1. 1-Sentence-Summary:
1.1. 21 Days To A Big Idea shows you how to combine the creative and rational sides of your brain to come up with cool, new ideas and fun ways to implement them, which might even help you create a sustainable business in the long run, in as little as 21 days.
2. Favorite quote from the author:
2.1. "In the scheme of things, the time spent upfront in the idea-generation phase is so minor compared to the time needed to develop that idea." - Bryan Mattimore
3. 3 lessons:
3.1. Kid’s wishes will get you right to the intersection of creativity and rationality.
3.1.1. In 1968, George Land took a test he’d developed for the NASA, aimed at determining how creative people are and decided to give it to children.
3.1.1.1. It worked so flawlessly, that he thought even children could do it. He was right. And they passed with flying colors.
3.1.1.2. Among 1,600 kids, who were all five years old at the time, creativity was sky-high. 98% of them were ranked on the far creative end of the spectrum.
3.1.2. To see how their creativity developed over time, he decided to let the same children go through that test again five years later.
3.1.2.1. By the time they were ten, only 30% remained creative – that’s a steep drop with 2 out of 3 kids losing their creativity.
3.1.3. As you can almost imagine, it only gets worse from there.
3.1.3.1. At 15 years old, only 12% were still creative.
3.1.3.2. And if you give the test to adults…well…you get the flip side of the five-year-olds: only 2% are creative.
3.1.4. Clearly, it seems like a good idea to bring back your inner child to light the creative candle again!
3.1.5. And in fact, it works: Think of the things you wished you could do as a child.
3.1.5.1. Chances are, a few of these dreams have been developed already, but there are probably plenty left to still create.
3.1.5.2. For example, if you wanted to fly, well, we have airplanes now. And if you want to travel to a whole other world, virtual reality is slowly making its debut.
3.1.6. All of these things started as crazy childhood dreams – but once rational adult brains started tackling them, they became a reality.
3.2. Come up with ideas in 30 seconds flat by using the “and” technique.
3.2.1. To come up with a crazy new innovation in the next 30 seconds, combine two random words, a noun and an adjective, before starting to think about your idea.
3.2.1.1. This is what Bryan Mattimore calls the “and” technique, and it’s simply meant to get your brain to think in new ways.
3.2.2. If you write nouns on a pile of cards and adjectives on another, then draw one from each pile, new ideas will quickly fall into place.
3.2.3. For example, what would you do with cards that read “garden” and “loud?”
3.2.3.1. Maybe you’d start thinking about how you can build a music box that covers your whole backyard with its echo when you have a party.
3.2.3.2. Or how you can muffle the sound of your lawnmower to make it less annoying for your neighbors.
3.2.4. Of course this doesn’t just work for totally new ideas – you can just as well use it to come up with a big idea in a specific industry.
3.2.4.1. Just fix the noun in place, for example “flowers,” “online,” “fashion,” or “pizza,” and then try 20-30 different adjectives.
3.2.4.2. You’ll quickly have a whole bunch of new ideas!
3.3. Find suitable business ideas with billboarding.
3.3.1. Not all ideas are sustainable.
3.3.2. To find out which ones are, you obviously have to get feedback from the real world.
3.3.3. Before you do so, however, it helps to come up with a snappy way of sharing your idea, so you don’t end up giving a 30-minute talk to each prospect. This is where billboarding comes in.
3.3.3.1. It works in three steps:
3.3.3.1.1. Come up with a snappy name for your product, by clearly defining what your idea is and which problem it solves for your customers.
3.3.3.1.2. List all of your products benefits.
3.3.3.1.3. Take the strongest of all the plus points and use it to create a slogan.
3.3.3.2. For example, in case of the lawnmower muffler above, you could call it “Silawn,” “MuteMower,” or “MuffleMower,” to make it instantly clear that it’ll make mowing your lawn a quiet practice.
3.3.3.3. In addition, if you make your slogan “Never fight with your neighbors, ever again!” you’re sure to let people know this’ll take care of a potentially heated topic in advance.