I’ve Got an Idea

By Teo W S

What is the value of an idea? Priceless!
Eastman Kodak rejected Edwin Land’s idea of an instant camera. So, Land started his own business, Polariod, which become a major competitor for Kodak.

The Swiss watch industry rejected the idea of a quartz watch. The Japanese saw the idea and went on to become the largest producer of quartz watch in the world, crippling the Swiss watch industry for many years.

That, in essence, is the potential value of an idea.

We all have ideas all the time. But not many of us will announce them because we imagine that other people will think we are silly or not like our idea or have a better idea.

Let me suggest 3 quick ways to overcome this perceived problem of lack of ideas:

1. Change your Thoughts.
You are what you think. If you think you are a grasshopper, you are one. You don’t have to be specially talented to be have ideas.
Did you know that:

Stephen Covey said that everything in life are created twice, first in the mind and then in reality. That accounts for why Leonardo da Vinci is the greatest all time inventor and paintor. He first sees things in his mind and then he draws and create them. In his life time, he has conceived and sketched a helicopter, parachute, military tank, paddle-powered boat, diving snorkel, innovative clock, etc That was in the 1400s and early 1500s!!

Ideas – it begins with your thoughts. Begin to see yourself as someone creative and you will soon be one!
2. Change your Talk.
“It cannot be done. Nobody will like that idea. I have tried that before. There’s nothing new under the sun.” These statements are idea stoppers.
Change your language from now on.

A German preacher once criticised the innovation of eating with fork saying God would not have given us fingers if He wanted us to use such a diabolical instrument. No wonder his hands were burnt! You don’t have to be like that preacher.

Words are powerful. It has the power to create or to destroy. Say something creative today.

Change your language and it will change you!
3. Change Your Action.
How many of us take a different route to work or to go home everyday or at least 3 times a week?

98% of us take the same route whether going to work or going home or school almost 365 days a year?

Someone once said that if you are always doing things the same way, you are not thinking. In other word, you don’t need a brain to go on autopilot! Albert Einstein said that no one should expect a different result if they do the same thing over and over. Creativity begins with change.

I was told that the greatest place to be creative was while you are in the toilet! Remember Archimedes rushed out of the bathroom shouting Eureka! Eureka!. He was naked!!!

I am not about to suggest that you rush out of the toilet naked for a change! But I do suggest that you start the journey to having more creative ideas by doing something different.