Ray and Johnny

Here's another great example of taking someone else's idea and making it your own. Good for Ray (he put this version on his album "Love Country Style") and good for Johnny (Ray Charles is singing the song he made famous - indirectly giving him even more fame).

Don't keep yourself from ideas

Here are some of the best ways I've found to have less ideas:

• Get too busy to execute ideas.
• Take every project you are given.
• Say you can do something even when there is no way you can.
• Don't schedule any downtime for yourself.
• Stop brainstorming.
• Listen to people who tell you you can't.
• Listen to yourself when you say that's a dumb idea.
• Do exactly what everyone else is doing.

If you find you aren't in your idea zone, examine your life to see if any of the above is true. If so, fix it. It's keeping you from your ideas.

Idea overload

Ever grow tomatoes? You get five or six plants. You weed them and water them. Once the first ones ripen, it's so exciting.

But before long you get overwhelmed. On sandwiches, spaghetti sauce, salsa - so many wonderful ways to use tomatoes. But you have a life, right? You don’t have time to use all those beautiful, ripe tomatoes. And you feel guilty letting them rot on the vine.

The same thing will happen with ideas. Once you get in the groove, you will have so many wonderful items to execute. All hard won through thinking and talking and brainstorming. But you won’t have time to execute them. It’s ok. Pick the best ideas. Do whatever is doable and whatever will reap the highest rewards for you. And celebrate your fruitful harvest.

The History of NASCAR

Here's another great idea created by transforming something else. In this case, the something else was (on the surface anyway) completely different.

You see, back in the days of prohibition, many enterprising Appalachians made good money producing moonshine. To transport the illegal alcohol from the stills to the place of sale required drivers. The best drivers, of course, were those who could take any risk necessary to outrun the police. They used small fast cars, and often modified them for speed, handling, and increased cargo capacity.

Although the repeal of prohibition in 1933 shut down some of the moonshiners, many continued to operate illegally to avoid paying taxes on their product. This kept the drivers in business and forced them to constantly come up with improvements to keep the police off their trails.

By the 1940's someone had gotten the bright idea to use these drivers and their cars in for-profit races. Popularity of these races grew, and in 1948, NASCAR was officially born.

Take drivers who were willing to risk it all to evade the police. Then get them do the same thing in front of a crowd - legally and for better pay. Now that was a great idea.

Ideas inspire

Face it - the best ideas aren’t yours. But you can take them, add to them, and make something better.

Check out this music video by Will.i.am, based on Barak Obama’s speech January 8 in New Hampshire (if you haven’t already):



Look past all the politics for a moment and focus on the ideas. Obama presents ideas in his speech that resonate with a large audience. However, if voter turnout is an indication of audience (turnout among eligible voters in U.S. presidential elections is estimated at only 50-55%), he still has room to broaden his reach.

Enter Will.i.am (hip hop artist and producer for those of you not into the popular music scene). Inspired by Obama’s ideas, a week later he gets an idea for a song. He calls his other famous friends to contribute their ideas. 48 hours later, he releases the above video. Now the audience that gets to hear Obama’s ideas has grown from
people who are interested in politics
to
people who are interested in politics + people who are interested in music.

At the time I saw it, this version of the video had already been viewed 3,472,590 times on Youtube.

How are you using other people’s ideas to make them even better?

Save the ideas

Idea killing is a problem that runs rampant in companies today. The most common weapon is "yes, but," but killers can also wield an "I don't know...," or a "that won't work." In fact, idea killers have a giant arsenal full of sharp implements to suck the life out of our poor infant ideas.

Often, the worst offender is the voice inside our own head. This negative voice can stop us short before we can even get it out.

I'm not saying we should never give a dissenting opinion. All I'm saying is that most of us give way too many of them. Instead of being a mass murderer, just practice euthanasia.

Tomorrow, try going through the entire day without saying "yes, but," even to yourself. You may be surprised at how often you have to stop yourself.

Idea a day

Here's a fun site if you need a little inspiration: http://www.idea-a-day.com/. It's a site that posts, as the name implies, an idea a day. Check out the top ten ideas (navigation in the upper right corner). In light of all the election coverage lately, I especially like the idea from Day 49. This idea suggests that all voters should get still one vote, but you can use your vote to vote against a candidate. I might need more than one vote for that.