I’m tired of hearing people talk about “quantity vs. quality,” as if the two were mutually exclusive. [You: "Really? You're tired of that? You're hearing this conversation so much that you're actually tired of it? What kind of lame parties are you going to, man? I never hear people talking about 'quantity vs. quality!'"] Well, perhaps I hang out with a more erudite crowd than you. But the point is this: quantity and quality are not mutually exclusive.

In fact, when it comes to creativity, quantity leads to quality.

Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I’ve been talking a lot about ideas lately. I love ideas. I love coming up with them, I love watching others come up with them, I love seeing them brought to fruition. It’s been said that, in business, nothing happens until somebody sells something. That may be true, but you know what? In virtually everything—business included—nothing happens until somebody has the idea for it. Look around you. Everything you see (at least everything human-made), from the shoes on your feet to that episode of Lost that you’re watching, is the result of an idea. It’s the product of a human brain exercising its creativity. Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

So I was reading through a book of Mark Twain quotes last night (did the guy ever say anything that wasn’t pure gold?), and I came upon one that was particularly relevant to my last post:

“The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”

Bill Gates was an idiot whose idea of “a computer on every desk” was patently absurd. Those wacky Wright kids, Orville and Wilbur, with their crazy “flying machine” idea—what were they thinking? And who can forget Johannes Gutenberg? “Movable type? Wow Johannes—what have you been smoking?” Cranks, all of them. Until they succeeded. Then they were visionaries. Pretty thin line, huh? Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Do you ever feel like you missed the boat? Do you ever feel like opportunity has, once again, passed you by? Do you ever find yourself saying, “If only I had…

…invented the Pet Rock;
…bought into Microsoft when it first went public;
…come up with the idea for Facebook?”

Somehow the innovations always seem to go to the other guy. It’s not that you’re not smart; it’s just that your timing is off, right?

Bull crap. Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

So I was out to dinner last night, and two guys at a nearby table were discussing Sunday’s Grammy awards—specifically Paul McCartney’s performance of I Saw Her Standing There with Foo Fighter (and former Nirvana drummer) Dave Grohl on drums. This led one of the two to say “Well, Ringo never really was much of a drummer. But I guess he was an okay timekeeper, and that’s really all the Beatles needed.” The other one agreed. At that point, I’m pretty sure I was visibly shaking, and it was all I could to keep from setting fire to their table. Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

How often do you come up with a brilliant, innovative idea that changes the shape of your industry? The Beatles did it all the time. How? Partly by being continuously open to new ideas, no matter where they may come from. Let’s take a look at the genesis of two landmark Beatles songs: John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus and Paul McCartney’s Penny Lane. Read More…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.