Creative leverage
What do you do all day long?
You’re in meetings. You’re at the computer. You’re traveling. You’re in more meetings. You’re doing your job. You’re executing stuff.
Now, what exactly is it that you are executing?
Ideas.
We all do, do, do. But it starts with an idea.
We come up with ideas. We are handed other’s ideas. We sell ideas. We execute ideas. Too, often we clean up after ideas gone wrong.
How long does it take to come up with that idea? A nano second, right?
Then we put in the hours, weeks, often months, sometimes years executing that idea. It better be a good idea. Because that’s a lot of time, energy and money going into that idea. It better be a very good one. Heck, it better be great.
The leverage is in the idea. Think about that before you start piling on the execution hours. Is it a good idea? An okay idea? A not-so-good idea? Regardless of the quality of the idea, you’re going to be putting a ton into it.
We see so many mediocre and even bad ideas being offered up in this world. Bad products. Bad services. Bad art. Bad design. (See my post “Good is the enemy of great.”
We also hear a lot about execution. “It’s all about execution,” say many experts. “Execution of what?” I ask.
A president of one of the top design schools in the US is fond of saying, “Design makes everything better.” Okay, but if the basic concept is flawed, how good can it be in the end, no matter how great the design?
Again, the initial idea is the leverage.
Oh, you can still screw up a great idea with bad execution, but no matter how much you design a bad idea,…
The idea is the ultimate leverage.
Think about that before you start putting untold hours, dollars, blood, sweat and tears into your next project.
It all starts with the core idea. That’s the leverage.
