An Idea for your Idea
There are so many people who have great, even amazing ideas, but their great product or concept ends up failing once it becomes a reality. I also constantly hear from people, “I have so many ideas, but don’t know how to put any into action.” Why is this? I believe it’s because we limit ourselves creatively. We stop at the first great idea, and don’t realize that more great ideas are needed to become successful.
Think about an inventor who has just invented the greatest product in the world. He’s so proud of himself for what he’s just created. He knows in his heart that people would love his little doohickey, and anyone who comes in contact with that invention will automatically fall in love with it.
That’s exactly where most of us go wrong. Don’t ever assume that your product, service, or invention will be received by everyone, at least without a little creativity. You can’t expect that someone will get shot by Cupid’s arrow, and never want to part with what you’re offering. I wish that’s how life could be, but it never is.
Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Scrabble took four years to catch on with consumers. Dr. Seuss was turned down by 24 publishers. These are just a few examples of how even the most popular and revered products and inventions today were at some point overlooked.
This is also a reason why people are hesitant to put their ideas out in the world - the rejection. But treat the rejection as another type of brainstorming. When you first came up with your great idea, you probably went through dozens, even hundreds of bad, silly, and non-effective ideas before the “great” one arrived. So once your idea is conceived, and you’re ready to put it into action, the idea generation process starts again. Your goal is to make sure that people see your great idea for what it is. Maybe it has to be shown to help people. Maybe people just need to be entertained or comforted by it. Maybe you just need to find a cool use for your idea that will reach a large audience. Nevertheless, you need more ideas to execute your original idea.
Creating more ideas every step of the way is something many overlook. We think that that one idea will carry us through everything, but at some point, you need ideas for how to reach people. This is why being creative and having ideas needs to cross all subject matters and topics, and must be applied across a broad spectrum of applications. If you can creatively invent the next generation of electric shavers, and position your shaver as the must have item that wives buy their husbands for Christmas, then you’ve got an idea for your idea.
