Issue 021: Turn Around a Discarded Idea
– Unknown
In 1998, I met the legendary best-selling suspense author Mary Higgins Clark who has published over 50 books during her lifetime. Mary shared her story of writing from the kitchen table while raising small children. What stuck with me was one extremely specific tip she recommended: Never throw away an idea. Write down those ideas and saved them.
This best-selling author stored her rejected manuscripts in the attic. Years after she found her unique writing style that worked for the suspense genre, she pulled out the original manuscripts to revise.
Photo reprinted with permission from Kiya Tomlin
This week, I was reminded of Mary’s advice when I read a social post by one of my past clients, custom designer Kiya Tomlin. During design school in 1999, one of Kiya’s projects was to redesign a sports uniform. Naturally, she chose football and created a fashion-forward one-piece. Although you wouldn’t find this uniform on any field, Kiya’s idea resurfaced this year in her Game Day Onesie for women.
Both businesswomen repurposed ideas into successful, saleable products.
Sometimes, the ideas that didn’t work are shelved in a dark corner never to be seen again. Yet, it once originated through your inspired creativity. Could one of those past ideas use a fresh pair of eyes? Here are a few thoughts of what could be hanging out on a shelf waiting for you.
Is it time to reach out to business connections, past clients, and associates, for updates? What are they doing differently during this odd time in history? Maybe there’s someone you want to connect with again to form a joint venture. Or perhaps you produced a top 10 list of corporations you always wanted to add to your client list, though never sent an introductory email.
Have you purchased an educational course or training program that got lost in the shuffle of daily life? I know this has happened to me.
Have you created an action plan to keep in touch with customers, built a system for adding new subscribers to your list, or developed a new product only to find you’ve never implemented any of it?
For me, this hits home. I’m taking an online personality training course that I let stall. I’ve taken two other personality assessment trainings and wanted to add Enneagram to my list. My goal is to jumpstart the training and finish it by October 1, 2020.
Momentum Questions:
What have you tucked away that would benefit from a fresh perspective?
What new spin can you give it?
What deadline can you assign to this revisited idea?
Until next time, have a Bounce-Up™ week.
Mj
P.S. Read Kiya Tomlin’s rave review here.
