Chapter 18. The Correct Use Of Idea Energy

There is an interesting fact about an idea, and that is the way it can grow. Haven't you ever watched your own ideas grow? Doubtless you can remember having an idea, and then, a little later, having another that added something to the first and seemed to fit right in with it. Often in the course of time this little idea that began as a tiny bit of an embryonic thought developed into a full-sized grown-up plan.

It is one of Nature's wonders that whenever you are possessed by an idea which reinforces a previous idea, an additional spurt of energy is released with it to help in its development.

It is advisable to act on your ideas as soon as they are ready, for if idea energy is kept in storage, as it were, it loses its freshness and might be said to dry up into nothingness. You start doubting if it is really as good as you first thought it was. You begin to wonder if you have enough experience to work it out, if someone else isn't better qualified. Once an idea begins to get this kind of treatment only a miracle can keep it alive.

To be sure, prompt action is not always feasible. Excellent ideas have been delayed for years. Should yours be one like this, put it away if you must, but don't forget to bring it out frequently to keep interest alive. Keep it aerated, moist and fresh.

As an example of delayed action on ideas, take the case of E. M. Statler, the great hotel man. More new hotel ideas came from him than hotels had ever heard of in all their history. And these ideas, many of them, came to him as a young boy long before there was anything he could do about them. As a youth, he had a job as a bellboy and one of his more tiresome duties was running up and down stairs with ice water for guests. So he had the idea of piping ice water into every room. The brightness of this was not only having the idea, but also having the wisdom not to tell anyone about it. He did not confide in the other bellboys. He did not tell his boss. He kept it strictly to himself. So it was sensational when years later he piped ice water into the rooms of his own hotel. Other ideas he carried around for years were a private bath with every room; face-cloth and free paper shoe bags in every room; typewriter loaned to guests on request; bedhead reading lamps, and many other new ideas.

Your ideas can prove to be equally valuable so don't throw them carelessly around and give them away right and left. When you get an idea that fills you with enthusiastic energy, bottle it up. Don't tell a soul. Think about it and work on it, but keep quiet vocally. If you must have information that necessitates talking to someone, talk, but don't tell him why you need the information.

Why should we be so insistent on this point? There are good reasons. It is because, for one thing, talking is action. If you have an exciting idea which fills you with energy, then you go into action via words, you use up the idea energy for nothing. It's all gone by the time you stop talking about it. To do real work on the idea after that, you have to draw on your ordinary quota and this turns what should be fun into work.

But that isn't all. We generally do the talking to a friend. He praises us, pats us on the back, and gives us our reward before we have done anything. What happens? We have spent the idea energy and have apparently obtained the reward. So why bother to work out the idea anyway? At least that is how both your physical self and your subconscious self view the thing, so they lose interest in it and you get no co-operation.

As if that weren't enough, the danger of telling everyone about your idea does not stop with lessening your fitness for action. Sometimes the people you tell will throw cold water on your idea. Merge discouragement with inactivity and you can see where your idea ends, right in the middle of the discard.

Therefore, work out your idea completely before you talk. Know every detail. Be prepared to answer every possible criticism. Fortify yourself with every argument you may need to defend it. All this means that an idea must be pretty far advanced before its originator can take the risk of having it hammered at, torn about, or ridiculed.

Keep in mind the ready dissipation of idea energy, and when your idea is finally ready for action, use only such action as is helpful to its promotion. If your idea is a story plot, don't tell it. Write it down, otherwise you waste your idea to no avail.

One final caution-don't hold on to the idea too long. That's as bad as not holding on long enough. The factor of timeliness is also important.

The right thing can be done at the wrong time and thereby destroy most of its value, while a mediocre idea properly timed may have a better chance of effectiveness, Time is an invisible but powerful ingredient. A heroic rescue may be attempted into a burning house, but if the occupants are already cleared-or destroyed-the heroism is in vain. An undramatic rescue on time is far better. A good idea can be over-investigated, over-studied, and some shrewd competitor will get there ahead of you. There is an old saying, to the effect that while the wise old scholar meditates and studies and analyzes, the village fool can hit the nail on the head in one good guess. The truth is somewhere between the two extremes.

The steady procession of new things may soon make an invention obsolete. One young man who created a promising household gadget refused a $25,000 offer for it. Then another article came out that did the job better, and the value of his invention skidded to zero.

Important as are ideas, in themselves they are not enough. That idea for getting more business, for simplifying work procedures, or for the great American novel is of value only when it is acted upon. Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they do not act upon them. No matter how good the idea, you gain nothing unless you do something with it. You must act upon it to give it value. A good idea if not acted upon is psychologically demoralizing, but if acted upon produces immense satisfaction.

Creative thinkers all through the ages reveal the satisfaction of producing ideas. Many of them, in fact, have gone through refined torment for the privilege. People who produce ideas, great or small, are reasonably happy. Their minds have a certain contentment, and their idea energy keeps pace with their production. Those who do not produce have a restlessness and sense of non-fulfillment. They are dissatisfied and often frustrated. It is therefore well worth the effort to know how to get ideas by such methods as are available and dependable, and thereby enhance one's personal satisfactions, and one's contribution to life.

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