Ideas are Valuable!
Despite what people say all the time…ideas are not a dime a dozen. In fact, I don’t think there is anything that you can actually purchase today for a dime a dozen, but this old saw perpetuates and because so many people have internalized it, they don’t bother even creating ideas, or worse yet, they fail to develop the ones that they do have.
Here’s the way I see it. The first step in creating an idea is to develop the seed of the idea, and that seed does in fact often have limited value. But that seed of an idea possesses the potential to become a powerful, profitable, actionable idea that can produce exceptional results.
But the first step, the necessary step, is for someone to create the seed of the idea. Someone needs to invest the time and energy to go beyond a mere flash of thought and consider what could be. From there the process evolves as the idea seed is developed and nurtured. Potential outcomes are then delineated with a focus on clarifying, contemplating, and critiquing until the potential (or lack thereof) of the idea seed is revealed.
It is incumbent upon those of us who invest time and energy in creating ideas to stop the spread of this virus that can literally kill creativity…the virus that suggests ideas are so plentiful as to have little or no value. We need to realize that just because we have ideas (or seeds of ideas) all the time, that does not mean everyone does, and when we allow the process to be devalued, we give power to a mind virus that stifles creativity and robs us all of what could have been….
So what is my point? Namely that we all need to nurture our inborn ability to create ideas, and that we need to realize it is a process that takes time and intention. A flash of brilliance about how something might be done differently can become (and often is) a mighty seed for something great, but it usually needs to be kicked around to reveal its true potential.
ACTION STEP: Strive to become a spreader of seeds of ideas wherever you are and a cultivator of the idea development and implementation process. Seeds of ideas without action produce little more than dust, but ideas that are consciously developed, nurtured, and implemented are…priceless!
