Good ideas are a subset of ideas. Maybe 3 out of 10 ideas are good ideas and the remaining 7 are bad ideas.

While most people love the 3 good ideas, there are a lot more people who are fearful of the 7 bad ideas. In the end, they feel hesitant to come out with any ideas. They are afraid of being looked down by others. They are afraid of being called “stupid”. They are afraid of bad ideas.

But if you don’t come out with any ideas at all, then the hope of getting a good idea is zero.

That’s why in my personal opinion, having bad ideas is way better than having no ideas at all. Generate more ideas, be it good or bad. Learn from the bad, and keep the good. That way, you will eventually come out with few good ideas.

Well, easier said than done. If you want to do this, I think you have to let go of your ego for a while…. and feel that it’s okay to look stupid with all the bad ideas you come out with. Hopefully in the long run, you will learn to understand that there’s no idea which is bad….and someone who is willing to contribute ideas is always smarter than someone who does not contribute ideas at all.

Sharing your ideas (artworks, writings, etc) with a large number of people has never been easier with the help of Internet. With the proper search keywords, one can easily access limitless amount of ideas from all over the world. While this is definitely good news for people who want to share/sell their ideas, people should also remember that the ease of access has allowed the wrong parties to gain access to such ideas.

Pirates who will steal your ideas and distribute or even modify them for their own profit. And trolls, people who will do nothing but to bring you down.

From Wikipedia

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

So far, I’ve not met any pirates who would take my ideas elsewhere without my consent. Erm, I think it’s because there’s no value in pirating my stuff. LOL. But trolls, yes, I’ve met quite a number of them throughout my experience as a blogger and a comic artist.

These individuals will appear to be nice and want to help you out. So they get close to you and observe what you are doing with your ideas. Then they will speak their mind and give you their opinions. Unfortunately, these ‘nice gestures’ are actually not useful for you at all.

For one, these trolls are not there to help you but they are there to bring you down. Perhaps it’s due to jealousy that they can’t do what you are doing. Or perhaps they just enjoy bringing people down. However, there ARE trolls who have no intention of bringing you down. They just want to help but the approach used is completely wrong. They tend to choose the wrong words which will discourage you more than anything else, and even damage your self-esteem which is possibly one of your greatest assets. People called this the “destructive comment” and such comments are never good for anyone who are looking for support and encouragement.

But irregardless of how harsh these trolls can be, there’s no way we can stop them from becoming a troll. It’s a free world after all. What we, as content creators and ideas contributors, can do is to push on. The trolls only belong to a small group of people. There are more out there who really appreciate your works and contributions. So it really depends on what is your main objectives. Are you doing it to help the community or is there something which you really believe in? Or are you doing it just so that you will listen to nice words and praises? Sort out your objectives and know what you really want. Ignore the trolls.

And if there’s really a need, remove them from your life even if they are your close friends. What you need is support and encouragement from your friends and family, not some trolls who just want to bring you down – intentionally, or unintentionally.

Most people are afraid to voice out. They prefer to keep things to themselves and these include new ideas which might be able to help other people. For some of them, they just don’t want to go through all the troubles and fuss when proposing an idea or, they have no confidence and are afraid they will be regarded as stupid. But the worst are those people who prefer to stick to their roles and say “ideas should come from the top people”.

Wrong wrong wrong. Ideas can come from anyone in a healthy environment. If you have some ideas which you think have not been implemented and might be able to help improve things, then do voice out. Perhaps you can voice out to your supervisor if you’re afraid to approach the top people. Start small, maybe just introduce it within your team and see how it goes. The important thing here is to share your ideas especially if you have seen them becoming successful in other companies.

For example, whiteboarding or brown bag session, 360 degrees performance review, etc. Useful ideas that you have experienced in your previous jobs can also be introduced in your new company.

Remember that you are in a company to contribute to the business in any ways possible. Furthermore, you will be able to leave something significant and useful for others to learn and spread the next time they switch company.

Then you should just give up. Because in this world, there is no such thing as a unique idea. The moment you managed to come out with what you thought to be a brilliant and unique idea, some other 30 or 40 people have already done it before you.

Let’s just face the fact. One can no longer come out with something entirely unique these days. If you are the type of person who is thinking of making that one big hit with that single unique and brilliant idea…then sorry to say, you might have to wait for a long long time before you actually start something (maybe, it’s going to take you forever like what happened to some people who waited all their life for that one big break-through idea).

Having said so, I do realize that there are still a lot of people who are trying to find excuses for themselves (and their friends) for not starting out. They always say that the ideas they have are not unique, or “someone has already done it”. So they will just continue to search…and search.

Now, before people continue to search (and wait) for that one big and unique idea..maybe people should just start on whatever ideas they have even if the ideas are not unique. Because at the end of the day, it is the execution and the implementation of the idea which matter, not just the idea itself.

Therefore, the question people should ask is not “How can I come out with a unique idea which nobody has done it before?” but “How can I execute or implement this idea better than the person who has already implemented it?”
p/s……..actually this post was written nearly 2 months ago. and it might be a bit different from my regular motivational posts. I just realized I’m running out of posts this morning. LOL. Hope you guys don’t mind.

A lot of people have been telling me that ideas are hard to come by, especially good ideas. For me, it’s not true. Ideas can come from anywhere, from anyone and at anytime.

Whether an idea is good or bad, that’s another question altogether. One would need to do a proper research to find out. The important thing is never to close down an idea without even thinking about it. There’s no such thing as a bad idea in this world.

Rather than thinking whether it is a good or a bad idea, I prefer to think of it from another perspective – whether implementing the idea is something I want to do, or something which is in line with my company’s direction.

However, if you’re still thinking how to come out with ideas……..well, just learn to be more observant. Something as simple as a normal conversation might trigger some ideas. For example, some of my friends always like to say things like “how nice if we have a Facebook application which can slap a stranger for harassing people” or “how nice if we have an online book store which always gives good discount on books”, etc.

Believe me, ideas are abundant. In fact, anything which can help someone fix a problem can be considered as an idea.