Steve Jobs famously said; Real artists ship. He was referring to the fact that everyone has ideas, but real artists deliver on them or ship them, as he put it.
Creative Thinking can lead to amazing things, but only if you do something with it. The creative idea you never implement, is not going to help you or anyone else. It can’t. In order to have any kind of impact on anything, your creative thinking needs to see the light of day, to be given wings. You need to, as Jobs put it, ship.
A wonderful idea
Two years before the banking collapse, I met with a guy who had creatively developed a new financial product. It was brilliant. He spoke with me about it and told me his plans. I was impressed and amazed in equal measure. Two years later, he still had not put anything into place. He had files full of notes, graphs and spreadsheets, which he had been ‘perfecting’ for so long, that he missed the opportunity. Had he launched when he should have, he would have made a fortune. Instead, he has a great story to tell, as he drives his delivery truck.
Think creatively, then create
Creative Thinking should be followed by creative doing. Give your idea, answer or insight the opportunity to live outside of your imagination and notes.
Yes, this takes courage but here’s what I have discovered:
- The pain of seeing an idea I have flop, is small.
- The pain of regret is enormous.
You know what else? The more often you ship your ideas, the less it bothers you when it doesn’t work out as planned and the more often you succeed.
You are never more than one great idea away from achieving a major breakthrough. It’s entirely possible that you have already had the breakthrough idea, but you won’t see the breakthrough until you ship it.
