Building more ideas, part II - Foundation

Everyone's heard about building a house on the sand. It doesn't work. You've got to have a solid foundation to start from. In fact, a solid foundation is of paramount importance to a building. Construct a house on a weak foundation, and no matter how beautiful it is, it will eventually fall. So it is with ideas.

Your foundation in this case is lots of ideas. How do you get lets of ideas? Stop killing them. To start having more ideas, you have to let yourself have bad ones and acknowledge that it's ok. Bad ideas are a starting place, a learning experience. Start by letting all your ideas out - good and bad. Don't hold any back. Don't think about what won't work or what's too far fetched. And do the people around you the same favor. Encourage people to speak any and all ideas that are on their mind.

Ideas are a little like family reunion food. According to my grandma, too much is great, but not enough is a tragedy. That's because its always easier to cut things out than it is to add to what you have. So by taking all ideas, good and bad, you'll have many more to choose from. And often, the inspiration for good ideas comes from bad ones.

And ideas seem to multiply, just like tribbles. They increase exponentially.

It will take practice and courage to stop killing ideas, but keep at it. You have to lay the foundation to your idea building, and the more ideas you have to add to it, the more solid your foundation will be.