Don't just think outside the box, make the box.

There's a big difference between 'thinking' and 'making'.

Thinking is important, of course, I make a living from it, but just thinking alone achieves very little, you have to action the thinking to bring it to life, seems obvious I know but many people like to think but rarely make.

How many times have you heard someone say, when they see a great new business idea, invention, product, piece of art, book, t-shirt design, or the like - 'Oh, I had that idea years ago' ? I've heard it from many people, even myself in the past.

Well, they may have had the thought but they did nothing about it, they didn't make it, someone else did and to the victor go the spoils.

It's easy to come up with all manner of excuses as to why you don't take action on an idea - money, resources, knowledge, etc. But as the old saying goes - where there's a will there's a way. Of course not everything is easy and not everything is going to succeed, but you'll never know until you try. As Thomas Edison said about his journey to great ideas - 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that wont work'. Wise man that Edison.

Take a page from the tech industry playbook, more often than not they launch apps and digital products before they are truly ready, they get the beta version out and work out the bugs along the way. From Facebook to Twitter, Instagram to YouTube, none of them are exactly what they were like when they launched, in fact they were quite primitive compared to what they are now.

Don't just sit there thinking...make something.

It doesn't have to be a tech product or even a business concept. Your idea may be a book about something never written about before or a story that needs telling, well you can easily self-publish these days, you don't need a major publisher behind you to get started, if your book is good they will eventually come knocking. Or it could be a new way to do some art - go buy some supplies at the art store, make what's in your head and stage your own exhibition in an empty space if you can't get a gallery interested. No matter what it is unless you action your thinking and ideas they don't really exist and may just come back to haunt you from the recesses of your mind when someone else makes them.

So the next time you think of something listen to the words of Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation and 'make it so'.

Rodd

I'm a Creative Director / Writer / Strategist / Thinker / Creative Coach and a bit more. You can also find me on Twitter,  Instagram and on Facebook. Or drop me an email – [email protected]

Words (aside from credited quotes) Copyright Rodd Chant 2018

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