Learn how to recognize and harness great ideas, from Poppy King, author of Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea that Can Change Your Life.
Have you ever daydreamed?
Have you ever thought about doing something different?
Have you ever thought “If only…” or “I wish…”?
I am sure you have. We all have. Most of us just aren’t conscious that we’re doing it. Nor are we aware that some genuinely good ideas are lurking within these throwaway thoughts.
Anyone who has seen an idea through to a reality has started right where you are – just by thinking about it. That is exactly how I began my lipstick business. Who would have imagined that a multimillion-dollar company could spring from what seemed like the small and insignificant thoughts of a schoolgirl?
LESSON 1: Everyone has ideas
In cartoons, when characters have ideas, lightbulbs appear above their heads. Eureka! This is how we think ideas should come to us. Like bolts of lightning – sudden…clear…visible.
In real life, most ideas are much hazier. They ebb and flow like flotsam and jetsam, bobbing around on our stream of consciousness. And just like the junk floating around on the water, some of it floats away and some floats back. We often treat these thoughts like garbage, but they aren’t. Many people will swear up and down that they are not good at coming up with ideas, when what they’re really lacking is confidence: the confidence to believe that their own ideas could be real.
Very few of us experience what we’ve been taught to think of as the “big ideas” that arrive as an epiphany and call us to immediate action. Yet all of us, every single one of us, experience the other variety: the slow, steadier, repetitive thoughts that seem insignificant. We may be reluctant to call them ideas. We may think of them more as background noise. Even at this moment, you may still be thinking, I don’t have any real ideas. But if you remove some of the mystique and realize that ideas don’t have to be grand to be bona fide, you’ll quickly see that you have just as many ideas as the next person.
There is one simple understanding that allows many people to become successful: Instead of raising the bar as to what constitutes a good idea, they lower it. They realize that ideas are not one in a million, but a dime a dozen. Everyone is forming ideas every day. That means you, too. In fact, you probably already had and acted out at least five in the last few hours:
- What to have for breakfast
- What to wear
- How to get to work
- What to do first once you get there
- What to have for lunch
It may not sound like much, yet the very same process that got you through these basics can help you achieve so much more. But first you need to realize that all the greatest ideas – even those that have changed the world as we know it, the ones that are admired and revered for centuries – were developed using the same neurons we use to decide what to have for breakfast.
EVERYTHING COUNTS
Like I keep saying, we all have ideas, all the time. That means you, too! Still don’t believe me? Get your confidence boost right here by writing down all the ideas you’ve had in the last three hours.
Don’t worry if you haven’t come up with an alternative fuel to solve the world’s energy crisis. Every little idea counts – from choosing to buy one thing over another and why to taking the bus instead of driving to work. So go ahead and jot them down in a notebook.
I promise you, you do have ideas. Perhaps nine out of ten of them are not worth pursuing. But perhaps, just perhaps, one is.
That one could change your life…One changed mine.
- My Story
The idea to create my own brand of lipsticks didn’t come to me in a flash. My process was much, much slower and nowhere near as clear. It all started when I was about fifteen, when every Saturday night my best friend Sarah and I would get dressed up to go out (usually to some place that involved fake ID). As you can imagine, the process always involved makeup – and lots of it. It was the mid-eighties, after all. We’re talking electric colors, shoulder pads, stirrup pants, and very big hair. With her tan skin, corkscrew curls, athletic physique, and cute little cherub nose, Sarah pulled off the look without a hitch.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for me.
At the time I was five foot nothing, flat as a tack, pale, and bushy-haired with a European Jewish profile. I have never looked modern and have always looked more like something out of a black-and-white movie. Of course, I felt perfectly awful every Saturday night as I frantically attempted to shoehorn myself into the fashion of the day. Despite my best efforts, I could see that the whole look wasn’t working. Particularly the makeup. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I could see that Sarah looked good and I didn’t.
Believe it or not, this murky pond of teenage insecurity was the beginning of what would become the idea to start my own lipstick brand. As you can see for yourself, it did not come in a white flash but was hidden within a tangle of yearning, frustration, wishful thinking, and daydreaming.
It may be strange to consider such thoughts ideas because they don’t look as glossy, glamorous, and exciting as you would expect. But then again, would you expect a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly if you hadn’t been told it would? Everything starts out somewhere, and I suggest you start out by knowing that your own squiggly, wriggly little thoughts are the basis of what can transform into real, life-changing, destiny-making ideas.
THOUGHT COLLECTOR
Even the greatest idea can usually be traced back to meager beginnings. One person’s passing thought or dismissed observation is another person’s windfall. The difference lies in whether or not you pay enough attention to yourself to understand that even your most boring, everyday thoughts can be regular gold mines when it comes to ideas.
The best way to start paying attention to your thoughts is to keep a journal. You don’t have to make a lifelong commitment. Do it for a week. Keep a log of all the activities you do, products you bought or didn’t buy, people you liked or didn’t like, places you went to, experiences you had, and observations you made. While you’re writing, make sure to pay special attention to the experiences and events that make you feel:
- Excited
- Inspired
- Frustrated
- Disappointed
- Any emotion out of the ordinary
Any emotional reaction can provoke a thought that begins with “I wish” – and that can be the start of something truly big.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poppy King, author of Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea that Can Change Your Life (Copyright © 2008 by Poppy King), is an internationally renowned trend spotter, color expert, and innovative business leader. At the age of eighteen, Poppy started Poppy Industries, when she could not find the type of lipstick she wanted. After ten years at the helm of her own company, she went on to become vice president for creative marketing at Prescriptives. Today, Poppy lives in New York City and has recently launched a new line of lipsticks, Lipstick Queen, available at fine retailers such as Barneys, Holt Renfrew, and Space NK. For more information visit www.lipstickqueen.com.
LEARN MORE
- Learn more about Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea that Can Change Your Life
- See the book’s Table of Contents
A great Idea make big difference.