Quantity Should Be Valued More Than Quality When Generating Ideas | Marketing

By StuMcLaren
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Creative thinkers value ideas. America was founded on the power of ideas. I mean that literally. The history of America begins with one man's far-fetched dream of exploring undiscovered lands. Because of his driving ambition, millions and millions of immigrants were able to start new lives and claim whole new territory.

To sail across the world to discover unknown, unchartered territory seems like a very high risk venture, even today. Columbus combined aspects of taking risks that have potentially very high rewards, which is a characteristic of a creative thinker. When Columbus announced his journey to find the new, free world he showed the world that not only was he an explorer, but also an entrepreneur with a creative mind.

What rewards was Columbus able to receive? Just look outside. What he was able to capture is what you look at everyday.

Columbus encompasses what the American dream is made of - taking one idea, fostering it to create his own opportunity and discover a land full of future opportunities. Think about what his one idea has done for millions of people. He courageously opened the doors of opportunity to himself, his family, his country and the rest of the world.

Columbus is a great example of just how much you could possibly gain from harnessing your creative abilities.

All creative thinkers know just how valuable ideas really are. I'm not talking just about the obvious, flashy, crazy, out-there, very profitable ideas.

Creativity is a game of odds. Write that down.

There are rules to creativity and one of them is that you have to go big or go home. What I mean by that is that when you are looking to generate new ideas, you have to generate as many as humanly possible.

At one point in my career, I was speaking to high schools all across North America, I would go in and work with their student leadership groups. We would generate ideas for things like fundraising, ways to generate school spirit, all kinds of different things.

For whatever challenge we were trying to solve, we work together for about an hour and a half. Within each of these sessions our goal was to generate a top 10 list of wow ideas that would solve the challenge.

Quality comes from quantity. Make sure you write that down. During the sessions with the high school students our objective was to come up with as many ideas as possible, following the rule of go big or go home. We always kept in our minds that quality comes from quantity.

The most amazing, fabulous, million-dollar idea won't come to you right off the bat. But, if you are generating as many ideas as possible, then out of quantity will come quality.

If you are generating as many ideas as possible they aren't all going to be good. When I was working with the student leadership groups 99% of the ideas we generated were bad, some really bad. The thing was that within that hour and a half span we would generate between 3,000 and 4,000 ideas!

At the end of the session, although we had quite a few crappy ideas, we did have 1% that were amazing! We put the odds of creativity in our favor by generating as many as possible. Like I mentioned before creativity is a game of odds, put them in your favor, the more ideas you generate.

Working together in a group to come up with ideas is extremely powerful for the sole reason that multiple heads are better than one. People will work off each other's ideas, make connections and spark new ideas in other people. If I share an idea, it may trigger something in another person, which sparks three more ideas from another. By the end of it you have sparks flying and ideas popping out of everywhere.

From where you are sitting right now think about a long line of Dominos going straight out in front of you. They are in a straight line, then it curves left, so much it almost forms a circle. Right before it does, it curves right, then left again. It heads out of the door and into another room. For this reaction to happen, the first Domino must go down. This first Domino, is known as stimuli in the creative thinking process.

Look around you. Everything you can see, feel, taste, have experienced are types of stimuli. We use stimuli to act as the first Domino to get the ideas flowing. If you fire out an idea into a group of creative, alert, aware marketers, it will be their stimuli and an idea reaction, as I like to call it, will occur.

As an idea reaction occurs, you are increasing the odds of generating an idea that will be profitable for your business. The more ideas you generate, the better your odds are of success.

In the creative process, every idea counts. Not every idea you come up with will be possible, or succeed. But, the more ideas you generate, you are increasing your odds at being successful.

Think about it. All it takes is one flash of insight, one new product, one innovative service, to create a million-dollar business. With one idea - a scientist or a researcher - the have the potential to cure a previously incurable disease.

A software engineer could have a flash of brillance and come up with an idea that will change the way in which people use computers.

An idea is a very powerful entity.

Creative thinkers, they never underestimate the power of ideas, and they never underestimate the value of simple ideas.

By ignoring the plain and simple ideas could potentially be putting out the spark that will ignite a fire of ideas. Many people will dismiss the silly, simple ideas and continue searching for that one great idea. But by allowing the spark to ignite, your skill and integrity will allow it to grow with the potential to blossom.

The bottom line is this: You don't know what kind of beautiful flower you could end up with until it actually blossoms. As a creative thinker, you must value all ideas.

About the Author

Stu McLaren has found out how real people all over the world are turning "Unusual" Business Ideas into magnificent moneymakers... and How You Can Too! These ideas are guaranteed to motivate you and inspire you to get your own money-making Business Idea Off The Ground... Immediately!

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