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Along Life’s Way
Any Ideas?
By Lois E. Wilson
One day you are doing a task and someone asks you in a loud, accusing
manner, “What’s the big idea?” You think: ”That question was not meant
to be a compliment; that person is annoyed and wants me to account for
my behavior at once.”
You have no idea what precipitated the question. At the moment, you
wish for a “big idea” of how to respond, but your mind is blank. A
facetious thought occurs—the voices in one’s head may not be real, but
they might have some good ideas.
You feel like the man Samuel Johnson wrote about: “That fellow seems to
me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.” Some say to
accumulate all the ideas you can and throw the bad ones in the trash.
You don’t have one idea, not even a bad one.
No matter what idea you come up with, you will be told that others had
it before you. Stephen Fry said, “An original idea. That can’t be too
hard. The library must be full of them”
Ideas are frequently the doorway to life-changing results. Architects
and artists often see things in materials and the life around them that
others do not. A pile of rocks can become a grand cathedral. Matisse
said, “Drawing is putting a line around an idea.” Picasso left room for
individual expression when he stated, “You have to have an idea of what
you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”
These observations imply that ideas must be paired with action or they
wither and die. Nolan Bushnell agreed when he posited: “Everyone who
has ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of
the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a
difference.”
Many have put two or more ideas together to create a new idea. Victor
Hugo observed: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the
world, and that is an idea whose time has come.” Owen Laughlin thought
“Money never starts an idea. It is always the idea that starts the
money.”
If your idea is timely, as many in this cyber era have found, it can be
the foundation of lucrative businesses. Silicon Valley has been the
center for the development of many technological ideas.
Your ideas may come as you study and work. You uncover needs and
conceive ideas that could solve problems and inspire humanity. It is
hoped that those who develop their knowledge and skills have the
ability and motivation to take them to full term and birth them into
new art, literature, concepts, and products for us all to enjoy and
thereby gain from them the benefits of an easier, safer, and richer
life.
What a legacy to aspire to and leave to others! Any ideas? The world is waiting.
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