Ideas

Ideas are like belly buttons. Every body has them. The question is, what do you do with your ideas? As a small business owner, hopefully you find a way to take your ideas and turn them into a lucrative franchise, or, maybe even, the next Google. Think about it: Sergey Brin and Larry Page were a couple of geeks till they took their brilliant idea (I believe it started with them writing a thesis at Standford) for organizing the world’s information, and ran all the way to the billionaires club with it. Now they own their own boeing 767 and are both listed on the Forbes List of Billionaires.

What is the price of an idea? The beauty about it is that ideas are priceless. They cost you zero dollars but could make you a gazillion. All you have to do is think them up. How hard can that be?

Ideas can come to you from all sources, places and people. Ideas can come in your dreams, from your soap lather as you shower in the morning, from the glass of wine that loosened you up over dinner, from the clouds. You don’t have to be in any special place to get really good ideas. Ideas have no sense of timing. They pop up all the time, sometimes even when you are busy doing really important things, wink wink.

Different people, including quantum physicists have different ideas of where ideas come from. Jack Foster, author of How to Get Ideas suggests that each person can actually program themselves to be more “idea prone.” He seems to think there is a science to getting ideas to flow. Whether his theory is right or wrong, it is probably true that every body has at least one brilliant idea in their lifetime. Those who become millionaires or, in Bill Gates’ case, billionaires, just seem to know when and how and what to do with it.

There is not one small business or big business that did not start with an idea. Nothing in the entire universe – even the creation of the universe itself – started without an idea. The Big Bang was an idea. Something, somewhere, thought it up. Kentucky Fried Chicken was an idea. The P.C. was an idea, so was the light bulb, jogging shoes and Victoria's Secret underwear. Every book that was ever written and published began with an idea. Microsoft was an idea. So was Starbucks. Every fashion show in Milan and Paris starts with an idea. Vogue Magazine was somebody’s idea and it wasn’t Anna Wintour’s. The International Monetary Fund was somebody’s idea. Video games were somebody’s idea. New York Sports Club, Disney and Liposuction – all ideas.

Probably no other business is more filled with ideas than Hollywood. Hollywood is literally an idea tank. People with ideas gravitate to Hollywood more than they do to Silicon Valley. Hey, Steve Jobs would be lucky if he got half the ideas that floats around Hollywood in a given day. Putting Brad Pitt and Angelina in a movie together. Who’s idea was that? The movie industry has spawned many derivative industries and companies, from production companies, to PR outfits, Studios to Cinemas, to MTV - all of which depends on other people's ideas to keep going.

If you are stomped about what kind of business you want to start, or how to take your business to the next level, maybe you need to get in touch with your idea lobe, that side of the brain that does the thinking. The trick seems to be not to censor yourself and your ideas. It seems to be that the more you can allow yourself to become like a kid, the more likely you are to come up with something brilliant.