Chapter 2. What Is An Idea?

What most of us call an idea is merely an impulse. It's the beginning or germ of an idea, with many possibilities but only if we add to it the factors that give it value.

My father was an inventor, and sometimes people would say to him, "I have an idea . . . the desert needs water . . . let's go in business together." Eight times out of ten, what these people had was not an idea at all-it was an impulse.

Merely recognizing a need for an idea is very far from having the idea. Anyone who undertook to handle such an impulse would have had to add ninety-nine percent to make anything of it. Finding the need is not creation, as it does not change anything. After you find the need, then you first go to work to fill it.

Ways of testing such an impulse will be given later, although this example is so exaggerated that no one would have to test it to know it was ridiculous. Or is it? What about irrigation reclamation projects which have made parts of some deserts to bloom? The virtues of an idea-seed are by no means always obvious.

Since everything starts with an idea, the subject covers enormous territory, as does the definition. However the word "idea" as employed in this book will be the popular and colloquial usage, not the philosophical or technical.

What I am discussing, really, is how to produce a good or practical plan, a suggestion, a new approach, a solution to a problem.

An idea, then, starts as an idea-seed, a notion, a vague conception or supposition, a thought or mental impression, from which the idea itself is then developed.

The idea-seed begins as something to which as yet there is no corresponding reality. At the outset it is fantasy, or a fiction or a figment of the imagination.

After it is developed, it will be a plan or purpose or action, an intention or a design. It will be an accurate image or concept of an object which is either tangible or intangible, either concrete or abstract.

Impulses are often valuable beginnings of ideas and they should not be ignored or neglected. Write them down and save them; and some time you'll find that they combine with other thoughts to make something interesting.

In that statement is a clue to a real idea. An idea is a new combination of old elements. Ideas are for certain purposes-to overcome difficulties, to improve things, to entertain or attract, to find good or different ways of doing things.

Successful ideas, contrary to belief, are hardly ever based on original thoughts. They come to one as the result of some outside impulse nudging one's attention. Talking to someone, listening to a speaker, reading, hearing something on the radio, looking into a shop window, passing something on the street.

Genius itself depends upon the information within its reach. Even Archimedes, great thinker that he was, around 200 B.C., could not have devised Edison's inventions because scientific knowledge had not developed to the necessary point.

It is obvious that the more we know about a subject, the more abundant and the more effective will be our ideas concerning it. Sometimes this seems to be contradicted by the fact that many innovations come from inexperienced outsiders. But their apparent lack of specialized knowledge is counteracted by their interest and enthusiasm. They find the information. They get the experience.

Recently, for example, an advertising company had the assignment of promoting a cigarette lighter-a typical man's product. Newspapers always have columns for women's and household topics, but there seemed no appropriate section for this man's novelty. The idea that solved the problem was to design a lighter that could be used as part of a handsome table setting to go with the silverware at dinner. This lighter, when designed, was avidly seized upon by the editors of women's pages and the new product got enormous publicity. No lighter expert or technician worked up this solution. It came from an enthusiastic outsider.

And right here I get the idea, or rather the impulse, of why similar newspaper columns devoted to men's products could not be promoted.

Ideas are either abstract or concrete. The abstract idea is primarily important to the writer of stories, novels or plays and the author of books of contemporary or other non-fiction nature.

On the other hand concrete or specific ideas are of interest to the writer of movies, to painters and artists and engineers, and other workers in pictorial media or graphic presentation, as well as to business people and advertising writers.

Usually the abstract idea is a vague thing in origin. Your mind is in the state known as wandering over miscellaneous odd situations or conditions. All at once one of these subjects attracts you more than others. It "clicks" with something in your mind. It seems to fit in, to belong.

Such an idea is vital to a writer. If you have already mastered the art of writing what you mean, your ability to come up with fresh ideas is important to your continued success. Other factors being equal, your output will vary in quality and vitality, with the force and appeal of your ideas.

The abstract idea seems to come from nowhere, or to bubble up from the depths of your imagination, and usually without reference to preliminary facts. But we shall see later how to expedite such ideas and produce them almost on an assembly line basis.

Such casually obtained ideas are all right when there is no time factor involved. A Nobel Prize winner in literature does not have to worry if he gets another idea in a hurry or not. When he gets it, it may be any idea on any subject, just so it's an idea.

But most business people need ideas to solve particular problems. They are restricted by the specific facts and conditions, and they also have a time limit in which to "come across" with something. This puts a very different approach to the problem than that of the more leisurely "creative" thinker. As a matter of fact, it takes considerably more creativeness to be creative on schedule than to amble along at one's own serene pace. The tempo of modern business is such that it no longer wishes to wait even for time or tide. It seems to be getting even with the long eons in which time or tide refused to wait for man.

The concrete idea cannot proceed by stretching an arm into the blue sky and drawing down something to do business with. It depends on specific facts that must be previously gathered, organized and adapted to the purpose in view.

Playing with ideas without knowing the process is something like constructing a television set by using the trial and error method! You may finally get it done but it would surely be simpler if you knew how at the start.

Most of our ideas come to us from outside by way of seeing, hearing, feeling or some of the other senses. But these ideas are merely raw material for writers. They are shared in that form with all human beings. A creative mind does something to those ideas. He selects, adapts and transforms them.

For example, my mother had a long siege of insomnia, which nothing seemed to help. So I decided that there must be some way of getting the better of it, and determined to do a lot of research and write a little book on How to Sleep Soundly. Was that an idea? No, up to that point it was merely an impulse. The idea only appeared after I did the research and knew how I was going to relate the factors. It became a successful idea after it was published and put all the readers to sleep-except my mother!

So, first of all, the writer selects certain impulses that arouse his interest. This determines his basic material, and to a large degree the personality of his writing as well. With other planned methods and skill, these impressions, fleeting glimpses of life and basic facts of human behavior are recombined into work that the writer has every right to call his own.

The same process of gathering raw material, selecting, refitting and refining, characterizes all idea development whether abstract or concrete. The chief requisite is imagination. This can be so aided and controlled by devices presently to be explained, that the process of idea-getting becomes almost automatic.

Ideas result from mental attitudes. They originate in points of view. Hence by seeking true and natural points of view one may secure the best and most superior ideas. The world is governed by ideas-good ones and bad ones. Each nation is ruled by its political policy, which is the general expression of the ideas of its leading minds. Each individual is as he is by virtue of the particular ideas, which prevail in him.

It is more necessary today than ever to look for the good. There is a great deal of superficiality, triviality, to say nothing of evil, in modern life. When the attention is concentrated upon the continual discovery or development of good, its creative energies will multiply the good. There is a better side, a superior side, a beautiful side to everyone and everything. By learning to look for the better and higher qualities in persons and things we ally ourselves with these and not only produce better ideas and more constructive ones, but improve ourselves at the same time by more desirable and up building attitudes.

A major requirement in getting an idea is to believe that it is possible. In other words, we said something above about faith. Before you can do anything, you have to believe it can be done. This more than anything, sets the mind in motion to find the way. Your mind always takes its cue from your beliefs. If you believe it cannot be done, your mind will produce the reasons why it cannot. If you believe it can, your mind will be equally proficient in showing how it can. That is a necessary step in releasing creative power.

Of course to get an idea you must be receptive. A dog on Fifth Avenue, New York, may be surrounded by all the idea material, which the creative thinker sees. Receptiveness is what you as a human being can make of it.

You cannot harbor in your mind such negative attitudes as fear, worry, resentment, jealousy, anger, anxiety and the like, and at the same time expect to receive any inspiration from the finer portions of your being. The creativeness of a person is of the same substance as universal creativeness. You must ask this creativeness within for what you want, visualizing it as clearly as possible in picture form. Then you must still your mind in an attitude of faith, expectation and confidence that you will get your reply. You can't pour grain into a sack unless the sack is open to receive, and your subconscious cannot pour ideas into your mind unless your mind is receptive.

I much like the word "amateur" as we might apply it to the subject of getting ideas. From the French verb, "to love", its literal English meaning is to have such a strong fondness for a particular endeavor that one cultivates it eagerly without pursuing it professionally. Many notable discoveries in science have been made by amateurs. Newton's occupation was that of a government employee. His scientific exploits were the hobbies of an "amateur". To Einstein, mathematics was a hobby, his work being in the Swiss patent office.

To do anything with the spirit of love is to add profoundly to its potentiality for success. Everyone knows that love is magnetic. In the field of thought it attracts other thoughts that are needed, in a mysterious way. It removes much of the stress and strain of compulsion and adds the glow of happiness and inspiration.

When your dominant mental attitude is aspiring, harmonious and positive your mental powers will be directed into constructive channels. If the state of mind is discordant, apathetic, negative, then the forces will be misdirected and wasted. Attitudes of harmony and goodwill promote improved conditions of satisfaction and progress. Only trouble and discontent, confusion and discord can result from destructive attitudes. Creative skills enable us to deal ably with every problem of living. They aid us in developing our individual character to an increasingly higher creative level. Since it is creative skill, which enables us to advance to economic stability and to enjoy life at the highest level, the development of creative skill is a most important practice for each of us to undertake.

Creativeness in the production of ideas when successful is far more than a financial asset, for it serves in a big way as an emotional outlet as well. Such ills as nervousness, discouragement, the inferiority sense, and general restlessness, are due to the feeling that one is not contributing to life to the hilt of his capacities.

A single new idea may reshape your whole future. It is worth trying for. The results of ideas extend far beyond money. They bring one into new business and social contacts. They furnish the priceless opportunity to be of service, and thereby achieve appreciation, so yearningly desired by every human being. They justify one's existence, for one has no right to consume all the pleasures and benefits and comforts of life without producing some in return. The idea producer also gains in the pleasures and rewards of alertness, interest in surroundings, the conquest of boredom, and the possession of a hobby with many challenging qualities. The successful idea producer also develops his own personality by adding interest, enthusiasm, purpose to his life. He increases his mental stature by becoming more observant, more analytical, more concentrated. Most people, however, do not lack the capacity to be more creative. The difficulty up to now has been that the methods of accomplishing such a purpose have nowhere been imparted to them. As a result, they view the subject with awe and mystery and ineptly allow themselves to be stumped by imaginary obstacles.

One has only to look around at the world to see in the most casual glance that there is untold opportunity for improvement and change. Granting the tremendous need for creative thinking and for new ideas, it is high time to place their production on a more systematic and reliable basis than has heretofore been done.

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