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Anytime is taco time
Sometimes you’re talking to a colleague or friend, you’re taking a shower, you’re staring at some wall, or you’re just walking around, and then a thought or an idea strikes you. Eureka!
“Everything begins with an idea” — Earl Nightengale
Sometimes it’s something you need, other times it’s something you think might help others. Something you think it can bring value to you/them in some way. Something that someway can make your/their daily life easier. Something you/they sometimes lacked.
Sometimes it’s not the best idea but the perfect excuse to learn something new.
Sometimes you just have to say no
We have on average a lot of ideas along our life that seem amazing in our minds, but not all of them deserve to be developed. It’s not whether the idea is good or bad — the weirdest ideas can give unexpected results though. It’s all about our limited time and resources.
“There are no bad ideas, just bad decisions” — Jacob Cass
It’s bad not to try, as the old cliché goes, but it’s worse to start it and end up burying it in our half-finished project cemetery, due to desperation, lack of planning and/or after realising that it’s completely out of our reach.
We shouldn’t start a new project in a hurry without a minimum plan or a feasibility study.
Think twice before you act
We should consider a few things before we start and the best way to confirm whether or not we should go deeper is to break down the idea into multiple questions. That way, we will soon realize whether it is feasible or it’d better to leave it for later — so don’t forget to always write them down — and go for another one.
“Don’t be afraid of the answers. Be afraid of not asking the questions” — Jennifer Hudson
The questions you choose and the answers you get will depend on a wide range of factors — such as the size of the idea, its complexity, your previous experience, your mood, etc… — but only one thing is certain: if you don’t ask, the answer is already no.
Simple answers to simple questions
“Sometimes a simple question could have a complicated answer.” — Lisa Kleypas
They must be short sentences, asking just one thing per question, straightforward and closed-ended. After all, this is not rocket surgery — at least not yet — so try to come up with questions and answers that helps you to make you a decision at a glance. Perhaps the first “negative” answer would be enough for that.
Idea. Research. Discard. Repeat.
“Ideas are like insects. Many are born but few live to maturity.” — William Hertling
Don’t get me wrong. Every idea — good or not — has its beauty and it would be amazing to develop each one of them to try our luck, but we must go for the best because as we all know: TIME IS MONEY (so spend it wisely).
This article was originally published on Medium
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