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.