"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple...

...and learn how to handle them. And pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck

This book is full interesting anecdotes, inspiring quotes and several tips that help us challenge the way we think. It helped me enormously while designing creative thinking and ideation workshops for clients/brands.

Three broad sections are

• Attitude - How to prepare your brain for the "new improved" behaviour
• Actions - How to shake those new ideas loose
• Selling - How to avoid having to scream, "why doesn't anyone get this great idea that could just win a Nobel Prize!"

Under each sections there are examples, interesting quotes, and a few inspiring anecdotes.

I loved this story to start with:

"When my father was in the army, there was a private in his platoon who spent all his spare time searching for scraps of paper. He would find a scrap, pick it up, examine both sides, then shake his head, "That's not it. That's not it." Finally they give him his discharge. He looked it over, brightened and said, "That's it!"

Be Daring

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." This is indeed true if we think of major development in our lives.

The wheel, Books, Cars, Planes, Computers, Mobile Phones..

Be prepared

"All truth" wrote Schopenhaur, "passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as self evident."

There is the example of Eli Wilner who started collecting antique frames (instead of paintings): "Everyone thought I was insane." His business became a million dollar business in record time.

If you have a new idea be prepared to ridiculed! Einstein said " Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

There is a three step solution the author suggests:

1. Keep your new idea to yourself until the initial idea has time to take a clearer shape.
2. When you decide to spread the word, be careful who you tell.
3. Listen to the experts (sort of). Science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein advised "Always listen to the experts. They will tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."

Be optimistic

"Miles Davis was booed. Hank Williams was booed. Stravinsky was booed. You're nobody if you don't get booed sometimes." Bob Dylan

"Every movie I make, every movie I start, I don't think I can pull it off." Steven Spielberg

"Courage is being scarred to death - but saddling up anyway." - John Wayne

What is the difference between a crisis and an opportunity? Nothing - if you are optimist. If you are an optimist, a crisis is simply an opportunity waiting to happen. If you are a pessimist, an opportunity is a crisis waiting to happen. (I got hired, I'll get fired.)

Under part one there are other points like:

Learn that mistakes are great.

Have FUN with it

Don't feel like a Nincompoop

Part II is all about Actions or How to shake the new ideas loose.

This section deals with the following topics:

Question your assumptions. Ask good questions. Take an "OPPOSITE" approach. Look for ELEGANT solutions. Try some EMPATHY. Look for the WORST solution possible. Turn your NEGATIVES into POSITIVES. Ask yourself "What can I IMITATE?". Ask yourself "What would _____ do?". Ask STRANGERS for help. Never take YES for an answer. WRITE it down. Walk AWAY from it.

Part III is all about SELLING or How to avoid having to scream, "Why doesn't anyone get this great idea that could just win a Nobel Prize!?". Sell it to YOU. Sell it to OTHERS. BUILD it. Demonstrate ITs Value with P.O.P. Get SUPPORT for it. Call it something CATCHY. Be PERSISTENT. KEEP having fun with it.

You can get a feel for the content and style of the book by reading the titles for each chapter under each section.

Every time I had to design a brainstorming session I would go through this book. You don't get new ideas by just asking people for new ideas. We need to give them interesting triggers to help them think differently.

Shake That BRAIN is full of such triggers.