Idea Factory | How to come up with great ideas.

November 12, 2006

Ideas. Everyone has them on some level. Some bigger, more grandiose than others.

Ever since I was little, my Dad and I would always brainstorm in the car on the way to soccer about different ideas. I remember when I was about 14 or 15 and this whole ‘Interweb’ was really catching on and Dad piped up, “Pawnshop.com, that would be huge. Selling and trading items online, it could be big.” I ignored him at the time being a snot nose teenager and nothing ever came of it but he was dead on with that one (Ebay has done a OK at it, eh?). I always enjoyed the ‘idea sessions’ we’d go back and forth on, never ruling anything out, always iterating.

These days, this practice has definitely spilled over into my personal/professional life, sometimes to a fault (thankfully my wife hasn’t divorced me over it yet). I always seem to be coming up with new ideas. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. People often ask me how do I get into the ‘mindset’ of coming up with these ideas and never had had a good answer for them. So after putting a bit of thought behind it, here are some ‘ideas‘ on how to get thinking creatively so you all can begin coming up with your Million Dollar Ideas!

1) Read - And I’m not talking about your daily Internet reading. Books. Yes, those things with bindings of paper. I don’t know how many ideas have been spurred out of reading books, any kinda of book (fiction, historical, etc). And more often then not, the ideas that come are nothing related to what I’m reading about.

2) Write it down - I was bad at this at first. I would think up this idea or that and then dismiss it, never to be remembered again. Now, I have two moleskine’s that I use. One in my work bag, another by my bedside. Anything I come up with I will put down in one of those two. My mind goes from one thing to another too often to not write it down. And often times, I can’t go to sleep unless I write it down.

3) Get some perspective - In most peoples jobs, there are patterns. And you repeat these patterns over and over and it doesn’t exactly promote creative thinking. So getting outside of your standard mindset/job, whether it be a training class, new type of work, or even vacation can often stoke the idea fire.

4) Research - If you think you have an idea that might turn into a business, then you have to do your homework. Whenever I come up with something, I always go to Google and see if it already exists. And sometimes it does exist…and sometimes that still doesn’t stop me because just because somebody did something similar, doesn’t mean I couldn’t do it better.

5) Brainstorm collectively - From the little story above I, of course, believe highly in this one. To have someone else to bounce your ideas off of is invaluable; especially, if the person can brainstorm the idea with you but also knows when to put your idea in check.

I think my wife is really good at this. She doesn’t think she is real good at coming up with ideas herself but she is able to vibe with me and we’ll go back and forth on ideas. Then, other times, she’ll hear one of my ideas and go, “Ehhh, I wouldn’t use that. I don’t get it.” The ‘devils advocate’ is just as important as the promoter.

None of these thoughts are exactly groundbreaking but if they help you in anyway then great. And if this post spurs a true million dollar idea, hook a brother up will ya?