Ideas are cheap. My father used to say if he had a dime for every idea he’s had, well… you get the picture. And therein lies the problem.
The ideas themselves are worth very little or nothing. The idea markets in our brains are saturated. We couldn’t give them away unless we pair them with a $25 Starbucks card.
Chances are, you were on Twitter or reading someone else’s blog before you came here (and thanks for coming, by the way). In that time online, you probably generated a handful of ideas about everything from creating a membership site to improving your vacuum cleaner.
It’s not that the ideas are inherently bad. It’s just that they may not be the right ideas for the people you’re trying to help. I’ll give you an example from my own idea street fair. Grab an elephant ear and consider:
Havi makes a monster coloring book. This is an awesome idea. Her people love it. They find it useful.
The way my mind works, I see monster coloring book and immediately think, “Wow. How cool would that be? I could create a coloring book. I am an artist, after all. People would buy a coloring book –”
Wait. Stop. Let’s view the instant replay.
“Wow. How cool would that be? I could create a coloring book.”<— BAM! Right there. Look at that.
Idea.
Aside from the fact that I refuse to repurpose someone else’s thing to line my PayPal account with cash, the million-dollar idea question is will I actually be helping my clients with a coloring book?
As it turns out, no.
Even if your ideas are 100% handmade originals, that question is the most important one you could ask. Will you actually be helping people with your idea or is it just a fun distraction?
That’s they key. Separating the distraction from the useful.
Did I just drop a stink bomb in the middle of your idea market? Do I make idea generation sound like preparing your taxes? Maybe I did. I’m okay with that.
There’s not only nothing wrong with generating hatfuls of ideas and juggling them around, it’s actually necessary to our growth as human beings. Hey, I’m doing it now while writing this post. At some point we’re going to want to pick one of those ideas and actually do something with it. What’s your hurry, Murray? Sit down for a few minutes and take a long look at this idea. Ask that magical question I repeated twice already.
It may turn out that you decide to chuck the idea. That’s okay – as long as you’re not chucking it because you think you can’t. This isn’t about can or can’t, this is about should.
I’m challenging myself to chuck more ideas than I work on. It’s not easy. If I had a dime for every idea I’ve chucked…
Jon Stewart recently edited Obama's election catch phrase from “Yes, we can!” to “Yes, we can – but should we?” Thinking before leaping is good advice for all creatives, who probably have a junk drawer full of ideas for things that CAN be done. Does the idea fit with your strategy or would it bleed time and creativity better applied to other things? As a watcher of “Project Runway” one of the things that I've seen most frequently is the difficulty we creatives have in editing ourselves, yet that's one ability that would serve us best. But rather than just abandoning an idea to die in the wilderness, I like to pass it along to others. Just because it isn't right for me, doesn't mean it couldn't rock for someone else. (Love the light bulb illustration!)