9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

Evolving Your Ideas

Most of us know that Starting a business can be a massive headache!

And sadly – many business startups just never make the grade.

So, whilst the education and experience are very useful – we want to ensure our ideas don’t  fail!   In fact 8 out of 10 businesses fail in their first year.

Why is this? – for various reasons and I will touch on these soon – but the real key is that it all begins with YOU.  Obvious?  Not to many.

I must say that – I have had my past fair share of experience and education in the business arena, but thankfully I managed to take that and apply the right marketing to become effective in my efforts.   So why is it that there are certain principles which work and some that just don’t?  And also, why is it that some businesses just fail even when it all looks good, whilst others don’t? 

 

I will show you that there are just certain processes which are needed to evolve your idea the correct ways using these – and if you don’t do so you may become one of the 80% that sadly fail.

1. Expressing Your Ideas! Click To Tweet

But we don’t want that!

I must admit that – I am a BIG dreamer and well, I am proud to be. BUT, I am also someone who is naturally a starter not a finisher. Why?  I don’t know, but I was able to identify this and firstly manage to start finishing stuff, and seeing things through thoroughly, but also hiring others who could help me when I didn’t want to lose focus.

So:

1. I will typically get tons of ideas. This is both good and bad.  It takes up a lot of my time and energy – but I can also hand it over
2. I hire others who are better than me as evolving the idea so I can focus on my core strengths
3. Not all ideas work of course, so it pays to know which are worth pursuing fully by deciding which ones to develop or not
4. There is a set process I will use when an idea comes to mind and I follow through with that until the point of when I ditch or develop it 

I am someone who explores ideas most days, and I allow myself to be creative when building something new and exciting, and I think that creativity is very important in business but I also know that logic and reason are very important also.  So I set aside time to focus on the idea.

My own experience and education in business has helped me out ‘way more’ than any conventional education, so it is what I have learnt since building businesses that is most powerful but I never forget to be a kid when lost in ideas.  Kids are not conditioned like we are, so they dream and imagine WITHOUT LIMITS, and we need to be able to harness this.

I had to learn the most effective ways to get results ‘for me’ and of course to get results for my clients, and I had to negate some of what I was taught at school.  This took some creativity and some radically different thinking!  And whilst creativity is great and all well and good, it’s the processes that come from this where the real skills are needed in business.

You see, creativity is the starting point, but it is in the execution, delivery and message that will make the real difference.  No matter how creative we are, we need to know whether it’s even any good or not.  When we are emotional, passionate and excited we can also become blinded by the cold hard reality of IF this idea will even work and allow us to sell or not.  Do you get where I am coming from?

Ideas are well, ideas!   But they certainly don’t all guarantee huge rewards or revenue.

Let’s go back to dreaming for a moment.

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

Oscar Wilde once wrote – ‘Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he see’s the dawn before the rest of the world’.

There are many theories to what he meant by that quote but I took it to mean that IDEAS people never sleep as they cannot stop thinking.

One may disagree with me on that quote but, I know that certainly I am a very actively minded person, and so being this way renders me very tired as I explore ideas until the night becomes day.

Now, many conventional schools may deem dreaming or exploring ideas as NOT FOCUSING!     Like the kid at school who was never paying attention (me!) .  So, many conventional teaching establishments will often have us believe that by dreaming it means that we cannot focus on anything and so we will probably amount to nothing.

But without ideas and change the world would have gotten pretty stuck, so we need thinkers and think tanks where these ideas genius’s may express themselves.

EXPRESSING IDEAS AND CREATIVITY = Sharing ourselves in the most powerful creative ways 

Sure, never being able t focus on anything this may be the case for many – and it may lead to a life of erratic behavior and little achievement, but what if it’s just that many teaching styles are boring and dull? And what if that doesn’t help some kids?

Evolving Your Ideas

It didn’t help me!

So, do we need more fun in teaching?

I think today we are far more aware of the needs of the young and hopefully with our ever expanding knowledge of the Human being we are beginning to shape various educational styles so we can cater for all kinds of kids.

Now when someone brings me an idea I go over what we have just gone over and I explain to them exactly that a great deal of research would need to be undertaken ‘should’ they wish to pursue this idea.   So, I will have some fun with the client when we are exploring ideas, and if they are worth exploring of course, so my client and me will get the most out of our time together.

So, I  do encourage the focus to follow our dreams, and we can do, but we must also be prepared to let some ideas go also.

Brene Brown said – Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world

I love that quote and I agree that we are digging into our deepest desires and values and pulling out our wildest fantasies from the core of who we are, so there is nothing rational initially with this kind of expression.  That’s the point.   We are being limitless in our dreams.

But there is a time when we then catch hold of that core desire and we examine it’s parts.  And this is where we need to look at what it might become through careful scrutiny and plenty of opinions.  We cannot simply afford to BELIEVE in everything without first working through our desires with the right team or partner.

Evolving Your Ideas

Hey don’t panic though – you don’t need to be quite as good as focusing as this dude – but FOCUS is very important!

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

It is when we start to really create and evolve ideas that we can then start to put the pieces together.

The truth is though that with higher competition levels these days, it can be tough to make an idea truly original, and – is any idea now truly original anyway?  I’m not sure.

So there is a lot of competition out there BUT another factor is that people can get easily bored by so much now.

So, we tend to move from one ting to another as it has become a kind of common distraction we face today.

What can this mean?  I have several friends who are ‘what I would call’ ideas genius’s and they come to me with ideas all of the time.  I love them for it, but I also can often see their enthusiasm for this idea only to find that two weeks later they have moved onto an entirely different idea.

Along with this ever increasing fast paced world, many large companies are trying to market to us and advertise to us in very pushy and aggressive ways, and I just don’t enjoy it.

But, it still works for some.  It doesn’t work on me anymore – as I zone out and move on.

So, what di we do with our idea?

There certainly has been a shift in the way we harness ideas today, and one open way of creating and expressing ideas is in teams and in think tanks and universities, where the ideas can flow and magic can occur; but what if you don’t have this kind of access?

When it comes to selling products, we will get way better results and our customers love us. Agreed?  So we cannot simply rely upon a good idea as anything until we know it is going to be accepted by a core consumer.

But the issue can be that – there are so many BIG businesses and startups nowadays who are trying to get the the lions share of the market that its tough for some of the smaller businesses to get a voice isn’t it?  Well, being a small business owner does offer an advantage in that you and I can have that personal touch, and we can tsalk directly to our customers especially if they are local or easily accessible. We may have more 1ON1 care also, so this means that we (you and I) can get our share.

But does this mean that you and I need bigger budgets to be seen and heard?

1. Expressing Your Ideas! Click To Tweet

The good news is NO!  We don’t.

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

All we need to do is to APPEAL in the right ways. Well, I say ALL!  It ain’t always that easy as anything worth doing and which is great can take time!

I was fortunate in that I was able to appeal to more highly refined premium buyer.

So, my core audience is quite small and once I create loyalty in a client I can sell to them more than once.

This also means I can TEST my ides with them. I can ask them what they want, desire, fear or are passionate about.  So by expressing my ideas with creativity in certain ways, I can also directly find out whether these are worth pursuing or not BEFORE I HAVE REALLY INVESTED TIME, ENERGY or REVENUE INTO IT!

Only if an idea is worth it, I will then build a solid workable plan into it. And follow through with monitoring and measuring the initial launch.  I wonder if you can see the process? yes, it  can STILL BE VERY TOUGH and it will always be, but there are times when ideas can change the world.

What I can say is that – the art of being childlike can be a highly underrated skill.

 

I know it sounds like a skill which may not always seem serious, or even resonate in serious business environments, but it works for me.  And I believe that when we are free of the constraints of our conditioning, conventionalism and any other barriers to explore expression, we can create and shape almost anything we choose, and make something really special.

My suggestion would be to play with your dreams, have fun, flirt with ideas, and enjoy the process, as some of the greatest men and women of our time have created some of the greatest inventions, innovations and creations which have literally transformed the way we live today. All by letting go of constraints.

But how do ‘you or I’ express our Ideas and Creativity effectively? 

The thing is – with so much of this out there and around us today, and with so many fresh young minds and startups trying to appeal to us – it gets a bit crowded. ( I know, I sounded really old then!)  But, it can become increasingly difficult to STAND OUT where there are so many ways to create today.

But something I have learned over the years is to NOT BE LIKE others.

Not to think like others, and not to follow the rules. But to make up the rules.

So, having a great idea is one thing, BUT you also need to know how to express it powerfully, correctly and honestly.  People talk about being transparent, and it is somewhat of a buzz word, but we really do need to be. So I would say that we need to BE AUTHENTIC!

And this goes for each and every part of business.  I would never use PUSHY OLD MARKETING TACTICS, and I am certainly not a SHODDY SALESMAN.

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

Just look at his expression!  Who in their right mind would buy from that sleazeball or trust him?   

Evolving Your Ideas

We have all had enough of false promises and over hyped crap which doesn’t deliver.  We have also ALL had enough of lying governments, corporations and lame business owners trying to sell the B.S to us right?  Of course, so, start right.  By being fun and engaging but also REAL in your approach!

Don’t expect anyone to buy into something which has had no time or effort placed into it.

So, we can start by reaching out to our social media friends and family and our teams, and also any customers we may already have.  We can use social media to ask questions, we can engage and have fun and we can flirt with the ideas to help determine what we might do with it.

We have to pay attention to where things are moving, and we have to try to have an edge over others in how we strategize. 

With so much of the core business transaction now made online we have to also see that we are approaching the most highly advanced tech digital era the world has ever known; so we have to know how to appeal using the right tools and systems and at the right time.

What does this mean?

In simple terms it means that – if you have an idea then you have to be able to decide whether it can work in this day and age. And whether to pursue it or not.  It might take ALOT OF WORK from you, and it might even take you 10 years to see any significant growth, so are you really prepared for that?

Certainly, many tech startups can take around 10 years to turn a profit, and of course this is why so many young minds tend to aim for the entrepreneurship angle as they are fresh and ready to take risks.

There are many factors to consider.  And it can depend upon what you know and how you apply it.

Now let’s start this off by asking about YOU!

A part of creating a great idea is in knowing yourself. But why?

Because this idea essentially is coming from you and from your well of creativity.  So, this is good and bad.

The reason for that is that you may be thinking from only your point of view and not that of your team or customers. So, really getting to know YOU means knowing where this is coming from, and if it is a worthy idea or not.  You may get many ideas, but until you have then run it by YOU first and then others you may never know of it’s worth.

So, our own experiences, gifts, education, conditioning, and so on is of immense value, but we also have to know that it is being used in the right ways and areas.

We know then that we can share our greatest ideas with the world in first knowing ourselves and by looking at what we can bring to the table.  Maybe in your case, you want to start a tech startup or you have an idea for an invention?  Perhaps you favor the world of A.I. which is fast becoming an area where experts are needed and implementation of A.I. is required in many businesses now.  So, that’s just the beginning.  The next part is in knowing what to share, why, how and when to share it in the most effective ways.

1. Expressing Your Ideas! Click To Tweet

Seth Godin says – “Don’t try to find customers for your products – find products for your customers”.

A major difference there in what today’s world expects.

So let’s look at the profoundly deep question ‘WHO ARE YOU?  DEEP STUFF right!  Maybe? 

But seriously, then you dig deeper and look at what you might offer in the way of expressing these ideas with impact just as I mentioned. 

Evolving Your Ideas

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

Here are some simple yet 
proven processes which will 
help you along the way:

1. 1. WHAT IS YOUR IDEA and WHY COULD IT WORK OR NOT?  – You need to explore literally every avenue before you start to place your hard earned time and effort into it. So, have fun remember!

    

2. ONCE YOU HAVE EXPLORED IT FULLY – YOU EITHER DITCH IT OR DEVELOP IT. – What tools do you need exactly to start looking at taking this to the next level and what will it take to move forward every day. Do you need a great team?  I would say YES!  As great progress seldom happens with evolving ideas when you are alone.
3. WHAT WILL YOUR ROLE BE EXACTLY AND WHY – If you are not working in an area you are a professional in/have skills in/ experiences/ or passions then it may not be the ideal role for you?  Do you need training? Look for your ultimate role in your new venture and build a brand around it.  This is so important because too many startups and ideas types try to DO IT ALL alone and they suffer from burn out very quickly.
4. BE PREPARED TO BE PATIENT – You will need to start and move quickly, but at the same time not make silly mistakes as you are creating a products which your ideal customers may already need. Remember what Seth Godin said?  FIND PRODUCTS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.  – This is the primary reason why so many new businesses fail as they get this wrong.
5. BUILD A BRIDGE – You are building a bridge between your best working style, your passions, and a product/service and customer and so you will need a great business partner or team.  –  This is where you need to hire the competent types who can share your vision, message, ethics and culture.  Sound complicated?  it can be, so get help with this as this is crucial.  In fact it – is commonly said that the first 10 people you hire will determine the growth and success of your venture. So be careful who you bring in.
6. START TO ATTRACT THE RIGHT FOLLOWERS –  Another piece of wisdom goes like this – ‘It is better to have 100 people who love you and are raving fans than to have 1000,000 who think you are ok.  Why?  Because, 100 loyal raving fans will tell their friends and family.  This will grow with power and authenticity so that by the time you start charging for your product/s/services you will already have those prepared to buy.  If you market simply to anyone and everyone your top line will cost you a lot and this is going to impact on your future success or failure.  Study this area fully to get a grasp of what this means.
7. CHECK OUT STARTUP VIDEOS/TALKS/AUDIOS – Get familiar with the founders of the successful enterprises and ventures of late.  I personally study Harvard and Stanford business schools greatest successes and startup stories.  There is a whole section on ‘hiring the best’ by the Pinterest founder and Stripe Pay founders which you can find on your iPhone by downloading the app ‘itunesU’ and searching for Stanfords ‘How to start a startup’.
8. DO SOMETHING NOW TODAY.  – Action will always and forever beat anything else because you can learn as you move forward.  You don’t have to be a superstar business startup master, you just need to keep learning and apply what I have shared.  You must have the right focus, determination, patience, and message so you have that clear vision – and a great robust Marketing and business plan.  Be accountable for yourself, and be responsible, and this way you will secure funding with that great plan as you move forward.
9. KNOW THAT ITS NOT EASY – Be prepared to get challenges, obstacles, set backs and daily issues.  BUT, this is a part of the process of being an entrepreneur.  Its not for everyone and many quit as they cannot cope with the stress.  So, never think this is going to be easy or straightforward IT AINT!  But for 20% or less of the population who keep on and strive for what they desire, and can take action regardless of challenges – they will be rewarded.  So, never think that running any business is a walk in the park, even though some business ‘types’ may be easier to manage than others.  That’s why it matters to ask what type of business you can see yourself running and why?  There are many types of business these days from lifestyle businesses, to tech startups to franchises to bricks and mortar businesses.  You name it and there is a business built around it, so get used to the grind.

Evolving Your Ideas

Still excited about taking these kinds of risks?  
If so, keep reading.

TIP:  Maybe you are moving rapidly forward with technology and have an idea to get more involved with the tech industry through your business. Then if you particularly keen, I would like to introduce you to A.I. Artificial Intelligence which is a major growth area – and only growing more rapidly, so this course may be something you wish to take part in to further your skills and experience in this area and move into the future being ahead of the game.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE A.I. COURSE AND LOOK TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS WITH A.I

So this really needs to be taken into consideration.

Ideas and Creativity – Are You A Dreamer?

Let’s now go back to your ideas again.  Do you think you know yourself enough to know where you wish to place your ideas?  I know this sounds kind of philosophical BUT FOR GOOD REASON.  You need to know who you are as a person and why you want this so you can place your time and energy into the right areas moving forward. There is nothing worse than giving 110% of your effort to the wrong thing. So, try to become aware of YOU. What you really love, and would want to further venture into.  After all – my business is an extension of me.  It is me, and I am it. Would I be as effective if this was not the case?  Hardly!  So give it your all, but ensure that this is giving your all IN THE RIGHT AREA FOR YOU.

Otherwise it’s just not enough.

By me knowing ‘who I really was’ I could see that my personal traits and skills could be used to draw in the right people with the right message with most power.  But I also knew my weaknesses, so I knew what to avoid.

Whilst it took me many years to get to that point as I never had tips like this, you don’t have to take years about it.

TIP: It is easier to utilize your current skills, talents, abilities, passions and experiences than to start something, and have to re-train before you even start something.  That’s just my humble opinion and from my experience.

Whilst I remember that I was always called a dreamer in school and I would stare out of the window and dream of far away places which seemed like no bad thing then, it certainly didn’t go down too well for me back then.   I couldn’t focus on what I was taught because my teachers were frankly QUITE DULL!  And in my opinion, if they are DULL – how are we meant to learn and absorb what they teach?

If YOU AND I are dull also then why will anyone want to buy from us?  

The fact is – I didn’t learn much at school and I was a college dropout.   I am not proud of these facts, its just that – they are facts. But I learned to leverage my own ideas into the right use of time and with the right mindset.

And these past failures taught me that I had to focus on what was most important.  THE CUSTOMER/CLIENT! And I now teach in fun ways and to help my clients get results.  Thankfully they do get results, so I am proof (I guess) that we can teach how we like.  And more importantly how CLIENTS LIKE to be taught.

What I am getting to is that – the creative faculty is more open when we can be do what we feel – and I am a believer in keeping ‘THE INNER CHILD ALIVE’.

We can easily get bogged down by constant stress, and by overwhelming information which is thrown at us, and we can forget WHO WE ARE essentially because of all the daily demands placed upon us to conform and perform, and to be responsible adults who have to be serious most of the time.

So, why not create something that actually matters to you?

By the way – I don’t want you to be pulling this expression after this post! I want you to be thinking, ‘ah ok, I am getting this now! 

Evolving Your Ideas

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

I suggest you try to make some time to be free of everything – because in doing so you can dream again.

You can play with ideas, have fun and express yourself.  

Remember that some of the worlds greatest achievements have come from being playful and that’s why Google allow their staff to have time to play and they actively encourage employees to use their imagination to come up with new and radically different ideas.

Many great startups come about because of taking action, so I encourage you to write down some of your ideas, and to look at where they could be useful to others and study the markets.

Look at what’s out there already and see if your thing could gain traction.

Of course, not all ideas turn out to be Million dollar ideas!

1. Expressing Your Ideas! Click To Tweet

Now – with this knowledge you can start to really develop something and who knows – it might even become something?   But pay attention to the fact that there are no guarantees in life or in business.  Sorry!  You knew that right?  Sure, there are no guarantees, BUT i’m sure you know that you will have a greater chance of evolving your ideas and creativity and perhaps have less risk with the right help?  Your probability of success is raised by applying certain principles and by measuring progress – not by hope or theory.   And what comes into this is how you start.

NOTE: By the way if you fancy yourself as a Digital Business owner then check out my post here about how I scaled my own digital business    

By the way that’s not me – that’s a very philosophical Wiseman.  Unless you are that guy, you will need to get the right help from the right Wisemen and wise women.

9 Tips To Evolving Your Ideas The Right Way – Are You A Dreamer?

Evolving Your Ideas

I cannot offer you him but – I can offer you expert Small business help!  So If you need an experienced Small Business Consultant who understands your Ideas and Creativity and has built many highly successful businesses for himself and his clients – I can offer you ME!  Simply visit www.GregDeTisi.com and we can have a chat and I can help you ‘for free’ to put all of this together in a plan which is robust and powerful and will help you to start creating your dream ideas into an actual product. 

Remember that, dreaming is ok, as long as it can be placed into something worthy. So use the life you have been given to do something special.  And if that means starting an exciting new venture then I wish you the best of luck.

I believe that my life without FUN ideas would be an unfulfilled existence, so having ideas is important in Human expression, and to to express them, share them, and implement them is what makes a REAL difference in this world.

Here are some quotes which have inspired me and my ideas:

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act”.
– Andre Malraux

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced”.

– Swami Vivekananda

“The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success”.
– Henry Ward Beecher

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea”.
– Buddha

“Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about”.
– Ashleigh Brilliant

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats”.
– Howard Aiken

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living”.
– Anais Nin

“New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!”
– Arthur C. Clarke

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard”.

-Guy Kawasaki, All Top Co-founder

“Make mistakes faster”.

-Andrew Grove, Intel Co-founder

1. Expressing Your Ideas! Click To Tweet

As always I wish you the very best

Greg

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Evolving Your Ideas

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GregDeTisi

Author and Small Business Blogger at Greg De Tisi Writing and Small Business Blogging

Author of 26 books, a course creator and business blogger - Greg has been supporting clients from all backgrounds all over the globe for over 15 years in developing ideas and passions into sustainable Small Business Models. Greg now has more of a focus on supporting his local business community in Bristol UK.