Paul McGowan writes: There are just too many.
I have lots of them especially when it comes to new products and new directions for our industry – and I am sure many of you reading this post have them as well. They are like an itch that cannot be scratched.
Perhaps the most difficult lesson I am still trying to learn is how to ignore all those good ideas, weed through the lot and narrow them down to only just a few. Then an even harder task for me is to show some measure of patience while the extraordinarily long process of turning good ideas into finished products takes place.
What it boils down to is energy levels: having enough of it to start a chain reaction and then even more to sustain the reaction and grow until you reach critical mass. So, for example, it may be a good idea to paint my house – lighting a fire under me to do it is another story – or an OLED based touch tablet as thin as a piece of paper and just as flexible to control my music system.
For those of us with lots of great ideas and never enough energy to move even 1/1oth of them forward, life can be frustrating.
But the joy of taking one of those ideas and seeing it come into people’s lives as a product or service is a joy that makes up for all the weeding one has to do to keep the idea garden clean and not overrun.
