Title: One Good Idea
Talk:
I wonder what you think the worst idea is that has ever been. An idea or invention so horrendous that no one would or should support it:
Like ejector seats for helicopters. Glow in the dark combat uniforms. Garden Gnomes or jumpers for dogs.
Now you may or may not have seen ‘Dragon’s Den’ on BBC2. It’s a show that rewards good ideas. People come up with what they think are great business ideas or inventions and a panel of experienced company owners and executives tell them whether they think it’s worth investing in or a load of rubbish.
Imagine you are one of the judges on ‘Dragon’s Den’ what would you think if someone pitched the following ideas to you?
‘Our company currently makes rubber tyres and rubber raincoats but we’re going to switch to making mobile phones.’
Or how about:
‘We’re going to create a website that just shows clips of funny stuff from TV and from people’s own movies.’
Or
‘We’re going to just sell white stuff. White towels, white bed linen, white napkins.’
Now you might think those are great ideas, you might not – but you’ve probably guessed that they’re all successful ideas that have made millions.
In the 1980’s the NOKIA company was famous for making rubber. Rubber tyres, boats, the lot until it made the decision to switch to making mobile phones.
And in 2005 Steve Chen and Chad Hurley set up Youtube.com – a website that basically just shows funny films be they adverts from around the world or home videos. They’ve recently sold their website to Google for £890 million.
And ten years ago The White Company decided that loads of people really just wanted to buy quality stuff in white like bed sheets and baby clothes. Their company is now worth £40 million.
So have you ever had a good idea? Perhaps it’s for a great invention. Or your great idea may be a story for a book or film or a melody for a song. It could be a formula for a chemical that will actually get chewing gum out of hair without using scissors.
The thing is you may have a thousand brilliant ideas before breakfast but they’ll only remain ideas unless you have an action plan. The people above all found people who agreed that their ideas were not just good but great. Then they worked amazingly hard to put their plan into action.
If you’ve got a good idea tell someone about it. Could be a friend, a member of your family, a teacher. They’re likely to be a lot kinder than the people on ‘Dragon’s Den’ when it comes to telling you whether or not they think you’re idea is a good one or not.
Then find out how you can put your idea into action. If you’ve got a great melody for a song find someone who can play guitar or piano and sing it to them so they can give you a backing tune.
So don’t keep your thoughts to yourself. You never know, it could be you that comes up with an idea that revolutionises the world.
Further Illustrations:
Christian Perspective:
Genesis 2v6 – God creates humankind – God’s best idea ever?
Film Clip:
Download trailer for Click at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/trailers
Click is about an inventor who creates a bizarre ‘universal remote’ that can control anything, it turns out to be a bad idea…
List:
A poll of what people think are the best and worst inventions of all time:
http://www.ideas21.co.uk/146
The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity
