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Why Quantity Is Valued More Than Quality When Generating Ideas

Creative thinkers value ideas. America was founded on the power of ideas. I mean that literally. The history of America begins with one man's far-fetched dream of exploring undiscovered lands. Because of his driving ambition, millions and millions of immigrants were able to start new lives and claim whole new territory.

To sail across the world to discover unknown, unchartered territory seems like a very high risk venture, even today. Columbus combined aspects of taking risks that have potentially very high rewards, which is a characteristic of a creative thinker. When Columbus announced his journey to find the new, free world he showed the world that not only was he an explorer, but also an entrepreneur with a creative mind.

What rewards was Columbus able to receive? Just look outside. What he was able to capture is what you look at everyday.

By having the courage and ambition to accomplish discovery the new world, Columbus opened up the doors of opportunity not only for himself, but for the world around him. His idea is rooted in the American dream, a man who was able to create his own opportunities, discover new land and change the lives and livelihood of millions.

What could you possibly gain from harnessing your creative abilities? Just think about the example of Columbus.

All ideas are valuable. The flashy, obvious, crazy, very profitable ideas, are not the only ideas I am talking about. Creative thinkers know how valuable all ideas really are.

Creativity is a game of odds. Write that down.

There are rules to creativity and one of them is that you have to go big or go home. What I mean by that is that when you are looking to generate new ideas, you have to generate as many as humanly possible.

In the beginning of my career, I used to go help high school leadership groups across North America. I would help them come up with ideas for various different things - fundraising, generating more school spirit.

Over a course of an hour and a half, we would set a goal to come up with a top 10 WOW ideas. This goal would be the same for whatever problem we were working on.

Following the rules of creativity - I also told the students, go big or go home because quality comes from quantity. During the sessions we would generate as many ideas as humanly possible following that way of thinking. Write it down - Quality comes from quantity.

The most amazing, fabulous, million-dollar idea won't come to you right off the bat. But, if you are generating as many ideas as possible, then out of quantity will come quality.

When I was generating ideas with the student leadership groups, we would generally generate between 3,000 and 4,000 ideas in an hour and a half span. Were all those ideas good? Absolutely not. In fact, 99% of them were absolute crap.

Creativity is a game of odds, as I mentioned before. You have to put the odds in your favor in order to generate more of the great ideas you are looking for. If the group had never come up with the thousands of crappy ideas, then the 1% of amazing ideas would never have happened.

Brainstorming groups and working with others to generate ideas together is a fantastic way to build large list of ideas. It is an extremely powerful process because once one person fires an idea out, it will start the wheels turning and all different types of ideas begin to emerge. One person's idea will trigger another person, who then make a connection to another; then another person shares another three idea based out of what the first person said. Having multiple wheels turning at once is very powerful and a chain reaction will occur.

I want you to picture a long line of Dominos going straight out in front of you. Wherever you are right now, it's going straight out in front of you, then it turns to the right, and then it curves back around, almost in a circle. But before it comes back it curves again the other way. It actually goes up a couple stairs. That whole line of Dominos, that whole reaction of Dominos can never happen unless the first Domino goes down. That first Domino, in the creative thinking process is something known as stimuli.

Stimuli is anything you see, touch, taste, feel, experience. What it does is it acts as that first Domino, and it sets off what I call an idea reaction. When you get in to a group of people who are active, creative thinkers, high-level marketers, when you spit out an idea, it's going to serve as the stimuli for them, and an idea reaction will inevitably happen.

As the ideas are flowing, the chances of you generating a successful idea to benefit your business will increase. With creativity being an odds game, the more ideas you generate, the better your chances will be at being successful.

In the creative process, every idea counts. Not every idea you come up with will be possible, or succeed. But, the more ideas you generate, you are increasing your odds at being successful.

Think about it. All it takes is one flash of insight, one new product, one innovative service, to create a million-dollar business. With one idea - a scientist or a researcher - the have the potential to cure a previously incurable disease.

A software engineer could have a flash of brillance and come up with an idea that will change the way in which people use computers.

That's the power of an idea.

Being a creative thinker, you should embrace all of your ideas, never underestimate the power of the simplest one. Always remember the power of ideas.

Sometimes it's that seemingly simple idea that others completely dismiss as silly that will ignite a whole idea reaction in your brain. That seemingly silly idea, it's like a seed with the potential to blossom. It's growth depends on the skill and integrity of the person who plants it and cares for it. Ignoring that seed will just absolutely kill it.

Remember: You will never know what beautiful flower can grow from the seeds of an idea until it actually blossoms. No matter its complexity or size, all ideas must be valued.