DAVID VALENTIN, INC.
HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

Many Big Ideas initially look, at first glance, as harebrained. We’ve all hard of the Pet Rock, Tupperware, Post-It Notes, and Velcro. Big Ideas that weren’t initially seen as brilliant, that later became runaway best sellers or household names. Many people believe there is a limited supply of ideas. You may have heard of the statement made by Charles H. Duell, who was the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899, “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Though this statement itself turns out to be a myth, according to PatentLYo.com, it shows up regularly in the conversation surrounding ideas and the promotion of creative thinking. Two personal examples include an idea I had for a round refrigerator that would be a boon to men who don’t want to reach into the back of the refrigerator to find out what there is to eat. My idea would turn the refrigerator shelving into organized Lazy Susan’s, making it easy to access every item in the refrigerator. run by a couple of guys who had discovered the same thing and actually created a solution with the same Big Idea. This confirmed to me that you can’t sit in an idea. They don’t like it. Eventually, they’ll get up and move to someone who will take them seriously. This is a myth many creative people and businesses live by, unfortunately. It’s in the same family as “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.” This myth has actually been the death of many a once thriving business. Take Blockbuster, for example. They had a chain of video rental stores that was unbeatable in selection. They put many small video stores out of business. Their idea was “make physical recordings of movies and games available for people to rent in our store.” Blockbuster saw the store idea and said we can do it bigger and better. They got into the “come into our store” rental business. And stopped there. This myth is the brother of The Uniqueness Myth. Putting off a good idea till later can cost an individual or business millions in lost revenue. Many ideas are good for only a short time. If not acted upon right away, new technology can come along and make them obsolete. Kodak is an example of The Do It Later Myth. Kodak said “We’ll get into digital later if it proves valuable. People have been using film for decades. They won’t change. Film is so much better than digital.” Where is Kodak today? They tried to get in later, but it was too difficult. Other companies had already invested in the technology for years and their costs were down as a result. Kodak came in with inferior products at a higher cost. This myth is not all make believe. Piracy is alive and well today. China continues to knockoff ideas left and right despite patents. This is very discouraging to inventors. It can be very deadly to a business to have the market flooded with imitations. But the real danger of this myth is that thinking that “Someone will steal my idea” has kept many ideas from even being attempted. “Somebody already thought of that. There’s nothing I can do to make it better.” Many of the products we use today were originally conceptualized first by a different inventor. This myth is opposite the “If you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door.” These ideas at first seemed simple. “Let’s make a computer, too.” “Let’s make cars to sell to America.” The development of these better ideas require many more difficult ideas to be created. Within the tiny acorn lies the mighty oak. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Which one do you want to be right about? Do you think you can write a best selling novel? You can. Do you think you can turn your idea into the next Big Idea? You can. Do you think you can go into space as a space tourist? You can do that too. by David Valentin ©2018 David Valentin - Web Design by Avid Ink Media