Simple is best

What's the easiest way to get someone to buy in to your idea? Make sure it's simple.

Not that this is necessarily easy. Sometimes it can be difficult to pare things down to their simplest terms. But the easier it is for someone to understand your idea, the more likely they are to believe in it.

The Common Craft Show does this really well. They use short videos to tell you three things:
1. what the idea is or what problem it addresses
2. how the idea works
3. why you should care

They have many very useful videos on serious topics such as social networks, elections, and blogs. This not so serious one is my favorite:



Happy Halloween!

Let's get together

Have you visited www.meetup.com? It's one of the best ideas I've come across recently. I know I am late to the game (meetup.com was started in 2002 - a lifetime ago in web terms), but it's still really cool.

Basically, you can look for a group that has interests similar to yours that meets in your area. Or, you can start a group if none exists.

Try it! Go out and meet some new people and give your ideas a kick start.

Cut out your limits

I was driving my son to school last week. We were talking geography (his second grade class is doing a unit on landforms, like mountains, deserts, coasts, etc). We were discussing the size of different places.

Mid sentence, he paused and said, "You know, your mind is the biggest open space of all."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

When you're searching for ideas, remember not to set limits. Don't think of why things won't work or what you can't do. Let your mind go and worry about the constraints later.