“Good ideas are a dime a dozen, bad ones are free.” ~ Doug Horton

If you’ve been around me any length of time, you’ve heard me say “you get what you pay for.” Investment of time, money and resources can make all the difference between a bad solution and a good one. If an idea is worth doing, it’s worth an investment. It may be hard. It may even seem impossible. Hard, impossible… and worth it. Every time.

The other thing you’ve likely heard me say is “if it was easy, everyone would do it.” Easy and free are usually only easy and free on the front-end. The back end of easy and free usually looks more like expensive and wrong.

Idea = work. Remember that equation. Don’t settle for a bad idea. Ever. Why not work on good ideas? You’re going to work – let it be productive work.

Pursue good ideas… it only costs a dime more to go first class.

“Good Idea: Giving your dog a bath. Bad Idea: Having your dog dry-cleaned.” ~ Animaniacs

Obvious, isn’t it? Behold the power of over-thinking something.

Poor execution will take your idea into outright stupidity, if you let yourself move to quickly. Don’t let yourself move too quickly. How you execute the idea is just as important as the idea itself. Take time to plan. Be patient. Do it right. Don’t get so excited about the idea that you lose the impact of it by rushing.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “God is in the details.” I believe that. The best way to do something usually takes time to discover, but it’s still the best way. Give your idea time to fully bake. A half-baked idea will make *you* look half-baked. Every time. Get all the puzzle pieces in the right place and all your resources lined-up, on-board and engaged.

I considered going into greater detail on this subject, but the quote contains all the visuals you need. A dry-cleaned dog, while indeed clean, is not the right solution. Ever.

Pay attention to the plan. Don’t rush it.

“I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else.” ~ Lily Tomlin

Today’s bad idea: Take something good and squeeze the life out of it by doing it inexpensively and/or poorly. Then, make lots of money from your bad idea so everyone excuses it.

Elevator music… enough said.

“There are well-dressed foolish ideas, just as there are well-dressed fools.” ~ Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort

Brainstorming is fun. Especially when there are brains involved in the practice.

Even still, assuming brains show up at the table, these kinds of “blue sky” sessions usually yield an abundance of ideas without passing judgment on the validity of any of the results. In order to really get somewhere with this “big thinking” business, there needs to be a next step in the process… refining.

It’s in the refining process that the good ideas can (and should) be separated from the bad ones. It’s a good idea to do the ideating and refining in separate meetings. Give the ideas a little while to “bake” or “not bake.”It’s also important that critical thinkers be present in the room during the refining. Use this time to think about the possible affects, good and bad, should the idea begin to gain momentum.

Refining is not the time to “sell” ideas. That door should already be closed. Pick, choose, tweak and by all means refine the ones that are viable. All others must go in either the “not now,” “not here” or “no way” files. Once filed away, don’t re-visit them.

Whatever you do, make sure that bad ideas don’t get dressed up in impressive clothes. They are sneaky, those bad ideas.

Don’t be fooled… well-dressed foolish ideas are still foolish ideas.

“Everything worthwhile is a good idea, but did you ever notice there is more bad ideas that will work than there is good ones?” ~ Will Rogers

Ideas are central to creativity and innovation. However, just because you have an idea doesn’t make it a good one. The idea person must be able to discern which ones should be used and which ones shouldn’t. Great ideas are building blocks of creativity, while bad ideas beget “less than stellar” results.

Here’s the problem… both kinds of ideas will work. Yep, I said it – bad ideas sometimes work. Just because they work, it doesn’t make them good ideas. Just because a bad idea makes money, doesn’t make it a good idea.

The end goal of creativity and innovation is change. It’s about your work being memorable in a good way. Being memorable (but not good) is a telltale sign of a bad idea that “worked.” William Hung should have never gotten famous as a “singer,” but he did. We all thought the joke was on him, but really the joke was on us. This was a bad idea that *lots* of people paid money to hear. Memorable, but not good.

There is usually at least one local advertising campaign that is memorable for the wrong reasons. To protect the guilty, I won’t name the ones in Dallas/Ft. Worth… but I could name them. I’m sure you could name the ones in your area, too. We won’t name them, however, because it just isn’t a good idea.

Ideas are powerful. The bad ones are at least equally as powerful as the good ones. We must be discerning and discriminating with our own ideas. All of my ideas aren’t good ones. I know that, so I must self-edit. I must not let myself become so infatuated that I can’t tell myself the truth. I need to be the gatekeeper on my ideas, and only let the good ones out. I need to chalk the others (bad ones) up to mental exercise and purging.

The point of a good idea is to change the world for the better, to be memorable *and* good. That’s what I want. To be remembered for good ideas. I think we all want that. Don’t we?