“Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas. If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.”
– Robert Schuller (1926 – 2015), minister and author
Granted, we tend to think of Dr. Schuller in a religious context, and picture him or his son at the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral in California. Still, applied in a business context, his point still plays.
With my leadership team in place, I’m finally getting to invest more time on ideas. Original thought is lacking — and not just in business. Consider the current state of Presidential politics — but not if you’ve had breakfast, because the thought might make it come back up. Consider compensation plans. Consider sales training. Consider product development. Consider finance. All around us, no matter who or where we are, “we’ve always done it this way” is dominating the space that ideas should occupy.
As I’ve often said, ideas are the currency of Difference Makers. Yet we spend more time worrying about our cash investments than we do the cash that Pastor Schuller assures us will flow where it’s needed, if we can apply new ideas where they’re needed.
So, here’s my challenge for you Difference Makers out there. For the remainder of October, set aside ten minutes each day to brainstorm. Put in on your calendar, I dare you! Honor that time on your calendar, protect it and use it to brainstorm ideas. I double dare you!
What does that look like?
Think of ways to re-cast a conversation. Think of ways to change the way we present material. Think of ways to shave some cost out of what you do. Think of ways to expose the value in something we do that might otherwise seem routine. Your ten minutes can be spent alone, or with others who can help. I won’t know if you don’t give it the full ten minutes each day, or even if you give it the full 2-hours that would equal by month’s end. I won’t know, but you will. My money is on the people who commit to the ten minutes, and when all of us do it, by the end of the month, the thousand or so of us that might see this post will have spent 2000 hours thinking of ways to get better at what we do.
I have a sneaking suspicion that cash will somehow flow to where it’s needed, either to fund some of our ideas, or because of them.
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