by: Llewellyn Fleurs
The Power of Impractical Ideas
When thinking about success in life, I asked myself what is the main thing that has held me back. If you had to trace all your major successes and failures, what is the one thing that you feel caused the difference between succeeding and failing?
If you really look deep inside yourself, you will realise one surprising thing. It is: you have probably had many ideas on how to improve your life. If you are anything like me, though, you probably never made a start on most of them!
Why is this? The reason, of course, is that we dismiss most of our ideas as impractical, unworkable and impossible. "This idea would work if I had capital, time and business ability" or "People like me should not think of impractical ideas like this." You get the idea....
When thinking about verysuccessful people, one thing stands out.....a lot of these people risked and even failed a lot before they succeeded. Thomas Edison apparently made over 1000 failed attempts to create the electric lightbulb. Not once though did he dismiss the idea as impractical or impossible. He, of course, eventually did it.
Another example is the life of Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin. After high school he decided to start a mail-order record company. His 2 close friends thought he was crazy, but had nothing better to do! They are now directors in Virgin, and are thanking their decision to go along with Sir Richard's "impractical idea".
A lot of modern life is run by things that were formerly thought of as impractical. Television, computers, the internet. Even a simple thing like a car manufacturer coming out with a new car is impractical. Why should the manufacturer spend millions when there are so many cars already on the market?
Why do we not follow up on our own "impractical" ideas? The main reasons are probably fear and inertia. Inertia in the sense that we either stick to what is safe, or want to accomplish a huge goal all at once. Very successful people do not think like this. They back their ideas, and are not afraid to put in time to accomplish these ideas.
If you have an idea that could work given time, perhaps you and I should ask ourselves: " Is it really as impractical or impossible as it seems?''
You might surprise yourself and do that which you always wanted to do.
Copyright: Llewellyn Fleurs
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