Ideas for business, art and life can be produced easily using
a variety of methods you can learn in a short time. The following
short list suggests some of those ways. Following that you'll
find links to other pages and resources on generating new ideas.
1. See What Others Are Doing
"New ideas" means new to you, right? What you want
is ideas that work, so see what's working for other people. Whatever
the problem is that you're trying to solve, it may have a great
solution already - one you just don't know about yet.
2. Travel
Traveling is a way to accomplish number one above (seeing
what others are doing), but it's also a way to open the mind.
You bring your own ideas with you, and they mix with what you
learn along the way. Be a traveler more than a tourist, though,
meaning you get actively involved in the local culture and activities
instead of just passing through. I always return from trips with
new ideas.
3. Ask Crazy Questions
There was an office building where a thousand or more people
worked. A young man who was employed there asked, "What
if I could talk each one into buying something from me?"
He was used to asking crazy questions like this, and knew that
they often became something useful if worked with. Eventually
the idea came that he could play advertising on the speakers
in all common areas like halls and elevators. He didn't have
to sell to them, but only to advertisers who sold to them. He
started selling ads and making CDs, and then talked the owner
of his own office building plus fifteen others into splitting
the revenue with him for playing the ads all day long. Ask crazy
questions and work with them.
Here's a short video on how to have
new concepts, and specifically how to generate new product ideas:
4. Combine Ideas
This is one of the most entertaining ways to create new ideas.
Just take two existing concepts and see how they might work together.
Some might argue that most innovation happens in this way. Once
there were sailboats and skateboards, for example, it was only
a matter of time before someone invented "skate-sailing"
(now common along the boardwalks in Los Angeles). I cover this
"concept combination" technique in detail in my ebook
"Problem Solving Power," showing how it can go far
beyond the obvious combining of "things" to get new
inventions.
More Ways to Have Ideas
If you want more information on the various methods of generating
ideas, here are some other pages and resources that may interest
you. Just click a title for details.
Problem Solving Power
- This is my own ebook, as mentioned above. There are dozens
of creative problem solving techniques explained here.
Thinking
Outside the Box - This is a page on my fun site, 999Ideas.com.
On the rest of the site you'll find my own ideas for everything
from politics to inventions to philosophy.
Radical Thinking
Course - 24 free lessons. I have seriously considered taking
this course down and using it as the basis for a book, so you
may want to subscribe now while it's available.
Increase Creativity
- This page outlines a few techniques for general creativity
enhancement.
Scattered throughout the site are other pages on how to become
more creative and how to think in new ways. You can find many
listed on the homepage. They are announced in The Mind Power
Report along with the occasional reminder of existing pages.
How to have new ideas is a recurring topic in my newsletter.
It's free and comes with the ebook, How to Have New Ideas.
Subscribe right now...
(Sorry, but the newsletter has been discontinued.)
