Be an Idea Man!

The very keystone of modern business is the idea. In fact, no greater praise can be given you than to be called An Idea Man.

You may say, "But I've never had an idea in my life!" This may be true, but do not be discouraged! Men like you head many of our nation's greatest businesses.

They have learned that Idea Production is a little trick that can be mastered with very modest mental equipment. They have acquired it over the years, but you can pick it up in the few short seconds it takes to read this article.

There are several ways to produce ideas.

1. Develop Them. It is your function as a man who has both feet on the ground, to develop ideas. This means you will take the little worthless notions of others and add to each of them that important fillip that makes it work – and that makes the idea Your Own.

This requires Vision, but if you are made of the right stuff, you should have Vision to spare.

The undeveloped, worthless notions may come from any source. For example, one of your assistants may approach you:

"Uh, I've been working on this for some time, Mr. Finch."

"Good spirit, son."

(Always encourage the little people.)

"Do you think I ought to write it out and send it along to J. B?"

"Let me be the judge of that, son. Just tell it to me in your own words."

If you decide the notion can be developed, be sympathetic and fatherly.

"Uh, do you think it will work, Mr. Finch?"

"No, no, not as it stands, of course not. Worthless. But it might be developed. Let me give it some thought, when I have time. Mighty good try, though, Good thinking!"

"Oh, thank you, sir!"

You will often find, then, that the notion needs very little of your magic touch to make it work. Put your stamp on it! Then, if you are successful, and if the management rewards you, don't forget the little fellow who started you on the notion. Send him a memo, a nice memo. He will cherish it. Don't be too specific, however. Sometimes the little people are ungrateful, and fail to realize the part you have played in putting the thing on the rails, in making it practical. Write something like:

"Your thoughts on the problem I was working on certainly helped. Thanks so much!"

2. Call a Conference. If you need something in a hurry, call in all your assistants, associates, or members of your department, if you have one. State the problem. Then tell them:

"Of course I've got the thing almost licked, but I wanted to get some of your thoughts on it. Just jot down your surface notions. Take all the time you want, as long as you have them on my desk by two."

(An arbitrary time limit is a good spur to thinking. Thinking – at least on this level – is best done under forced draft.)

Each little notion will no doubt be worthless, but by exercising your own Vision, you may be able to combine or develop them into something that will work, and something which, again, will be truly Your Own.

3. Use Your Advertising Agency. If you have kept your agency properly on its toes you may find it of occasional help in producing ideas. Agencies employ people who do nothing but sit around and think up ideas. Use them!

Here again you will have to take their dreamy notions and whip them into shape, stamp them with your own brand. The agency will not mind. In fact, the agency is used to it. They may even try to make you think that an idea that is wholly theirs is yours. Do not be deceived! Fiddle with it. It is your duty to improve everything.

4. Use your Subconscious. When all else fails, you may have to use your own brain – for the original processes, that is.

Remember, your brain is like an iceberg. Only an insignificant part shows above the surface. The rest is submerged. This submerged part is your subconscious mind, and wise indeed is the businessman who makes his subconscious work for him.

Simply feed the facts to your subconscious and then relax. The more you relax, the better. Forget the problem. The answer will come to you. Sometimes it will come while you are shaving, or while you're sinking a putt. But it will come!

For example, let us say you have assembled a set of facts carefully, sparing no effort. Then as your high-caliber subconscious goes to work on them, strange things can happen.

"Oh, uh, Mr. Finch, you know all those figures and things I spend the last few nights getting up for you?"

"Yes, son?"

"Well, it just happened to occur to me that a solution might be simply to give the wickets a left-hand thread."

"Amazing, isn't it! I knew it would come to me!"

"Uh, beg pardon, sir?"

"Ways of the subconscious are mighty strange, aren't they, son? Thanks for reminding me."

You will have many other manifestations of the true power of your subconscious, able as it is to come to incredible solutions and even to implant them in other and lesser minds. It is difficult to explain this power to others, and many feel it is best not to try.

"It just came to me, Mr. Biggley. There I was, sitting in my office and it just came to me."

"Magnificent, Finch, really magnificent!"

Make it clear, however, that the Idea Man is always working. You may not look as though you are working. To the untrained eye you may be drinking a Martini, or improving relations with the secretarial staff, but the big wheels are turning in your subconscious, the real work is going on in the great sunken iceberg of your mind the source of your true power.

From "How to succeed in business without really trying," copyright, 1952, by Shepherd Mead, published by Simon & Schuster.

. . . take the little worthless notions of others.

The more you relax . . .the better.