“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.” –Howard Aiken
The other day Liz posted about having dreams and how challenging it can sometimes be turning those dreams into reality.
About that same time Chris Brogan tossed out a phrase over at Twitter that caught my attention.
Lots of visionaries and not enough princes of execution
So which is it?
Do we need more dreamers or more doers?
Honestly I think we need more of both.
Too many of us are sitting on the couch, eating Klondike Bars, and watching American Idol. We’d rather complain about how unfair Simon is than allow ourselves to think about possibilities and potentialities.
And God forbid we ever get off our butts and actually start making something happen!
Now don’t get me wrong. Most of you know I’m a huge fan of Klondike Bars. (Mmmmm…)
Dreaming Can Be Scary Stuff
But the point is this. For far too many of us the idea of dreaming about what could be in the future is too frightening. We let the what ifs overwhelm us without even giving our dream a chance to take root, much less produce any fruit.
What if I fail and am disappointed?
Or worse yet, what if I succeed beyond my capabilities, can’t manage it and then in the end fail in a spectacularly public way?
Would you just take a moment and listen to the junky thoughts you let run through your mind?! If you heard someone else say that sort of stuff out loud you’d be all over them like a baseball manager on a umpire’s bad call.
Then There’s the Doing
In our instant gratification, microwave, atm, cell phone society far too many off us have developed an amazingly unhealthy aversion to a little effort.
We’ll drive around the Wal-Mart parking lot for 10 minutes trying to find a parking place up front instead of just parking out a little and walking a few extra steps. Even though deep down we know we’d get in the store faster if we did.
One of the biggest reasons so many of us are unwilling or unable to dream any more is because we think we’ve tried it and it didn’t work out. So we’ve given up.
But the reality is all we did was wish. And that’s not the same thing as dreaming.
A wish is something we think we’d like to have or see but don’t really think will ever happen. To many of us do that and think we are dreaming.
Dreaming is seeing something that isn’t there yet as though it was real already. When we seriously get to dreaming, there will come a moment when action is required to turn that dream into reality. With a wish we never have to worry about that step because we won’t get to it.
Turning our dreams into reality will require us to put down the Klondikes, turn off Idol, and do something.
Change is the Rub
Here’s the thing about that quote up there at the top. Watching our dreams become reality will require change.
And change? Fohr-ghet-ta-bow-tiht!
If your dream, your big idea, is truly different that what has gone before you won’t have to worry about anyone stealing it. The overwhelming majority of folks out there are so unwilling to change, even when they know the change will be a huge benefit to them.
Don’t believe me? Try to convince a smoker to quit.
Your dream, if it is truly unique to you, is relatively safe. Use appropriate caution and protect yourself wisely. But don’t worry too much.
Most folks aren’t going to be willing to make the changes necessary to steal your dream.
But that’s just the Way I C it.
–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.
When I hear someone complain about change and how it is impossible to change, I try to remind them that even a nail will rust.
ah, the New Yorker in me is about to come out 🙂
You either have the results or the reasons why not…
GP in Montana who might just indulge in a Klondike bar
Chris, very nice, truly. But my question is, why are you shopping a Walmart in the first place?
Scratch that. This IS the quintessential sweet spot: How do I get there from here? If I commit, how do I actually manifest this dream?
Hey, I can’t answer that question, here in public. Somebody might take my job, get there with the answer before me. And then I’d be out of a job, and have to go work at Walmart.
Hi, Chris, Carma, GP and Lisa. Let’s talk about Walmart. Ole Sam, he had a little dream that he had in his mind. Like Chris said, he saw what it looked like before it was, and then he applied his mind to it. He broke down the steps, and then acted on them. He kept in mind two basic things — his customers and his people. Though the poor guy had to work at Walmart, he ended up with a personal fortune over $100 billion.
Lisa, I agree with you that there are times to keep things quiet. I think that is balanced by the need to go ahead and do the thing. When we do it, people can see, and may even try to steal our ideas. Like Sam Walton, we can then bring in people who can help us — people like consultants, accountants, lawyers. That’s even for the small start-ups. There are many ways to proptect an idea. When it comes down to it, unless we implement the idea, it cannot produce. I want to encourage people to implement wisely and not allow the fear of failure or loss — through theft or otherwise — hold us back.
Tariq,
I should know better than to be sardonic at the expense of an honest inquiry. I was really agreeing, and trying to turn an irony on its head. But given , the medium, and the day, I take it back.
Indeed, this sweet spot is the place where I spend my life, my livelihood and my work with people. I live for the fire that gets generated from a single idea.
So, the question remains. How do we get there from here? It is really quite simple, as you’ve stated: take the first step, and then the next. And along the way, recognize that you don’t have to do it alone.
“But how do I know what the first step is?” Do what comes to mind, and then you’ll know.
Lisa,
I can see that the heat from ideas is part and parcel of who you are and do. (Nice site, by the way!)
I especially like the statement you made, “Do what comes to mind, and then you’ll know.” It seems to me, as you put it so well, that clarity of purpose sometimes comes when we act on a thing rather than before the action. Perhaps it’s because we can see the dream unfolding and it becomes clearer how to attain it.
Great post.. Vision without action is hallucination! And boy I had some good hallucinations in my life ;)…
Carma, you are so right. Change is inevitable. The only people who truly aren’t changing are dead.
Oh, wait. Even those folks are decomposing!
GP, and those reasons why not sound like just so many excuses. When someone else is making them.
My reasons why not are perfectly reasoned and legitimate, of course. 🙄
Lisa, my answer is far less deep than Tariq’s. I go to Wal-Mart because I sometimes need stuff. 🙂
And you bring up a good point about commitment. Taking all those single steps along the way until our dream becomes reality takes commitment.
Tariq, I agree that bringing on the right expert assistance can go a long way to reducing our risk of failure.
Admitting what we don’t know and finding help to fill in those gaps is what I call wisdom.
Steli, that is a priceless quote.
I’m completely with you here. I’ve had more than a few of those myself.
Hi all
But what if…
your dream becomes true because of action and you can’t believe you’ve pulled it off. Doesn’t that make you think you’re hallucinating?
😉 it happened to me a few times, thinking I was hallucinating
Hey Karin…yes it makes you THINK you´re hallucinating. That´s a bit different then ACTUALLY doing it 🙂 isn´t it?
Hi Everyone!
I’ve enjoyed this conversation, even though I was only listening. . . .
Maybe you were only hallucinating what you heard. (Sorting out that whole idea is making my head hurt. 🙂 )
Okay you guys,
Can you tell if there’s something special about those Klondike bars you’re all eating? 🙂
Hey Chris,
What’s in this caramel swirl?