Xena Zen

Acorns to Oak Trees: How to Grow Great Things

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 02:57 AM PDT

By Mary Jaksch
Have you ever wondered what makes extraordinary things happen? It usually starts with one crazy idea. Maybe you too have had crazy ideas that seemed brilliant. But what happened next?

Did something amazing grow from that idea, or did you kill it because it seemed ‘too crazy’ or ‘just too hard’? Or did other people tell you that ‘it just won’t work’? I’ve now been involved in a number of ‘crazy’ projects that have come to success. One of which is the blogazine, The Daily Brainstorm.

Here are 7 tips on how to create a successful project from the first crazy idea
Tip #1: Share your idea with positive people.
A new idea is a vulnerable little thing. It can freeze to death in an instant. Make sure that the people you share your idea with are positive, and can be trusted.

When Geri Langlois first shared his idea of teaming up to create a blogazine (which finally became The Daily Brainstorm), I shot back an email, saying: “Super interesting idea!” That positive beginning meant that the idea could continue to grow in a sheltered spot. Note, if someone runs a new idea past you, make sure you don’t reply with the usual idea killer: “Yes, but …”

Tip #2: Act upon the idea.
An idea stays just that without action. Even the smallest action allows the idea to materialize.
What Geri and I did was to search for domain names. That led to an absurd situation ….

Tip #3: Don’t get too serious.
Get serious too soon, and your grand idea will wither away. If you remain playful, you allow your creativity stay in gear.

Geri sent me a whole list of domain names that were available. Amongst them was The Daily Brainstorm – which appealed to me at once. I emailed him back:

“I think TheDailyBrainstorm.com is a brilliant domain! Unfortunately it’s already taken…”
Geri wrote right back, all deflated: “I am so sorry — that was my favorite too. Oh well, I’ll keep thinking and keep looking.”
He couldn’t sleep all night because he’d missed out on a great domain name.
Next morning I put him out of his misery: “Don’t worry, Geri – the person who bought it was me ”

Tip #4: Create a team – don’t be a soloist.
If you really want to achieve something extraordinary, the easiest way forward is to form a team. Because then you can take advantage of the power of synergy. And you don’t have to do all the work yourself.

I was lucky because I could select team members from the A-List Blogger Club , the training program that Leo Babauta and I have created for the top bloggers of tomorrow. It’s turned into a breeding ground for excellence.

Tip #5 Express your vision in words.
In order to drive an idea further towards reality, you need to express your vision in words. This can be a struggle, because a fledgling idea sometimes resists being caught in words. This is where it comes in handy to have a team.

Tip #6 Create a brand.
If you create a brand, you get instant recognition. In terms of blogging, the place that expresses the brand most clearly is the tagline. And for The Daily Brainstorm we came up with: “A blogazine to rock your mind” Whatever your project is, make sure you express your brand in a succinct way. This helps you to be clear about the focus of your project, and the direction you’re moving in

Tip #7: Follow through to fruition
Many good projects get to a stage that looks promising, but then run out of steam. If things get difficult, hang in there. It’s the people in for long haul that finally get rewarded. In order to keep the momentum going, create small milestones that you can celebrate along the way.

Conclusion
As you can see from the tips above, there are two particular danger spots when you want to let something amazing grow from your crazy idea. One is right at the start when you first have the idea. It’s easy to kill off an idea at this stage. The other danger zone is when you have created a project, but it’s still in it’s infancy. Suddenly the crazy idea has turned into a crazy amount of work – and motivation can wane.

Here are three tips on how to keep on walking forward, even when it’s hard to see results:

is to set ‘baby-step goals’ that are easy to achieve.
Whenever you hit one of your mini-targets – celebrate!
Team up with others to share mutual support.
What are your tips that help to grow an acorn into an oak tree?