Right from time, we have been created with the capacity to think, create and invent things. Our dominion on earth is linked to our productivity which determines our influence anywhere we find ourselves. The minimum requirement for achievement in any part of the world is just an idea.
You can move from failure to success, from poverty to wealth, from joblessness to CEO by receiving ideas and turning those ideas to reality.
Let me share a wonderful and powerful story that I read in Think and Grow Rich with you. Many years ago, in a small town in the United States of America, a doctor climbed his horse and rode to a chemist’s shop. He went in through the back door. He carried in his hand an old fashioned kettle and a wooden paddle. He brought these items to the store clerk with a sheet of paper on which was written the formula for a drink. Both of them began to negotiate and eventually the clerk gave the doctor five hundred dollars for those items he had come to sell. What the doctor sold to the clerk was worth a fortune to the young clerk but not to the doctor who gave the items away for just five hundred dollars.
To the amazement of the clerk, the content of the kettle he sold away has since become a household name in the world and has generated billions of dollar. The content of the bottle can be found all over the planet.
Upon purchase, the clerk added something to the kettle, the paddle and the formular. That thing, in the world over is believed to be an idea. Today, the content of that bottle is the greatest selling consumer beverage in the whole wide world. It has turned the fortune of many families around and those that have invested into that idea during its formative years today are worth billionaires in dollars. The name of this drink is something you know: it is Coca-Cola, and the name of the clerk is Asa Candler.
What the doctor sold for five hundred dollars several years ago has assumed a value that is difficult to estimate today. What made the difference, what brought about the transformation was just one good idea. Ideas are thoughts, plans or images impressed on the human mind. Ideas are powerful and the ones whose time has come is even more powerful.
There are two sides to the creation of anything: first the mental and second the physical. Everything you can find around you today, first existed has an idea in somebody’s mind. Ideas are powerful and they hold the key to unlock futures fortunes. The world thrives on ideas. Companies leverages on ideas through innovation. Ideas brings about innovation and creations of new things which eventually sustains a company. Without ideas, no company will be in existences today. The more relevant your idea is , the more influence and power you posses anywhere you are. Ideas is all about creativity, innovation, doing things in different ways and challenging the conventional way.
When next you find yourself in need to new ideas, try out any of the ways outlined below and make sure you complete the task attached to each.
Go On a Vacation
If you need an idea, you must learn to take time out to relax and unwind. Infact, there are times when you will need to embark on a personal retreat. When stuck in a project and it seems you’re not getting ahead, all you need to finish that project might just be to take time out and be alone with yourself. Even when you’re not stuck within a project, you still need to embark on a personal retreat from time to time. Don’t get too busy with work and activities In the office or in your business that you don’t have time for what is important. That part leads to multiple crisis. And you can avoid it.
One of my mentors said,
“Successful people embark on retreats regularly to recharge their batteries and get ready for greater exploits. A retreat is a platform where the intellectual and the spiritual aspects of one’s life fuse. Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men, goes to one of the Oriental countries once in a year for a retreat, to receive fresh instructions and flow of ideas from Divine Intelligence.”
You receive creative and inspired ideas when you’re alone. Illumination and ideas flows when you set aside time to do focused thinking.
Task: When next you find yourself stucked and in need of new ideas, just work away. Take time out to rethink about your processes. You will surely come out inspired and loaded with new workable ideas.
Network
No man is an island. You can’t achieve everything all alone. You function best when you mingle, associate and work in a team. If you’re going to get ideas, you need to go out and make friends with people within and outside your industry. CEO s prefer to spend more time outside than in the office because they understand the value of networking and meeting new friends. If you want outpouring of ideas at a rapid rate, then you need to go out and connect, experiment and shares ideas with diverse group of people. Discussion with fellow human beings sparks up new ideas.
Unfortunately, most of us prefer to stay in our comfort zones. We hang out and club with familiar faces, people that we work with, people who knows us inside out. Most times such people don’t even inspire us to try new things or encourage us to take on challenging projects that has the capacity and ability to birth new ideas.
If you want ideas that will move you forward both in life and work, you will need to interact with people that are more intelligent than you. Associate yourself with people who are successful in what you are trying to start out. Make buddies with people of different colors, race, age, and background. Check on people outside your territory and line of business. There is enormous power in diversity.
Task: For the next two weeks, make friends and hang out with people who don’t know you. Share your experience with them and don’t forget to ask questions that borders you. Compare the outcome with when you usually hang out with known faces.
Brainstorm
When you get into a tight corner, do you find solutions alone or you consult? Fine, there are times when you need to do things alone but great achievers understand the power that lies within the circle of a mastermind group.
The questions you will tackle for the whole day, a think tank group will find solution to it within one hour. There is power in leveraged synergy. Synergy defined by Stephen Covey means that the whole is greater than the sum of its part. What that means is that, the relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself. It is not only a part, but the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting part. Creative cooperation unlocks new ideas.
Most fortune 500 companies today succeeded because of great and valuable creative cooperation. Think Warren Buffet and Charlie Monger (Berkshire Hathaway), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), Hewlett and Packard (HP), Steve Jobs and Steve Wazoniak (Apple), Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft).
When next you need a cutting edge idea for a new product or service, collaborate with a mastermind group, brainstorm together and spark up intelligent group discussions.
Task: Identify people from diverse field of profession who are intelligent and resourceful and form a group together with them.
Exposure
The world is there for you to tour, enjoy and get experience. Your level of exposure matters a lot when it comes to getting ideas. How things are done in your part of the world is definitely different from how it is done else where. The idea you need to get that job done might be to observe how that same issue is been tackled else.
Reading and traveling helps to re-arrange thoughts and processes in our mind. It opens up our mind to alternative ways of getting things done.
Task: Make time out to visit other countries and observe their diverse way of doing things. You will definitely learn a lesson or two which you will find applicable one day when in need to ideas.