subject: The Power Of Ideas by:Rashid Kotwal [print this page] Walt Disney was in his late 30's when he got the idea for Disneyland. His daughters were young and he enjoyed taking them to the amusement park on Sundays. But while his daughters sat on the rides, he sat on the bench, munching peanuts and thinking.
He thought about how much fun the parks were for kids - but not the adults who brought them. They were dirty, ugly and litter strewn and he wondered if it had to be that way. Most of all he thought of ways to build a park that would be bigger, brighter, cleaner and more fun for the whole family.
It took 15 years for his vision to become a reality. And yes, there were a great many obstacles in the way, including being on the brink of bankruptcy.
But when the park opened in 1955, it was every bit as big and exciting as Disney's dream.
A few years later, Disney decided to build the park in Orlando, Florida. Walt didn't live to see the completion of the park - he died almost 5 years before it opened.
On the day it opened, someone commented to Mike Vance, the creative director of Disney Studios, "Isn't it too bad, Walt Disney didn't live to see this?"
"He did see it," Vance replied simply, "That's why it's here".
Now you may be saying, "That's all very well for Walt, but how do I get creative?"
Here are 6 steps for unleashing your creativity:
1) Exercise your brain!
When I was a child, my grandmother constantly told me that "brains get rusty if you don't use them". Science has now proved that if you don't exercise your neural pathways, they atrophy, and conversely, the pathways that get used, strengthen.
SO START THINKING. Solve problems, learn to play chess, get creative. Just do it.
2) Read
In 1964 a Danish engineer, Karl Kroyer faced a nightmare problem. A freighter, Al Kuwait had capsized and sunk, hull upwards in Kuwait harbour.
The submerged hull, full of rotting drowned sheep carcasses, threatened to contaminate city's desalination plant.
Kroyer's solution? He pumped a total of 27 million ping pong balls into the hull so that the freighter slowly came back to the surface.
Where did he get his idea? From a Donald Duck comic book he'd read to his children!
One of the greatest ways to get inspired is to read inspirational books. Biographies, autobiographies, books on attitude, winning in life etc.
Just do it for 15 minutes a day and you'll notice the results before you know it.
3) Be observant
Most people go about their lives with their minds turned off.
Just observe what's going on around you. Can it be done better? Most inventions occur this way.
A 27 and 29 year old wondered why it was do difficult to share their personal videos with their friends. Utube was born and recently sold for 1.65 BILLION dollars! Now there's the power of observation - and doing something with it.
4) Spend time with creative people
A fire in a fireplace will not burn with just one log. It takes two logs to burn. The flame from one is reflected in the other.
Surrounding yourself with creative people ensures that your flame ignites and continues to burn.
5) Brainstorm
One of the things Disney excelled at was "imagineering" sessions where the top people get in a room and do nothing but imagine the possibilities and design the ultimate in theme park attractions etc.
In these sessions there are no mental limits, no horizons. The Disney organisation has created a culture that is completely idea friendly, honours the imagination and unleashes creativity.
And Google, the world's leading search engine (and boy wouldn't I have loved to have shares when they were starting), has EXACTLY the same culture. Maybe that's why they're number one?
6) Turn your ideas into action
Ideas are absolutely worthless until we take action. Without action, an idea is just fantasy, a dream. An idea empowered with action becomes a force for change.
Learn to focus, communicate and take risks with your ideas and bring them into fruition. Playing safe is boring. Go out and do something!
SO WHERE TO FROM HERE?
It's almost the end of 2006. I don't know about you, but we found the year screamed by.
Whether you're in business or employed, now is the time to reflect. Take that helicopter view and look at the swamp. See the crocodiles? Drain the swamp!
Decide on your major priorities for 2007 and make your business or job revolve around them, NOT the other way round.
So here are some questions you may wish to ponder before the new year starts: (Thanks to Paul Blackburn - our coach)
Are you satisfied with your performance this year? Are there things you really wanted to do, but didn't? Did you have a plan for 2006 and did it unfold the way you thought it would?
Ask yourself: What did you do right? What did you learn? What would you want to do in 2007 as opposed to 2006? How much of what you learned in 2006 will you apply to 2007?
Who did you learn from and why? Who do you need to thank? Who supported you and who dragged you down?
What's your life going to be like in 2007?
Decide your major projects, holidays, whatever it is you want to do.
Get out a calendar and mark them down first. Put down immovable items like birthdays, anniversaries, school activities you want to be present for etc. Then put down the projects you want to work on.
Now and only now go into finer detail. Remember the Stephen Covey's analogy of putting the big rocks in the jar first. Then the smaller ones, then the pebbles and sand and finally the water.
Do it the other way round and you don't fit very many big rocks in.
About the author
Rashid Kotwal is an international speaker and author who specializes in on-line and off-line strategies for direct response marketing and sales optimization. He works with sales organizations want to get more business, faster and with less wasted effort. You can find more information at http://revealedresources.com and http://getclientsonlinefast.com.
