Do you wish to think more efficiently, to innovate faster, and to spur on your inner genius? Well, it is my contention that a good many of us do, I know I do. So, let me give you some thoughts on how I go about creating new ideas and concepts on a routine basis, and am able to come up with a couple of new and/or original thoughts per day. Not long ago, an acquaintance asked me to explain how I came about my ideas. Here is what I explained to him:

First, you must immerse yourself in new experiences, and seek out those things you would not necessarily learn or consider – differences of opinions, or things that you may not even like. But hang in there and reward yourself for sticking it out and indulging in something new, even if it is unfavorable. I guarantee you, you will get new ideas by combining these with your current knowledge and area of expertise.

You see, the ideas I come up with occur almost out of the blue sometimes, they just hit me, like; “why didn’t you think of this before” and then I have to go see if anyone else had, some ideas have occurred to others, sometimes not. But each time searching and reading, I find minute details, and thus, new ideas, and then it starts – my mind just goes into this phase.

Good thing about it is that I write it down or remember it for some other future concept. I might visit 1,000 websites, read through 40-research papers, read three books (or scan them for clues) by the time I move onto something else. Each time compounding the ideas, new concepts, and creating a library of thoughts to use later.

It appears to me that even if your concept is very simple and you cannot for the life of yourself figure that others had not considered it the prior, it still might be an original thought or close to it. If you search around to see if it was previously discovered you might find other concepts which are “remotely” similar, and perhaps superior or perhaps mostly inferior. Meaning you are definitely on to something.

In my thinking strategies, I generally include, grabbing some random visual “N400 brain wave memory imprint” and compare it to abstract designs, and then borrowing from 25 or so industries that I have studied up on, due to interests in past business endeavors, begin asking tons of questions, sleeping on it, and looking for deal breaking problems to focus on.

In studying my concepts, if I haven’t come across any real “deal killers” or come up against the laws of known physics I take it one step further, and begin looking at it from an entrepreneurial endeavor, namely the business start-up challenges, which are similar to all new business concepts, and regulatory issues which stifle all entrepreneurial activities, those one can deal with, if one chooses too, and if the ROI is so significant it warrants taking on that risk level.

Often, it’s more about attitude, willing events to occur, and just saying “screw it, let’s do it,” and we’ll figure the rest out later, as Howard Hughes used to say. And mind you that’s nothing new, I think Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Tesla, Edison, etc. all thought like that. Sometimes, you have to “go for it!” and victory goes to the bold. At least that’s what I’ve found to be. I hope you’ve enjoyed this dialogue and will contact me to kick around your latest concept?