I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a good idea, but I’ve thought, “If this was a good idea, somebody would have thought of it all ready.”  That is the biggest obstacle to innovating that I’ve experienced.  It’s not that the ideas I create are inherently bad or stupid, but most of the time, I put the idea in a drawer because I don’t think it will go anywhere.

The second problem with innovation is not knowing enough to accomplish a task.  My good friend Mark Temple had an excellent idea the other day.  Mark came up with an innovative way to remotely access contacts, but it was only a concept.  Where does he go from there?  Neither Mark nor I have the technical know how to further develop the concept.

I always thought the hardest part to innovating would be coming up with an idea.  But it’s not.  It’s putting the idea out there. So I’m challenging myself, and everyone reading this, to live by the philosophy that no idea is too stupid to talk about.  I wonder how many great ideas have been tabled before they’ve ever become a reality, simply because it’s assumed that someone already had the idea.  So I will dare to dream big.

And right now, I’m going to sleep.  That’s my first good idea that almost got shelved.