Lousy Ideas?

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck

When they were working on the movie Idiocracy, they asked the costume designer to find goofy yet futuristic looking shoes to have people wear.

They found a small company and decided that their shoes looked so stupid that nobody in their right mind would ever wear them.

After some time they were asked what would happen if the shoe brand suddenly took off, and they answered that there's no way people would seriously buy these.

The brand was Crocs.

In 1975 a group of friends were sitting around drinking in a bar.

They were complaining about their pets when one of them, Gary Dahl, piped up.

"I know what the perfect pet would be: a rock. A rock would not need to be fed, walked, bathed, or groomed, and it would not die, become sick, or be disobedient."

A pet rock. What a stupid idea, right?

Except that it wasn't so stupid after all.

The Pet Rock became a popular fad.

By the time the fad died out Dahl had sold over one million Pet Rocks.

What is a Good Idea?

One of the reasons people fail to come up with good ideas is they are trying too hard to come up with good ideas.

This is why we teach and use a Purposeful Creative Thinking method called

Come Up With BAD Ideas.

Use of this method was put on display during last week's episode of the LinkedIn Live show I co-host with Chad Johnson , Thriving in the Modern Economy.

See, we had the Co-Host of the VET S.O.S. podcast, Shawn Welsh , on as our guest. (catch the replay of that show here)

For the show, I set myself a mission to Come Up With BAD Ideas for Shawn's show.

As a way to give my creative imagination direction, I decided to use the dictionary as a stimulus.

To keep it simple, I decided to use the first three letters of the English dictionary.

The goal was to come up with three ideas using words that began with each of the first three letters of the alphabet: A, B & C.

Emulating another Purposeful Creative Thinking method, Anchor Term, I mentally combined various words from each of those letters with the term 'Shawn's Podcast' to generate the bad ideas.

BAD Ideas?

The following are the nine ideas I came up with.

I welcome your thoughts on them in the comments. And, if you want to see how Shawn and Chad reacted to them - and what they added - click the replay link here.

A

Alligators

Ask each guest to give their opinion about alligators.

Abuse

Every show host is welcoming. Differentiate yourself by being hostile and abusive to your guests.

Admit

Admit all the things you screwed up while in the military.

?

B

Bald

For an entire month’s worth of episodes, only have guests on who are bald.

Barber

Have yourself or a guest get a haircut during the interview.

Beasts

Do a series of shows about the animals that are part of the transition experience.

?

C

Caddy

Discuss how the game of golf can help in the transition.

Chafing

Ask your guests uncomfortable questions about how they deal with chafing.

Chef

Begin every interview by asking the guest about their favorite dish to cook.

Useful Takeaways

Try this method!

You will find that the same creative juices are activated when attempting to come up with BAD ideas as when trying to come up with good ideas.

A big difference is that all the pressure is removed.

I mean, you are supposed to be coming up with lousy ideas!

Searching through the dictionary for words to combine with an Anchor Term will help give your imagination direction.

Once you have your list of bad ideas, ask yourself how each might be tweaked to turn them into a good idea.

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New Episode

Chad and I are hosting another edition of Thriving in the Modern Economy on Wednesday, June 5th at Noon US Eastern time. Our special guest will be Keynote Speaker, Consultant and Author, Colby Richards .

Register for that LinkedIn Live right here.

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SpearPoint Solutions Opportunities

Our company's site, SpearPointOnline.com, is a portal that, in addition to our proprietary Purposeful Creative Thinking training and Business Strategy Design services, features trustworthy companies that deliver high quality products, services, training and more.

We are committed to becoming 'the Amazon of B2B for SME's'.

That commitment provides two opportunities for you to prosper.

Opportunity # 1

You can become an affiliate marketer (we call ours Brand Ambassadors) and make recommendations to leading edge solutions as appropriate and earn money when business is done. See all the details here.

Opportunity # 2

If you are an organization or solopreneur who provides products, services or training to SME's, our portal + our growing numbers of Brand Ambassadors can help you become the go-to solution. Want to explore further? PM me.

Of course, you are allowed to do both. ??

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Want to see how our Purposeful Creative Thinking Training can help your organization become more innovative and stand out in an increasingly crowded world?

Don't want to do it yourself? Our Strategy Design Services can help.

PM me?so we can discuss.

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About?Bob Sager

The founder of SpearPoint Solutions, Bob’s professional background includes over three decades of experience in sales, leadership and training. Combined with Purposeful Creative Thinking, he uses that experience to develop business strategies that help organizations increase sales and margins. Additionally, Bob and his team of Certified Facilitators train individuals and organizations on these same methods of Purposeful Creative Thinking so they are better prepared to thrive in the modern?economy.

Among other accomplishments, Bob is the?inventor?of the Purposeful Creative Thinking game, What's the BIG Idea?? and author of the books, Discovering Your Greatness, 101 Freaking Brilliant Business Ideas and his latest, More Freaking Brilliant Ideas.