Casual Fridays

I got some correspondence on The Idea Orphanage that encouraged me to share advise on reclaiming your idea orphans. I guess it would be rather cruel to raise awareness of the lost and abandoned without giving a way for you to help. So, here are a few ways to get the adoption process […]

I was plugging away on my computer when I heard the cry from upstairs.  “Oh no!”  I asked my wife what was wrong.  “You’re going to hate me.”  She said.
I climbed up the stairs and found her in the laundry room.  She began to pull out pieces of paper and show them to me.  “My […]

“There are no such things as bad ideas.”
Whoever invented that statement has never watched an infomercial.
There are plenty of bad ideas. The essence of this statement is that bad ideas can lead to good ones. Unfortunately, we either disregard someone’s bad idea altogether or we embrace it, because we’re stupid and don’t realize how […]

I don’t know how many there are.
Millions? Billions?
I do know they’re alone and wandering. They have been abandoned and forgotten.
How did they get here?
Fear.
Not their fear. Ours.
They are idea orphans. Former hopes, dreams and aspirations who have no guardians.
They were once filled with energy and hope. Now they have no […]

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries…
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
A friend shared the poem above with me recently. I had heard it before. In fact, I had memorized it. Still, I had forgotten […]

I got feedback that my Reasons No One Likes Your Ideas was missing one important reason: your ideas are bad.
I intentionally left that off the list, because it opens a whole new can of worms. I’m ready to open that can now.
You’ve heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as a bad idea.”
Not true. […]

While we’re in the midst of it, creativity can seem like a vast ocean.  In reality, it is a lake.  Without occasional rainfall, it begins to dry up and be depleted.
We too need the rain.  We need a healthy cycle of creation and recreation or we dry up and become depleted.  The constant demands of […]

… the originator of ideas is undervalued.
My family has had a business of somekind in my hometown since 1914. That might be where I get my entrepreneurial spirit. While I was growing up, we had a local grocery store named Staiger’s Grocery. Original, isn’t it? I worked there for nearly five […]

This was on my cup of Starbucks coffee today:

The Way I See It #290
On the battlefield of ideas, winning requires moving toward the sound of the guns.
– Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives
I’m not big on battle metaphors. Too often they lead to a zero-sum philosophy of “I win, you lose.” or […]

Many ideas are borne out of solitude. The shower is a classic example of quiet alone-time creating a vacuum for new thoughts. Still, we usually have to bring these thoughts back to a team for development. We also have moments where we need to generate ideas in a team environment.
Having the proper […]