How To Come Up With Better Ideas

3 tips to make your next idea your best one.

10 years ago I decided that I wanted to share ideas for a living.

The plan looked something like this:

1) Have an idea
2) Share it with a stranger
3) Change their life
4) Rinse & repeat

At the time, the way I was going to do this was by making films. So, I put my ideas about life and purpose into videos that I hoped would encourage people to think and reflect.

After about 7 years of doing that, I decided to cut out the middle man and share ideas direct-to-consumer by becoming a coach and speaker. The how changed, but the what and the why have always been about ideas and sharing them with other people.

But why?

The most world-changing businesses, policies, and entertainment all stemmed from an idea. The heartwarming film you watched with your family over Christmas was originally nothing more than an idea. The phone that you use to connect with the world around you was, at one point, just an idea jotted down on an engineer’s notepad. The policies that have changed lives for millions of people all across time and all over the world began as an idea in someone’s mind.

Ideas are powerful. They can be divinely inspired and dangerously executed - but they always start off as delicate. So when you have one, it is your responsibility to care for it like you would a child. How do you do that? Good question.

Here are some guidelines on how to have and build your next big idea:

1. Don't ignore them.

Ideas are hard to catch - but not because they don’t want to be caught. You just have to be ready.

For example: I started writing this article at 5am after the first couple words ripped me out of my sleep like a crying newborn baby. It didn’t matter if I was offended by the lack of decency that the idea had to be up so early - like any good parent I had to get up and respond to the call.

I didn’t know what it was or if it’d even be worth it, but I know how flighty ideas can be, so when they show up, I write them down. Everyone likes to be appreciated and so do ideas. Treat them like a welcome visitor and watch how much more often they want to pay you a visit.

And that goes for speaking them aloud too. If an idea pops in your head, speak it out. Which brings us to point number two…

2. Don't worry about what people think.

Easier said than done, I know. Everybody always says stuff like that so here’s another way of thinking about it:

Your ideas are more important than you are.

What do I mean?

If you act like your ideas are more important than you are, then seeing them come to life is more important than what people would think of you for suggesting them. Brainstorms are not about managing reputations, they're for solving problems.

Take Ignaz Semmelweis for example. Who’s that?

He’s the Hungarian physician who suggested that doctors washing their hands in between performing autopsies on dead people and delivering newborns during childbirth might reduce some of the illness and mortality rates that were skyrocketing in the 1800s. He had no concrete knowledge of what a “germ” was - just an idea - and he was essentially suggesting that invisible particles were clinging to doctors hands and causing all these deaths. What an idiot, right?

He was rejected, ridiculed, and forced to leave his country.

...and without his idea, where would we be now?

Exactly.

I believe that an idea just as powerful and life-changing as his exists in all of us, and the fact that those ideas might be hidden behind a wall of self-consciousness is untenable and intolerable. Your ideas are more important than you are.

So next time there’s a need for an idea, speak up. Remind yourself and those around you that there’s no space for judgement - because there’s an idea waiting to be birthed that’s bigger than all of us.

3. Don't Say No.

One thing that ruins ideas faster than anything else, is a naysayer. Whether that naysayer is your inner voice or a co-worker, kindly tell them to shut the hell up. When you’re coming up with ideas, practicality is none of your business. What if God came up with the idea for Michael Jordan but right before he pressed the Go button, he said “Wait! How could a kid that got cut from his high school team end up being the most famous athlete the world has ever seen? That’s not realistic! Maybe I should just make him an accountant...”

Exactly.

Don’t be the person looking to shoot ideas down, be the person who is coaxing them out. Set a ground rule that all responses to suggestions should be questions or contributions. That’s it. Instead of responding to an idea with, “Here’s why it won’t work”, how about asking “Have you thought about X?” or “What if we did that and Y?”. If you take the approach of finding why every idea could be a good idea, instead of trying to find reasons why it isn’t - you’ll be constantly living on the brink of your next big breakthrough.

(And people won’t hate you as much.)

One Last Idea

An idea is the opposite of a finished product. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to make sense. It is a starting point that can (and most likely will) grow into something completely different. But you have to let the first domino fall.

When I first started writing this article, I didn’t really know where it was taking me. But because I let it mature from a flimsy opening paragraph into something more, it went from a heady commentary on the elusive nature of ideas to a spiritual thesis on the idea that we are all just merely ideas in God’s mind (lol. you should’ve seen it.) to what it is now. And the only way it could be anything at all is because I just got started. Honestly, my only regret is not writing the whole article that day when inspiration first struck. After I recorded the intro into a notepad, I went back to sleep and didn’t return to finish this article until months later. The momentum of the original idea was gone, but at least I could build off of the original inspiration.

Which brings me to my conclusion…

Life is about building momentum. So are ideas. When the wave of an idea catches you, whether it’s in the middle of the night or at the end of a brainstorm, get it out. Don’t let someone who doesn’t share your vision, stop the momentum. If you’re ever lucky enough to catch the wave of momentum that comes with a good idea, it’s on you to do all you can to keep it alive. Stoke the fire, ride the wave. Even if it wakes you in the middle of the night to write an article maybe no one will ever read, because it’s not so much about what comes of the idea but moreso that for a moment, you got to feel what it feels like to be captured by the spirit of life itself.

Your ideas are coming. Be open. Be ready.

Imari