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| Why Quantity Should Be Valued More Than Quality When Generating Ideas For Your Business |
By:
Stu McLaren |
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Creative thinkers value ideas. America was founded on
the power of ideas. I mean that literally. The history of
America begins with one man’s far-fetched dream of
exploring undiscovered lands. Because of his driving
ambition, millions and millions of immigrants were able to
start new lives and claim whole new territory.
Columbus, in the history books, is a great explorer. But in
a way, he was also a great entrepreneur and a truly
creative man. He also perfectly embodies the risk-reward
dynamic of creative thinking. Just think of all that he was
risking when he announced his plan and embarked on
the journey to the new, free world.
To see the rewards, just look around you. That’s exactly
what he was able to capture.
The American dream and it’s roots in Columbus’ dream, a
man who created his own opportunities, discovered a
land of opportunity himself. That one idea courageously
and ambitiously accomplished a whole new opportunity
for him, his family, his country, and the rest of the world.
It’s changed the livelihood of millions and millions of
people.
If you ever find yourself wondering just how much you
could possibly expect to gain from harnessing your
creative abilities, remember that example of Columbus.
All creative thinkers know just how valuable ideas really
are. I’m not talking just about the obvious, flashy, crazy,
out-there, very profitable ideas.
Creativity is a game of odds. Write that down.
There are rules to creativity and one of them is that you
have to go big or go home. What I mean by that is that
when you are looking to generate new ideas, you have
to generate as many as humanly possible.
At one point in my career, I was speaking to high schools
all across North America, I would go in and work with
their student leadership groups. We would generate
ideas for things like fundraising, ways to generate school
spirit, all kinds of different things.
I would work with them for generally between an hour
and an hour and a half, and our goal was to come up
with a top 10 list of wow ideas, for whatever challenge
we were working on.
When I say go big or go home, our objective was to
generate as many ideas as was humanly possible
because quality comes from the quantity. Write that
down. Quality comes from the quantity.
When you’re generating new ideas, you can’t go for the
big, great, fabulous, million-dollar idea right off the bat.
Your objective is to generate as many ideas as possible
because out of the quantity will come the quality.
When I was generating ideas with the student
leadership groups, we would generally generate
between 3,000 and 4,000 ideas in an hour and a half
span. Were all those ideas good? Absolutely not. In fact,
99% of them were absolute crap.
But the point is that out of that came 1% that were pure
gold. We would never have gotten to that 1% had we
not tried to go for as many ideas as humanly possible
because creativity, like I said earlier, is a game of odds.
You put the odds in your favor, the more ideas you
generate.
That’s why brainstorming sessions and being in a group
of people who actively generate ideas together and can
build on each other’s ideas is so powerful because one
person will share an idea, and that will make a
connection in another; and that person will then share
another three that came from them. Those three ideas
spark five others in somebody else, and before you know
it, you have this whole reaction going on.
I want you to picture a long line of Dominos going
straight out in front of you. Wherever you are right now,
it’s going straight out in front of you, then it turns to the
right, and then it curves back around, almost in a circle.
But before it comes back it curves again the other way. It
actually goes up a couple stairs. That whole line of
Dominos, that whole reaction of Dominos can never
happen unless the first Domino goes down. That first
Domino, in the creative thinking process is something
known as stimuli.
Stimuli is anything you see, touch, taste, feel, experience.
What it does is it acts as that first Domino, and it sets off
what I call an idea reaction. When you get in to a group
of people who are active, creative thinkers, high-level
marketers, when you spit out an idea, it’s going to serve
as the stimuli for them, and an idea reaction with
inevitably happen.
As it happens, you increase your odds of success in terms
of an idea that’s going to be more profitable for you. You
increase the odds of that happening, the more ideas you
generate.
Your job is to generate as many ideas as possible
because not every risk is going to pay off, and not every
sure thing actually delivers. The more ideas you come up
with, the more likely you’re going to succeed, and every
idea counts.
Think about it. All it takes is one flash of insight, one new
product, one innovative service, to create a million-dollar
business. With one idea - a scientist or a researcher –
the have the potential to cure a previously incurable
disease.
With one sudden epiphany a software engineer could
invent the next major advance in computer technology.
That’s the power of an idea.
Creative thinkers, they never underestimate the power of
ideas, and they never underestimate the value of simple
ideas.
Sometimes it’s that seemingly simple idea that others
completely dismiss as silly that will ignite a whole idea
reaction in your brain. That seemingly silly idea, it’s like a
seed with the potential to blossom. It’s growth depends
on the skill and integrity of the person who plants it and
cares for it. Ignoring that seed will just absolutely kill it.
The bottom line is this: You don’t know what kind of
beautiful flower you could end up with until it actually
blossoms. As a creative thinker, you must value all ideas.
Discovered! 227 Unusual, Different and Just Plain Crazy Business Ideas... That Could Make You Rich This Year... Starting From Zero!" Just One Great Idea Could Change Your Life! So Take Your Pick From 227 http://www.227UnusualBusinessIdeas.com/ |
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