Zero to One: How to execute on your ideas — Chapter 2

A guide for those stuck in idea mode

This is this second chapter of Zero to One, a framework that guides you through the first steps of executing on your idea. In this chapter we will look at the most important elements of creativity and making ideas happen. The underlying concepts and the psychological side of it. If you haven’t already I recommend you to read the first chapter first (~5 minutes).

“A creative’s natural instinct is to want to remain only in idea-generation mode, but embracing sweat as a critical element of production is the defining factor between creative and creation.”
Behance Magazine

The (Un)importance of Creativity

There is this stereotype that big businesses all around the world are killing creativity in their workplaces because of closed minds, fear of change or whatever you want to name it. We, creatives, look down upon them. We all know it better. We all have these wonderful ideas which one day will shock the world because of their creativity. At least, that’s the idea. In reality only a few of us really make their ideas happen. The rest of us put our ‘ground shaking’ ideas on the back-burner. For later, when the time is right. Which of course, it never is.

Open and Closed Mode

We see a closed mind as something bad. A closed mind now and then is not a bad thing though. In fact, it’s essential when implementing ideas. Luckily, we can have both an open mind and a closed mind. Not at the same time, but we can train ourselves to switch between them. In his lecture ‘Creativity in Management’ John Cleese speaks of an open mode and a closed mode. A research project he was involved in showed the secret behind most successful businesses is their ability to switch between the two modes.

“You’ve got to get in there and do.”
Twyla Tharp

The First Step

The first step, the one after you’ve come up with the idea and need to actually do some work, is for most people the hardest part of the whole creation process. Jack Foster describes these people in his book How to Get Ideas:

The Elements of a Creative Life

Routine

Every creative professional has their own ways of working. So has dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp, but she decided to write a book about it: The Creative Habit. Tharp is a true artist. Her whole life is about her art. Like Murray, Tharp argues beginning is one the most important steps in any creative endeavor. When she talks about it in her book she doesn’t necessarily mean the beginning of a project, but the beginning of her workday. Tharp has developed a morning ritual:

Commitment

Have you ever worked on a project you didn’t really want to work on anymore, but you kept going anyway because you already had invested so much time in it? You just couldn’t quit project, even when you knew the project was going nowhere or you just had lost interest.

  1. If you do in fact invest money, you will want to get a result somehow which forces you to complete the project.

Staying motivated

If you use a to-do list to manage all your tasks you know how nice it feels to cross off an item as done. It seems like such a silly thing, but knowing you can cross off another item when you have finished the task gives enough motivation to actually do it. Looking at your list full of crossed off tasks at the end of the day feels really good as well. But “when you complete a list of action steps, your instinct might be to throw the list away. After all, the work is completed! However, some creative professional teams take a different approach; they relish their progress. Some go so far as surrounding themselves with it.” (Source: 99u)

Deadlines

A deadline is a funny thing. On the one hand it restricts us. We only get a fixed amount of time to complete our work. On the other hand it focusses us on getting things done. It’s different for everybody, but if I don’t have a deadline it can take ages before I complete something.

Conclusion

The problem is clear. We like the idea-phase, but are stuck in it because we don’t like the implementation-phase. However, we saw there are no such things. The creation process doesn’t exist of two (or more) phases but is a continuous unfolding of the initial idea.

@BetaList Founder

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