John intends to start a business, Ada
wants to write a book and Bayo is good at
music and wants to become a
professional musician. They have many
ideas running through their minds about
these things they want to do. John has a
lot of business ideas, Ada has ideas of
different plot lines for her book and Bayo
has a lot of good tunes in mind. But they
all have a common problem - how will
they bring these ideas to reality?
Ideas are great but unless something is
done with them, they remain worthless.
In this post, I will try to suggest ways to
go about bringing your ideas to reality.
The points are not exhaustive because I
intend to make it brief. Please stay with
me.
1. Get organised.
Scott Belsky in his book on this subject
states that a surplus of ideas is as
dangerous as a lack of it. The tendency to
jump from one idea to another drains your
energy and you struggle to make
progress. Without some structure, you can
become an addict of the brain-spinning
indulgence of idea generation.
Let's consider two individuals, Tunde and
Ahmed. Tunde has a lot of ideas but is so
disorganized that no particular idea is
fully realised while Ahmed with half the
creativity and just a little more
organisational ability makes more
progress in implementing his ideas.
So we can see that someone with average
creativity but good organisation skill will
make a greater impact than the
disorganised creative geniuses among us.
This is why some 'less creative' artists
might produce more work than their
talented inventive counterparts.
You could boast and say 'I've got a lot of
good ideas!' but it's of no use if you
never turn any of them into reality.
Remember, people cannot see into your
brain to know what great ideas you have
in there (at least not yet, I haven't heard
of any device that can do that or have
you?)
Therefore no matter the number of
fantastic ideas you have running through
your brain, you need to prioritize and
focus on one or find a way to channel all
of them in one direction(if possible) in
order to get something out of those ideas.
This will require some discipline.
2. Motivate yourself.
The world can sometimes be a cruel place
and doing the unfamiliar brings you face
to face with resistance.
In the words of Scott Belsky, society is a
bit hypocritical. The mainstream shuns
creative people especially when they defy
the status quo. Dropping out of school or
choosing an alternative career is frowned
upon but at the same time we celebrate
the successes of artists and entrepreneurs
who took that path and have enriched
various aspects of our lives. Society thus
celebrates the outcome of what it frowns
at. So you see that you may not get all
the support you need from people around
you and God help you if your idea is not
what people are used to.
Hence you will have to learn to maintain
your confidence when doubted. This
means you need to believe in the success
of the idea you are pursuing even amidst
contrary opinions. Remember, there will
always be naysayers.
3. Take the bold step.
Stepping out into the unknown can be
scary. We all experience that inertia and
that is why most ideas die before they
come into reality.
But sometimes you just need to step out
and you will be surprised at how things
will fall in place.
Some years back, my friends and I had an
idea about hosting an academic program
for kids. We were still in the university at
that time and we did not have enough
money for the project. We needed to
involve some VIPs and that would cost
money. The odds were really against us
but we stepped out anyway.
In the end, we were able to raise the
amount we needed for the project. How
did we do it? We were simply passionate
about what we wanted to do and were
able to sell our idea to those who
eventually supported us even though they
had not seen such a program before.
That made me realise that anything is
possible and sometimes you just have to
step out and begin to pursue whatever
you have in mind even against the odds.
Let's say you want to write a book and
ideas have been coming to you. But
because you don't see the possibility of
publishing the book due to lack of finance
or other constraints, you have decided to
neglect those ideas. Don't do that
anymore. Start writing the manuscript of
that book and put your best into it. You
may be surprised that someone will like
your work and offer to help you publish it.
Even if nobody recognizes you
immediately, keep writing and one day, the
breakthrough will come for you.
Same goes for any venture you want to go
into. Start small and watch it grow into
something big.
One problem we have is that we see
people who have built large business
empires and celebrities who are excelling
in their careers and tend to get
discouraged. But the fact is, they did not
just get there overnight. It took years of
working on their ideas until they became
reality.
4. Involve other people.
Sometimes you get more out if your ideas
when you involve others. The idea of
hosting a program for kids that I
mentioned earlier was actually brought up
by one of us and we all joined hands to
make it work. The idea would have died if
my friend insisted on doing it alone
because it would have been extremely
difficult for him to do it all by himself.
Nothing will assist your idea more than a
team of people who possess real positive
initiative.
The humbling truth is that ideas don't
always happen through solitary ingenuity.
Other people always play a role in
pushing your ideas forward through their
valuable suggestions. Your idea could
gain a new dimension for good when
others get involved.
Involving others make you accountable for
being productive and following through
with your project. If you work in isolation,
your ideas come and go without
accountability and stimulation from
others.
Partnership helps you capitalize on
feedback and it also helps you share the
burden of executing the project.
However, partnerships must be carefully
formed to avoid engaging the wrong
people in your project. That would
obviously be counterproductive. Don't
involve just any kind of person in your
project. Some people will end up killing
your idea
As I conclude, let me say a few things
worthy of note.
As you pursue your idea, don't get caught
up in the novelty of what you are doing
that you loose touch with what has
already been done before. Note that not
much is entirely new and you can learn
from the past. As you encounter things
during the the execution of your idea,
know that the situation you face isn't as
isolated and unique as you think. You can
tap into previous knowledge which is
usually risk-free and time-tested.
As you harness lessons from the past,
you must also question them not in a bid
to discard them but to avoid being
imprisoned by the status quo. While it is
certainly good to find and follow time-
tested methods as you pursue your
projects, it is dangerous to passively
accept advice. Hence, rather than carrying
on with the way things have always been
done, recognise that anything can be
done better.
I have to stop here. I can't exhaust all
there is to be said on this subject but I
believe you get the point I'm trying to
make in this post. Thank you for reading.
I do hope you found the post helpful.
Feel free to share how you've been able
to bring some of your ideas to reality.
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