Page 104 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

How to Get Over Your F-F-F-ear of F-F-F-ailure 95

the groups, “is an Automatic Idea Generator.” Sometimes I get side-
ways looks.
When all is said and done and we tally the quantitative output of
each team, the team with the greatest number of ideas wins the prize.
My Automatic Idea Generator? I pull it out of my pocket. It’s a
garbage bag. The message? If you can fill this, you’ll have lots of ideas.
You see, there’s a positive correlation between fertilizer and a
bountiful harvest of ideas. The best films always have miles of footage
on the cutting room floor. The best CDs have music you’ve never
heard. The best books have chapters you’ve never read and characters
you’ve never met. The best ad makers have dozens, if not hundreds, of
tissues littering their floors. Many of these outtakes wind up in the
garbage. All served as fertilizer.
I pulled this little prank when working with ad agency GSD&M in
Austin, Texas, a few years ago. When I went back to their offices later
in the day, large, galvanized trash barrels dotted the floor space. Seems
the agency’s president, Roy Spence, liked the garbage metaphor so
well he wanted to encourage his people to throw away bad, even just
decent, ideas in the pursuit of great ideas.

❖

HOW TO GET OVER YOUR F-F-F-EAR OF F-F-F-AILURE

There is probably nothing that holds people back from coming up with
ideas more than, well (and I look over both shoulders as I say this), you
know . . . fear.
Well, would it comfort you to know that fear is actually a good sign
when pursuing things creative? It really comes down to fear of the
unknown, because we’re not sure this idea is good, that it will work,
that others will like it. Well, if we were sure of those things, that would
mean the idea has been done before, which may alleviate our fear, but
it’s also confirmation that the idea is not particularly creative.
Fear is part of the creative process. As is the great unknown. It’s the
place where true exploration and subsequent advancement take place.

"Yes, son, I was the one who thought of the
big idea that led to that new division."
Timeline of a great idea (continued)

Timeline of a lousy idea (continued)