Ideas can't be wasted
Scott, Angie, and Maddie have already posted about this afternoon's opening general session at Great Ideas, and I don't want to repeat what they said. But one thing Bruce Turkel said really hit home for me:
"You don't have to use ideas!"
I love that. I think a lot of people can sit silently in a meeting because they feel like they don't have ideas that are "good enough to use." Trying to come up with a perfectly formed idea with attached complete business plan, they end up not suggesting any ideas at all.
Bruce's comment is a good reminder to stop concentrating on the perfect and open yourself up to the half-baked. Give yourself permission to go with the flow of ideas. Some are usable, some aren't. Some may not be usable now, but they will be in a year, or they will lead to a second idea that will work.
Give yourself permission to come up with new ideas! Remember, they don't all have to be "good enough"--they just have to be yours.
ETA: Jeffrey Cufaude just said what I said in this entry, but better: "You have to get into the mindset of just contributing ideas to advance the conversation."
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