Where do the best ideas come from?

Those awesome ideas for a product or business, book or song?

We tend to think that they appear only in the great minds of the talented and super smart, the genius brained few. And that means that they’re unlikely to ever come our way. Hey, our minds just do boring stuff like our job, household tasks, and trying to work out the plot of the big TV drama.

Well, stop right there. Because that big TV drama could be about to lead you to the idea that you have long waited for.

But, to take advantage of it, you have to keep switched on as one man famously did.

Banking on a surprise.

Everyone needs a break, even the most creative among us.

That’s what a songwriter was doing one night in 1970 when he turned on the TV after a long day of musical work. As he began to relax he started paying to attention to the ads popping up on the TV during a break from the film he was watching.

He then heard something that set lightbulbs flashing off in his mind.

A seemingly non-descript advert for Crocker-Citizens National Bank in California featured a young couple getting married and needing financial help to support their new journey together. As the couple appeared on screen the lines of a background tune was heard, ‘We’ve only just begun to live…’

The songwriter was transfixed. He loved it and immediately believed he could turn it into a successful song for his group. His group of himself and his sister. His sister Karen Carpenter and himself, Richard Carpenter.

Acquiring rights to rework the whole song The Carpenters released it as a single in August 1970. It shot to No.2 in the US Billboard Charts and won the Carpenters siblings a Grammy. All from a TV ad. But when a mind is ready and open, anything can spark the most amazing ideas.

After all, we’re there’s one, there could be another!

Say Hello to Ideas.

After one unusually inspired song, lightning couldn’t strike twice….could it?

Guess who was watching another TV film one night? Now, this was because he liked movies, not because he expected to hit gold again with an idea like the last one. That said, his mind was already ready and prepared for potential ideas.

It was 1971 and Richard Carpenter noticed a Bing Crosby movie was showing on TV called Rhythm on The River while visiting London. In the movie in which Crosby played a ghost songwriter for Basil Rathbone’s character, they constantly referred to a song he was trying to write called ‘Goodbye to Love’, though it was never heard on screen.

The title got right into Richard’s head and soon he was off forming a melody and opening lyrics. Working with lyricist John Bettis they turned those 3 words into a fully fledged love song.

Another blockbuster had been born.

It hit No.7 in the Billboard chart and remained in the top 10 for months. It even became the song that was recognised as the first ever so called ‘power ballad’ whose style countless artists would also copy and record in the decades ahead.

One man with a mind ready for ideas from anywhere that produced mega success.

Ideas are everywhere.

Have you ever had an idea for a trip or big night out?

Maybe it was something different or way out or even plain crazy.

You didn’t question yourself whether you were intelligent enough or a recognised smart thinker to think it up. You simply had the idea, saw it in your mind, and then went ahead and worked it.

That’s what ideas are. They are everywhere for everyone.

They are not ‘for some’, they are ‘for all’. Age, gender, background, education etc mean NOTHING. Once you can allow yourself to accept this, you can start noticing all the ideas that have been hitting your head for years. The ones you persuaded yourself were silly because they were for a new business or gap in the marker product.

Key of all is that your mind remains receptive. Like Richard Carpenter watching TV ads or an artist walking outside or a business guru who sits in coffee shops and watches the world. Receptive minds see opportunity and possibility where others see nothing. From how people walk to too long a queue in a shop, these minds can craft something successful from it.

And their greatest advantage – they HEAR what people really say, they actively pick up the need or want behind their words and conversations. They gather great info on what people are missing or requiring or need help with.

This is how ideas leap at you when you are prepared for them.

There is gold in every day people.

Gold is not a nugget in the ground.

Gold is found in the world around us if we slowed our minds down and began observing. I’ve always said that observing leads to obviously serving people what makes their life better.

Being less focused on the slow traffic snarl up you’re stuck in and more on the scene and people around you is the magic most people are missing. Your partner is running late and you are standing outside the shops presents a massive window on how others move and act if you keep looking. Forget your phone and social media, let your mind have an idea as it watches and inform you.

In short, when you take any situation and set your mind to look around, listen, and simply take in what’s in front of you for a while, you will become an ideas factory.

A kind of prospector of gold out in the world.

As those of us that have already started watching for the amazing ideas, there’s plenty to come because…

We’ve only just begun to live!

References – Wikipedia – We’ve Only Just Begun.

Parade.com – the 1972 Carpenter’s song owes roots to Bing Crosby movie

Photo attribution – free to use under Pixabay Content License by JalalSheikh21 and Sammy-Sander and RobinHiggins.