“Don’t tell me it can’t be done. Find a way to do it. Stop making excuses, and focus on solutions!” -Futurist Jim Carroll
Hire People You Don’t Like. Stop Seeking Common Ground. Kill the Committee. & More Ideas to Accelerate Your Reality
Those who succeed possess a daring need for speed.
That’s your reality. If you think your world, industry, company, business model, platform, technology or anything else will look the same a year from now — you’re wrong.
What are you going to do about it? Change things. Change things big. Don’t think small – be daring. Start with these ideas – they might be too radical, but maybe they are what is needed.
1. Hire people you don’t like. Otherwise, you have a team that is all the same. You end up with sameness, oneness, a monoculture of thinking that will kill any creativity you might have left.
2. Stop searching for common ground. Too many people try to accommodate every viewpoint. It’s often a waste of time since your efforts will lead to a mishmash of a complicated, ugly, unconnected idea. That will fail, in spectacular fashion.
3. Seek the consensus – do the opposite. In fact, to avoid groupthink, see what the group is thinking, and do the opposite thing!
4. Kill the committee. They kill ideas. They stifle creativity. They smother opportunity. They are a blight on the concept of creativity.
5. Find the danger zone – pursue it. You are probably complacent, and so is your team. Avoid that by finding the riskiest path – and do it. Now.
6. Look outside. The answer to your dilemma probably isn’t where you think it is. You won’t find it with the ‘usual suspects.’ It’s hidden, mysterious, out on the edges. Get out of your comfort zone and go find it.
7. Get over yourself. You might not be that bright. No one is. Listen to other people — particularly those who don’t think as you do.
8. Banish excuses. The world is fast. Get over it. You need to do, not find reasons not to do.
9. Ride the friction. Teams that are in alignment work ok. Angry teams make better teams.
10. Get momentum. Pick up the speed. Kill the calendar. Set bold goals. Get it done yesterday.
11. Stop motivating – start leading. Make the decisions that others are not able to!
12. Go with your gut. Over-analysis will inhibit your ability to do what you know is the right thing.
13. Don’t commit. Maybe you’ll get it wrong the first time around. Try it again. Pivot and re-pivot.
14. Challenge people. They are all unsure about what to do, but want to try, and might have their own unique ideas. Let them try.
15. Don’t fear the results. Learn from them.
What do you think? Tweet to #doitnow
People Will Always Laugh At Your Crazy Ideas: They Are Usually Wrong!
Many people have a belief system that has them convinced that the world of tomorrow will look much like it does today, with the result that when they are confronted by the future, they dismiss it.
Case in point – back in 2006, I was the opening keynote speaker for a conference of telecom and cable engineers. I had about 3,000 of them in the room. One of the trends I outlined was that we would see accelerating innovation in terms of bandwidth capacities, particularly as we innovated in terms of optical fibre technology. I suggested to them, for example, that one day soon we would build a router that would stop light in its tracks, examine its packets, and in doing so, see innovative opportunities that would lead to massive increases in accelerated bandwidth.
Of course, they laughed at me. It’s ok. I get used to it.
Some complained to the conference organizers. “How can you bring in someone with such crazy ideas?” Others voiced their skepticism to an industry publication, which ended up writing an article on my crazy observation, dismissing it entirely.
But wait — after that, a number of leading optical scientists came to my defence, and said my prediction was bang on! You can read the resulting blog post which covers the industry publication, When Light Stops.
Fast forward – this news story a few weeks ago caught my attention. We seem to be getting really good at stopping light! Who would have thought? But that’s not the first story in this regard; I’ve been tracking the trend for years.
Here’s the thing about the future — it’s fast, its huge, and it increasingly involves ideas that once seemed crazy becoming a reality.
If you want to be innovative, focus on the crazy. You just might discover some gems of creativity in there. You’ll discover the future.
And realize the best time to pursue an idea is when other people laugh at it.
Need another example? How about printing solar cells on paper? Crazy idea? Not at all! Here’s a clip in which I’m talking about the fact that at MIT, they are learning how to print solar cells onto paper! Oh, and the whole issue of how we can stop light in its tracks….
Be crazy, think crazy, pursue crazy.
Daily Inspiration: “What used to be fiction is now reality!”
“What used to be fiction is now reality!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Daily Inspiration: “What we know often gets in the way of what we can do!”
“What we know often gets in the way of what we can do!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Daily Inspiration: “The best time to pursue an idea is when other people laugh at it” –
“The best time to pursue an idea is when other people laugh at it” – Futurist Jim Carroll
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