“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?
