What To Do With Your Great Idea
You know that moment you’re drinking tea or watching a movie and suddenly you jump up thinking, “Hey! I’ve got it!” ? Apart from startling others with your shout, you could surprise them even more with what you make out of that great idea.
Ideas are born out of the need to solve a certain problem you have noticed. They are either unintentional or deliberate thoughts which show a possible line of action to take. You may be brainstorming about finding an answer to a pending crisis when an idea hits you. Or, you may have your mind on something completely different (such as that cup of tea) when inspiration turns on the lightbulb in your mind.
Getting an idea isn’t hard. The best and first thing to do is to keep calm. Don’t panic, especially when the much needed solution simply isn’t presenting itself. Focus on the issue and allow the inspiration to set in on its own. Ask as many people as many questions as you can, because what someone says may be the key to your answer. Analyse the situation carefully. Think through every angle to which the solution could come, and where the problem itself came from.
After getting an idea, it may be frustrating to realise that you need another idea to know what to do with the idea. Don’t drop the idea in the trash — build it. Get to work immediately, looking for ways to develop it. Don’t take every criticism to heart and lose hope. Some critics are merely just expressing sincere concern, albeit in diverse ways. After all, not all of us get tea-dropping ideas everyday. Prepare your mind to cautiously accept advice accept advice, in fact, you should scout for as much as possible. No matter what happens, don’t get distracted. It’s very tempting to start hopping up and down in excitement, running around dizzyingly, which may just get you confused, and by the time you settle down, you’ve most likely forgotten what got you excited in the first place. This is particularly a very common cause of failure for many startup founders.
Once you are convinced of your solution, check and recheck to make sure it properly solves the problem you identified. Is your solution relevant; is it in demand? These are questions you should have a definite ‘yes’ answer to. You can’t have an idea to start selling ivory in a place where the main issue is poaching. Make sure you allow your idea to grow, don’t quench it, and don’t let anyone do so for you. You may have a smaller picture but don’t let pessimism hold you back from letting it grow into something massive. Most of the big names in startups were probably targeting a small community, and ended up impacting the world. Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, had a main aim of frying chicken to beat the competition in Kentucky, but has now beaten competition globally. Starbucks wasn’t always making big bucks, it started as a coffee-bean store.
Another thing. Regardless of setbacks, don’t lose hope. Henry Ford failed five times before he got his automobile company started. Bill Gates’ first company Traf-O-Data was a failure — he is now the world’s richest man. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper company and told “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” — he founded a cartoon industry which still captivates audiences worldwide. Albert Einstein was expelled from school — he won a Nobel Prize. Charles Darwin was considered by his father and teachers as “rather below the common standard of intellect.” — he became a renowned scientist. Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was “too stupid to learn anything.” — he invented the lightbulb. No matter what you’re told or what happens to you, keep pushing your dreams into reality.
So now that you have your mind-blowing, coffee-spilling, shower-interrupting idea, go out there and make it work. Make sure its success causes someone to drop his jaws in amazement at how you made it work. #LetUsWork.
