution. There is an old Buddhist proverb that “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” I say no duh to that.
I like to check out the website Springwise. It reviews cool, innovative businesses ideas that are already operational. Each review makes me kind of wish I would have been the one to have done it.
Don’t be surprised if others aren’t as into your idea as you are. The psychiatrist Carl Jung, a man who had lots of ideas about people’s ideas, once said “Everyone is in love with his own ideas.”
Don’t let anyone talk you out of it either though. The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said “New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!”. The early naysayers and haters will jump on the bandwagon. They always do.
Finally, I’ll leave with one last quote from Swami Vivekananda. The Swami was a Hindu spiritual monk and a disciple of the great Sri Ramakrishna of Calcutta.
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”
