#9 – You can’t get anywhere by sitting on your ideas. Don’t be the person who says, “I thought of that years ago.”

You don’t have to be really old to have heard someone say things like, “Hey, that was my idea,” or “I should have thought of that.”  People do it all the time when they see a product or service on the market.  And maybe sometimes it’s actually true.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  YOU could be the one that other people are saying that about.  It could be YOUR idea that makes it to the store shelves.

When I give presentations to schools, libraries and community organizations, one of the things I always mention is that an idea doesn’t have to be brain surgery, as the saying goes.  It can be the simplest thing in the world but if no one else thought of it or actually did something about getting it made, it doesn’t do any good. 

Individually packaging

My Pencil Bugs are not rocket science and there certainly are dozens of choices of pencil toppers for kids but for some reason, I’ve become pretty successful with my simple, little idea.   Oh sure, there are lots of reasons why some people never actually put their ideas out there but if you don’t at least give it a try, well, then it’s just an idea and will never become a product or business.

My mom told me a story about when she was little.  Her and her sisters came up with a game idea but because their family didn’t have a lot of money and Internet hadn’t been invented yet to make things a whole lot easier, they weren’t able to do anything with the idea.  Well, sure enough, a few years later, a similar concept was in the stores.   So money is a big factor when trying to get your ideas off the drawing board.  That’s why if you can, keep it simple in the beginning. 

But no matter what the reason is, there’s always a way to get it done if you really want something bad enough and just sitting on your ideas will guarantee nothing will happen.