A Really Good Idea

I recall that when my son was a small boy, we were eating breakfast at a small cafe near our local airport.  Every time a plane came into land, our conversation needed to stop as we could barely hear each other over the loud engine roar of the plane.  That's when my son turned to me and said, "When I get older, I want to invent an airplane that doesn't make any noise"

As an engineer, I chuckled at his naivety and decided not to burst his creative spirit by telling him all the scientific reasons why jet engines typically make a lot of noise.  I asked him a couple of follow-up questions (to which he had few answers) and soon the topic turned to other mundane topics such as "why do birds fly and not people?".

Creativity is a strange thing.  Many people sit at their desks wondering what the next "big idea" might be.  They tell themselves that they could be rich or famous (or both)  if only they could think of a good idea.  Good ideas are typically new and/or novel are generally hard to come by.

Wayne Gretzky is perhaps ice hockey's greatest player ever.  Once asked about his success, he famously replied, "I never skate to where the puck is...but rather to where the puck will be"

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Steve Jobs is another visionary who seems to be constantly skating to where "the puck" might be one day.  I often wonder, however, how many bad ideas does someone, like Steve Jobs, must have before they come up with a winner.  I really believe that good ideas often build from several bad ideas rather than waiting for that one great idea.

Good ideas don't come from looking around and copying what everyone else is doing.  They don't come from watching TV or a movie; where very little activity is occurring between the ears.  They don't come from listening to experts, talk radio, or the talking heading reading the nightly news.  They can, however, come from reading a book, surfing random websites, or participating in an online discussion.

I typically get some of my best ideas while my head is under the shower in the morning (maybe the hot water on my head stimulates good ideas...or maybe that reasoning is just another one of my bad ideas).  I also get some great ideas when I'm on a long bike ride or taking a road trip in my car.

Some of my best creative ideas come to me during conversations with friends who help to create a safe environment to share thoughts, they might add their own input or perhaps embellish my original thoughts. 
Really good ideas come from novices and youngsters who don't know any better (such as my 4-year old son) rather than from people who seem know better like focus groups and/or so-called experts.


Good ideas might come in English, German, Chinese, Arabic or French.


Practice helps.  It's often interesting to note that the people who often come up with good ideas are the same ones that come up with a lot of ideas.


Good ideas can come from deep thought, being scared or frightened, ways to help people, art, music, and from nature.  They come from being alert and awake.  They come from active participation.  They come from listening rather than talking.


The first books that many of us read (at least in my age group) were the "Dick and Jane" books.  Two of the most important words that we first learned from these books were "look" and "see" (as in See Dick run or Look at Jane)  Great ideas come from personal observations.


Great ideas potentially come from 4-year old boys who don't know anything about physics.


Perhaps you can spend some time over the next few days thinking up as many ideas as you can...both good and bad ones...practical and impractical...life-changing and mundane...


Sounds like a pretty good idea to me...


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