Joshua intends to start a mew 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. The following are four ways to turn your ideas into reality:
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, recognize that anything can be done better.
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