IDEAS

I am reading the book, NOW, Discover Your Strengths and I recently took the strengths test they offer at http://www.strengthsfinder.com/. One of my top 5 strengths was Ideation. I have to confess that upon reading this description I was surprized to learn that loving ideas was a strength. 

My husband and I have been renovating our house for a little over a year. Early on, we quickly found out that I was overwhelming him with my ideas. He is an analytical type (he is an engineer) and I have an endless supply of ideas about what we can do to our house. He thought that every idea I expressed was something that I actually desired to do. Thankfully we have realized that there is a difference in the way that our brains work and I was able to explain to him that ideas excite me and I need to talk about them. I am aware that we may only do 5% of my ideas and now he knows this too and can rest easy!

I was just reading the blog, Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and his last post has links to a Seth Godin presentation and a Ben & Jerry's presentation. Both of these videos capture the essence of ideas. Seth's presentation theme is actually this: "Ideas That Spread, WIN." It is getting harder and harder to spread ideas. Instead of 10 TV channels, we now have hundreds of channels and with the invention of TiVo, people can skip commercials. We must create new and more creative ways to spread our ideas to people.

The Ben & Jerry's presentation starts out with a description of how their ice cream company was able to succeed in an unconventional manner. If you have never heard how 2 hippies from Vermont were able to take on Pillsbury and Haagen Daaz, you really need to watch the first half of this video clip. The more creative you can be in spreading your ideas, the more likely it will be that you will WIN.