about the search for the original idea.
I used to work to find only original ideas. Learning about true originality has be an education in business, self-awareness, and life for me.
True originality –a brand new idea — is rare. That’s probably a good thing too. True originality is expensive and hard to sell.
Original ideas are take time, precious time, to conceive, imagine, invent, and develop. They’re a risk of resources by the very fact that they’ve never been tried before. They’ve never stood a test or built a following.
The more original the idea — the harder it is to explain. Marketing is a huge endeavor — just figuring out how to describe something people have no experience with. How do you relate something that’s never been to what they know? How do you prove the value of something awesomely original?
And if no one has imagined it before me, no one is using Google to find it.
Those times I’ve had what was surely “a never been done before totally original idea,” I realized later that maybe other folks had been there before. Maybe they too had conceived my brainstorm and found that
- the idea was impossible to execute.
- it was incredibly expensive.
- no one wanted to pay for it.
These days “never been done before totally original” ideas doesn’t interest me.
What gets my attention is an “original YOU.”
People who know their unique value can bring a unique something to an old idea — they can make something people know more personal, more profitable, and more pleasurable (or less of pain).
Have you ever used power of being an original you?
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work says
September 24, 2009 at 9:13 AMThe truly original you can always bring a unique flavor and value to an idea whether it’s old or now. I love this message because expressed authenticity is ones true calling. We need more folks like you Liz, who don’t hold back. Folks who share who they are even in their not fully formed thoughts.
Saying that there are no new ideas is very limiting because as you point out, “YOU” make the idea – the idea doesn’t make you.
Be bold and know that there is a reason for your desires. They came to you because you have the capacity to bring them forth. That’s the message I’m inspired spread.
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 7:00 PMHi Tom!
I love how you said … “YOU” make the idea – the idea doesn’t make you. That’s really it, isn’t it? We make the difference in a truly original idea. You sure inspired me with this comment. I’m grateful. 🙂
Anne Whitaker says
September 24, 2009 at 2:54 PMHi Liz
greetings from Scotland – I run a popular, eclectic blog for writers and readers: ‘Writing from the Twelfth House’: check out the joke about James Joyce’s fridge on the Home Page.
My totally original idea? To set up a theme on my website called ‘Not the astrology column’. It’s proved to be the most popular theme on a wide-ranging site. Check it out and let me know what you think! – http://anne-whitaker.com/column/
Best wishes and thanks for your inspiring site. I’ll be back!
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 6:59 PMHi Anne,
Delighted that you jumped right in to share with us your original idea. Love it!!
Liz
Boris says
September 24, 2009 at 8:54 PMDear Liz,
You are highlighting a great aspect of life: To be really “Ourselves”
We are original and special. In certain way, in a vey special way. And it is our birthright and duty to find out in what aspect we are unique and special.
When we are able to smile to our reflection at the mirror and say without shame “You are great!” and we know why, we are getting there…
Best regards,
Boris
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 6:57 PMHi Boris,
I truly believe that each of brings our own combination of wonder to the planet — something that would be missed or missing if we weren’t here. Like you, I think it’s our quest to live up to that potential and feel great about it. I believe we’re supposed to be happy.
All it takes is giving up fear.
Jay S. Fleischman says
September 24, 2009 at 9:23 PMToo often, people take the easy way out. They fall back on platitudes, on the notion that “this is the way it’s always been and, therefore, this is the way it shall always be.” Without minimizing the value of the past, we shouldn’t use it as a crutch when planning our future (or living our present).
Parents make mistakes, which is why we hope children learn from them. Their mistakes will be new and different, but the children will own them – as is their right.
To say that there are no new ideas is to subscribe to the notion that imagination is finite. That’s a fallacy, and those who succeed recognize this.
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 6:55 PMHi Jay!
Ah, yes, the way it’s always been … if it’s nothing else, sooner or later, it’s got to get boring.
Everyone of us has a chance to polish an idea, to tweak or twist in a way that makes it sparkle with new life again.
You’ve brought depth to the conversation I started. Thank you.
How do you suppose we might get more folks to risk trying something that’s uniquely their own?
Liz Clark says
September 26, 2009 at 11:34 PMYour talk at WordCamp today was truly great. It was a pleasure to meet you and shake your hand right before I came home to my family for the rest of my weekend. I feel newly invigorated and reinspired and plan to overhaul my blog (which has been neglected a bit as of late) with all of the great ideas I learned throughout the day.
Thank you again,
Another Liz
http://latigoliz.blogspot.com
http://www.latigoliz.com
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 6:47 PMHi Liz,
What fun it was to be at WordCamp Seattle with all of you! Thank you for coming by to talk for a while.
I’m delighted that what I had to say moved things forward for you. I think it’s important that we all bring ourselves to the “party.” We have so much worth value to offer. It’s how we frame and form the information that makes it interesting and uniquely our own.
Great luck with your blog.
You’re not a stranger anymore.
Ravi Kalmady says
September 27, 2009 at 12:12 PMHi Liz,
Hello, how are you 🙂
Back to your post, perhaps I can believe you, cause even “Never been done before totally original” still gets 11 Google results.
There’s nothing ‘original’ any more. For instance, stand still right now and look around you — how many buttons, knobs and switches can you see? I counted about 110 (not counting the keyboard).
It does look like everything’s already ‘discovered’ or ‘invented’.
It IS difficult to “prove the value of something awesomely original”, unless that original just landed on our planet…
.. or unless you’re Marlon Brando who landed the Godfather job by auditioning with cotton balls in his jaws.
I’d say the answer to originality lies in education. We’re done with inventing the wheel, the radio and Playboy, so what do we do next? Only universities/institutions who carry on with fundamentals research can tell.
Even then, it’s all done in collaborations across the globe, so no single individual is really the ‘original.’
To answer your question, Liz, “Have you ever used the power of being an original you?”, I have, in my own, special way.
Most likely, everyone has.
It doesn’t matter if there’s no one out there to recognize it, nor to who I can market it. That has never been the point of ‘originality’, as I understand it.
Maybe I’m wrong… but that, hopefully, would be originally wrong 🙂
ME Liz Strauss says
September 28, 2009 at 6:41 PMHi Ravi,
How awesome to hear from you.
Maybe the education we need is something that lets us know it’s okay to think differently from the group. That’s would be a good start.
I think you’re right that most people have added an original difference by just being here. What worries me is that most people don’t often know that they do or what that might be. Imagine the power if we all took hold of the good difference only we could make.
Liz