Chapter 6. The Formula

The business of producing an idea is not magical. It is in no way hopeless or erratic. It follows a certain procedure. But it does take a degree of effort. That is why I can safely hand over a formula as valuable as this. People are glad to read about it, but many will not annoy themselves to work it.

At the same time, that is what you get paid for. If everyone could have an idea merely by putting his feet on the desk and wishing, it would be of no value. It should certainly be a comfort to know that if you follow the procedure you will get the result.

This brings us to the pleasant fact that only five steps are needed to produce an idea. And of the five, not even all of them involve work.

While each of the five steps is ordinary enough, the feature that is not usually realized is that they have to be taken in a regular order. Never can a later one be attempted successfully before the previous one in the sequence is effectively performed.

Step One. Assemble Your Ingredients.

This sounds simple enough, but most people do anything to avoid it. Remembering that an idea is a combination of elements, you have to have elements before you can combine them. Precious hours are spent in wool gathering, which should be spent in material gathering. Valuable time is frittered away while people in search of ideas sit around waiting for an inspiration. When they do this they are trying to take the fourth step without taking the three that must go before. It is absolutely essential to take the first step first, and the first step is to gather your raw material. There is no substitute for this.

There are two kinds of material to collect-the specific and the general. The specific kind concerns the object or situation about which you want an idea. It involves finding out everything you can about its purposes, uses, materials, operation, construction, the people concerned with it, and so on. We shall see later how this is done.

The other kind of material to be gathered is general. Always keep in mind that an idea is a new combination of elements. The more elements you have stored away, the more the chances are for producing new and striking combinations of ideas. You can combine your specific knowledge about objects and people with your general knowledge of life and affairs. This second, general type of material gathering does not have to be done for your specific idea. It is in your head already, as a result of your alertness and intelligent interest in the world around you. This is what was indicated previously in connection with experience and individuality. These are cultivated as a continuous life process, but you should be aware of what there is in that head of yours, and make use of it in new and different ways beyond those for which they may have been originally intended.

I remember that some time ago I was listening to someone discuss, of all things, Julius Caesar's military tactics. I suppose I didn't seem very intelligent or responsive, as he exclaimed rather impatiently, "Good Lord, you did read Caesar's Gallic Wars, didn't you?" I had to admit I had suffered through a year of them in my Latin course, but to me they were nothing more than grammar lessons. That they might have any use as historical facts never even entered my head.

Let us consider now some of the aspects of gathering specific material. This is done in various ways, through interviews, reading, study of what competitive businesses are doing or have done.

If you are going to use the idea for advertising, promotion, propaganda or the like, you are certainly not going to play up any of the faults or weaknesses of the product or cause. However, you make notes of everything good and bad you can say about the subject, as you must never deceive yourself. Even if you do not use the faults in your final presentation, you must be aware of them and be able to overcome them. Each note should be made on a separate card, the popular 3x5 inch size being the best for the purpose. This will be discussed in more detail later, under the heading of research.

When you have the needed information together all in one place, it is little use to you for it will be a confused, unorganized mass of facts. It therefore becomes necessary to classify it.

Step Two. Classify Your Ingredients.

This is very easy to do. Lay all your cards out on your table or desk, and gather together those that group themselves logically under particular divisions. If you are discussing a certain product, you will have headings concerned with purpose, how it works, what it is made of, appearance, cost, benefits to user, advantages over competing products, or other topics that naturally suggest themselves.

After you have this general organization, you refine the classification. You decide which of these factors is the most important or significant to your purpose. You make up your mind if you will emphasize how economical it is, or how easily it works, or which other advantage you will play up. Thus instead of mind-wandering over anything at all and not even knowing what you want the idea about, you now have a definite thought and one with vital bearing upon the problem that is up for your attention. You then continue your game of solitaire by taking any cards from any of the divisions, which reinforce the idea you intend to concentrate upon.

Step Three. Preparation.

Having gathered and classified your ingredients, you now prepare them. You take the various scraps of information, turn them one way and another, look at one fact at a time from every angle, consider its possibilities. You walk around it, as it were, and mull over it, in a state of brooding preoccupation. You combine it with other facts and see if a different relation can be established.

At this point you give yourself mental stimulation by a system to be fully explained later, utilizing a collection of words and pictures and other source material that prods your mind, stirs your feelings, and works on your imagination. All these aids animate you, make you impressionable and susceptible, and make it easy for you to react in new and interesting ways to your material in a thoroughly wide-awake and enthusiastic fashion. This process is really fun. You can carry it on without precise concentration. Someone has characterized this stage as more a listening process than a looking one. It is the stage at which the "thinker" gets his reputation for absentmindedness, as when Sir Isaac Newton made a big hole in his wall for a large cat to come in, and then made a little hole next to it to admit a kitten.

In this stage, what you'll get at first will be little tentative or partial ideas, but write them down anyhow, regardless of how absurd or unfinished they appear to be. They are little seed thoughts from which the ripe idea will later grow.

You keep on doing this until you are tired out and the whole thing looks hopeless. But don't admit this tiredness too readily. Remember, the mind too has a second wind, just like the exhausted runner. Having really arrived at genuine fatigue, with the third stage having been performed as conscientiously as possible, you are ready for the fourth.

Step Four. Inspiration.

Now, at last, you are ready to be "inspired". Yes, that is part of it, but far different from the idle sitting around which is usually done at Stage One. Now you have something to be inspired with. In this stage, you drop the entire matter from your mind. You forget all about it. You make no conscious effort at all. And yet this is just as definite and just as necessary as the previous steps in the process. Your conscious mind is now saturated with aspects of the subject. It has done its job up to this point. Now you must turn the problem over to your subconscious mind to work upon as you rest. Do whatever relaxes you. Read a detective story; listen to music; go to a movie; take in a show; see a game; have a party; meet friends. This is really an important part of the formula, as you will see in a later chapter.

Here you have a kind of a cooking process going on within. You have gathered your ingredients, classified and prepared them, and now they are on the stove, in your subconscious mind. You don't have to watch them any more than you watch your digestive processes. Like the piece of toast in a "toastmaster" your idea will pop up when it is ready.

The idea usually arrives when you least expect it, when you are relaxed in a warm bath, or when you're half awake in bed, or while you're working at something else, or reading the newspaper, or in some totally unrelated occupation.

Step Five. Verification.

Unfortunately you're not through when you have the idea this far by the tail. A good bit of physical effort now remains in putting it on paper, capturing aspects which did not seem thoroughly clear at the "inspiration", and adapting it to the hard cold facts.

Now you have given birth to a fine bouncing idea, but you must be sure it isn't going to bounce back like a rubber check. Most people tend to stop when they have the idea. It is necessary to take your little newborn idea out into the world and see how it fits the critical judgment of those who must be satisfied.

Nothing is more defeatist and humiliating than to go enthusiastically to the foreman, boss or any other prospect, get his interest and attention and then have the thing blow up in his face. You must first assure yourself of its feasibility and practicality. You must anticipate arguments against it, and have answers ready to meet them. You must make your presentation accurate, specific, attractive and businesslike. Don't jump to conclusions. Become objective. Imagine you are your own worst enemy, and have the right answer ready for every criticism he may make. Test it in advance; test on a small scale first. Make a model if possible, or be ready to demonstrate. Don't be half-baked. Develop the costs, explain the savings. List the advantages. Corrections, changes and practical additions may be needed. When all this has been taken care of, you have an ideal Details and aids in each step are covered in the following pages.

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