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submitted: Jun 6th 2008 | by: StuMcLaren | Total views: 2 | Word Count: 1082 | |

Millions and millions of America's immigrants have been able to come to this land because of one man's ambition. Their lives have been forever changed because of this man's crazy, as some thought, idea to explore undiscovered land. America's history is based on the power of ideas. That is meant literally. That idea to explore unknown lands led to millions of people now having a place in which they can call home. Ideas are valued by creative thinkers.

Think about about what Columbus was risking when he decided to embark on a journey to find the new world. His plan was full of risk, but also amazing potential. Columbus' creative thinking dynamic embodies the risk-reward characteristic. To many he may only be an explorer, but if many other ways he was highly creative and truly an entrepreneur.

To see the rewards, just look around you. That's exactly what he was able to capture.

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.

If you ever find yourself wondering just how much you could possibly expect to gain from harnessing your creative abilities, remember that example of Columbus.

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.

Creativity, although very much an open system, it does have rules. Number one being you have to go big or go home. Basically what it comes down to, is you need to generate as many ideas as possible.

In the beginning of my career, I used to go help high school leadership groups across North America. I would help them come up with ideas for various different things - fundraising, generating more school spirit.

Over a course of an hour and a half, we would set a goal to come up with a top 10 WOW ideas. This goal would be the same for whatever problem we were working on.

Following the rules of creativity - I also told the students, go big or go home because quality comes from quantity. During the sessions we would generate as many ideas as humanly possible following that way of thinking. Write it down - Quality comes from quantity.

If you are trying to think of the next great idea, it won't come right away by itself. Remember, quality comes from quantity, so your objective is to generate as many ideas as possible.

When you follow the rules of go big or go home, not all the ideas you think of will be good. Within the hour and a half span that I was working with the student leadership groups we would come up with between 3,000 and 4,000 ideas. Obviously, not all of these ideas were good. Actually, 99% of the ideas were absolute garbage.

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.

Have you ever watched a set of Dominos start and progress, one after another? Imagine that in the room you are sitting in now. There is a straight line ahead of you, then it curves right and then back around to the left. It continues curving left, almost in a circle; but curves right just before it touches. It is now coming back towards you and continues past you into another room. Now what started that chain reaction of Dominos? The first one had to fall, just like an idea. We call this 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 the ideas are flowing, the chances of you generating a successful idea to benefit your business will increase. With creativity being an odds game, the more ideas you generate, the better your chances will be at being successful.

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.

When you see the latest product you realize that it was that one idea that is now turning that business into a million-dollar enterprise. That's all it takes is one idea to come up with the next big product, next technological boom, or to even cure a previously incurable disease.

One bright idea could change the way in which computer technology advances.

One idea could change how people live.

Being a creative thinker, you should embrace all of your ideas, never underestimate the power of the simplest one. Always remember the power of ideas.

It is easy to dismiss the seemingly simple idea that many people push aside. That idea however, could ignite the idea reaction in your brain. Once planted this idea has the potential to become a gorgeous flower. Ignoring it will kill it, but by fostering it and using your skill to care for it, that simple idea could ignite greatness.

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

Find out what Stu McLaren has Discovered! 227 Unusual and Just Plain Crazy Business Ideas! These Could Make You Rich This Year, Starting From Zero! Just One Great Idea Could Change Your Life! Chose Any Idea From 277 Unusual Business Ideas

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