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“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” | Thomas Edison |
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DEDICATORY
The idea for this ebook is dedicated to my father, who from a very young age, taught me the importance of translating vision to action by having the courage to do so. Thanks dad.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR I am Gianpaolo Pietri. The author of Revolution 2.1: How We ShouldLive, slated for release in mid-October. I write the blog Simply Optimal to provide a blueprint for how we should live based on 5 principles: Minimalism, Entrepreneurship, Mobility, Adaptability, Sustainability. To learn more about me, go here. I have always been an idea man. I have always been a big picture guy. I have been trafficking in ideas since I was a young lad. The only problem was, I had no clue how to take action to execute them. Ideas have been flooding through me since I can remember, but it has only been recently that I have positioned myself to take effective measures in bringing them about. The main focus of all my efforts now is committed to bringing vision to fruition. Since making this commitment, I have started two blogs and written two ebooks showing others how to take deliberate action towards their goals. Ideate is the direct result of this process. I hope you will find it valuable in helping you bring your own visions to reality.
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Some of the ideas in this book were inspired by two publications written by others who focus their energy on helping make ideas happen. The first book is Seth Godin’s Unleashing the Ideavirus. Seth’s work as a writer and blogger has been instrumental in my development as each of those.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The second book is Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. Scott is a master ideator who makes a living from showing others how to bring new visions to fruition. The writing of Nathan Bransford was also influential, especially in differentiating between the 1st Idea and all the ones that follow. For their great work in this area, I want to thank them for inspiring me to contribute this work to that end. Thanks guys. You’re work is an inspiration to us all.
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I. WHAT IS IDEATE? II. HAVING IDEAS IV. TIPS FOR MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
III. WHERE THE BEST IDEAS COME FROM V. 33 REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS THAT CHANGED THE WAY WE LIVE VI. 5 IDEAS POISED TO CHANGE THE FUTURE VII. YOUR THREE IDEAS VII. SHARE AND ENJOY
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[v. ahy-dee-eyt, ahy-dee-eyt; n. ahy-dee-eyt, ahy-dee-it] verb, -at·ed, -at·ing, noun
i· de· ate
–verb (used with object) 1. to form an idea, thought, or image of. –verb (used without object) 2. to form ideas; think. –noun 3. ideatum. Origin: 1600–10; ide(a) + -ate1 —Related forms i·de·a·tive [ahy-dee-uh-tiv, ahy-dee-ey-] adjective un·i·de·at·ed, adjective un·i·de·at·ing, adjective
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Ideas come and go all the time. They can strike at any time and take an infinite number of forms. They come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they come at the most inoportune moments and from the unlikeliest of places forcing us to find creative ways to make sure they stick. One of the most important characteristics for generating ideas comes directly from the 5 principles of the Simply Optimal blueprint. Adaptability
HAVING IDEAS
Being adaptable means being flexible and open to the constant shifting of the tides of experience, environment, and circumstance. Like the sea, at times the tide rushes in in a swell of inspiration. Then there are times when the tide subsides, and you’re left walking the desert wasteland where you couldn’t touch a good idea with a 10’ pole. We need to find a way to enhance the one, and reduce the latter, so we can start creating more work that matters for us as individuals, and as a civilization. We need to ideate now more than ever in order to preserve the opportunities we’ve spent generations forging. Here are 5 tips to help you stay afloat during high tide, and find solace when the tide subsides.
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BE CURIOUS In many ways we are all curious about specific things, which change from person to person. When focused in the right place, curiosity can lead to great discovery. When harnessed properly, it can lead to new discoveries every day. That’s what we’re looking for: consistency in ideating. Leonardo DaVinci was a master at targeting his curiosity toward worthwhile goals that led to meaningful execution of some powerful ideas. His curiosity alone may be the sole reason he’s considered one of the greatest innovators of all-time. Curiosity drives passion. Edison’s relentless curiosity is what drove his passion to pursue the creation of a light bulb that worked for an extended period of time after failing to do so thousands of times. The need to know compelled him to experiment obsessively with different filaments. The one that finally worked? Cardboard. Go figure. Be curious about the world around you and the needs of the community to which you belong. Doing so will empower you to develop viable, transformational ideas on how to change it.
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BE OPEN Let the ideas flow through you like an ocean’s current when they come. Don’t limit yourself to the ones you think are good, the ones you think are viable, or the ones you think may be profitable. Explore them all. You never know which will be the one to finally hit, and change the way we live. Being open-minded is all about tearing down the walls of conformity and convention. We all find comfort in the usual and familiar, but it is the unusual and unknown that lead us to points of change, and open the floodgates of discovery. New discoveries always lead to new innovations. We need to grab the keys away from the gatekeepers who tell us we need to be safe, obedient, and comfortable. We need danger, freedom, and discomfort. Take a trip to a place you never thought you would. Flip things on their head and see them in a new light. Play around. Test new doors. Open them and see what lies on the other side.
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BE ADVENTUROUS A lot of these suggestions will seem self-evident to readers. There’s only one explanation for that. They are. But despite the obvious, we live in a World which can at times seem starved for new ideas. Being adventurous demands creativity in order solve complex problems that inevitably arise when you venture off the beaten path. Another ideating characteristic that stems directly from being adventurous, taking risks, and throwing yourself into the unknown, is exposure. Ideas are all about combining exposure with experience. The arithmetic is simple. The more you expose yourself to, the better the library of experience you can tap into when ideating to create something new, something unforgettable. Get out there. I’ve learned more from my trips abroad to places like Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and South America than I ever did staying at home. The Discovery Channel can be great, but nothing compares to the real thing.
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BE HUMBLE Being humble may seem counterintuitive when you want to turn inspired thoughts into innovative actions. So let me explain. Vanity and arrogance can deter you’re ability to come up with new ideasHumility helps ideate. It keeps you from blosking out things based on pride and prejudices. If ideating has an enemy, it’s prejudice. Passing judgments on things, people and places without having all the information. The prejudice of pride is an idea inhibitor, not an idea incubator.
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BE AMBITIOUS Mark McGuinness from Lateral Action wrote a great article titled, Are You Ambitious Enough?, on the 99% blog, which is a great place to learn how to turns ideas into actions. Here’s an introductory excerpt describing the premise of the article. “These days, “ambition” is a dirty word. People who are “ambitious” are viewed as either selfish or unrealistic. (“That sounds a bit ambitious” is code for “you are going to fail.”) Yet it wasn’t always this way. The poet James Fenton points out that 500 years ago in Renaissance Florence, artists had no qualms about admitting their ambitions.” Ambition spurs competition, which in turn leads to innovation. Don’t be afraid to let the world know what you want to achieve, and put up a fight against those who say you simply can’t do it. It will be hard. It will test your every nerve. It will require strength of character and discipline of mind, but it will always take you somewhere you needed to go.
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THE 1st IDEA “First ideas are much like first loves. “ | CURTIS BRANSFORD | When we first think of an idea we are convinced is great, we tend to fall in love with it right away. We become obsessed with that original conceptualization of it. When others give us feedback suggesting it may not work, we brush them off and push forward headstrong. Writers tend to tdo this a lot when drafting a novel. The truth is the first idea is just a starting point. It is a launch pad from which to develop other ideas that may prove to be stronger and work better. It’s not important to remember that the 1st idea is not the endpoint, it’s only the beginning. This is something I have to remind meyself of in my design work. Nine times out of ten, where you started will look nothing like where you end up. That applies to every single one of the buildings I’ve worked on.
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THE 10th IDEA By the time you reach the 10th idea stemming from the 1st one, is when the magic starts to happen. By this time you have thought about, opened yourself to multiple directions. You have gotten a glimpse of what is working and what isn’t working. When you reach the 10th idea, you may start to see if it really has staying power or not. Remember that the 10th idea is not the end. It is only the end of the beginning. Turning this idea into reality will require determination, ambition, hard work, and discipline. And, yes, of course 10 is just an arbitrary number to illustrate the point. The one that works may be number 20, or 30, or 1,000. Thomas Edison was said to have tried thousands of filaments before stumbling onto the one that worked.
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