Dennis Kennedy

People often tell me that I am an "idea person." I'm starting to believe it. As they say, it's a blessing and a curse.

I found a great post from Curt Rosengren on "idea people" called "Half my ideas are stupid (and that's the way I like it)."

Rosengren notes three lessons he's learned about being an idea person:

1) I've got a lot of ideas
2) Half of them are stupid
3) The other half are exactly what's needed

As he notes, you have to allow yourself to have #2 so you can get to #3.

I'd note that his ratio of #3 to #2 is pretty darned good.

He goes on to say: "There's something incredibly freeing about just being able to have ideas, and not tying your ego to how amazing each and every one is. And it unclogs the pipeline to make sure that the absolute best ones make their way out to a place where they can be put to use."

Great post.

My observations on this subject are:

1. It's pretty rare to find people who will throw out idea after idea and have them shot down because of the ego factor. People like working with me because I can do that (or so they tell me) without reaching a point where it becomes necessary to start throwing things and walking off in a huff.

2. Being known as an idea person actually helps you get through the bad ideas without getting too ego-involved.

3. Some people have much less patience for the ideas in stage #2 than others do. No one has as much patience for my stage #2 as I do.

4. If you treat as ideas as simply ideas (not "your ideas") and are willing to free up ideas and let other people judge whether they are "good" or not, you really do get the best ideas "out to a place where they can be put to use."

5. Removing as much ego as possible from the process makes you much calmer when the day comes when, inevitably, you see someone claim credit for an idea you originated. The good news on those days is that your friends always remember the idea came from you.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]